•Wellness Coach, Mrs. TOCKUKWU TINA OBI
The Party Managers Association Of Nigeria (PAMAN), held its 2nd anniversary celebration in Lagos on the 22nd November, 2022. The gathering was addressed by a Wellness coach, Mrs. Tochukwu Tina Obi who spoke at length on why many celebrities are dropping dead. Below are extracts of her speech.
“It’s a privilege for me to stand before dignitaries that I have only seen on social media and I am seeing live today. It’s a privilege, imagine a small girl like me!
I want to say a very big thank you to the Party Managers Association Of Nigeria (PAMAN) for the opportunity to speak about something I love to talk about and what is that? Wellness! You see, your topic today says Becoming wealthy professionals. Of course, that’s key but we must never forget the place of health being wealth, and so wellness was birthed out of the desire, the vision, the dream to be able to help as many as possible to build wellness rather than treating sicknesses and diseases. And so truth be told, in our world today, many of us are living too short and dying too young. And you may want to wonder, what am I talking about. What is it to say you are living too short and dying too young? Now what this entails is that many of us have our beautiful lives, we live healthy lives at the early stage of our existence, like the first 20-25 years of our existence. We live healthy, we live strong. And the minute we clock 30 and above, we begin to have different kinds of sicknesses and ailments. For some of us, they couldn’t survive but for some, they live to like 70 or 80, but live in sickness. Of course, this is not what the whole idea of man’s existence should be. And what could be the cause? Why is it that today, you see a young man in his beautiful ripe age, all you hear is he slumped and he died? We hear different issues with women having cancer of different sorts and manners. I can bodly say that in the days of our forefathers, it wasn’t like this, and that is because something has gone wrong somewhere. Something is missing. I remember in 2019, before I birthed this idea of having awareness, just to be able to tell people to live in wellness, to live a healthy life. I remember then I was 38 years old and at that age, of course, I can say I am still young but yet I knew I wasn’t okay because there was so much not going right with me, I will wake up in the morning, feeling so tired and so weak, no zeal to go out for the business of the day. I was having so many issues with my husband when it came to bedroom matters and you know how important that is! Aside from that, I was having a bad ulcer and I had a serious constipation. My health was detoriating. And I believe that if I had ignored myself and ignored all the signs and symptoms and just continued life like that, at this age of mine, 3 years later, I would be seriously down with a certain ailment or sickness, that I am sure of. But God willing, He lovingly gave me this idea, the consciousness of “oh Tina, you have to wake up, take care of yourself, you have to understand that something is going on” and I took the necessary steps I had to take, and thank God for today! And the truth is this, the reason for existence is forfeited and defeated if we compromise on our health. I used to say, you and I sitting here today, we have plans, we have visions, we have families, we have businesses, we have things we want to do for tomorrow, we have plans for the future but the truth of this is, all will be forfeited if your health today becomes compromised, it’s only a healthy person that wakes up in the morning and goes out there and gets things done and comes back. Those who are in the hospital today can’t achieve that. So, the matter in health awareness is to please let’s build wellness, rather than treat sicknesses. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a doctor, I am only an advocate for health. The truth is, if you are down with a certain illness, ailment, whatever, please contact your doctor, it calls for medication. And what is medication? Whatever you use to treat a certain illness, or disease, that’s what’s called medication. But the truth is, you can actually avoid medication or better still avoid sickness by living well, by being healthy, practicing daily habits of wellness, that’s all it takes. And so today, I want to share with us some wellness tips. If we decide today to put in place these tips in our lives, of course, it will go a long way in helping us to achieve so many opportunities that we have. Your industry, I hope you know it’s a very tasking industry, like it demands your strength, it takes a lot out of your strength, aside from that, the brain work you guys do is out of here. I remember at a point in my life, I said ‘okay, I would love to be an event planner’ but when I saw what it entailed, I picked up my shoes and ran away! When I was planning my 41st birthday, there was a woman doing a big business in event planning where I reside in Amuwo-Odofin. Butterfly Rentals, I don’t know if anyone knows her. I don’t know her personally, I don’t even know her name, but I got to know her because I went to her outlet so that she can cater and get some stuffs for my party. She’s doing a very good job, you need to see what this woman is doing and I met her that day, young woman, looking good. I admire her a whole lot. And just some couple of months ago, I got information that Butterfly Rentals had passed on, and that woman I saw, wasn’t down with any sickness except maybe the one I don’t know about, but looking at that woman, she was looking healthy, she was looking good, she was looking like someone who doesn’t have any ailment. This could happen yeah, but the truth is, there is need for us as individuals, as human beings to be conscious of our health. It’s really important, I cannot over-emphasise it. Wellness is key and what exactly is Wellness? Wellness is just you and I on a daily basis, practicing some healthy habits to help us to be okay visibly, mentally and socially. That is what wellness is all about. Now those habits, if we can decide to practice them on a daily basis, the doctors would not have to come to our case. Now, what are these habits and practices?
Wellness has dimensions. First and foremost, there is social connectivity, that is to say nobody is an Island, social life is important to keep you going especially upstairs, yes there’s need for you once in a while to pick up the phone and call a family member, call a friend, talk to someone, share. It’s very important, it keeps you going because you cannot be isolated. There are times when you feel burdened, you need to talk to someone and you will feel good.
Another dimension of wellness talks about mindfulness. You have to be mindful, you have to be able to concentrate. You don’t just do things hazardly. You need to be in your own quiet moments and then concentrate, be mindful, think about that thing you know you want to do or achieve.
Another dimension of wellness talks about exercising. I have always heard that those who need to exercise are those on the fat side, on the big side, those who want to burn the fat and loose the weight, but that’s not true. Exercising is a key part of your wellness, it keeps your body parts functioning well. It’s not for the fat or the slim, it’s for everybody, old and young. If you can exercise regularly, not as if you will do something strenuous. Even a 30 minutes walk is enough for a day, dancing is enough exercise for a day, if you can gym it out, fine, gym it out. What this does for you is numerous. Exercise helps you to stay in shape. You loose the bad cholesterol, the good ones begin to increase when you exercise. The benefits of exercise is numerous. So, it is important for each and everyone of us. I am not really an exercise kind of person, I recently got into that, it’s about a year plus. I wake up in the morning and take a little walk and gym it out and I am good.
Another dimension of wellness is Sleep. Celebrities don’t sleep, especially when they have a job, I wonder how they function. The truth is 7/8 hours of sleep a day is needed to function well. Even if you want to make the whole money in the world, you must be able to program yourself well, so you can have enough sleep. How can someone function without resting? So, please, your sleep is important, if you don’t sleep, you cannot think straight the next morning. When you begin to lack sleep, one day, two-days, before you know it, you are feeling sick, some people even collapse at that point. Your sleep is very very important, please don’t take it for granted. And the last point is your nutrition; your diet. Nutrition plays a key role in your wellness, most of the sicknesses we experience are result of what we put into our mouth”.
-Iretiogo Oloyede
08095670814
