Active Living is about how we choose to ‘live’ our lives every day. It includes all the movements that we create, for accomplishing tasks for ourselves & others in our family , our work, recreation, plus everything that we “perform” for making “living” the content of our daily life.
We live in a constantly changing world, where movement and adaptation are all part of the daily living process. We use our intuitive senses and experience to make meaning in our daily lives. Many parts of life are routine and repetitive, but no situation is ever alike. Life and time never stands still. We continue to move forward, experiencing life in a continuous flow of patterns that we adapt to and shape in our environment.
We need to feel part of our environment. We follow the endless flow of stimulation that bombards our senses, by blending them with productive movements and collectively presenting ourselves as an active living process. It is only through acknowledging the process that our bodies become each moment for active living. Tolle (2004) provides a much clearer understanding about living in the present, where he uses the depth of the consciousness for experiencing the moment.
Our pattern of living is more functionally active with little passivity, because we require physical action to live. We perform all activities of daily living to meet our own and our family ’s needs. We live through our daily routines, which are physically repetitive, but emotionally satisfying. We accomplish these automatically, without noticing our performance.
However we do notice change, when something feels different; or not the same. Our daily life activity is based on sameness, where the content is comfortable. When something feels different, then we no longer feel comfortable. I am referring to a physical perception of how we perceive ourselves & our reactions to the world around us. Physical feelings are received positively, or negatively. We aim to avoid negative feelings such as pain, because they make us feel uncomfortable. We try to change these feelings back to normal again; where there is no threat to our feelings of comfort.We are able to measure ‘comfort’ through its ‘fit’ to our body. Products that ‘fit’ to our body’s alignment are called ‘ergonomic’ products, because they are designed to fit and support our body in the environment. Most products used in daily living today are not designed with that intention. Fortunately our body is designed to adapt to most positions for activities in daily living use. But like most mechanical objects, different parts of our body can simply wear out, due to overuse.
Ergonomics is the “comfortable fit” to our daily environment, creating equipment that makes our life safer in productive living. It incorporates performance activities in our home, office and basically anything that we accomplish in daily life. Ergonomics will help reduce the wear on our bodies as we age, plus assist us to live in comfort and safety; while attaining the quality of life that meets our needs for health and happiness .
Gail is a qualified Occupational Therapist with a M.Sc. in Health (Promotion, Research & Change). She suffers back pain and osteoarthritis in her thumbs limiting her functional daily living function. She is redesigning daily living products for making life more ergonomic and comfortable in living. She is aiming to help everyone that buy her chairs to find comfort in a sitting position.