After 400 columns, writer says so long and thanks

Allison McKee – The Whole You

Usually, I am fine coming up with a topic for a column. I now spend most of my time immersed in the mental and physical health literature and new research, so there is always something exciting (at least to me) to write about and bring to this weekly column.
If you’ve followed from the beginning, you’ve been here for 400 columns. For four hundred issues of the Claresholm Local Press, I’ve written regarding empirically supported ways that you and I can impact our mental, physical, social, emotional, and relational health.
Some themes run throughout the content of what I have learned and then written about. Strings that you could pull to determine the best way to live a life that feels good and in which you are well in all dimensions. The column, after all, has been entitled “The Whole You”. I learned long ago that people are not compartmentalized; every dimension of human experience is connected to another, creating a web of support that interacts with and impacts other areas of life. For example, if you are not physically well, then your mental health suffers. If your mental health is suffering, then your relationships are affected. If your relationships are challenged, then your emotional health is impacted. And most importantly? When you make a small positive change in any of those areas, you create a cascade of positive impacts that will impact every area of your life.
This 400th column is my last column. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but at the same time, I know that for me, where I am right now, and the trajectory that my life is on, this is the best decision I can make. Writing this column is an example of a change in my life impacting all areas. When I started to write the column and research the topics, it changed the practices I engaged in to improve my mental and physical health, stoked a fire for deeper learning, which led me to return to university to learn more, led me to deeper conversations with readers which brought new relationships into my life, and probably impacted in ways not yet observable.
I want to leave you with five themes from the content over the 400 columns that will positively impact your life if you continue implementing them. They create compounding interest in your life and improve all dimensions.
Move your body – preferably outside. Do it in the morning and get morning light exposure.
Practise good sleep hygiene. Sleep is essential for optimum health.
Eat real food and stay hydrated.
Be curious. One of the Big Five personality traits – openness – is correlated with longevity and happiness in one’s life experience.
Find gratitude every single day. No matter how small it may seem. What you focus on grows.
My greatest passion is to support people in their journey to living a life that feels good to live. To study the research and make the findings available for everyone to implement. Thank you for allowing me to do that in this space. I wish you all the very best.
Allison McKee is a certified fitness and nutrition consultant (individual and group fitness, spin cycle, mind body designations); certified life and executive coach; desire map facilitator; and health and wellness enthusiast.