Whose life is it anyway?

“Your genetics load the gun.

Your lifestyle pulls the trigger.”

- Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz)

There were 60 or so hearty souls in the cafeteria when I got there.

Generally these community lectures happen in the meeting room of the hospital, but there were a few more attendees than normal, and we would be finished before lunch, so the cafeteria it was!

The topic? ‘Whose Life is it anyway?’

Broad foundations…

In the late 1970s and early 80s, I partnered up with a fellow to run a fitness program at a local hospital in Jefferson City, Missouri. We both had finished doctoral programs – me, exercise physiology; he, health education – and decided we would form a small health and wellness company called Value Life Associates.

Our little company was designed to help people increase the quality of their lives, through exercise, diet and stress management.  This was well before the Wellness Industry took hold in the mid to late 80s.

One of the things we created was a seminar titled: “Whose Life is it Anyway?”

The program was flexible and could be taught in a couple of hours or expanded to a much longer workshop/seminar. 

We posed this question at the start of our manual: Do you ever do things you don’t want to do?  The answer, of course for all of us, is a resounding YES!

The question led to a series of self-evaluation and motivational tools to help people refocus their lives and energies.

That was yesterday…

In recent months, I’ve been working to expand the things I can teach beyond chronic back pain. This has led to lifestyle presentations not done for decades.

‘Whose Life is it Anyway?’ is one of them.

Over the past couple of months, I reviewed material my partner and I created, looking for things I could use in these presentations. Reading through the program manual I discovered – or better said, was reminded – how timeless and current the material was.

In those days, we did this for groups and companies that were looking for ways to think about health and lifestyle. I was anxious to see whether the content of this program would resonate with more mature audiences, meaning senior citizens.

I have learned over the past few months, that seniors hold nothing back when writing comments related to presentations.  If they don’t like what you do, the class reviews let you know, in direct, no nonsense language.

Showtime…

With pens in hand, a ‘Confidential Mental Mirror’ handout – a short series of questions related sleep, stress and life change – got the ball rolling. This was followed by a lifestyle inventory that provided a graphic way, across 12 categories designed to establish current status and provide future goals such as cardiovascular fitness, sleep, eating habits, family ties, etc.   

                     

Each category presented a series of lifestyle activities from ‘high stress’ to ‘optimal fitness and health,’ allowing one to find their current lifestyle with small goals to consider.

This was followed by an exercise called ‘Your Mind is like a House,’ illustrating that the thoughts in our minds can be ‘guests’ or ‘intruders.’ Learning that we ‘acquire’ thoughts allows people to make decisions as to what they want to entertain in their minds.

Finally, to support the ‘Guest List,’ 50 words or so was provided along with positive affirmations to encourage choices toward life promoting ideas.  For example, the first word was ‘Appreciation.’

The chart worked like this.  The person says:

“We need Appreciation to be grateful for the life we’ve been given and the health we can have.”

“We need Appreciation to STOP taking life and health for granted as if someone owed it to us.”

The list of words continued to ‘Assurance,’ ending with ‘Zeal,’ each providing a small phrase to build positive thought and fight negativity.

The end game…

One would think that a group of senior citizens, at a time when most of their lives were well behind them, would politely listen and blow the whole thing off.  After all, they had…been there…done that…won or lost the prize(s)!

To the contrary, I was amazed to see how many folk felt each of the exercises was pertinent to their lives and there were small changes they were enthusiastic to engage.  It was almost as if this small class had given them permission to make adjustments…that they could modify some of their routines.

From my perspective, teaching this material turned out to be like visiting an old friend…putting on a pair of well worn tennis shoes…slipping into the comfort of a time and place – familiar and warm.

I was reminded how much we all are alike, and if truth be told, reminded of the importance of checking my mental mirror…my lifestyle choices…my internal vocabulary.

That morning, with those seniors, in that hospital cafeteria was one of the more gratifying public presentations I have done in a very long time.

When I first thought about doing ‘Whose Life is it Anyway?’ I thought about how it might impact that senior audience…in fact, it unexpectedly impacted me.

Whose life is it anyway?  Yeah – well it’s mine!

- ted