E110 John Webster Finding Wellness Balance
Let’s Be Well Together Podcast - Episode 110
Date: March 5, 2024
Participants: John Webster, Noura Saad, Cameron Earnshaw, Sheila Webster, Elise Seifert and Stephen Seifert
Guest: John Webster
Start Times and Segments:
[0:00:16] What’s On Your Mind: Ramadan is a sacred time of year for Muslims. Noura tells us a bit about Ramadan, and about her experiences. Muslims dry fast for 30 days, with no food or water daily, from first prayer (around 6am) through fourth prayer (around 7pm) [times change depending on sunrise and sunset]. Noura finds that her mind becomes clearer and she goes inwards when she fasts. It’s a time to reflect and worship as part of her spiritual journey.
[0:10:20] Expanding Minds Interview: [Life / Wellness Balance] It’s the second part of our short break from the interview format. Last week John Webster talked about a practical and achievable way to approach wellness in different categories of wellness: Step 1- identify my categories of wellness. Step 2 - figure out activities that nourish each category. Step 3 - develop a wellness check-in. But what about the great balancing act? How can we find balance over multiple categories of wellness, especially when there are numerous activities associated with each category? It can feel overwhelming. John found a practical approach that could be used by anyone willing to put in the work. His approach to balance is person-specific. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. It’s not about finding a formula or arriving and staying at a spot. We need to focus on different areas of wellness at different times in our lives. Balance looks different at different times in his life. John uses three analogies to illustrate his thinking: surfing, the movie Eat Pray Love and Sheila’s dance-balance analogy. He spends extra time on one category: physical wellness. Podcast discussions helped him refine this approach. He finds himself doing more activities that foster wellness in different categories. It’s building a shield of resilience that protects him. John also makes a pitch to listeners to make time to enhance their physical wellness, because it’s essential. John felt a profound difference in his life and wellness when he made physical health a priority: eating nutritious food in moderation; doing aerobic exercise; core and strength training; getting enough sleep, etc.
[0:30:05] Adventures of the Starving Artist: Climate change is getting to Cameron. He’s redirecting his outlook, using his concern in a positive way. He’s writing music to find expression creatively.
[0:34:24] Move That Body: Sheila just finished a challenge to do 2,000 pushups in February. She’s feeling strong. People talked to her about pushups during her challenge. She was surprised to hear how many types of pushups there are.
[0:40:07] Running Popup: John found himself looking out a window towards nature while waiting for coffee to brew. The nature scene provided a moment of calmness in a busy day.
[0:41:37] Flipside of the Coin: Elise and Stephen took different paths to teaching jobs. From quite different places, they each ended up in a profession where it feels so good and satisfying to be in a role where they can make a difference.
Quotes and Take-Aways:
John – I’m now finding and doing activities that foster wellness I different categories. It’s changing my life for the better.
John – A guest on our podcast talked about resilience in a way I hadn’t thought of. Imagine that we are slammed with a mental health issue. What if our other categories of wellness are strong when that happens? What if they’re weak? Imagine each category of wellness as part of intertwined piece of armour protecting wellness. They create a shield. So long as most pieces are strong, my shield is strong. My shield provides resilience. I still might experience a devastating mental health issue - but if my other areas are strong then I can weather the storm better – I mitigate the detrimental impact.
John – [For context, from episode 109] I don’t see balance as a spot or state to arrive at and stay at. Now I aim to find balance in a moment, then in the next. I don’t see it as a mystical place to arrive at. It’s not a destination. It’s a journey where I’m finding, holding, losing and regaining balance. It’s ever changing. I’m constantly re-adjusting.
John – Balance is person-specific, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. If everyone performed a wellness check-in, each person would end up with a different plan, because the outcome depends on individual goals and circumstances. You are free to choose what fulfills you, as am I.
John – Surfing Analogy – When something great is happening in my life, it’s as if I’m riding a perfect wave. I tell myself I’ll ride the wave as far as it will take me. Sometimes I can do that and pay attention to other categories of wellness, but I’ve also learned to leave other categories aside for a time to get the most out of the wave. Being militant about continuous balance in all categories would stop me from seeing where the wave will take me. This was an important realization. I know now that it isn’t always harmful to leave aside other categories, even for long periods of time. In fact, it might be necessary for me to achieve balance over the course of my lifetime.
John – Sheila’s Dance-Balance analogy – When Sheila was learning dance as a child, she thought of balance as a spot, as something to hold and likely through strength. But she never had time to stop and hold anything. She was always moving across the stage. just like all of us in our lives. She was forever finding balance as she moved across the floor, then starting to lose it, and then regaining it, and then starting to lose it again, etc. She realized that balance is a flow. It’s everchanging. What you do to re-balance today will be different than what you do tomorrow or next week.
John – Ask yourself: Is there enough time in your day to exercise every day? Five days a week? Twice a week? At all? Is there enough time to prepare nutritious food for dinner? Is there enough time to get a full night’s sleep? Please make time. Your health and wellness is at least as important as the items on any of your to do lists, but how many of us give it priority? How many of us let ourself be a priority, rather than other people? How many of us even believe these things are as important as keeping up in the hustle culture we live in?
John – If you take nothing else from what I say, please consider the profound change I experienced by making physical health a priority: eating nutritious food in moderation, doing aerobic exercise, core and strength training. getting enough sleep, etc. Don’t do it for looks, but to feel amazing, to support mental health and overall wellness. We all deserve that.
John – [Based on discussion with Ryan Bush and his book Become Who You Are] We all have a few personal virtues that serve as the foundation for our identity. It’s the collection of traits in which you have in- vested most heavily—the strengths you would be most crushed to learn you didn’t actually have. Whether you realize it or not, you have a portfolio of personal strengths that you monitor continuously. Maybe it’s your kindness and likability. Maybe it’s your ingenuity. Whatever these precious powers are, they make up your identity – your virtue portfolio. Try to identify new ways to exercise your signature strengths and cultivate domains that bring them out.
John – The activities that foster each category of wellness are the building blocks. They set us up for balance. We must practice and perform these building block activities to make them become second-nature, like muscle memory. Then we need to find balance, then rebalance after we lose balance.
John – I see one unique and important activity that’s different from the others: the activity of balancing between the may wellness activities and the categories of wellness. Achieving balance between them is not a mystical or theoretical or transcendent thing. It’s an activity. It’s a skill we can develop. It’s the key skill to achieving wellness and balance.
John – The last paragraph of my book says, “Wellness isn’t a zero-sum game. Together, we can share ideas, be kind to each other and inspire each other. Let’s be well together.” I called our podcast Let’s Be Well Together. I believe it’s our best chance to be well – together.
John – Doing the podcast has been amazing. My objective was to share my theory. I thought I knew the message I was hoping to get out. It turns out that talking to amazing people is helping refine and build my theory. It’s getting better. It’s getting more interesting and more effective. I’m grateful to the co-hosts, guests and listeners.
Bulletin Board Quote brought to you by Cameron: If you can see these stones, a famine in imminent
Guest Information: Listeners know John Webster as a co-host of this podcast. John’s an Ontario lawyer who works at international law firm Gowling WLG, from the Waterloo Region office. He is a commercial litigator with 27 years of experience in complex litigation. John is a strong advocate for personal wellness, and this podcast (Let’s Be Well Together) and published a book about his journey (Accidentally Well). John has a lively curiosity that was fostered during his days studying philosophy at university. He embraces the saying, "Never stop learning." You can often find him enjoying its trail system in Kitchener-Waterloo, whether along old rail lines, through a forest or along the Grand River. He's married to Sheila and has three adult children. He’s enjoying life even more after the experiences he writes about in his book.
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Thanks for joining us,
(-(-_(-_-)_-)-) Your wellness check-in team
John, Sammy, Cameron, Sheila, Elise, Isabelle, Noura and Julie