On Wellness and Well-doing…
I have returned from 4 days unplugged, camping in a remote valley without phone signal or wifi. Surrounded by breathtaking scenery it is impossible to ignore ‘nature’ directly outside your tent! Without the phone, without social media, without being plugged into the web I slowed down (which took a day and a half) to a simpler rhythm and steadier way of being, and I feel like I’ve totally reset my system.
There was even a sense of loss on returning back to ‘normal’.
But what is normal? Is normal, now an act of being constantly plugged into the system like a vein, drip feeding and controlling our nervous systems.
The metaphor is stark, but having been away from it for 4 days it feels the gap between us and nature, us and community - us and our roots - is far greater than the non-existent space between us and web/internet/system/online world. So therefore what’s real? Reality is created by what consumes us, what we consume. We talk about getting in nature and unplugging and low dopamine morning routines, but if it took 4 days detached from it to be able to really feel the effects then would it be right to say there’s not many of us getting nearly enough detachment as we need to be well?
Yesterday I happened upon a podcast where part of the conversation was around lifestyle, and starting with well known Blue Zones study by Dan Buttner (LINK) the hosts compared the US with the healthier cultures. Not unusual, but what struck me was the response of day to day existence in the healthier countries which included a sense of community, and everyday movement - “where we offer quality of life as a service that you have to buy, like a private thing.” That concerned me on a number of levels; it suggests that we’re moving away from self reliance into the hands of commodification, we’re trusting others rather than using our own judgement, that we’ve lost touch with our needs and that we’re not able to do nourish ourselves with fundamental building blocks of wellbeing.
“it's strange that we privatize these social goods versus places in Europe that those are kind of an expected human right”.
This morning ‘bird man’ Jack Baddans was on Radio 6 being interviewed about Spring Watch and his new book. I’m not dramatically into birds (although I get how it can be a sudden middle aged epiphany!) but his passion and connectedness was inspiring. His perspective also nodded toward the notion of commodification of joy and talked about how wonderful it was to excite the nation with something that is freely available on our doorsteps. To really look with curiosity and watch these birds - he calls characters - as a way of reconnecting with the world around us, and to disconnect from the consumerist suction machine found in our screens.
OK so where is this slightly grim path leading us? Small Wonderments, pockets of magic and well-doing.
Small Wonderments is a term I’ve coined and played with since art college in the early 90s. As an artist I used it to describe my approach to drawings made at speed of observations the world - of little things, of people in London I sat to sketch, of thoughts and insights, of silly realisations, meanderings and jokey anecdotes. The term stayed with my creative journey and you can see more of that here: www.studiokgb.co.uk
Pockets of Magic is a term that came up twice in conversation in the last fortnight, it links to Small Wonderments and is a concept that keeps popping back to mind. We work so hard, spend our time being ‘productive’, value doing over being, get caught up in the day to day overwhelm of work, family, finance, global issues that it’s so very very easy to miss out on pausing, on ‘stopping time’. As a friend’s daughter and I spoke last week of the sad loss of her uncle who had died in a skiing accident, she beautifully pointed out to me, at 24, the importance to create these pockets of fun and enjoyment in our every day. We simply don’t know what life will bring. And perhaps as we age there is reason why we begin to notice the every day things more too, and seek to find beauty in the little spaces in the day. So intentionally pausing to create ‘little pockets of magic’ is vital. They then stack up to become the experiences and chapters of our lives. This is a call to ‘be’ rather than to ‘do’.
If human being is as important as human doing, then what about wellbeing, and what is ‘well-doing’?
Well-doing is a thing
OK, so what if we tweaked the linguistics here, what happens when we change the word well-being into well-doing? What does that bring us? If wellbeing is a state of ‘being’, and thus static, then well-doing is an action, a verb. So then, to create well-doing is to create intentionally - to ‘do’ the thing that brings us wellbeing. Well-doing is the thing you will do to create a sense of wellness - is it to stop and pause, to go for a walk in nature, to connect with family and friends, to fill up with a book and disconnect from the web for a while, to eat nourishing food?
So here are some concepts that dance round my mind after disconnecting. How will you reconnect with the world, with your tribe, with your self, with nature / Mother Earth / universe / God? What are your thoughts?
>> JOURNAL PROMPT: What do I connect with, how do I consume and what consumes me?
Come and chat with me to explore these intriguing philosophies and discover how they can support you to grow in your wellbeing, well-doing and personal and professional leadership.
You can book a free half hour call here.
So here are some concepts that dance round my mind after disconnecting.
How will you reconnect with the world, with your tribe, with your self, with nature / Mother Earth / universe / God? What are your thoughts?
JOURNAL PROMPT: What do I connect with, how do I consume and what consumes me?
Come and chat with me to explore these intriguing philosophies and discover how they can support you to grow in your wellbeing, well-doing and personal and professional leadership. You can book a free half hour call here.
And read more about my meandering thoughts on my Substack publication, which blends all sorts of areas of interest including coaching, wellbeing, psychology, art + creativity and existentialism: https://katebrundrett.substack.com/
REFERENCES
Blue Zones
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK298903/
Sea Moss Girlies: Episode 119: What's the Deal with L-Glutamine? Recent Trend Roundup, 14 Mar 2023
BBC Radio 6 Mon 3rd June
