Getting Intentional: Summary of my journey

This morning I felt a little pang of emptiness. You see, every Tuesday morning for the last ten weeks I’ve made a little cafetière of coffee, opened my laptop, and logged onto Zoom to join in with an Intentional Health course online, but last week we finished the course. I’ve loved meeting with the other attendees, learning about different components of holistic health through a variety of interactive ways, before going into a little more depth in breakout rooms to work out how we can put the ideas into practice. Before I started the course, I was a little skeptical about how you could create a safe, engaging community without actually meeting in the flesh, but I’m delighted to say our course leaders managed it!

I found out about the course through my friend, who actually set up the course a few years ago! Over the last couple of years, I’ve been increasingly interested in health, especially how physical, mental, and emotional health all interact with each other, so this course seemed perfect. Its premise is to equip attendees to make intentional, informed choices about different aspects of health, so that they can live a fuller, healthier life. The course is led by Christians, so spiritual health (from a Christian perspective) is also explored, though the course is in no way exclusive to Christians, and all are welcome and encouraged to join (I unpack this a little more in my blog posts on Week 1 and Week 8b, if that helps).

Once I’d started the course, my aforementioned friend asked if I’d be up for writing a series of blogs on the course, with a post reviewing each session. So here you will find links to each of those blog posts, perhaps to help you understand the course content better, perhaps to whet your appetite for an Intentional Health course, or perhaps even to help you decide that this isn’t the course for you!

In brief, I have loved doing the course. I was already familiar with a lot of the teaching prior to taking part, but I also learned a lot along the way too! I guess the best way to measure how effective such a course has been in your life is by seeing the changes that it has resulted in. So, for me, some examples since starting the course: 

• I am more mindful about factoring in non-dairy protein when meal planning

• I find myself checking food labels at the supermarket for certain products

• I am working on breaking my habit of always reaching for my mobile phone when I’m bored

• When I want to achieve a goal I start by setting myself small targets that are almost impossible to fail at

• I am aware of the recommended exercise guidelines and am intentional about factoring more vigorous exercise into my week

• I feel empowered to set boundaries in my life

• I can identify unhealthy thought patterns when they emerge and instead, speak to myself with more compassion.

I regularly find myself sharing what I’ve learnt and saying to friends, ‘On the Intentional Health course we…’! Maybe this is a sign that I’m a bit boring and need new topics of conversation, but I think it’s also a sign that doing the course has had a real impact on me! In our final session, our course leader pointed out that the 20 hours that we’ve spent in sessions amount to around 1% of our time over the last ten weeks. I can certainly say that 1% of the time I invested in the course has made a disproportionate difference in my life for the better!

If you are at all interested in learning more about an Intentional Health course, please have a read of my review blog posts below. And if you would like to join up for a course, please click here.

 

Week 1: Health and Wellbeing Balance

Week 2: A Balanced Diet

Week 3: Reading and Understanding Food Labels

Week 4: Goals and Rewards

Week 5: Physical Activity

Week 6: Healthy Habits and Triggers

Week 7: Thoughts and Feelings

Week 8a: Boundaries, Conflict and Communication

Week 8b: Spiritual Health and Wellbeing

Week 9: A Balanced Life

Week 10: Celebration and Next Steps