Being "Healthy" is Not Just About Eating Your Greens
I spent a lot of my 20's wanting to be healthy. A lot of time thinking that when I got to a certain age, later, that I would take my health more seriously. Over time, I let a few bad things drop away from my life as soon as I knew/agreed that they were not good (daily bacon! and 20 packets of sugar for my iced tea!) but many things stayed nearby (still knowing they were not so good). I just told myself that I would be healthy "later".
And then there was this one specific late night, when in my 30's, with a girlfriend where we both drunkenly shared how embarrassed we were at the state of our lives. During it, it felt like in an 80's movie where lightening and thunder strike as we share - there was no actual thunder or lightening as it was a very peaceful late-summer evening - but it felt like there should have been because that was the night that my life shifted. And although I didn't have obvious health concerns that those around me noticed, I didn't feel right or the healthiest I could be. I mean my skin was always terrible. Always!
The day after that night (I needed a day to recover from that pivotal night!) I made immediate changes. I was into running but always waited until the right time to run - which wasn't as often to reap the greatest benefits. So, I started waking earlier to run before work having my clothes and sneakers ready by the door to "wake and run".
Things moved in a slow but progressive pace until within a few years, I was running marathons! Around that same time, I started experimenting with veganism and doing more yoga - like sometimes twice in a day. Whereas in that previous phase of my life, I used yoga to help with my back pain only when it got bad, I was now having no pain because I was pre-emptive about practicing more and loving it. Within 3 years, I was in it to win it with my health. I felt physically amazing, my skin cleared up with a vegan diet and I was back in school finishing my degree. Life was in a good place.
BUT something was still amiss.
I knew that I needed to take some more measures in my life in order to get to that next level of health. That mental wellness that I so longed for. Because although people saw me and thought I was healthy, I felt messy and unhealthy in many parts of my life. I needed to clean up my act on that part of my life.
And that was when I really started to listen to my intuition. There were many "holy cow" moments for me that I'll need more time to share in another newsletter because it was a new thing to learn to trust her (my intuition). So sharing that process will take time...
Once I started to listen to her voice cheering me, prodding me, reminding me, even yelling at me to speak up/stand up/walk away from situations, my life moved into a more natural feeling path. Which was at first very thorny and sometimes still is. It's hard because those healthy eating habits that I created earlier were to hard to make gel just as the habits to reach for the truth are. And just like most people I want to plug my head into the ground or just do something easy - almost mindless. Something already set.
And even in periods of my life now, I feel like I walk around with a machete to get through all of my own baloney and then just the chaos of the world. But the work that I have done so far has been very meaningful to my own progression. Although I cannot say I wouldn't change it for the world because it is hard but I guess I wouldn't change it for the world.
Being "healthy" is not just eating greens (which are hard to do in the beginning!) but it's about creating a healthy mind, heart and spirit. Once you do start to take care of your physical temple - you start to pay attention to the other parts of your life that need attention.
Are there parts of your life that could use a little tweak? Want to share with me any of your struggles? It's important to keep doing the work. But it's easy to get lonely on your path. Community has been key for my path and it might be for you as well.
Some advice: Stay in the mud, carry your machete for your ownbullshit, be ready with a hug and love for other people and keep your heart open to new ideas.
Namaste,