Tofino Wellness: Health Kicks

by Sarah Platenius, Tofino

Living well and staying healthy greatly depends on the balance we maintain in daily life. When what's easy begins replacing what's healthy, our body-mind gets compromised. In my diet, when I realize I'm foregoing easy for healthy, I tend to go on a health kick. What I've come to realize is that more often than not, I become fanatical about these health kicks, and they can be counterproductive towards my body's attempts at finding balance.

Luckily our bodies naturally seek homeostasis. Homeostasis is kind of like balance, but a balance that is constantly in motion and fluctuating to maintain optimum levels of health. It's for this reason, I think, that my health kicks are oftentimes too fanatical for my body's needs. And believe me, I've tried them all: only oats, only soy, just raw, no dairy-no wheat-no sugar-no meat. Sometimes my militaristic health habits help me to feel better and sometimes they don't. But what's important is realizing that health kicks are an organic process of trying to actualize the timing and the demands of our body's flux. And it's because of this flux that there is no beginning or end to a health kick. The end is just the beginning of a new process—allowing another chance to find balance with what our bodies need in the moment.

Health kicks ride the wave of our bodies fluctuating nature. Learning to not stress out around these fluctuating cycles is important. We learn to pay attention to our body, mind, spirit, and accept the "us in process" as Stanley Keleman said in his book Your Body Speaks it's Mind. We will probably keep trying different health kicks. And that can be a good thing. But when they don't last as long as we anticipated, it's probably because our body-mind is trying to tell us something. It's at this point that stepping back and enjoying the flow of our natural selves might be the best health kick to go on.

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Sarah Platenius lives in Tofino and is a U.S. Nationally Licensed Massage Therapist and holds a certificate in Holistic Health from Heartwood Institute. She is currently waiting patiently for her Canadian permanent resident status.