Functional wellbeing, an aboriginal approach.

 Functional wellbeing, when viewed through the lens of Aboriginal wisdom, particularly the Kanyini approach, offers a profound and holistic perspective on health and healing. Kanyini, a fundamental concept in Aboriginal philosophy, encapsulates the interconnectedness of all things and the responsibilities we hold to each other and the environment. It serves as a guiding principle for understanding and promoting functional wellbeing in a way that honors indigenous knowledge and practices.

In the Kanyini approach, wellbeing is not merely the absence of disease but a state of harmony and balance between the individual, the community, and the natural world. This holistic view recognizes that physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health are interdependent and must be nurtured in tandem. Health coaches who embrace this perspective understand that addressing one aspect of wellbeing without considering the others is like treating a single thread in a complex tapestry without acknowledging its place in the larger pattern.

The Kanyini philosophy emphasizes the importance of connection and community. It teaches that our wellbeing is intrinsically linked to the wellbeing of those around us. This communal aspect of health is reflected in the practice of Aboriginal health coaching, where the focus is not just on the individual but on the collective. Health coaches encourage participants to engage with their communities, fostering a sense of belonging and shared responsibility for each other's health. This approach recognizes that social support and a strong sense of community can significantly enhance an individual's ability to maintain functional wellbeing.

Another key aspect of the Kanyini approach is the concept of reciprocity. This principle suggests that we have a duty to care for the land and all living things, just as they care for us. In the context of health coaching, this translates to promoting sustainable practices that support both personal and environmental health. Coaches may encourage participants to engage in activities that benefit the land, such as gardening or conservation efforts, thereby reinforcing the connection between personal wellbeing and environmental stewardship.

Moreover, the Kanyini philosophy highlights the importance of spiritual connection in achieving functional wellbeing. It acknowledges that spiritual health is a vital component of overall wellbeing and encourages practices that nurture this aspect of life. Health coaches may incorporate traditional spiritual practices, such as meditation, ceremony, or storytelling, to help individuals connect with their spiritual selves and the broader universe.

The Kanyini approach to functional wellbeing also emphasizes the power of storytelling and knowledge sharing. Aboriginal cultures have a rich tradition of using stories to pass down wisdom and teachings. Health coaches can leverage this tradition by incorporating storytelling into their practices, using narratives to convey health messages and inspire participants to adopt healthier lifestyles. These stories can serve as powerful tools for healing, providing guidance and inspiration for those on their wellbeing journey.

In conclusion, the Kanyini approach offers a unique and valuable perspective on functional wellbeing that can enrich health coaching practices. By emphasizing connection, community, reciprocity, spirituality, and storytelling, this approach provides a holistic framework for promoting health and healing. It invites us to see wellbeing not as a solitary pursuit but as a collective journey, where the health of each individual is intertwined with the health of the community and the natural world. Through this lens, health coaches can guide their participants toward a state of functional wellbeing that is sustainable, fulfilling, and deeply rooted in the wisdom of Aboriginal cultures.

To read more visit https://kanyini.org/ for more information on Uncle Bob and this approach.

Mother touch

 

The "Mother Touch" Idea 🤱

The term "mother touch" usually refers to the deeply soothing and regulating effect a parent's gentle touch has on a baby or even a child. While it sounds a bit magical, science actually backs up that this is a real and very important effect!

• Soothing Power: Gentle, slow stroking, often called C-tactile (CT) touch, is known to trigger special nerve fibres in our skin.

• Benefits: For babies, especially premature ones, this kind of touch can lower their heart rate and reduce stress. It seems to be a built-in way for humans to feel safe and connected.

• Instinct: Many parents seem to do this type of stroking naturally, often at just the right slow speed without even thinking about it!

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Special Nerves for Slow Touches 🤏

Yes, we absolutely have special nerves that are perfectly tuned for very slow, light touches!

These specialised nerve fibres are called C-tactile (CT) afferents.

• How they work: They are a type of low-threshold mechanoreceptor found in the skin, particularly in hairy areas.

• Optimal Speed: These nerves are most sensitive and fire most strongly when a light touch moves at about 1 to 10 centimetres per second.  The suggested speed of 3 cm/s falls right in the sweet spot for these nerves!

• What they signal: Unlike nerves that tell you about pressure or pain, CT afferents mainly signal that the touch is pleasant or soothing. They send this calming message straight to areas in the brain linked to feeling safe and social.

So,  "Mother touch" is real in terms of its scientific basis in how our nerves react to slow, gentle contact, and yes, we have C-tactile fibres specifically made to react to touches moving at about 3 cm/s!

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This information is based on studies about C-tactile fibres and their role in social touch.

The surprising science behind a mother's touch

Indigenous Health Coaching: Needs, Kinship, and Relationality

Indigenous Health Coaching: Needs, Kinship, and Relationality

Philosophical Foundation: Integrating Needs, Health, and Kinship

Conventional health interventions often fall short because they adopt a reductionist focus, treating symptoms rather than addressing holistic wellbeing, and may ignore local knowledge systems and values through top-down imposition. To move beyond this limited scope, effective health coaching requires a framework that recognizes health not merely as the absence of disease, but as the capacity to satisfy fundamental human needs in sustainable, culturally appropriate ways.

Manfred Max-Neef’s Human Scale Development (HSD) offers this essential framework, shifting the focus of development from economic growth (standard of living) to the comprehensive satisfaction of human dignity (quality of life). HSD asserts that fundamental human needs are finite, few, and universal, including Subsistence, Protection, Affection, Understanding, Participation, Leisure, Creation, Identity, and Freedom. Critically, while these nine needs are universal, the ways they are satisfied—the "satisfiers"—are culturally and historically specific.

For Indigenous health-based coaching, the Indigenous worldviews of health and belonging provide the necessary synergic satisfiers—those practices that address multiple needs simultaneously. Aboriginal conceptions of health are fundamentally holistic, encompassing physical, mental, spiritual, and cultural health and wellbeing. This holistic health is predicated on a concept of relationality, where identity and wellbeing are defined by reciprocal relationships with people, land, and ancestors.

This relational imperative directly addresses several of Max-Neef's core needs:

1. Identity and Affection needs are satisfied through Kinship (Walytja) and the principle of All My Relations.

2. Subsistence, Protection, and Identity needs are profoundly linked to Country/Ngura—the land, sea, and waterways understood as a sentient entity integral to identity. Connection to Country is a key contributor to positive health outcomes.

3. The guiding principle of Kanyini—unconditional love and responsibility to all things—weaves together Walytja and Ngura, establishing a foundation of spiritual integrity and moral duty that affirms collective belonging.

When Max-Neef’s framework identifies that an unsatisfied need constitutes a "poverty" (e.g., poverty of identity or protection), the Indigenous worldview provides the remedy: restoring the fractured relationship. Therefore, Indigenous health coaching centers on identifying which fundamental needs have been systematically interrupted or violated (often through historical trauma and oppression), and then utilizing culturally grounded practices like Dadirri (deep listening) and connection to Country as potent, synergic paths toward achieving wholeness. This approach also mandates the creation of Cultural Safety—an environment essential for Protection and Identity where one’s cultural integrity is not denied—as the prerequisite for true holistic health and belonging.

This philosophical integration provides the bedrock for a coaching methodology focused on restoration, relational responsibility, and self-determination.

Your Health is More Than Just a Diagnosis: Why You Need a New Kind of Coaching 🧠

Have you ever felt that modern healthcare focuses too much on the problem, but not enough on you? You might be told you have a 'pathology' (an illness or a bad habit) that needs to be treated with a quick fix, like medicine or a strict diet.

But a growing number of health coaches and experts are now looking beyond this, using an amazing idea called Human Scale Development (HSD). This approach says that most of the problems you face—your stress, your anxiety, your burnout—aren't just diseases. They are a sign that something deeper is missing.

They are signposts showing you have an unmet human need.

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Why "Unmet Needs" Cause Problems

The person behind this idea, economist Manfred Max-Neef, argued that all human beings have the exact same basic needs, no matter where they live or what they do. He called the things we use to meet those needs satisfiers.

The mistake we often make is thinking the satisfier is the need. For example, your need might be for Affection (connection), but you try to meet it with a satisfier like binge-watching TV or over-eating. That's a temporary fix that doesn't actually meet the real need.

When your fundamental needs go unmet for too long, it creates a 'poverty' in that area of your life. And that poverty is what turns into the stress, low mood, or exhaustion that you're experiencing.

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The 9 Needs Your Coach Should Be Asking About

If you want the best possible health coaching, you should be looking for a coach who understands these nine fundamental human needs. They are universal, and a strong coach will help you find the best ways to meet them.

The Need	What It Looks Like When it's Missing	What a Good Coach Helps You Find
Subsistence	Constant money worry, poor sleep, or an unhealthy diet.	A stable routine, nourishing food, and secure living.
Protection	Feeling anxious, unsafe at work, or always on edge.	Healthy boundaries, a feeling of security, and self-care.
Affection	Loneliness, emotional distance from family/friends, feeling unloved.	Deep connections, belonging, and time with loved ones.
Understanding	Feeling confused, lacking purpose, or being bored with life.	Education, curiosity, and finding meaning in your actions.
Participation	Feeling voiceless, powerless, or unneeded in your community.	Opportunities to contribute, share opinions, and make a difference.
Idleness	Burnout, constantly feeling busy, or never taking a break.	Time for rest, relaxation, daydreaming, and simple fun.
Creation	Feeling stifled, uninspired, or unable to express yourself.	Hobbies, art, writing, building something, or problem-solving.
Identity	Low self-worth, feeling lost, or ignoring your own values.	Self-knowledge, self-respect, and a strong sense of who you are.
Freedom	Feeling trapped in a job, a relationship, or a bad routine.	The ability to choose your path and live according to your values.

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Ask Your Coach for a Root-Cause Focus

A great health coach won't just tell you what to do—they'll become a detective who helps you uncover which of these nine areas is lacking.

When you're looking for a coach, ask them about their approach to root causes and holistic wellbeing. You want a coach who helps you find Synergistic Satisfiers.

What is a Synergistic Satisfier?

This is an action that meets one need but also helps meet multiple others at the same time. This is the secret to lasting change!

The Pathology	The Unmet Need	The Synergistic Satisfier
General Stress	Lack of Idleness + Lack of Affection	Joining a weekly walking group.
Feeling Useless	Lack of Participation + Lack of Identity	Volunteering your skills for a local charity.
Burnout	Lack of Freedom + Lack of Creation	Setting aside 30 minutes daily to work on a personal project.

By working with a coach who uses this unmet needs perspective, you stop wasting energy on quick fixes and start building a life that truly supports your fundamental wellbeing. You deserve a coach who helps you thrive, not just survive.

Would you like me to find some questions you can ask a potential health coach to see if they use this kind of unmet needs approach?

What Makes a Proper Breakfast? 🤔

 I have rewritten this as the original seems a bit out of date to me know.

What Makes a Proper Breakfast? 🤔

A reader asked me a brilliant question yesterday: "What sort of breakfast fits a healthy diet?"

It stopped me in my tracks because I always say there's no such thing as "healthy food," only a balanced diet overall. But they rightly asked what a good starting meal should look like.

So, let's walk through my idea of a balanced breakfast. Spoiler alert: it doesn't actually start with eating food!

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🌙 Step 1: The Gentle Wake-Up

The best way to start the morning is without setting an alarm clock. This means getting enough sleep so you can wake up slowly over 5 to 10 minutes naturally.

• You need to practise to find out how much sleep you need—maybe it's 6 and a half hours, maybe it's 9!

• If you learn you need exactly 8 and a quarter hours to wake up naturally, that's your magic number for that day.

• This amount might change a bit if you're stressed or when the seasons change.

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💧 Step 2: Hydration First

Once you wake up, head to the kitchen and boil the kettle—but not for coffee just yet!

1. Drink a large glass of slightly warm water (about 35 to 40 degrees Celsius).

2. Think of this as giving your body a gentle kick-start. It helps flush out anything your body cleared out while you were resting overnight—like the bin lorry emptying your rubbish bin!

3. Wait until you've needed a wee (this can take 5 minutes or up to an hour). Only then should you think about eating.

4. While you wait, keep sipping water or a non-sugary tea. You should aim to need a wee every 4 to 6 hours throughout the day.

Giving your body time before food lets your system practise managing its sugar levels all by itself, without any help from your breakfast!

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🍳 Step 3: The Balanced Breakfast Meal

Surprisingly for many people, I don't usually suggest a bowl of cereal. Grains (even whole grains) can be quite filling, so I suggest only having one small serving of grain a day.

The Top Pick: A Veggie Omelette

One of the best breakfasts you can have is a vegetable omelette.

• It gives you a great mix of protein (from the eggs) and carbs, plus lots of vitamins (antioxidants).

• Try to include at least three different types of vegetables, like broccoli, cabbage, rocket, mushrooms, or onions.

• Top Tip: You can sprinkle in some freshly ground flaxseed (or linseed). I use an old coffee grinder just for grinding flaxseed or almond flour!

Other Good Choices

• Bacon and Eggs: This is fine, as long as you load it up with several servings of veggies like onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and baby spinach.

• Soup: Some people like starting with a big bowl of miso or vegetable soup. That’s also a brilliant boost.

• Pancakes: If you fancy something sweet, try pancakes made from almond meal (gluten-free is best).

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✨ The Bigger Picture

The main thing is this: Your morning sets the tone for your whole day. A healthy start isn't just about the food on your plate. It’s a state of mind that you need to look after.

As you can see, this takes more than ten minutes! A truly balanced morning means not rolling out of bed and sprinting out the door. No rushed morning helps you stay balanced, even if you start work really early.

Getting enough sleep, drinking enough fluids, and having a calm start are just as vital as what you eat. This helps you be more productive and, most importantly, happier! That’s what life is really about—doing what you love with energy and joy.

All the best,

Francis