Many of our instructors travel far from home to attend Mandt System instructor training. Health and travel can be tricky. As a member of the national faculty, I’ve experienced this first hand. It is fortunate that there are tools within the Mandt System to help us think about our health. The most useful way for me to think about health on the road has been to utilize a model in Chapter 1 of the Mandt System that comes from the Maori people (Durie,1999) referred to as the “Four Walls of the House”. These are: psychological health, family health, spiritual health, and physical health. In this case, though, we’re taking it out on the road so it’s more like the “Four Walls of the Hotel Room”. If you are planning on traveling to a Mandt System training or just for the fun of it, you may find this to be helpful.
Psychological Health
How are you thinking and feeling about the trip?
If there is a high amount of stress involved with thinking about your trip, are there strategies that you can utilize to manage the stress?
Do you feel safe? What might help you feel more safe as you travel?
What opportunities are there for self actualization.
Family Health
How will you keep in touch with your loved ones? Facetime and various other forms of communicative technologies have vastly improved our ability to connect with each other while travelling.
Who will you meet, and what would you like to see happen in your interactions with them?
Spiritual Health
How will you attend to your spiritual health?
Are there religious services that you might attend?
What opportunities for solitude and contemplation can you create?
Physical Health
What do you plan on eating?
How will you get exercise?
How will you get quality sleep? Do you need a sound machine or to bring a certain pillow?
Did you prepare for any medical conditions? Did you pack your medications or medical appliances?
John Windsor – Mandt Faculty
