What Pavlov’s dogs can teach us about Wellness.

16 Mar What Pavlov’s dogs can teach us about Wellness.

I’ll admit to researching ‘the definition of wellness’ as opposed to ‘health’ before sitting down to write this article. This is because for many years ‘Health’ has generally been considered to be “a positive state of physical, mental and social wellbeing… not just the absence of disease.” Wellness goes much further, acknowledging all the above but also including an ‘active’ concept related to living a healthy lifestyle and achieving your optimum potential. In truth, for most people Wellness is a process we aim to get better at, in order to get the most out of life from different perspectives, including the occupational, the environmental, the spiritual, the emotional, the intellectual, as well as the physical.   

That’s a lot to address but as ever, I like to keep things simple and look at the simplest things we can employ to get things that 1% better in multiple areas of life. The famous psychology experiment by Dr Ivan Pavlov springs to mind. In this experiment (which he performed on dogs) Dr Pavlov would ring a bell and then give the dogs some food. He found that over time, just by ringing the bell, the dogs would salivate because the dogs associated the sound of the bell with food then being given to them. What this important experiment demonstrates is how easy it is to make the brain associate a stimulus (like a bell) with an action (like food and eating). Psychologists as refer to this as simple conditioning. What Pavlov showed with his dogs is true for humans too.

I make no apologies for the obvious oversimplification here as much of what you read on this topic deliberately overcomplicates things. Specification is for later, let’s start with the basics. There is no bell associated with eating for us just like there is no bell associated with many of the actions we take during the day which may or may not be beneficial to our Wellness. To improve your wellness we need to look at the stimuli or situations we associate with things that we do daily. For example, if you know that you could do with a little extra sleep per night is there a stimulus or situation you could employ to better achieve that goal?

If you know there is a particular trigger which causes you to regularly eat food which harms your wellness, what can you do to alter that situation in advance? Pre-lockdown obvious ones were that immediate glass of wine of-an-evening as you walk in the door. Or that trip to the cinema were you immediately smash a packet of M&M’s and large popcorn without even thinking about it. There’s nothing wrong with either of these things but just being aware that you’re doing it automatically enables you to slow down and make a better choice in the moment for your wellness. It’s not just about food and sleep. Social Wellness is important and under serious pressure at this time. What steps can you take in this moment to best ensure you maintain the connections that we are all missing? Zoom calls and phone calls are just not the same… but they are better than nothing.

Environmental Wellness can be anything from checking your posture as you sit, to evaluating your workstation (have you considered a standing desk?) to making sure you get 10 minutes of walking in per day as a minimum.

Much of it comes down to routine. If we can add things into our routine rather than taking things away it is a positive driver to incorporate fresh stimulus to our day. This nudges us towards improvements in our wellness. It can be as simple as establishing healthy boundaries regarding work – this could be time-based or task-based. Learning something new is something many people have tried with success… and this doesn’t have to be enormous! Could be as simple as reading a book on a new topic or rediscovering an old pastime. Committing to a mindfulness practise for a few minutes a day can make a difference from a spiritual perspective.

Pavlov’s dogs, after a period of time when food was no longer given to them after the bell had sounded, stopped associating the sound of the bell with eating – when the bell sounded, they no longer salivated. We too can break habits and alter our conditioning so that we can make real and positive improvements to the multi-faceted aspects of our wellbeing.

For further information or for a bespoke plan contact Ayo at: https://www.ayotrainingnutrition.com/contact/

Ayo Williams