LOCAL COALITION PROMOTES WELLNESS IN OUR COMMUNITY By Olympic Peninsula Healthy Community Coalition
H
ave you ever wondered how your neighbor, your favorite coffee shop or the community activities you enjoy and share, can have a significant impact upon your health and wellness? The health of your family? Your community? The Olympic Peninsula Healthy Community Coalition (OPHCC) is working to improve the daily lives of all community members. First through fostering individual activities and resources, and secondly, by creating a coalition of community service organizations, health professionals, educators, legislators, business owners and individuals. “What I am learning,” said Nicolina Miller, executive director of OPHCC, “is that wellness is within our reach. Together we can empower everyone to take ownership of their health.” EMPOWERING INDIVIDUALS To encourage individual health choices, OPHCC recently launched the Be Well initiative addressing the four pillars that create whole health:
mind, body, spirit and community. The ongoing project seeks to embolden individuals to take responsibility for their own well-being through small, simple steps. Using stories and graphics easily read and understood, strategies and tips will be shared via the OPHCC website and social media. These tips, used in conjunction with the Be Well Passport and other tangible, interactive motivational tools, will build an expanded menu of activities for all members of the community, beginning with a focus on “mind.” “When we talk about being healthy, it’s easy to go to the physical,” said Miller, emphasizing that people have a variety of unique components that make them who they are. “We will start with the mind,” said Miller, “encouraging people to be present and intentional.” For Miller, being present and intentional is about relearning our approach to those small decisions that impact our health, instead of automatically being led by our habits. Being intentional will allow space
to make a different choice, to choose fruit, and not to choose the cookie. According to Miller, it’s also about being nonjudgmental in our attempts to make changes, taking a breath, and showing “more grace to yourself.” “We can give ourselves permission to start wherever we are and know that we absolutely do not need to be perfect,” Miller said. It’s OK to say, “I don’t need to do it all, I just need to start doing. That’s the way to move forward into positive change.” Providing an example of the strategies to be offered, Miller shared these three tips: • Take a breath break. Close your eyes. Breathe in for a count of three. Breathe out for a count of three. Repeat. • Stop the mental spiral. Physically turn your body to look in a different direction, signaling a change in focus to your mind. • Make a decision with intention. Say it definitively out loud or to yourself, “I am doing this.” Then let it go. These simple and effective
PHOTEOS COURTESY OF OPHCC
Robbie Thompson rides the OPHCC Smoothie Bike.
Nicolina Miller and Aaron Brown (opposite page on bridge) on Peabody Creek Trail.
6 APRIL 2022 | HEALTHY LIVING
Peninsula Daily News / Sequim Gazette