Towards the end of 2023 I was thinking about the upcoming year and what I wanted it to look like. One of the main areas of my life I want to continually work on is my overall health and wellness. I came across the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD) website and decided to dig a little deeper. NCHPAD is based at The University of Alabama and “is a public health practice and resource center on health promotion for people with disability.” They offer a variety of programs through NCHPAD Connect. One such program is called MENTOR which is an online 8 week program focused on physical, mental and emotional health. The program sounded comprehensive, covering Mindfulness, Exercise, Nutrition, and Resilience (see screenshot from their site below). Plus, since it is free I decided to give it a shot and signed up!
A really neat aspect of MENTOR so far is that I was sent a large box of items that I can keep even after the program ends. It’s primarily different types of exercise equipment but I also received a notebook, water bottle, and tote bag.
I may not use everything included, I’m excited to see what I can use and how.
I’ll have exercise classes twice a week and each class focuses on something different like balance, core, posture etc. Furthermore, since the program is designed for people with disabilities the instructor is comfortable with figuring out ways to modify activities as needed. Her main goal seems to be to help participants increase their overall movement and activity level to the best of their ability.
Mindfulness
The mindfulness class is once a week. This week we talked about what mindfulness is and the benefits to your health. The idea of being kind to yourself was also heavily emphasized. This can relate to the actual practice of being mindful (it’s okay if you get distracted, just circle back to the present moment), or the messages you tell yourself throughout the day (I’m frustrated I can’t do x today because of pain). Another thing I really liked about the instructor is that when talking about things to help ground us during a mindfulness session, focusing on breathwork may not always be ideal. I feel like a lot of times this is what is suggested… for me though this can produce more anxiety. I’ve gotten better at taking deep, slow breaths but being asked to focus on my breathing is difficult. It tends to make me breath faster or more shallow. Therefore when the instructor acknowledged this concern and suggested that other senses or whatever might be better for grounding exercises I was happy.
Nutrition
I’m on the fence so far about the nutrition classes. Those are also once a week. Each session will be half education and half an actual cooking demonstration. This week the instructor made a coconut curry dish that actually looked alright. I was surprised. It seems like various adaptive kitchen tools will be discussed/used during the demonstrations which will be interesting.
Health Coaching
The final once a week class is related to health coaching. I think the goal of these sessions is to encourage participants with their general participation as well as accountability related to a SMART goal. The instructor talked about what SMART goals are, barriers to achieving them, and what each of our possible goals could be. While I have a number of things I want to work on, increasing my water intake is at the top of the list. Therefore I’m pretty sure my first SMART goal will be related to that. For example it could be:
Wrap-Up
Overall I am excited to see how the next 8 weeks goes. I think that no matter what, 2024 is going to be a year I focus on doing my best to maintain my health – physical and mental.
