Head Up and Zoom Out - The Bigger Wellbeing Picture

Head up Zoom out – Looking at the Bigger Picture

Well, we find ourselves at that time of year again. September… the end of a school holiday, start of a new school year. In the health and wellness industry this is often viewed as a second New Year but what does that actually mean? Well Christmas is coming I suppose!

We seem to live in a social media-fuelled dependence on a dopamine-rich, instant reward hunt; the quick fix, the easy win. Ironically, this also taps into a basic human tendency to take the path of least resistance; a deep-seated evolutionary pattern of animal behaviour!

This can make us tunnel-visioned, whether focusing on diet, exercise or just fitting into the new jeans, the little black dress or party outfit! If we don’t get a win now, we lose motivation, we lose the will to carry on, and who cares anyway if we eat well or bother to exercise?

Sometimes we need to lift our head and zoom out. We need to be prepared to commit for longer, look at the bigger picture, and this can be where engaging the help of somebody else comes in, be that clubs, talk therapy groups or working with clinics like us and our social media support group. The camaraderie and sense of belonging to something ‘bigger than you’ helps us feel someone else cares whether you stay on track or not.  

Working as a Wellbeing Coach, whether in the nutrition practice or the mental/emotional wellbeing clinic, with individuals, families or organisations within their work culture, accountability (helping you to achieve what you want to achieve beyond the point where you stopped if you were doing it by yourself) is often the key to success, but so is patience!

When I think back to some of the biggest changes I’ve made with my own health, the success came in the endeavour - the long game. If I wanted a quick win, I became so head-down focused on the minutiae of what was going on right in front of me, I actually became unhealthily obsessed! I couldn’t be flexible, I worried all the time, put unreasonable pressure on myself and if I didn’t get instant results, had “failed…again”

The key to making long-term changes with our health comes from patience, consistence, accountability and support - somebody helping to champion us through the darker days. Zooming out and focusing on a longer term goal is much more realistic for lifelong change, but it pushes against our desire for instant gratification.  

It is important to have signposts along the way, keeping us on track, which is one of the key things we do with our clients in the wellness space. But it’s important to keep the bigger picture in mind, to release the obsessive focus. We maximise our flexibility, develop more self-compassion and patience but don’t let ourselves off making consistent effort, so leaning into support if motivation is waning really helps.

Joining the Tip the Balance Wellbeing community helps many of our clients do exactly this. Our Tip the Balance Wellbeing Walking and Walk Mates Winterbourne Groups help people to stay motivated with their exercise.

We can get so caught up with our work goals we forget to actually look after ourselves in the workplace, so Tip the Balance Workplace Wellbeing Sessions, offer regular check ins at work, which helps people keep their head above water.

If you’re ready to think about your health and what comes next for you, what springs to mind when you get your head up and zoom out to your longer term, bigger picture?