Welcome back to this series of Becoming Resilient. This week we will be talking about wellness.
Wellness: Take care of your body by practicing self-care, including proper nutrition, exercise, sleep, hydration, mindfulness, etc.
This was the example given in the article (see link below), and so I want to expound on these areas of interest here today.
I have become very passionate about the topic of self-care. I use to get massages as a luxury and thought of them as such for many years until after my husband passed. Then, I started getting them for pain management. My husband passed 12 days before my birthday, and even though that wasn’t great, I received gifts right away in the days that followed, some being gift cards to a massage place here in town. The therapist who works on me to this day said my body felt so broken when she started working with me, but thankfully with continued maintenance over the years, my body is feeling strong and almost whole again. What a relief!!
Being intuitive and knowing what your body needs has been a journey. I have found in this area of concern that taking care of yourself has a selfish connotation to it. Meaning, you only get to take care of yourself if and when you’ve completed all the other chores and household responsibilities. If you don’t accomplish them, then you haven’t earned the right to sit down and take care of you. It’s almost like a punishment because of your lack of time management. (We will talk about mindsets next week, for this is such a critical component to resilience and becoming free.)
I started dealing with physical pain pretty quickly after Ben passed, and I didn’t know where it was coming from or how to get it out. Grief has an emotional component and energy that has to be metabolized or it will start to find places in your body to hide. The body keeps the score (which is also the name of a book if you want to know more). It took about three years to finally get rid of my joint pain through movement and touch therapy, and then my inflammation and gut issues started, and I have been working on fixing them ever since. Then cancer. So, I hope you can see there is a progression to our health declines and stress, and trauma plays a huge factor. I believe I will be advocating for those around me to take care of themselves, for without you being at your best, we can’t get the best of you either.
I want to take a moment to mention that I have found our worth has a lot to do with our value on self-care. We say we don’t have the money, time, resources, baby sitter, and the list of excuses could be a mile long. I am here to tell you that when I started choosing me, I finally felt like I was taking my life back, and the rug that was pulled out from under me started feeling more stable again. Piece by piece, I started regaining my peace. It was a progression. First walks, then focusing on getting good sleep, adding hydration more water, then in 2020 I subscribed to Hello Fresh, a meal planning delivery service. The meals were so good and my family started to learn how to eat better. That started the mind shift and value for more plant-based living. Then in September of 2022, I did a 30 days to healthy living program with Arbonne with their protein supplements and more. I finally had the energy to dig even deeper into nutrition, and it’s been so empowering to eat more nourishing foods that actually feels like they are healing and fueling me all at the same time. The month after I started cutting back on wheat, dairy, processed sugar, fast food, and reducing my caffeine intake, I felt a lump in my left breast. BUT GOD!
I have since learned that a plant-based diet is one of the better options for cancer patients. God had already sent me down the path and I was already exercising and doing all the things. This was really good, for nothing else had to change. I just needed to walk through the appointments that were ahead with His grace.
This process has had people calling me different names, like bougie, for I like all the finer things or tastes. But I am here to tell you, YOU ARE WORTH IT! IT IS WORTH IT! Don’t wait. Get the sauna. Go on the trip. Life is short and I don’t want you or me to live in regret of all the things we wished we would have done but never did. Savor the present, for God is ever-present. He is our helpmate and guide along this wild ride called life. It has been frustrating, humbling, exciting, rewarding, and awe inspiring to seek the King for divine guidance and see Him come through in that still small voice, which for me usually takes a pen in my hand. He also uses people to speak when we at times can be hard of hearing. Back to connection and community again. We need each other, for together we can do amazing things.
So, I am here to cheer for you and help you take baby steps to growing into your new YOU. This has been exhausting at times, for to learn and do new things feels hard until it’s not. Here in this community, I’m hoping to change the narrative. We don’t do hard things. WE DO HEART THINGS!!!!
Stay tuned, for next week’s focus is on mindset. I hope you are finding this series interesting, and if you would like to know more about one thing or another, write it in the comments below. We want to hear from you!
Until next time,
Keep Believing
Keep Braving
Keep Beaming