Well-being, the story of Julia

What does wellness or well-being mean to you? What do you think of when you consider yourself well? If you just pause for a second, close your eyes and think of yourself as well, what comes to the surface? Do that again, close your eyes and think of yourself as unwell… what comes to the surface. Whatever came up (maybe nothing did)… try not labeling it as good or bad, but just a simple snapshot of this moment. Wellness can and will change from minute to minute, day to day. Defining wellness for yourself might not have the same meaning for someone else. Wellness or well-being is a personal concept.

The CDC website states that well-being can be described as judging life positively and feeling good. For public health purposes, physical well-being (e.g., feeling very healthy and full of energy) is also viewed as critical to overall well-being. As a research consultant, I work with populations susceptible to falling and strive to discover yoga’s effect on decreasing fall rates. Intellectually, doing research that supports and spreads the benefits of yoga to these communities is rewarding. However, what tugs at my heart strings are the deeper and more minute outcomes from our studies. These come from the interactions with individuals who have had a well-being change in their life while participated in one of our programs. Our studies tracked data related to activities of daily living (ADLs). We used many assessments to identify these ADLs including the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM). We were able to hear amazing stories from many participants about how their life skills and habits were influenced, in a positive way, because of practicing yoga in a group setting. One of my favorite stories came from an amazing woman in my very first research study.

For privacy purposes, I will call this participant Julia. She was one of 19 participants in the study, all of whom were 65 years of age or older. During our first class, we introduced ourselves and shared why we were there. Most people said the same thing: I am here because I do not want to fall! Julia had a different answer. Without hesitation she said (paraphrasing), “I am here because my kids made me come. They are worried about me and they wanted me to attend this class. I don’t think I will learn anything, and I don’t really need to be here”. Well, as you can imagine, I initially thought, hum… this should be interesting! Will she be a problem student? Will she be willing to do what we asked of her, after all, this is a research study? Low and behold, she turned out to be a rockstar. She was the perfect research participant. In research, you want data. Information like how the class is working; what should we change about the program; what is the level of understanding yoga, are all considered gold when you design an intervention. Julia was the most vocal of the group. She asked a lot of questions, often ones the other student wanted to ask but did not. We had the participants fill out weekly logbooks to track home exercise rates, fall events, and any problems they would like to communicate. Each week I would look at the logs and privately address issues. Julia would write reams of information. Again, this was great… more data to assess. I think it was around week 6 of the study that I meet with Julia to go over her logbook. All she had wrote was: WE NEED TO TALK. My heart jumped. What happened? Did she fall and hurt herself? Did I do or say something wrong? My mind went to every bad situation possible. So, I asked her, what is going on? Julia shared, at length, “ Well you know how I am always asking questions, how I think I’m taking up time in the classes, how I am not learning anything (which was not true!)… I must have learned something because this past weekend I was able to do something I was dreading”. Julia shared  how her great granddaughter was getting baptized. She joked about how you stand, sit, and kneel a lot in a Catholic service. Over the past few years, she had given up doing all the standing and kneeling because her body just couldn’t tolerate those movements, especially standing for extended period which was very painful. Her family had asked Julia to be present for the baptism and stand with them during the full ceremony. Apparently, there were multiple families that day and it took a long time. Determined, Julia said, “so there I was, standing… waiting … hoping I could sit down. At one point I felt a little weak and all I could hear is your darn (I had never heard her swear, let alone talk like this) voice in my head: find the 4 corners of the bottom of your feet”. In our research, we emphasis the awareness of the feet: what are the foundational points of pressure you are experiencing. This obviously had been subconsciously engrained in her. She heard my voice and first found the 4 points on the left foot, then the 4 points on the right foot, then both feet together, resulting in an immediate reaction of getting taller, stronger, and more aligned. Julia shared, “I felt empowered! I felt like one of those warriors you taught us about”! Julia was able to stay standing during the whole service. It was a bright moment for her and for me as she told her story! Julia was not alone in benefiting from learning about the 4 corners of the bottom of the feet. Through all the studies we heard repeatedly: Maybe I didn’t continue with yoga, but that 4 corners of the bottom of my feet thing really works, I practice it every day.

The story of Julia is a great example of how well-being for her, is a personal concept. She was judging life positively and feeling good because she could stand for this important family event. She did not necessarily want to be in the class, but she did learn something that increased her ADLs. It was a small awareness, yet an oh-so-powerful one. Well-being is not confined to one’s age, abilities, or identity. Well-being is defined by what you make it. Standing for 15 minutes might be important to Julia, while hiking an extra mile might be important for someone else. Finding those small kernels of well-being truths is what sustains us. The reward for me is helping student discover those, for themselves. Increasing and/or identifying well-being is not always about the grand things people achieve. Sure, some people feel stronger and have more balance and take up running or even do a marathon for the first time. Those are great! And, it is also the people who told me, after years of not having a garden, now they have a small one because of increased confident. It is the person who said she felt able to visit her family on a plane because she learned how to sit for 4 hours. It is the person who shared how she can Yodel better because of her newly found breathing awareness. Those are the rewards of enhancing well-being that I get to see. Thank you to all the Julias in my life!