As a Health Coach my curiosity led me to the Long Ashton Wellbeing event last night at the Jubilee Pavilion. Local resident Dr Ian Walker, Environmental Psychologist, gave a presentation before we were all invited to mingle and share our ideas.
Human behaviour fascinates me, (which has fed down to my son who is currently studying A ‘level phycology, as I did), and so I really enjoyed the insights shared about how our environment shapes our behaviour. Dr Walker’s angle for the first half hour was on how we travel and how this influences our physical activity level and social connections.
We began hearing some alarming data that that highlighted inactivity being almost as high a killer as diabetes and heart disease. We also saw graphical data showing that the busier the road, the less social interactions we have. Raising the awareness that our choice to drive through our village severs it.
On the plus side, the act of cycling to work gives a 40% lower risk of dying from all causes, over and above any other behaviour. It seems that incidental activity, rather than dedicated exercise is the thing that makes all the difference. So why do we no longer incorporate physical activity into our daily lives, such as in the way we travel?
The progressive inactivity that has crept in over recent decades follows the adaptation of our environment which has prioritised ease of driving. We now live in a state vastly different to that of our ancestors of only a couple of generations. People will always take the path of least resistance and the car industry has the money to use this to their advantage. Driving has been made so easy. Drivers have been given priority for so long, which can even be seen in the design of our highstreets. Most people don’t even consider any other option.
As habitual creatures whose behaviour is highly responsive to cues, (think Derren Brown), the set-up of our environment dictates our movements, which are largely carried out on autopilot. For example, a TV is the focal point of most people’s lounge, so most people walk in and switch it on. If there were a bookcase instead, we’d likely sit and read or a games shelf would foster lots of game playing.
Our decision on how we travel, or spend our evenings were made some time ago, probably years have passed without giving it a second thought. Once decided, we rarely bother giving over cognitive energy to revisit something we’ve already covered.
In fact, what’s known as ‘Unlocking Events’ are the rare moments in our lives where we are open to making conscious choices again on how we want to live our lives. Events such as moving home, marriage, first child/grandchild, divorce, death, lost job, empty nest and serious illness. For around 3 months we consider our options again and with only about a dozen of these unlocking events in our lives there is a short window of opportunity for adopting new behaviours.
However, our behaviours are highly influenced by others, primarily our closes family and friends, as well as observing the actions of others in our society, next comes our physical infrastructure and the wider cultural influences, which includes a mass of assumptions which may or may not support life.
We copy unconsciously all the time. “You’ve got to see it to be it!”, as they say.
Right in the centre of all of this is ourselves, and Self Perception Theory suggests that our unconscious dialogue likes to affirm our choices by noting what we like so we will repeat it. Dopamine comes to mind!
Where driving is concerned, we nearly all own a car, and so do our family and friends, we see people driving everywhere, on TV and billboards, our physical infrastructure supports it and we continue to culture it, we are even blind to its downsides. Nothing stops us as there are cues everywhere which we automatically respond to and it’s been made so easy.
Conscious choice is a rare occurrence. But it doesn't have to be.
What’s come to mind for me is another transition event that has been part of my recent experience; that of midlife. I see that midlife is also an unlocking event. A time when the window is open to question our choices, before settling into the rest of our lives. We may have had 20 years doing pretty much the same things, habitual, unconscious and set. At midlife we may become starkly aware that this is the time to shake things up if we want enough energy to do it and time to settle in and enjoy the benefits of a new lifestyle consciously chosen.
I’ve been home-educating for 16 years and practicing my herbal medicine in my family life for as long as I’ve been a parent. Last year I turned to health coaching because I recognised the challenges of making healthy behaviour changes to support ongoing health.
Herbal medicine is awesome and I love being a herbalist, however, it is no substitute for necessary lifestyle changes.
Changing our habits takes time, dedication and support, something a health coach is well geared up to offer. It’s really important to me that people create a life for themselves that supports ongoing health. It really matters. In so many ways.
Health coaching works well 1:1 in person, via video call or on the telephone, as long as the check-ins are weekly and for a good period of time, from 3-6 months at least for new behaviour to really set in. It also works well in small coaching groups as it offers the chance to lean into a sense of community with the power of shared wisdom and added accountability.
It is rare that we pause for conscious reflection on how we’re living our lives, and if our habitual behaviours are supporting ongoing health. Often though, like the focus of Dr Walker’s presentation, it is the simplest things that make all the difference, like our choice of transport within 5 miles.
Enough daily physical activity adds 8 years of good active healthy time to our lives. That’s 8 years of quality living. 8 years of embracing life. Not 8 extra years of life surviving with chronic disease and lifelong medications. 8 years of thriving. 8 years of freedom! Surely this is worth making some tweaks to our daily routines?
Peter Walker outlines in his book, ‘The Miracle Pill’, that part of the problems is the compartmentalising of exercise as a chore or thing that fanatics do, separating it from our day to day behaviours rather than incorporating it into our daily lives as incidental activity, which naturally has our need for activity covered.
When my son decided to go to school at age 13, he considered his transport options, school bus, local bus, car, lift share or bike. It’s a half an hour cycle to Nailsea from Long Ashton and so we tried it out for size. One thing he likes about it is that he’s got his need for physical health covered without having to give it any more time or thought. He’s made keeping fit easy. It’s incorporated seamlessly into his daily living.
The safe cycle path helps and that his Dad cycles to work in Wraxall, and he really loves the sense of freedom it gives him. Like his Dad, he turns me down if I offer him a lift on a shopping trip as he values what it gives him so much, both in the moment, and in the long run.
At the Long Ashton Wellbeing event we were invited to take a broader view of how we can make LA a healthier village. We used the ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’ model as a guide and were asked to contribute our ideas on ways to support greater connection, mindfulness, on being active, lifelong learners and givers. I like this. It is very much in line with how we health coaches work. We check the basics are covered; the 4 pillars of health being Nutrition, Movement, Rest and Community, the latter also including work.
We also recognise the importance of how we relate to our environment, (what it gives to us and what we give to it), as this can be adapted to support conscious new behaviour that we are trying to adopt, be that in mindset and/or the physical setting.
I see that if many of us were to create a conscious pause so that random ‘unlocking events’ were not the only time for reflecting on our lifestyle choices, wonderful things could come of it. Creative solutions to isolation and inactivity would draw us out of our habitual comfort zones towards a life of ongoing health and longevity.
Commitment to creating a lifestyle that supports ongoing health is so much easier with the support of a health coach and I would love to work with anyone who is ready to make that commitment to themselves, which I believe will also have a wider positive knock-on effect to others through modelling and to the environment itself, making it more inviting and accessible. Creating paths of lesser resistance. Paths of greater ease.
With a health coach you can explore ways in which to set up your life to make healthy habits easier to adopt. Cues that will aid the new and desired behaviours to become automatic. Paths of least resistance.
If you want to become part of the movement towards more conscious choices, a health coach is a great way to go! I have a couple of spaces available if you want to experience working with me to create a lifestyle that supports your ongoing health.
Get in touch to find out more!
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