Health and wellness is so important but usually overlooked. Have you ever heard that saying, “What is it worth for a mans to gain the entire world, but lose his soul”? What is it worth for you to get all the wealth, the spouse, but not be here long enough to enjoy them? You can run your body rugged, however when your body is down and sick, nothing else matter other than getting it well. So, why is it that most people neglect their health and wellness? What could be the root cause of such neglect? I am sure each person can dive into different answers, however, lets focus on how to turn the tide and how I was able to start a journey that is changing my life for the better. I view Health and wellness as essential . You cannot have a balanced life if your health and wellness is neglected. No money, wealth, or person matters more than ourselves. The love we give ourselves is the love we in turn give to others. We cannot pour from an empty cup.
My Story
As I embarked on my 90 days journey, health and wellness was one of the most important step I had to take especially that my health was declining. I knew that my time was not here yet and that I had so much to accomplish. So I had to fight and get back on track. I had to change my mind set. Instead of seeing time as a way to only work and earn money, I saw time a way to take care of my health and wellness so that I can take care everyone and everything else. Before I started this holistic journey, my health was declining. Something had to happen or I would have ended up being a diabetic, and my mental health would have suffered greatly. I may have had some severe health issues and I could have lost my life. I had to look at myself in the mirror and realized that I need to do something to save myself. The question I asked myself was, how did I get here? I knew that I needed help, so I started to pray for The Most High to help me. I tell you what, he really does answer prayers. I had seen a lot of post from an old friend of mine who is a fitness guru, but they never really meant anything to me until one time when I asked him about what he did, and if he could help me. Sure enough we embarked on this journey. This was by far one of the best decisions yet.
Vision Statement:
A vision statement is a statement that I used to describe what my health and wellness goals look like. I understood that I needed to be intentional and specific in this area in order for me to have a clear road map if I was going to achieve my goals. My Vision statement looks like this:
Once I lose the weight, hydrate, sleep well, and have my stress under control, I will be healthier, energetic, look, and feel amazing. I will have confidence, and love myself. I will have a well rounded lifestyle that allows me to achieve my goals and dreams while I find my identity. With my mental health in check, I am unstoppable.
Yvette, D.
Mission Statement
The mission statement goes into details and breaks your goal down in a way that is SMART (Specific, measurable, realistic, and timely). For someone like myself, this is an important step because I tend to create goals that seem to be too much. Breaking a goal down almost guarantees success in achieving that goal. This is what my mission statement looks like:
Starting April 26th to July 7th, 2022 for a 90 day period (Timely) I will take care of my health by eating well, exercising, and hydrating. I will also focus on my wellness by taking care of my mental health, get enough sleep, eliminate brain fog, manage my stress, and exercise self-care. In the next 90 days, I will recite out loud my health and wellness vision/mission statements. I will exercise for 5 to 15 minutes of intense workouts everyday. I will also do 30 minute walks in the park or on a treadmill and burn 200 to 400 calories. I participate in intense homestead activities that will keep me moving. I will drink one gallon of water per day, and I will be eating from my detox food list to reset my body.
Yvette, d.
Health
Our health is so important. We cannot do what we want to do if our health is declining. I truly believe that one of the greatest commodity is good health. Our society has made us to believe that money is the most important commodity, but I would beg to differ. Have you heard of that saying…”you are what you eat”? Meals and meal planning can be difficult especially for someone with a busy lifestyle. However, it is not impossible to find a meal plan and a list of foods that are designed to help your body depending on your body type and needs. I was so fortunate to have a list of foods from my coach that include meats, vegetables, fruits, grains, etc…designed to help me detox my body, lose water weight, while I gained focus, and better sleep. I was amazed to see that in about a week, I lost 5 lbs, slept better, and my brain fog was gone. I had so much energy, and I just felt amazing. However, it is not hard to do some research and see which food that can help you in the areas that you struggle with the most. If you would like information on who my coach was, feel free to ask .
The 90 days program was so easy to do and follow because the exercises lasted 5 minutes. These were high energy, non-stop exercises. Let me tell you, they were hard, but I was able to get them done, because they were 5 minutes. I did these exercises 7 days per week and pushed as hard as I could to get the most benefits. I would highly recommend investing in a workout program that is best suited for you. However, walking is free. I just picked up walking in the park, and I kid you not, I am sore from it. I love walking because it also plays a role in trauma healing. The waking motion is similar to the techniques used in EMDR therapy. Walking can make a huge difference in your fitness and wellness.
I don’t know about you, but I do not like to drink water. I get busy and forget. I also do not like multiple trips to the bathroom due to water intake. However, water is so important to our body as you already know. For women, hydration can help alleviate PMS symptoms, keep our face looking young, and keep our overall body functions in check. Of course, not all water is created equal. Be very careful to not drink top water or any water from the store. Invest in some hydration research. We are blessed to have a wale and we have filtration in place, but I am skeptical with top water, and bottled water these days.
Wellness
It is amazing how everything is connected, right? Mental Health as it relates to those who have suffered trauma is an ongoing process. The reason I think mental health is so important, it is because you are what you think. Think about this, your head controls the rest of your body. It is like a computer that tells the body what to do. Now imagine your computer has a virus in it, or some functions are broken because of an external issue such as broken wiring or power surge or something. This is the same with negative thoughts, traumas, brain misfiring in terms of chemical imbalances, etc…Mental health equals good health both body, soul, and spirit.
Sleep is a way for our body to reset, renewal, rest, and so on. Since I am using the computer analogy, it is like a reboot. Sleep is so vital to our health and allows us to keep our brain and our body to work well together. I have struggled with sleep for as long as I can remember. The difference between now and in the past is that now, I am intentional about sleep. I have a routine in place to help me sleep well. If for some reason I am dealing with insomnia, I have given myself permission to nap when my body needs it. This is dangerous though for those who need to maintain a routine. However, a 15 minute snooze has proven effective to reset my brain and not interfere with my sleep schedule. I read somewhere once, that if you hold a pen and take a nap, as soon as you drop the pen, your brain has reset, and you can actually benefit from that nap. My evening routine includes a warm shower, sleepy tea, and a massage from my husband with some essential oils does help. I am working on keeping the same sleep, and waking up schedules to train my body to stay consistent. However as I write this post, I woke up at 3:30 am and I couldn’t go back to sleep for an hour. When this happens, I wake up and start my day routine anyway, and when I am sleepy again, I go back to sleep. This way I can still keep my scheduled activities on track. A good sleep eliminates majority of brain fog, depending of the cause of the brain fog. Sleep helps!
Do you live a busy lifestyle? Are your responsibilities stressful? Stress management is something that I am working on right now. I have stretched myself too thin, and I am realizing now that it has taken a tore on my health. Sometimes our strength can become our downfalls. In this case my over-achieving, and goal oriented personality when left unchecked, can become a silent killer. In addition to the practices mentioned in this post so far, I am also cutting back on my responsibilities. This feel unnatural to me, but after seeing how my health was negatively affected, somethings must go. We have two businesses, a ranch, and we have children. It is easy for me to want to take on various projects, but at this point in my life I am going to invest my time wisely and take care of myself.
Self-Care and Self-Love is something that I am learning right now. I talk a lot about self-image or finding your identity. This is a core issue because if you do not know who you are, how do you love and care for yourself? Having identity issues is one thing, but when you add on trauma self-love which leads to self-care is almost non-existent. As I find myself, the more I love myself. Some of the self-care routines I have adopted are about beauty such as finding best products that work best for my face and hair. I cut off my hair and went back to natural hair, I am experimenting with various products, and I am loving my hair texture as part of loving my true self. Marvelously and wonderfully made. I have some self-care goals like whitening my teeth, get some new cute clothes as I lose weight, and take some new portraits, etc…
Please share with me how you take care of your health and your wellness. What areas of your health do you struggle with the most? How do you cope with triggers and traumas that affect your mental health? What is your night time routine? How do you practice self-care?
