USE THE HOLIDAY PERIOD TO DEVELOP YOUR OWN 6 PILLARS OF HEALTH

With the Christmas and New Year holiday period rapidly approaching, it should be remembered that for many, it can be a tough time for those who suffer from PTSI and associated mental health conditions. It is a time when family, friends and colleagues get together to celebrate. For many, this can mean being overwhelmed, not only affecting, and overstimulating their senses, especially sound, but by having to socialise with people where they feel forced to do so, making them uncomfortable and potentially triggering them. It can also challenge their ability to stay clear of alcohol and other substances that may have been relied upon in the past. Significantly, it can be especially torrid for many suffering loneliness, over thinking, maladaptive behaviours and self-criticism and loathing.

At a traditional time when many take the opportunity to look for a ‘new year’s resolution’ as a way of ‘cleansing the past year’ and looking to begin the new year with a challenge, I used the opportunity, when I was at my lowest to develop a personal ‘six pillars of health’ that would eventually guide and assist me with my journey to better physical and mental health.

Like every structure built in the world, without strong and stable pillars, things would collapse into rubble. These pillars guided me and allowed for meaningful progress in how I feel. They provide me with the tools to look within and establish what my body needed to respond to the stress and chaos of general life. With these tools, I could aim at building self-mastery and self-trust to create a vibrant wellbeing that was tailor made for me.

Nutrition & Nourishment

Throughout my career as a police officer, I was often encouraged to go with “your gut feeling”. You know, that feeling of butterflies in your stomach or where the hairs on your neck raise up? These sensations emanating from your body suggest that your brain and gut are connected. It’s a survival mechanism that can prepare you for the flight or fight response.

What’s more, recent studies show that your brain affects your gut health, and your gut may even affect your brain health. The communication system between your gut and brain is called the gut-brain axis, and if you fail to adequately fuel that nexus through good nutrition, you might damage or limit the effectiveness of that relationship.

Nutrition embodies the concept of food as medicine and that what we put into our system can heal or to hurt us. In our time poor life, we often prefer the convenience of highly processed, simple fast foods to quickly quell our hunger pains, whilst continuing to push through meeting our work obligations. Of course, there should be room in our life to experience these joys, however like most in life, moderation is best.

At the most basic level, nourishment is about eating real, whole foods, foods that don’t need an ingredient list. Feed your body with a variety of amazing foods that come from the earth. You want to eat all the colours of the rainbow, and consume food that isn’t contaminated with pesticides, chemicals or highly processed.

It's important to remove foods that are toxic to your body, foods that you are allergic or sensitive to, are full of chemicals that are difficult for your body to digest properly and foods with ingredients that you don’t recognise.

Finally, Nourishment includes how you eat: to maximise the benefits you should aim to eat mindfully, so that your body is in “rest and digest” mode and can absorb all the amazing nutrients you are putting in. Take the time to truly enjoy your food by slowing down when you eat, giving yourself a well-earned break away from the turmoil of life.

Movement

Movement refers to how you exercise and move your body. We were made to move and be active, however, our lives are becoming increasingly sedentary. Sitting is now referred to by many medical practitioners as the new “smoking” such is the impact it has on our health. Importantly, this pillar is not about desperately burning calories by running 5-10 kilometres or sculpting the perfect physique through spending countless hours in the gym, but about integrating movement into your daily life in a way that is sustainable, fun, relaxing and allows you to have a strong and capable body to carry you through your career and life.

I have reframed how I think of exercise from being a chore more towards being a necessary practice. Exercise is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a necessity for life. Vitally, though, it's highly personalised. Take time to learn what kind of movement energises you and truly feels good in your body, rather than drains you or leaves you so uninspired. It is difficult to continue. Developing a consistent movement practice allows you to be more genuine in your exercise endeavour and reclaim it as part of your life, rather than something to achieve or as a means to an ideal that is false to your true happiness. It really doesn’t matter what you do. What matters is that you consistently commit to doing something.

Stress and fatigue management

An unfortunate part of the law enforcement job is that we are required to be “on” all day, every day, and our nervous systems take a toll. I still struggle with hypervigilance, a state of increased alertness where I am extremely sensitive to my surroundings. It can make me feel like I’m constantly on alert mode to any hidden dangers, whether from other people or the environment. Often, though, I now know that these dangers are not real.

The elevated stress response affects every area of health in the body. Stress management can come in many shapes and forms, yoga, counselling, breathing, mindfulness, saying “no”, doing more things that bring you joy, learning self-soothing skills, working less, and playing more, eating food that nourishes you, talking to a friend, and on and on. Learning to wind down is about learning what works for you.

Sleep hygiene

Anyone who has worked law enforcement knows that sleep falls to the bottom of the list in terms of priority. I can recall in my younger years as a Police Detective working beyond 24 hours straight, and occasionally going beyond 40 hours without sleep. Being so sleep deprived is both physically and psychologically damaging.

Sleep is one of the building blocks of health; it is essential for all our biological processes, stable mental health and is when an incredible amount of repair in the body and brain occurs. If you aren’t sleeping well, you are going to have a really hard time achieving your health goals. So, if you know that sleep isn’t optimal, take the time to create healthy habits around it; eat your last meal about three hours before going to bed, turn off screens at least two hours before going to sleep, go to sleep when you are tired, sleep in a dark and cool room, cut the alcohol, try taking a bath before bedtime or doing some gentle stretching or a restorative yoga class.

Connection

This pillar refers to your connection with yourself, with others (community) and the natural world around you. I believe this to be one of the most important pillars. A sense of belonging is key to our spiritual self. I often refer to law enforcement as a global family, one which I am immediately comfortable with despite jurisdictional difference, cultural and ethnic differences, or geographic difference. The trap was for me, though was over decades my social connectedness narrowed to only those in the job. It is important that we develop relationships with a few important people who know you in combination with trust in your relationship with your own internal emotional landscape.

Yet, before I could expand my social network, I had to develop a deep connection with myself to know what feels good about me, my body, my values, and what my heart really desired. I had to take stock of how I really wanted to live my life and with whom I wanted to spend my time with. Stress will continue forever if you are living out of alignment, but you need to know what your most aligned self looks like in order to follow that pathway to better mental health, wellbeing and harmony.

Connection, too, is a practice. My journey continues in this space, and I am continuing to learn how I can better myself using therapy, other spiritual (not religious) guidance, meditation, writing, mindfulness and breathing (to name but a few). We experience connection when we hug another human, practice gratitude, commit random acts of kindness and put our bare feet on the earth or wade through the waters at the beach or just sitting in the sun and listening to the wind. Connection often requires a sense of intentionally slowing yourself down, which can be challenging at the current pace of life. So, start small – assess your situation, establish a practice regime that suits your needs and desires, open your mind and try a few different things to gauge what does and doesn’t work for you.

Purpose/Identity

The combination of a successful career, a loving family, and a strong social network may seem like the recipe for a perfect life. However, even those who can check each of those boxes might feel like something is missing—and that “something” is their purpose in life.

“Finding your purpose” is more than just a cliché or a dream that will never be fulfilled. It’s actually a tool for a better, happier, healthier life that too few people attempt to use.

Knowing one's purpose is knowing one's being. You cannot really know your purpose if you do not ask the question "Who Am I?". Because without knowing your essential inner nature, the purpose of manifestation is not fully understood, and you keep chasing a conceptual idea in the time to come.

Purpose is about finding and following your passions, nurturing what really energises you or simply your unique talents and gifts to offer to others. Purpose will naturally grow from a connection practice and is often an offshoot of developing a spiritual life.