BE CONSISTENT WITH HEALTH HABITS
Life looks very different right now, and it’s hardly surprising that motivation levels are low. But there’s a lot to be gained from keeping consistent with your health routine, Dr Santos says. In addition to social connection, she stressed that both regular exercise and meditation have a powerful impact on happiness.
“We know from the science that all of these practices can help a lot,” she said.
That doesn’t mean, however, you have to sign up to a 45-minute boxing class you’re going to hate. “Try something small,” Dr Santos suggested. “Five minutes of jumping jacks, or a one-minute meditation … most of us can force ourselves to do something that small and it will still have a positive impact on our wellbeing.” ces. But it’s also worth mentioning that there’s a chance we may come out of this challenging time happier.
“We often talk about post-traumatic stress, but there’s also lots of work on post-traumatic growth,” Dr Santos said. This, she explained, is “the idea that we get stronger and more resilient and even happier after getting through a big crisis like this”.
It might sound unlikely, but the act of being grateful is connected to your happiness levels. So, pay close attention “to what you miss right now,” Dr Santos suggested. “The people you want to see and the activities you want to engage with can give you hints about what to spend your time doing after this crisis and how to be more grateful for these things once we get them back in our lives,” she said.
There’s no denying we are living through a difficult experience right now. But in the same vein, isolation does offer a rare opportunity for reflection and growth. So, nurture your relationships. Move your body. Quieten your mind. Practise gratitude.
The secret to greater happiness isn’t complicated, friends. It just takes time and guidance. Lucky for us, we’ve got plenty of both. bodyandsoul.com.au
the Maxwelton Race Club and later the Richmond Turf Club, playing a prominent role at both until the 1990s.
Racing and raising a family were two high priorities for Bob.
He and Anne had three children – David, Linda, who they lost tragically when she was just a few months old, and Kate.
Station life in those years involved a big staff: there was a ‘cowboy’ to help around the homestead, a few domestics in the house and half a dozen stockmen.
“We ran 24,000 sheep on Gracedale in its heyday and a good mob of shorthorn cattle, and life was very different,” Bob said of the times.
“It was all wood stoves, bronco branding and droving, there was nowhere near the machinery we have today.”
In the mid-1970s floods, depreciating wool prices and a “weird’’ cold snap – in which cyclonic activity caused freezing winds in December and sheep died in the thousands – forced the Forsters to swap from majority sheep to cattle.
“For a long period we were one of the most northerly sheep p producers in the country, but in the end it was not feasible for us to c continue.’’
The family then concentrated on c cattle and Bob’s son David g gradually took over the management of Gracedale – the fourth generation of Forsters to do so.
In 1990 Bob and Anne bought a smaller cattle property, Kapunda, on the western outskirts of Charters Towers, where they started a Limousin stud.
Tragically Bob’s beloved wife developed Alzheimer’s disease before her passing.
A raconteur of great note, the former Maxwelton drover, jockey, scrub runner, brumby runner, bull thrower, horse breaker, bronc tamer, bush cook and fisherman extraordinaire the charismatic bushman will long be remembered.
Bob and his mate Peter
Crowther were driving up the beef road north of Julia Creek to Normanton.
They stopped at the Three Ways (Burke and Wills Roadhouse) for a feed.
Bob bought two burgers and a dozen full-strength XXXX stubbies. This was lunch, by the way. Obviously it was back in the day when distance was measured in stubbies. Blokes and blokesses would arm themselves with a “country pack” (six pack) for a 200km drive or a carton for longer journeys.
Anyway, Bob and Peter settled down under a tree beside a fence at the roadhouse.
There was a horse on the other side that ambled over for a look-see. Bob, neighbourly at the best of times, had the bright idea of offering it a stubby.
“I opened the stubby on a steel fence post and as I did some of it spilt on my wrist. The horse leaned over and licked my wrist. So, I passed the stubby over and it took it between its teeth, threw its head back and drained the lot. I thought ‘well, this horse doesn’t mind a coldie’. We finished up giving him 10 full strength stubbies,” Bob said.
“I said to Peter ‘we better have a couple ourselves before this bloke drinks the lot’.”
Bob said that despite knocking back the 10 super XXXXS out there in the blazing sun, the horse, when they drove away was still as sober as a judge and looking longingly in their direction for more. Bob reckons that if ever a horse needed to be on the 12 Steps Program it was that one at the Three Ways.
>>Bob died in Charters Towers on May 31 and was cremated in a private ceremony. He is survived by his son David and daughter
Katy.