In Conversation with Dr Radha Modgil

A few weeks back I had the privilege of talking to Radha Modgil, who is a GP, TV, radio and podcast broadcaster and author. We talked about her passion and energy for helping people with their mental health, as well as how the term ‘wellness’ has become full of layers of illusion – and how we need to peel the illusion back now and go back to the roots of the term, which is purely about being well.

A wonderful discussion that we hope will leave you feeling uplifted and empowered to tweak the relationship you have with your health.

  Grace Cummins: Your work spans many areas of the health industry: where does your passion for health, especially that of the mind, come from? Dr Radha Modgil: I have always had a lot of empathy, and an awareness of my feelings. As a child I was often told that I was overly sensitive, and I spent a lot of time worrying. And although this can be seen as a negative and challenging way to live personally, it does help you evolve as a person and moves you towards understanding yourself more. So this as a background has made me even more empathetic to others, who may be in a similar situation. And on top of that I am very curious; I love finding answers and would love to understand how life works! We all have this massive resource of data inside us, and amongst that data there are universal themes that we can all tap into, helping each other learn how to get through life.   GC: You often lead discussions and provide spaces to talk on some topics that as a society we can still find challenging – when it comes to our emotional health, how can we make these conversations easier? RM: I feel that if we are not talking about something that then means that we need to be talking about it. The issue with having ‘Dr’ as a title or saying ‘mental health’ is that stereotypically, it is putting mental and physical wellbeing in silo and as an isolated issue. I believe that we need to put our emotions into an everyday context. We need to relate our mental health as a part of everyday life, in order to make it less scary. Storytelling is a really helpful tool, as we remember narratives better than facts. It helps us to connect to the subject in a different way and allows communities to connect.   GC: What does authentic wellbeing mean to you? RM: Wellbeing has been turned by society into this aesthetic. Of ‘shining’, not sweating in the gym, of clean trainers that have been run in, of the picture perfect family at Christmas. This is all inauthentic and creates idealistic and perfectionist standards, shutting many people out of wellbeing. Authentic wellbeing is going for a run with your friend, sweating and having a red flushed face. It's Christmas dinner, where perhaps a family member has died in the year and there are collective tears of grief. Being authentic with our wellbeing is just being ‘well’ – it’s not an airbrushed version, or an illusion. We need to stop pretending with wellbeing, and when we start becoming more authentic with our wellbeing, this will also help you find yourself. Providing the space for you to start rewriting the story of who you are, as opposed to what we have been told.   GC: You have spoken before about small tangible steps – what is the power in working in this way? RM: Having three or five key essentials in a list that you won’t let slide can make it easier to start. You can think about it in terms of one essential for your body, mind and soul. For the body, maybe a bath or some form of movement .For the mind, maybe reading or journalling. For the soul, think about what you can do creatively, be that baking, gardening, or organisation to make your soul feel full. Working out for yourself what makes you feel good, be that sleep, hanging with friends, exercise, food – all of these things are present in all of our lives, but we will all prioritise them in different ways. If we have one in each category, we know then what we can employ when needed and link the essentials up. For example, I know I really enjoy listening to movement and exercising outside. Ask yourself what you need and how you can fill that need. When you have this resource in the list, you can start to trust yourself, knowing that you will be okay. Having these essentials that we grow to trust will help us provide emotional safety – an added bonus, given many of us spend most of our lives in fear.   GC: The way you approach physical and mental health is very holistic, seeing both of these areas as connected. How can we be more innovative and revolutionary with our approach to our whole body health, do you think? RM: I think seeing through the separation and illusion, being aware of the narratives around you, in the media and from those surrounding your life. Question what you are being told: how do you react to this? Question yourself when you do activities, and see how the mind feels and how the body feels. Doing this check-in can help us find what works for us as an individual. Nature is also a great teacher. There is so much synchronicity and you see that everything is connected. You see that the rain feeds the plants, and the plants feed the bugs, and the bugs then feed bigger wildlife species. Look around and see how things are connected all around you.   GC: A common theme in your work is empowering people to see this often untapped power source within. For someone struggling to find this inner power, how could they connect to it? RM: Understanding who you are is the foundation for finding this inner strength, and it feels scary to ask this question, but it is actually really simple. Think about what you like/dislike: what did you like doing as a child, what are your values, what do you respect in others? Answering these questions will help you find this foundation; think about it in terms of building a computer game avatar. When we tap into this core, we can face different challenges and slowly start to trust ourselves by practising doing the things that make us happy. This self-reflection then creates more emotional safety again, which as I previously mentioned, is always good in the world we live in. Use those around you to support you in finding your strength. We are often our own worst critics, so ask others what they admire about you and use those responses as reminders. Also look at your past, and see what those past experiences have taught you for moving forward.   GC: One of your roles is working with the National Academy of Social Prescribing, which looks at how art, community and nature impacts different areas of our lives. Do you believe that the solution to our overall health is a multi-pronged approach? RM: Yes I do. Way back when, we knew that connecting, having a purpose, a sense of belonging and place, was needed for life, but this has become forgotten in recent years. We have buried these ingrained needs below messaging that these ideas are soft and can’t be quantified. Looking at health in a 360 way will allow for a better outlook. Currently, we are only looking at how to treat the issue rather than treating the root source of a problem. Seeing life as a connected experience will help us evolve with this idea of a full-bodied view of health and wellness.   GC: Creativity is woven throughout the work that you do, bringing a fresh energy to the way that we look at the health of our minds and bodies – what would you like to see change in the industry in the coming years? RM: I would like to see wellbeing being actually about being well. Where we drop the shine and illusion, that it is something that is accessible and a part of our everyday life; that it is a habit and a skill that we can build up. The issue currently with conversations around wellness is that they are not necessarily representative of what the term truly means. So I want to see a smashing of the illusion, and make the conversations that are happening helpful. We want to know the how, and the how for wellbeing has become overly complex and complicated: let’s show people what to do and how to do it. Action is where the real change starts, and is then where we can make an evolution over the coming years.   GC: For those reading, what is your advice as we head into the Christmas season? RM: From a practical side, take a little time to think about what has in past years made you feel overwhelmed in the run-up and during Christmas. Is it buying presents, choosing where to spend the holidays, or the financial aspects? Make a list and then think about each, and about how you can move forward with a new approach to each thing that has caused difficulty in the past. Maybe that is looking at how to have a calm conversation about setting a budget for present buying, or identifying what may be an emotional trigger. Then think about you: what do you need from this Christmas period, what have you been missing from this past year? Think about prioritising yourself as well as others so that when you restart again after Christmas, you can feel refreshed and rejuvenated for the year ahead. For more In Conversation with ..... articles click the link here.