Wellness is my theme for the first quarter.

So how did you go?

How did your new year's resolution to improve your life this year go?

For those focused on health and well being, how's the weight? Smoking? Exercise? Diet? Alcohol?

I ask as by now most have dropped off their good start and reverted to their past routines with the frantic pace of life.

This year, I have done something truly different. I have engaged some external help. No, not a coach or personal trainer. A Yogi.

Now, Vandana would deny that and insist she is just a student, and that may be. However, from where I am sitting I am the student, and she is certainly the expert.

Most of you who are reading this have just had a vision of me in lycra struggling to maintain my balance. Interestingly enough, that is a common western view of Yoga; it is not the real view of Yoga.

I have not been near a floor mat and certainly haven't been close to putting on lycra! Though the floor mat may get closer but not the lycra...

No, what I have been doing is Vandana's 10 habits in 10 weeks program. What is very interesting in this, is it takes us back to basics. Those basic building blocks of our life routines that our bodies crave, but get pushed aside with our busy lifestyles.

If I take a step back and compare, when we get involved with a disability claim there's almost always an occupational therapist involved. When I look at the program and teachings that Vandana covers I am finding a stunning similarity in her teaching that we see in the disability rehabilitation approach.

I found this both stunning and somewhat not surprising when I stopped and thought about it.

Western medicine may have taken from the past; it may have also worked it out itself, either way, there is an approach to personal wellness that is pretty fundamental from all directions.

Why am I sharing this?

Because I feel many of my clients and future clients could benefit from this. I arrange insurance; it is designed to help you when you fall over the cliff. Which in the Kiwi vernacular is pretty typical. Until you hit the wall, you do not face it, and you do not change. Especially the blokes!

I would rather not have my clients claiming, not because of the dollars, but because something unpleasant has happened to them, and I would prefer they avoided that in the first place. Many have expressed if only after the fact.

So my message, with the frantic pace of life, the stress it brings, the poor diet choices and financial stress of living, it is killing people, slowly and quickly, depending on where you sit in the spectrum of self-abuse because that is what it is.

Now I am not, as one of my clients has said, going all woo-woo on you.

I am suggesting having a look at things in a different light and accessing the things that create wellness now rather than waiting to tackle it when my occupational therapist knocks on the door when you are in the bottom of the hole.

A common proverb I trot out when in a hole, stop digging!

We who pursue a western lifestyle are busy digging that hole into our wellbeing; often we do not realise it until we hit the granite at the bottom.

The interesting research coming out of Asia is showing the same increases in poor health that we have as they move from their traditional diet and lifestyle to a more westernised one.

Still feeling stressed, fatigued, overweight, unhealthy and want to do something about it in a kind and gentle way?

Have a chat with Vandana about her 10-week program to cover the basics, you are worth it, and so is your health and well being.

I am nearly finished mine, and it is making a huge difference for me.

The next one starts in late April, so there's time to explore it and get on with it, this is the link to the course

For those remote from Auckland, the program is delivered in a webinar type format, with one to one coaching and group discussion with those on the course.

If you are a Willowgrove Consulting client, we are putting our money where our mouth is and helping with a subsidy for you to improve your wellbeing, so we can reduce your need for me to manage the claims you really want to avoid. Please get in touch with J-P if you are taking up this offer so we can ensure you benefit from this.