Page 24 - Dainfern Precinct Living 4 2021

HEALTH & WELLNESS

NOURISH TO FLOURISH

BY NICOLEEN DAVIES, DIRECTOR LIFE TALK FORUM

Self-care - this is a PHYSICAL CARE neuroscientist, search for him on

concept the whole Take care of your physical well- YouTube, and watch some of his
sleep video’s – they will change your
being by getting enough sleep,
family can benefit eating balanced meals, doing regular perspective and your life.
exercise, and resting. Physical
from and it’s important well-being has three pillars – sleep, EXERCISE
We all know exercise keeps us
exercise and nutrition.
to share it with your SLEEP healthy and, statistically, we will
then need fewer visits to the doctors’
children to help them Sleep forms the foundation, on which rooms.
everything else sits. So you may ask
• Exercise is good for our bone
navigate the challenges why is sleep so important? Well… density and muscle strength and
keeps our heart strong. It lowers
• Sleep affects one’s ability to learn
they will encounter in and retain information. It’s been blood pressure and is good for
brain function.
their lives. proven that if a learner sleeps • Exercise is a great stress reliever
properly, their grades will be better
and they will be healthier. and improves well-being by
• Sleep helps the brain to order, file releasing endorphins.
oo often we just exist, and store information from the day,
what I call passive living, to facilitate memory recall. NUTRITION
just going with the flow • Killer cells are released when one People often eat just as a function
and not actively thinking sleeps – these help to fight cancer of living, without thinking about the
and doing. This can and other illnesses. Science has why. Teens who think food is the
Tapply to everything, proven that people who don’t sleep enemy are doing incredible harm to
from day-to-day living, to recycling, enough are at enormous risk of their bodies, some of which may be
to conserving water or electricity Alzheimer’s and Dementia. irreversible.
and helping others, to a mild stab at • Sleep improves emotional well- • We need food to function – it is the
self-care. However, you can just as being and one’s ability to cope fuel for our organs, muscles and
easily switch to active living. Soon with day-to-day challenges and our heart.
it becomes a habit and before you events. • Good nutrition will affect how we
know it, you can make a difference to feel and reduce the risk of chronic
your environment and to yourself. Google ‘Matthew Walker’, a sleep illnesses such as diabetes.

Through the Life Talk Forum, we Sleep forms the foundation on
work with schools, students and which everything else sits
parents. We often find that at the
core of so many issues our children
and teens experience lies the lack
of self-care. It is easy to experiment
and follow the pack, give in to peer
pressure, and not ask for help. It
is much harder to stop and say, “Is
this good for me? Will this make me
a better person? Will this have a
positive or negative impact on me?”
Eating disorders, drugs, drinking,
smoking and vaping are all examples
of choices that result in addiction,
which in turn impacts on the bodies,
minds and emotional stability of our
children.
WHAT IS SELF-CARE?
There are several components of self-
care which sit alongside and impact
each other. They encompass our
whole being and all should be taken
care of.

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