A wise man once said “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail“ (Ralph Emerson)
Those words perfectly describe the unwavering values which make Sofia Pride much more than just a fact for the 12th year in a row. In May this year and right before the highly anticipated Pride Month, the celebratory opening of the second edition of Sofia Pride Sports – the sports programme of Sofia Pride was held. All events within Sofia Pride Sports carry the invincible spirit so typical for the LGBTIQ+ people and their allies, as well as that strong and unbending faith in a better world, where Love proudly takes its place over differences.
The first event of the sports programme of Sofia Pride 2019, the Holistic Health Seminar, was in no way different. At first glance one can say it started a bit unusual – by addressing not only the physical body, but diving straight into the deep waters of the holistic health concept. It’s a well-known fact that topics such as physical, psychological and mental health are gaining more and more importance amongst members of the LGBTIQ+ community because of their everyday struggles in society.
The Holistic Health Seminar was held on the 11th of May in the LGBTIQ+ community center Rainbow Hub, where our coach Miroslava shared a concept of what it actually means to be healthy beyond our well-known “physical envelope” and the “same old” principles of healthy eating and organic foods we all know about. The event accentuated on topics which often receive little to no attention from the typical modern person, who’s living the typical busy, hectic life. Such topics were the importance of balancing between moderate physical exercise and rest, the need of drinking clean water regularly, the unsuspectingly healing power of sleep as well as the inevitably important meaning of psychological and mental health. Like the meaning of the word ,,holistic’’ suggests, the aim of this seminar was to introduce a more ,,wholesome’’ perspective and stance on all of those good old aspects of our daily routine, which we so often tend to ignore, but which also play a great role in sustaining our general health. Does healthy on the outside equal healthy on the inside? To what degree am I strong and actually alive or am I on survival mode tied to certain habits that do more harm than good? These were some of the core questions that each participant had to ask themselves. Towards the end, the seminar naturally turned into an open discussion, which gave rise to the exchange of a lot of personal experience and valuable advice on different health related topics.
This event was organized by Bilitis Resource Center Foundation and is part of the sports programme of Sofia Pride.
Autor: Janeta Dimova