National Health Awareness Month

There's a new catch phase in the western world, "time poor!". Despite living society full of technology and time saving devices like never before. There seems to be one cry louder than ever, "I haven't got time?" My hunch is if you haven't got time to do something then it probably is not that important to you. Which is very sad when you think about what some people clam they haven't got time for.

Things like sitting down to dinner with the family; helping the kids with their homework or reading them a book before bed; watching your son play in his first grand finial; attending your daughter graduation; a parent-teacher interview; exercise, medical appointments, forget dinner with the family we're now eating on the run and even skipping meals; and some people even claim in a 24/7 world the don't always have time to sleep. Our basic human needs are being ignored because we supposedly live in a 'time poor' society.   

Yet living 24/7 means we have so many more things available on demand. We are no long locked in to our jobs 9 to 5; we control when we watch TV and if we're that desperate to watch the Grand finial of the NRL than we can take it with us on mobile. 

Most people use the same mobile for work and personal use meaning when we walk out the office we carry our jobs with us in our pockets or hand bags, but even worst skill we take it on holidays! That's crazy our clients or suppliers don't know when we're on holidays. However an even more worrying trend is despite answering machines and caller ID we still answer the phone in case it's 'urgent'.

Not only do we carry our office with us on our mobile phones but on our lap tops and ipads. Living in a global economy means we can attend meetings via the internet and someone those may be in the early hours of the morning. 

However it is not only our work lives that are impacted by these new technologies but also our so call down time. Being able to play computer games via an internet connection and link with other players around the world means players become lost in a time zone and seemed dazzled when the sun comes up as if sleep its self has been forgotten. For some social interactions means engaging with others on social network sites or gaming sites.

Meaningful interactions outside the home or even the bedroom for many technology savey teenagers have become non-existent. Given that is it any wonder we can’t find time to even have a simple meal together.

October is National Health Awareness month. Our wellbeing is much more than about nutrition and daily exercise. It encompasses our whole being intellectual, emotional or psychological; social, spiritual and physical self. I have already shared my interruption of modern technology on our lifestyles, In the mist of all the cries about being `time poor’ well one wonders if we have any awareness of our health and wellbeing at all. Meeting out health needs seems to have gotten lost somewhere in cyber space

We can’t get back yesterday, but we can make choices about how to ‘live well’ tomorrow.  

The challenge this month is to make one change in your life to impact on your wellbeing in a positive way.

As you are aware October is also Breast Cancer Awareness month so my two blogging campaigns this month go well together. Each October I hold a Girls In, to raise money and awareness of women’s cancer – Breast Cancer, Cervical Cancer and Ovarian Cancer as with all health conditions, prevention and early detections are the key to defeating cancer. The means taking notice of the changes in our body and visiting our GP for regular check ups.

May be sometime this month you can make time to have a family dinner or have a meaningful conversation with a friend over coffer instead of a chat room conversation or many be have than annual check up with your doctor that you haven’t done to 3 . . . 4 . . .or 5  years. Because we can never get back our yesterdays.