Corporal practices and health promotion - the development of personal abilities through corporal practices: A commitment with the Brazilian population

The Brazilian National Policy for Health Promotion establishes a commitment with the population addressed to health promotion and, one of its thematic axes acts upon people´s ways of living and extends to a prior area of work called corporal practices/ physical activities.

One of the possible impacts of corporal practices/physical activities programs on ways of living is related  to the preservation or development of autonomy by the subjects and collectivities. The corporal and collectivity mobilizations in favor of autonomy, here understood  as the enlargement of analysis capabilities and co- responsibleness for self-care, with the community and with the environment helping the production of creative and supportive forms of managing life.

The “ Life Quality with Traditional Medicines and Integrative Practices” program existing in São Paulo and implanted in seventy percent of health equipments is a local unfolding of the National Policy for Health Promotion. It happens in hospitals, health sites, municipal schools, squares, parks, and green sites  in the city and consists in educational actions, attention to health,  researches aiming to  promote and recover the community health.

We developed a qualitative research in four health equipments  with the participation of sixty-nine users for twelve weekly sessions, intending to check the corporal practices actions upon people´s ways of living. The research tools used were: participant observation and semi-structured interview. The results show that the corporal practices actions addressed to production and health promotion in all cycles of life act on the stages of life on the individual´s physical and psychological state impacting on the preservation or  development of autonomy, on enthusiasm, humor and satisfaction with his/ her own life, strengthening the participation and bonds of users with the community.