Live Well Healthy Habits Blog 1
- livewellwithcancer
- Jul 28
- 4 min read
Author: Ben Elliott
Hi, I’m Ben Elliott from Transformational Learning and Live Well with Cancer, or to regulars at the Live Well Hub, Maureen’s son. For more than four years now, I’ve been leading a project that aims to help anyone to build a healthier lifestyle.
Live Well with Cancer
Our tales begins on 20th November 2019, when Maureen Elliott founded Live Well with Cancer to empower anyone impacted by a cancer diagnosis to improve their health and wellbeing.
With over 30 years of cancer care experience, my mam had the knowledge, skill and drive to make a difference to her community, and so she set up a charity to deliver in-person workshops, events and support groups to help people improve their quality of life.
A few months later, the pandemic threw the plan out of the window. Lockdowns and restrictions meant that in-person sessions were impossible at the start, and difficult to say the least for the first year or two of the charity.
Eager to support our newly established community, we moved as many sessions as we could online. I played my part by helping to run a monthly Wellbeing Book Club that saw us read books from Tao te Ching by Laozi to Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey.
Though I learned a lot from the books we covered, a common critique I gave was that they covered the what and the why, but most did not provide practical guidance on the how…
Though we brought the Wellbeing Book Club to a close after 20 months, the charity’s mission remained.
As I've come to know through the charity, the truth is that anyone can be impacted by a cancer diagnosis, whether personally or through a loved one, and so the mission is really to help anyone to improve their health and wellbeing.
I was anyone, I reasoned, and so it made sense to start with the person I knew best… me!
The Wellbeing 9-a-Day
Like most people, I came out of the pandemic in worse shape than when I went in. I’d put on a couple of pounds and picked up more than a couple of bad habits.
On 6th March 2021, I started a job list to start moving my life in the right direction. Over the coming days and weeks, several habits became daily fixtures – drinking two litres, eating at least five portions of fruits and vegetables, exercising, setting intentions, letting go of bad habits…
I began toying with the idea of a “Wellbeing 5-a-Day”, but it soon became clear that there were more than five foundational habits. Self-care, connecting with others, learning and enjoying life were just as essential.
The idea crystalised when I discovered the Three Pillars of Wellness – your Journey from the past, through the present and into the future; your mental, physical and emotional Health; and your Relationships with others, yourself and your diet.
Here was The Wellbeing 9-a-Day, a holistic framework that helped me set intentions and reflect on them as I discovered my own way to wellness.
With funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, we trialled a 90-day wellness journal with the Live Well with Cancer community. The feedback we received from those sessions was invaluable in refining the concept and the language we used, helping us to create a tool that anyone could use to build healthier habits.
In January 2023, we printed an updated journal, and I had the brilliant idea of setting myself a 90-day blog writing challenge to raise money for Live Well with Cancer.
There was just one flaw in the plan… I hadn’t considered the amount of time it would take to write a 500 word blog a day, on top of building nine habits daily, doing my job and trying to live my life…
Though the fundraiser added self-inflicted stress and took all the spare time I didn’t have, it also helped me gain a thorough understanding of the concept as I built habits that moved me forward on my journey, improved my health and enhanced my relationships.
Healthy Habits and the Three Pillars of Wellness
Just as wellbeing is a journey rather than a destination, the development of The Wellbeing 9-a-Day has been a process that continues to evolve to this day. Using the lessons learned, we have developed a range of wellness journals that act as the catalyst for positive behaviour change.
We’ve been blessed to partner with amazing organisations that share our goal of promoting healthy habits, developing versions for several NHS Trusts, Northern Cancer Alliance, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Social AF, Morrisons Foundation and more.
Along the way, we’ve held sessions for individuals and groups at the Live Well Hub and spoken to audiences about healthy habits at our regional Sleep and Fatigue masterclasses.
For the past four years, I’ve been a near daily user of the journals. Though I had never journaled before starting the project, I now find it strange not to set intentions for each day and reflect on them each night.
The way to wellness lasts a lifetime, and my only regret is I did not find the path sooner. At 36 years old, I’m the best I’ve ever been, mentally, physically and emotionally, and I continue to make minor improvements as I move away from my mistakes of the past, embrace the present, and work towards a better future.
If more people have not benefitted, it is more down to my limitations as a communicator than the quality of the work we have produced. Yet I’ve learned time and again that we are not bound by who we’ve been, and I can transform myself into something more.
Join me as I learn to become a better communicator, delve deeper into the Three Pillars of Wellness and explore ways to live well with healthy habits.
Subscribe to our Live Well with Healthy Habits blog to learn more about the nine habits of a healthy lifestyle. You can also join us every Tuesday from 6-7:30pm at the Live Well Hub for weekly workshops that will help you find your own way to wellness.