The Windmills came to life after all.

For me the wellness movement started over a decade ago when I sat at corporate breakfast meetings constantly hearing business owners complain about the high cost of healthcare. I would scan a room filled with a hundred people, many with pretty large bellies eating sausages and bacon, bagels and jelly donuts and wondered if they knew just how much they were contributing to the very thing they were complaining about. Exhausted by their ranting, I would stand up and voice my opinion. “You know we have more control than you think! Look around you. If we weren’t eating the wrong foods, smoking and drinking so much, we would save millions of dollars on doctor and hospital bills. The insurance companies aren’t gouging our pockets. The cost of insurance is high because we are overusing the system!” To this diatribe, I got a few understanding nods, but the majority of the room looked at me like a Quixotic fool. You could have stuck me on a skinny horse and called me Don, because almost no one was taking me seriously.

In the early 90’s, very little was said about food, diet and lack of exercise as the contributing factors of most illness. I understood because I was already healing myself of chronic ailments through diet change alone. I knew then that there was a tsunami about to hit. Like people who predict earthquakes or the crash of the stock market, I saw the healthcare crises rising like a tidal wave about to envelope small businesses and governments alike. I called it a wellness crisis though, and as opposed to other natural disasters, this one was manmade and easy to predict. It was also easy to repair…well, in theory anyway.

People wonder why I have 8 websites. Quite frankly, I need about 20 to cover all areas of concern. From the food we grow and eat, to the air we breathe; the buildings we are housed in to the environment we are surrounded by, everything points to wellness. Originally, my hope was to help kids learn how to eat properly, so I came up with Corey the Wacky Apple. Corey is wacky because he has lots of moods that relate to how he eats. At the time I was selling school furniture and athletics. Continually learning about ergonomics, I was acutely aware of the damage being done to our kids’ bodies by making them sit for hours in metal and plastic chairs. That led me to wanting to get yoga into the school curriculum, hence OmRoom Yoga was born.

It wasn’t long after that when I became concerned about the lack of spirituality in their day. I felt we needed a way to teach kids about sharing positive energy and goodness, so I came up with HeartRocks. After addressing the children, I kept asking, what about their parents? If we don't get them to buy the healthy food, the kids don't stand a chance. And if the schools didn't change the menus, how were children going to be able to make better choices? How do I get the educators to buy into the yoga movement? And what about the air quality in the schools? Water? Lighting? All made a difference in how they felt, which made a huge difference in how they learned, but the districts were slow to buy into the concept, and it felt like a completely uphill battle to try and get them to see where changes could be made.

My wellness mission expanded yearly and so did my need to educate and be educated. It took me on a journey into the green movement and the US Green Building Council. It took me to Albany and Washington to lobby and the American Cancer Society and the CIC of North Shore/LIJ to advocate. It led me down paths of schooling in Feng Shui, ergonomics, green and renewable building practices, solar and wind energy. My study of the human body stretched too as science caught up with what I already experienced, and that is how food and its bio-chemistry was affecting us all emotionally and physically. It was obvious that we needed to get back to basics, and when I started to get the word out about school and community gardening and the positive impact it would have on children, the Soil and Water Conservation District approached me to be on their board. Their main focus for this decade: To aid districts and townships in creating their own food gardens.

With more and more people, organizations and industries promoting wellness, I no longer felt like I was fighting the windmills alone, but even with all this movement, I was still being asked, “What is wellness?” The answer is as basic as life itself: It is the state of being well! No tricks and no hidden meanings, but we need to want it and take responsibility for it. We need to make ourselves aware of every facet of our body and how that relates to how we feel and act at any given moment of each day. Yes, it is exhausting! Yes, there is a lot to learn! Yes, we are swimming against a strong tide, with a huge wave looming behind, but there has never been a better time. TV shows, magazines, radio and websites promoting health are popping up all over, schools are getting on board and businesses are recognizing an incredible return on their wellness dollar—almost $6 return on every $1 spent. That is huge! And if we can continue to educate our kids about their physiology, the food they eat, the environment, sustainability, green building, renewable energy and all the issues in between, the world and our bodies will become cleaner and healthier as each decade passes.

Funny how everything old becomes new. We are going back to basics, and as we learn to use less machinery and grow what we need to eat; as we take out the additives and leave it to the earth to enrich us; and as we rely on natural resources to energize our bodies and our lives, we become a better society and a “richer” nation. The windmill of the past has become our savior of the future. Who knew? Truthfully, I have no problem answering to the name Don. I would rather fight for what I believe in and be considered a fool, than to not fight at all and never realize the change we all so desperately need to see.