Tonight I’m going to discuss a concept that has helped me a lot over the last number of years. It’s a simple concept which helps you identify what builds and what destroys your health and wellbeing. It takes a little time to complete the exercise but it is well worth it. So let’s dive in.

The central idea is that of a base, similar to a foundation that supports a house. The foundation of a house must be solid, it must be able to endure the stresses that are placed on it over many years as different weather systems exerts different pressures on it, different people live in it and different renovations happen over time, all of which exert a level of stress and pressure on the foundation or the base of a house. If the base is not solid, the walls and eventually the house itself will start to crumble and fall down.

The human body is no different.

The top half of the triangle represents all of life’s different challenges, uncertainties and stresses. Things like jobs, housing, relationships, marriage, having children, loneliness, redundancy, bullying, harassment, violence, financial stress, debt, poor food choices and so on. These stresses can often be a part of life but to be able to withstand and deal with them effectively, you need to have a solid base of health and wellbeing in place that you can draw on in times of need. A reservoir of resilience if you like!

To build anything you must know the different parts that you are going to need to assemble it and it also helps to know what things will destroy it so you can avoid them when they come your way.

By way of an example, for me, the things that help me build a base of good health include:

1. Writing
2. Physical exercise
3. Nourishing food
4. Reading
5. Time with friends
6. Time with family
7. Sleeping
8. Meditation

I try to do more and more of these things each day as they fill me up, make me feel content and happy in the world and generally help create my sense of wellbeing.

On the flipside, there are things that I have learnt over time, that will help destroy this base. For example:

1. Alcohol
2. Junk food
3. Negative internal chatter
4. Taking on too much
5. Overwhelm
6. Debt and worry
7. Being alone for too long without engaging with family or friends
8. Not writing for a long time

Life is full of choices but every choice comes with a consequence. For the first half of my life, I spent too long making poor choices that led to an erosion of my base and ultimately I paid a high health price for that (but that is for another day).

So understanding what builds and supports your base vs what destroys it can help you make better choices. Better choices start with awareness so that is what this exercise is all about – identification and awareness of what helps/hinders you.

As you progress through life, you are going to meet bigger and more challenging times so to be able to meet them head on, you are going to need a bigger base! A bigger base supports your ability to take on and overcome bigger challenges which in turn results in more growth and when we are growing, we feel good about ourselves.

But how do we build a bigger base? The same way you built the first one – by doing more of the things that support it and removing the things that destroy it.

It sounds so simple right? And it is. But the devil hides in the detail. I believe the hardest part of this is the execution – the adoption and removal of habits is where the struggle lies for the majority of people.

If this resonates or you want to find out more, send me a DM to discuss how I can help you.

Thanks for reading,

J