The Winds of Change
In this article we hear from Michael Cox, member of the Queensland Down Syndrome Advisory Network, about the importance of physical and mental health and some thoughts around diversity and inclusion.
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Physical health and fitness
Physical health and fitness are important. It’s what keeps us going through life. It drives our bodies to move around and be able to do the things we love to do whether it’s going to the gym to hanging around with friends and family, to be having an independent life. Eating and drinking healthily also helps our bodies to function properly, it also helps us to stay in good shape. Our fitness plays a huge part in our life and staying fit and helps us to live longer and to stand, sit and to be moving around. It helps our heart to keep a beat that we can all dance to. Our sleep and recovery also plays a massive factor for our bodies to heal from sickness, overuse, soreness and tiredness.
Mental health and fitness
Mental health and fitness is important because it’s what drives our minds and our brains to full function. A strong body and a strong mind help us to live life to the fullest and enjoy ourselves. We may wonder why our mental health and fitness is so important to us as well as physical health and fitness. To truly be healthy and fit our minds and bodies need to be on the same page as each other. Having a strong mind can help you to do anything that you set your mind to. In today’s society, people lack the knowledge of how important our mind is. It keeps us motivated and helps us to have a purpose in life. It should be our best friend. Eating and drinking healthy foods and drinks affects our minds. Eating and drinking unhealthy food and drinks also has an effect on our minds as it can make us sick, tired, sluggish and worse, it can make us feel depressed. It can make us feel lonely by being depressed. The more unhealthy things we put in our bodies the worse it can make us feel, which iswhy we need to stay on top of mental health and fitness.
The truth behind diversity and inclusion
Diversity and inclusion are just fancy words that we use to make people feel valued and included but that is a load of rubbish. It does not matter how people view us at all, it’s how we feel inside ourself. To be true to our own beliefs we may be different in all sort of ways whether it’s our heritage, age, gender or different shade of skin, we all are amazing in our own ways. It doesn’t matter if some people have a disability, we are all human and should all be seen as and treated as human and the same way there is a saying ‘treat people like you want to be treated’, be nice to each other.
To be included and to feel included are two different things in life. In a world where we want to be more involved in things and to be accepted by others, it is important to be accepted and to feel accepted as well.
To be accepted we need to put in the hard work to be likeable and to be trusted by the people around us. If you are not trustworthy how can people accept you and want to be around you? You have to build trust and companionship so you can be accepted for who you truly are. We are all here to help each other and sometimes people need a bit of an extra push to be more accepting of others.
My advice
My advice is to be you and enjoy your life and embrace it. Life is amazing and you don’t know what’s around thecorner so live it up, have fun and yes, we all have things we need to work on, but we will get there in the end.
We will be stronger if we all work together as a team whether it’s finding an inclusive way or to have more diversity inworld, but we all need to do our part to help change the world.
Download the full digital edition of Voice here.
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