Physical and emotional wellebeing

Who doesn’t like to be well… to feel that one is and one gives one’s maximum
potential.

Always looking for that longed-for balance that involves being physically, mentally and
emotionally healthy. Because when it’s not that nagging headache, or that muscle
pain, it’s a family, financial or emotional issue.

As complex living beings we are exposed to constantly changing internal cycles and
clearly influencing environmental circumstances. And no one said it was easy to
manage.

The WHO says: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being
and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.

Mental health and well-being are fundamental to our collective and individual ability
to think, express feelings, cope with the normal stresses of life, interact with others,
earn a livelihood and enjoy life. On this basis, the promotion and restoration of overall
health can be seen as vital concerns of individuals, communities and societies around
the world.

We live at a time where the speed of change is like nothing we have ever known.
Products, services, consumers, technology, challenges, are presented to us every day
with incremental growth, while our bodies and minds grow at linear speeds, which is
what they are prepared for. This difference means that as individuals we are under
enormous pressure to go faster, to think faster, to act faster, to train faster.

We are talking about artificial intelligence, genetic improvement, robotics, three
trends that, according to an important current of scientists, are leading us to the
creation of a new “Homo Optimus”, a being improved in all aspects.
We do not know how we will respond to this new aspiration that scientists and large
corporations are presenting to us as something possible in 15 years’ time.
What we can do is to prepare ourselves as well as possible for this new scenario, we
have to be very well prepared, in excellent intellectual and physical shape to be able to
adapt successfully to what the immediate future holds for us.
In this sense, organisations are adapting the training of their teams to the new map of
skills and competencies. Managers need a new mental map, and this is nourished by
solid training in knowledge, attitudes, physical and emotional capacities that respond
to the new demands.

We talk about flexibility, but also about high mobility, permanent connection, working
in different spaces and countries, time zones, cultures, eating habits, sleep hygiene,
etc.

Let us not forget that most of the health problems we suffer from today in
industrialised societies (neck pain, back pain, contractures, stiffness, arthrosis,
osteoporosis, overweight, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, etc.) are a consequence of
the discrepancy between the evolutionary design of our organism and the use we
make of it.

By this we mean significant discrepancies in our diet, which less than a century ago
was based on real food, while today processed and devitalised foods predominate.
Changes in schedules and circadian cycles, lack of rest, exposure to periods of
continuous stress, changes in our environment (asphalt, concrete and smoke versus
natural spaces), and of course, changes in our mobility. The world is increasingly
designed not to move.

And what about thoughts, emotions and moods that have become “autopilots” for
certain eating patterns. Becoming aware of the changes that certain foods can cause
in our moods is quite an achievement in this day and age.

Undoubtedly, in our chaotic, rushed, time-poor and sleepy modern world, eating is
something we often do in a disordered way.

We are guided by irregular patterns of hunger, greed, happiness, sadness, worry,
anxiety, trends, and therefore our bodies and minds suffer, shaken by these
unstructured ways of obtaining energy through food.

Impacted by the fortunes that the food industry invests in product marketing
campaigns, which are not satisfied with covering the body’s basic needs, but which,
aware of the effect that food has on our senses, compete to get us hooked on flavors
and experiences beyond the physical realm.

And as we have less and less time to plan meals, the most practical trends and the
most absorbing fashions are the most successful when it comes to choosing how to
feed ourselves.

Do we really know how much we are affected by the way we eat?
The fact is that this is an unresolved issue in our education throughout life. In most
cases, we do not eat what we need, because we do not know what we need.
My proposal tries to add value in that specific stage, which is to obtain the adequate
and necessary energy to be in that healthy physical and mental state to successfully
assimilate the inevitable stress, uncertainty, chaos, that we will undoubtedly meet. We
need to nourish body and mind properly, and we are no longer talking about feeding
ourselves adequately, today it is no longer enough. Feeding yourself does not mean
nourishing yourself – that was valid, in the past.

María Kindelán