The final video in the series on health ownership is about feeling connected. For part one, I shared some tips for getting started on taking ownership of your health. Part two, we looked at autonomy: being able to act upon your own values and interests. And the third video was all about small changes, and the impact they have over time. If you haven’t yet read all of these, you can catch up in no particular order.
Reconnecting with Nature
So, many of you will know the story – particularly if you’ve heard my keynote – about my experience at Lynbreck Croft. I’ve also written a blog post about it, which you can find here. Lynbreck Croft is a 150-acre mixed habitat landholding located in the Cairngorms National Park. It’s run by our friends, Lyn and Sandra, who are passionate about regenerative farming and helping others to reconnect with nature. Last year, I went there to do the “How to Farm” course. And, a few weeks ago, my partner Antonia returned and spent the long weekend with them.
During our stay, we were talking about wellbeing and regenerative farming – and all the commonalities between them. Eventually, we landed on the topic of connection: connection to food, connection to the land. But also, connection to yourself – through meaningful work, purpose, values, nature, animals, for example.
It was at this point that Antonia said:
“You can’t connect to anything else until you’ve connected to yourself.”
And I think that is really profound because if you aren’t feeling connected to yourself, or feel you don’t have ownership of your health, it truly is difficult to feel connected to something else. Specifically, we were discussing this in regard to connecting where our food comes from. If we don’t believe that small decisions matter, such as making the switch to local produce, how can we expect to heal a broken food system – not to mention our relationship with the natural world?
Small Decisions Matter
So, in order for us to connect with the land and food, to care about the environment, the way animals are treated, nutrient density and the quality of what we put into our bodies that ultimately fuels our minds, we must first focus on connecting with ourselves. And is partly responsible for this series on health ownership. We have more autonomy than we think. Small decisions matter. Minor changes can make a big difference over time. We’ve made a lot of content on self-connection over the years, which you can access here. I hope it’s inspired some thoughts about how you might seize a little more control over your destiny in terms of health and wellbeing. As always, get in touch on social media to let me know.
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