Just move
Kane Brisco is passionate about helping people realise the impact movement can have on our mental and physical wellbeing – he shares his top tips for getting started.
When life starts to snowball, be it at home, or at work, it is all too easy to get caught up in the pressures and stop looking after yourself. Often our natural instinct is to isolate ourselves, work harder and longer and eat poorly. But that ultimately ends up making things worse. What we need to be doing is prioritising ourselves. Looking after our own mental and physical wellbeing. We need to be moving as our ability to move has the biggest impact on our health. For such a simple concept it plays a significant role in so many different health markers, especially as we get older. You can have all the money in the world, be the smartest individual, but if you don’t have your health – what is left?
Identify the bad habits and replace them with good ones. It is all well and good cutting out the bad habits, but the saying ‘idle hands are the devil’s workshop’ is true. You need to fill the gap with something, otherwise you are setting yourself up to fail.
Start with small steps – and with something that you enjoy. If you hate running, don’t start with a marathon. Start with something that you enjoy or are curious about. If you have always wanted to go for a bike down the local trail – do it. You don’t have to be passionate about it right from the outset; curiosity is often the spark that leads to passion. Easy wins are what you need to keep the ball rolling and these are more likely to come from movement and activities that you enjoy.
Prepare for failure. By early February most of us have already fallen off the wagon with our New Year’s resolutions and that is okay. Perfection is not what we are aiming for. All success stories have failure in them and it is important to remember that one bad day doesn’t make a bad week. Just keep going.
Walk before you run. Building up your fitness and movement is also important for ongoing success. By all means jump in and try something new, but do so at your fitness level and build it up slowly. Getting injured or not being able to move because you overdid it will set you back.
Learn to play. Fitness and movement isn’t all about running, exercise classes and weightlifting. It is about getting outside and incorporating small moments of activity into your day. It might be walking to the bus stop with the kids, throwing the ball for the dog or spending an extra few minutes in the garden.
Kane Brisco is a dairy farmer from Taranaki who, following his own challenges with mental wellbeing, developed a passion for helping others. His approach is honest, relatable and builds on practical advice.