Acclimate And Lose The Negatives Elita Sohmer Clayman

These are the words of my email friend and fellow ballroom dancer. I have not changed any of his descriptions of what he does for a living. Wellness is the opposite of sickness.

“Well we all know sickness and we want to distant ourselves from it as much as possible. The opposite is wellness that encompasses the physical, mental, spiritual, and social components that blended together makes for a positive lifestyle. Total wellness makes each day an unbelievable experience and counters the premise that "we live too short and die too long".

I have always been involved in movement:

As a youngster through college it was sports; in the military it was the Infantry and jumping out of airplanes and in my recreational days it was running and dancing.

I was the Recreation Supervisor and the Wellness Coordinator for the Town of Steilacoom where I motivated employees to movement which enhanced productivity and reduced health care cost. I also provided support to residents to improve wellness particularly the seniors encouraging them to become "active adults". Of course falls prevention and balance training was and still is my major focus. I am a member of the Pierce County Falls Prevention Coalition responsible for addressing the needs of county residents and providing support to communities and towns.

Mary and I do a lot of outreach programs as role models using dance as a great movement activity to prevent falls among its many other benefits. Linked to to being a motivator and educator is the prime ingredient of "self-responsibility" and making wellness an everyday lifestyle rather than a quick fix.

Let's keep moving!” Steven Behr, Sr. Wellness Educator

This is what we sometimes call preventive medicine. Wellness means feeling fine, being active and overall good health. This is what we strive for in our lives from the time the baby is born until we pass on. As soon as a child is born and after we congratulate the parents, we ask is everything good for the mom and the newborn.  This is what is most important.

When we ballroom dance, we see many seniors in their eighties still dancing and this is a wonderful activity for wellness. Ballroom dancing is excellent for the brain, as it keeps the brain on ‘its toes.” (Pun intended). In order to dance accurately and gracefully, we need to remember steps and movements and that entails the feet and arms, shoulders and head. There is so much movement in dancing for five minutes that is excellent for all over body and mind health. In the dancing I guess it is called freestyle that the young people and teens do, they do whatever they want to do. There is nothing planned or executed that has pre planning involved like ballroom dancing has with it. We learn steps, patterns and do them with precise movements and routines. The young people move their bodies anyway they want to and if they are dancing alongside of a partner, neither does anything that is basically complimentary to the other person. They swing, sway, move them self and the partner does his or her way and this is fine for them in their style of dance. Ballroom devotees get up and actually do steps that even a new person dancing with them can follow and acclimate to.

I try to practice wellness; however with an aching knee, it is hard. I am wearing the brace given to me and putting on ice packs too and starting physical therapy on Monday. Hopefully, all this will help me and I will be back to my beloved ballroom dancing, walking in a mall from store to store and being able to do some housework. All of these things seem simple when mentioning them, but when you cannot move the knee and calf too well, it is a real obstacle.

So if positive thoughts rule out negative ones, here I go with positive thoughts and hopes and of course desires.

All of you out there with positive thoughts, bravo to you, you are positive people and that is positively fantastic. Let us all keep moving and that will be my motto.