Dr Anna Rolleston The Cardiac Clinic

Health is not just about your physical wellness and about what your body does. Health can be viewed from the wider viewpoint whereby you consider other aspects of life that make up good health.

Yes, your body has to function well for you to be healthy, but so too does your mind. Those who you hold dear – your family and friends – must also be healthy for you to be truly ‘well'. Having a connection to something greater than yourself – e.g. god, spiritual beliefs, a religion – is also well known to be a positive influence on health. We can define these things as physical, mental, family and spiritual factors that create a total picture of wellness.

Often we focus exclusively on our physical selves to accomplish health. This is important, of course, because it covers things such as good nutrition, regular exercise and sleeping. However, spending some time thinking about how the other three factors – mental, spiritual and family – affect your health can give you an avenue to progress down in the pursuit of good health.

If we take family as an example, there are many research papers from many areas of the world, including New Zealand, that detail the link between connection to family and health. In Maori models of health, re-connecting with one's family, marae and traditional lands is a key component in health improvement. The increased number of genealogy websites and research databases that help individuals find family members from the past are a testament to a need for people to re-connect with who they are and where they are from. Family is so important in terms of how we see the world, how we see ourselves and as a safe haven.

So if you're in need of a hobby over the summer period or you are wanting to know more about your ancestors and the people who went before you – start trying to map your family tree, see how far you can go back. Start by asking your family or google search ‘genealogy' and choose from one of the many websites designed to help you. It might sound strange that you can get health improvement by simply finding out about your family, but it works for many people and it can be a really fun and intriguing journey.