I spent some time this week looking at my core values and planning for what I want to achieve in this coming year. This led me to spend some time thinking about why I do the work that I do.
As you probably know, I am a GP and used to do that full time for the NHS for some time. I started to become disillusioned as I felt I wasn’t helping people in the way I wanted to. I want to help empower people and tap into what’s going on with them and evaluate what is important to them and how they can improve their lives. I truly believe that if you feel happy and are living life on your terms, you will feel better, stronger and able to make better health choices, or cope with ill health and improve their condition.
After studying integrative medicine, and realising the importance of nutrition and lifestyle changes, I then started learning about hormone balance. I see hormones as the foundation of health – if you have shaky foundations, you can have the best bricks in the world (nutrition and exercise) but they won’t build you a stable house.
I’m by no means perfect in my health, but I do believe in taking control of your health and life. If there’s something you’re not happy with, change it. I can struggle with my own nutrition and motivation to exercise, but I try my best and try to do something good every day for myself.
I believe that if you want to improve your health, you can use nutrition, exercise, stress management and other lifestyle changes to help. I do believe that conventional medicine is very important at treating illness, but there is a lot we can do before to try and prevent the illness from happening in the first place. But I also believe in balance.
I’m not an ‘All or nothing gal’, I believe a little bit of what you fancy does you good, and a nothing is too naughty if done in moderation. I often tell people there’s a difference between ‘happy eating’ and ‘sad eating’, and this can apply to food, drink, and other vices. If done in joy, it will have a less negative effect on your body psychologically and hopefully physically too.
So my main values are authenticity, fun and meaningful interactions, and I hope I bring them to the work and consultations I do!
I hope you can spend some time looking at your values and bring them to your work and life too.
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