Self-Care Is The New Health Care Prescription

80% of heart disease, stroke and Type 2 Diabetes, and over one third of cancers can be prevented with self-care: removing risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and excess alcohol consumption.

This is according to a recently commissioned report by the Australian Health Policy Collaboration (AHPC) at Victoria University

In light of this and their ongoing stance to promoting healthy living, wellness travel company, Health and Fitness Travel, have launched a new movement called Strong, Healthy Women.

Strong, Healthy Women is designed to shine the light on today’s modern women, the many hats they wear and how they go from surviving to thriving. This campaign is the brainchild of local Managing Director and co-founder Samantha Lippiatt who passionately champions the importance of self-care, not as an indulgence but as a crucial factor to address both physical and mental well- being.

The #StrongHealthyWomen series features women from diverse backgrounds, including business professionals, entrepreneurs, journalists and life coaches to media personalities —amongst those already featured are Roxy Jacenko and Deborah Hutton. The #StrongHealthyWomen series talks about how they thrive and conquer amidst health and well- being challenges, exploring their resilience as well as their own unique idea of self-care, sans the overarching world view of how one “should” practice it.

Deborah Hutton says “Reconnecting with who you are and what you want is extremely valuable. We are living life in warp-speed and taking no time to revaluate how we live and care for our self”.

So what is self care?

Self-care begins with the simplest of everyday routines, yet it is often overlooked. Recent multinational research involving nine major cities in four countries including the UK, the USA, Australia, and Japan reveals that the prevalence of self-care is lowest in Australia

Samantha Lippiatt says, “With the increase in stress and mental health issues in Australia, we wholeheartedly believe it’s important to continue to emphasise how self-care is not an indulgence but a necessity.The vast majority of our clientele are busy, hardworking women, seeking to travel for their physical and mental well-being. With this in mind, we have decided to gather strong, healthy female role models with whom we believe our clients and many more women in our country can associate with.”

Through self-care, people can become empowered to take charge of their own health in a proactive way.

In one of the interviews, activewear powerhouse, Lorna Jane Clarkson imparts her self-care ethos: “We can only think, feel and perform at our best if we first of all make the time to take care of ourselves! I look at self-care as prioritising my health and well-being because without health, what do we have? We need to take the time to invest in ourselves, to care for ourselves and love ourselves. Because it’s not selfish, it’s essential!”