Content originally from Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System
| To recap on the previous emails, we’ve shared information about the importance of making change as easy as possible and thinking about how your environment can influence positive habits. In this email, we want to talk about the importance of celebrating success. Whatever change you are trying to make (being more active, quitting smoking), it’s so important to find the time to pat yourself on the back every time you make a healthy choice. The more you celebrate the small wins, the quicker you will form an automatic habit to help install healthy behaviours. Visual rewards work for lots of people, examples include: Putting ticks on a calendar Putting notes or pebbles into a jar A simple sticker chart Keeping a simple log Or using an app (there are good apps to log things like alcohol-free or smoke-free days, steps taken, food eaten and so on, it depends what your goal is). Visit the Better Health website for information on the apps that the NHS reccomends. Over time, by celebrating your success, you’ll find that you will start to crave these small moments of victory and feel bad if you miss them. You’ll then know your healthy-living programme is starting to stick. |
Local Inspiration Hearing other people’s stories can often inspire you to make changes in your own life, so I wanted to share with you Billy’s story. Billy is 26, from Rochford and has Fibromyalgia. He spoke to us about why keeping active with a long-term health condition is so important and what matters to him when it comes to being healthy. “I live with a long-term condition called Fibromyalgia and being active allows me to stay healthy and well, regardless of the fact at times my condition can be hard to manage. I have found various ways to help cope and manage with my daily symptoms and pain. I like participating in events and campaigns that keep me motivated to keep active, and I also like to influence this has on helping other people be active.” Read Billy’s Full Story |
| Get in touch! We would like to raise awareness of local people taking control of their health and wellbeing in different ways. We’re interested in ways people are connecting with local areas, certain tools, or resources that they benefit from to support their wellbeing. This can be anything from how you are living well with a long-term health condition, how you like to keep active or how you’re looking after your mental health and wellbeing. By sharing stories, we hope to inspire and empower others to do the same. If you have a story to share, please contact us by emailing msepartnership.comms@nhs.net with ‘My Health Matters campaign’ in the subject line. You can find out more information on the new Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System and our campaigns by visiting our website via the link below. Visit Our Website |
| Take Care, Dr Pete Scolding |
SWF Health & Social Care Group 