Here's a short article about how Grace Tame, author, speaker and activist, looks after her physical and mental health. I hadn't appreciated that Tame was autistic. Here are some extracts:
The first is running. Not just running – ultra marathons. Long-distance, outdoor trail runs.
“I’ll be damned if I have to run on a treadmill,” she told Women’s Agenda recently.
“It takes a lot of dedication, but also consistent training. You can’t train like that forever though… you have to sacrifice a lot of other things in your daily life to allow for time to do it. You have to make compromises in your social life and your professional life.”
The second – putting on her favourite music and dancing around her living room.
“I love to listen to good old classic rock and roll,” Tame says. “Generally any music from the 60s, 70s and 80s tends to be my jam.”
The third is simple: spending time with friends. Every Saturday night, Tame sees her best friend Dom. The pair – who are both autistic – have been friends since they were seven years old.
“We can sit with each other for days, weeks on end, and not say a word to each other at all,” Grace says.
“But we are speaking the same language. We can have a conversation without words.”
The kinds of wellbeing that Grace is in tune with appear relatively easy to discern:
Running outdoor trail runs: (1) environmental, (8) physical, (5) emotional, (7) spiritual
Listening to music and dancing: (5) emotional, (8) physical
Sitting with Dom: (2) social, (5) emotional
Author, speaker, activitist: (4) vocational, (6) intellectual, (7) spiritual
Sacrificing things in daily life, making compromises: (8) Behavioual
Go Grace!
