I was fortunate enough to have recently been invited to speak to a cohort of students at a Toowoomba School and present information regarding to Health. My initial though was Wow! That is a big topic how do I can I say as much as there is to say about a topic that would require days to cover and present it in a way that is both interesting and applicable to the group I was assigned to. Through some collaboration with the teacher that invited me, I settled on taking an approach around Health and Mindsets. The first question I posed to the group was what were the components that made up someone who was ‘healthy’ and did they see ‘being health’ as simply being ‘not sick?’ I then showed them the image below which completely blew them away.
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- 1972, 1988, 2004 John W. Travis, MD
If we accepted this then we also had the chance to discuss how it was impossible to discern someone’s health by looking at their external characteristics (e.g. fat) or by how much they ate. We looked at the image below to help affirm this notion and how one body’s needs are totally different to another’s. The students, to their credit, engaged wonderfully in the presentation and said they had several take home messages to share with their families.
The lessons I learnt from this experience were so remarkably simple I feel almost embarrassed to say they were lessons. To be able to pare back what we think we know about something and look at it from another angle to gain far more knowledge is a hugely understated process. To be able to present information to a different group, to grow the impact and the influence of the truth is hugely rewarding. And to get comfortable with being uncomfortable is where the true growth lies!
Have a great week full of learning and sharing!
~ Alastair
