Good Morning, Today is Friday and its a beautiful summers day. This morning is one of those mornings that I feel that beautiful life force energy moving through me. I feel so much love.
It hasn’t been that way every day recently. I will tell you that its been a struggle to keep up the good feelings recently. A lot of my resources for feeling good have been unobtainable. Its been interesting to see how these resources do improve our quality of life. Even though I cant rely upon money and exercise at the moment, I accept these circumstances. I need to pull upon other areas of my life at this time.
After much lived experience of wellbeing and not so wellbeing, I’d like to share with you my pillars that I like to rely upon to keep myself in balance and feel the best I can everyday. Even in challenging times.
Invest in all areas of life to feel fulfilled, balanced and full of joy
Connecting with self
The core of wellbeing and feeling joy everyday. Connecting with yourself has to be the foundation. Call it God, your higher self, intuition or just yourself. This has been a big focus area of my life over the past two years. I was doing so well in a lot of areas. My physical health was phenomenal, my diet was amazing, I had plenty of money and spare time, however I was lost. I was not at peace. I had no connection with myself and was not completely aware of the other areas of my life that weren’t good for me. Due to this lack of love and time for myself and I like to say God, I fell apart. It really shown me that I can look as good as I like but if my heart and mind are not at peace then its useless.
I have spent the past two years investing in renewing my mind, my thinking, my habits and devoting a part of my day to pray/meditate. This gives me a chance to slow down and really check in with myself. To really review any part of myself and my life that is out of balance. I can then address this issue intuitively before it becomes a problem. I honestly feel this is so important for a well balanced life. We can get so busy trying to achieve so much in one day, but focusing on the little wins and taking care of the little things can be so much more fruitful. What is the rush? This is a lifetime of good works we are here to do, we can slow down and enjoy it more and tend to the people in our lives calmly with loving hands.
Find peace within yourself as a foundation for your life
Nourishment
This is an area very close to my heart. Evolving from a processed diet as a child, going through eating disorders as a teenager, to a top notch diet at a training nutritionist has been an interesting journey. It’s quite ironic that whilst eating the best organic food I can get hold of, I developed ulcerative colitis. This shown me that nutrition alone isn’t everything. Your mind and soul has to be free and at peace. Food alone wont heal you. Due to this I decided to try the F*ck it diet, just to see what would happen and to maybe overcome any lingering eating disorders. My friend gave me a book a while ago called the F*ck it Diet and it does say that at first you will gain weight but once your body is happy that your not restricting it anymore it will find equilibrium. I ate McDonads for the first time in YEARS. I ate KFC. I drank coke. I drank fanta. I just let go of all control and let my body have what ever it wanted. It was so fun and delicious. My colitis didn’t heal. But I built a trust within myself. I have gotten to the stage now where I’ve had all of the treats I wanted and now I’m ready to eat healthier again. I started to feel sluggish and dehydrated. I trust myself that now it’s time to nourish my body some more.
Eating intuitively is key. We are all built differently, have different genetics and we have to just listen to ourselves and our bodies. I knew I needed to gain some weight. I knew I needed to have some fun and treat myself after getting so serious about food and my life. So I did. My love and passion for fresh, healthy food is still there and I’m ready now to nourish myself properly again. However if the occasion arises that I fancy McDonalds I will have it.
With having colitis, I know that my body doesn’t really like coffee. That’s one thing I will have to stop having. And I feel this is right for me. So check in with yourself and if you have any health conditions, think about what your body is trying to tell you. I would like to heal my colitis, and when I do. I will let you know the answer to my poor poor tummy.
Eat intuitively, trust yourself and your body
Movement
Movement again will depend on what your body likes to do. How much energy you have and if you have an injuries. Again, use your intuition. I pushed myself so much in the past. I would do an intense HIIT workout and also carry two bikes 20 minutes down the road to school to pick the kids up. I was also active all day doing house work. By the time 4pm come I was completely exhausted. I didn’t spread my energy well over the day. I think doing the daily chores of housework and walking the kids to school is plenty. There’s no need to push ourselves so much. Be gentle with our bodies. We get one and we should honor it.
Keep your energy in balance by being active in natural ways such as walking to school (if you feel like it and have the energy) dance when the feeling arises. Swim if the opportunity is there. Don’t fight with yourself but what ever opportunity comes to you to move and use your talents, go for it. There are times in our lives where we will feel more active, more energetic and there will be times in our lives when we have illness or injury. In these time we can still move but listen to our bodies and take it easy. Do some physio or swimming. The times we are full of health, go run, dance, travel and enjoy it!
Take into consideration the reasons we are moving. Do it for a challenge or do it for fun, just enjoy it.
Move for fun, Move to feel creative, Move for a challenge
Love – Connection With Others
Nothing fosters wellbeing like human connection. If you’ve ever felt loneliness you will appreciate the precious gift of giving and receiving love. Even just a smile with a passer by or asking the person serving you in a shop how they are today. Its incredibly powerful. Even if you are not in great health, having someone to check in on you, have a conversation with and most importantly make you laugh or make the other person laugh is invaluable for life and being human. I feel laughter is the highest form of love.
