Monday, March 14

Health: It's In Your Hands

Hi everyone!

It's been a busy few weeks here at WR, and it seems I have been absent from the blog for a while- but I'm back! With the return of Spring, it's a perfect time to refocus our efforts at staying balanced, healthy, and feeling great, and that means acknowledging how much that state of balance, health and happiness depends on our own conscious choices, practices, and patterns in our everyday lives. It isn't something that anyone else can do for us or force us to do. Our wellness is created by the choices we make in our lives: choices about how and where we spend our time and with whom, and choices about how we listen to and interpret the needs of our bodies; how we feed them, move them, and heal them when they are hurting.

We are the creators of our state of health and well being, and we have the power to recreate it and heal the areas that are hurting every day. Yet, so many of us shirk that responsibility, feeling that we aren't truly capable of taking care of ourselves in the ways needed to assure health and wellness; that it's too complicated, expensive, and too much work to take charge of our own well being. So we wait for someone else to tell us how to live, for an expert to confirm if what our intuition and common sense tells us is right, or in many cases, we just wait until a problem escalates and then expect a doctor to come in and fix, heal, and cure problems when we experience them. There is nothing wrong with seeking the help and advice of health professionals and doctors when we need information, support, and intervention when it comes to the healing of or dealing with a health related condition, but it is essential for us to realize that the true reality of our state of health comes down to what we choose to do, in our own time, in our own homes, with our own friends and families, on a daily basis, to take care of ourselves.

No matter how valiant the effort or how skilled and renowned a doctor or hospital is, we have to acknowledge that there is a limit to what medical intervention can do in the prevention and management of today's widespread health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, as discussed in this New York Times Well Blog post on When Home Life Trumps Health Care, simply because of the fact that what we do when we go home on a daily basis is what creates the ongoing state of health or illness in our bodies, and those choices cannot be forced or even overseen by our doctors- it's in our own hands. Doctors and hospitals can surely help you immensely and even save your life, but when you go home and go back to your own daily routine, it's up to you to make the decisions and choices that are going to bring you health and wellness in the long haul.

And what about the other experts? Well, as I know all too well from the understandably confused and frustrated first-time clients who come into my office and from my own time spent in the field, there are a LOT of conflicting opinions out there, and a lot of just plan bad information. My best advice? First, tune in to yourself: become focused and quiet, and ask yourself, right now, what you feel that you need in order order to bring more health and balance into your life. Do you need to be eating more vegetables and less fast food? Drinking less alcohol and more water? Do you need to be working fewer late nights and finding some more alone time for relaxation? Do you need to learn how to cook healthy, simple meals for yourself or your family? Do you need to take up a regular exercise routine? Do you need to learn how to food shop in a way that is inexpensive but still health-supportive and convenient? Do you need to begin to make and bring lunch to work in order to maintain energy throughout the day while also cutting expensive and unhealthy lunches out?

Then, ask yourself what supportive choices you need to be making in order to create that reality and actually make it real. Do you need to schedule in time in your weekly calendar to make planned food shopping trips so that your kitchen can be stocked for easy meal prep? Do you need to plan some social activities that revolve around something other than drinking and eating out? Do you need to enlist the help of someone to teach you how to shop for, prepare, and cook food that will be healthy and supportive for you while not breaking the bank or taking up all of your time? Do you need to re-organize your free time to include less procrastinating online and TV watching and more time enjoying of activities that bring you both joy and benefit to your emotional and physical health? Do you need to treat time to cook and eat as importantly as you treat your other obligations? Do you need to discover and implement, once and for all, an approach to eating and exercise that feels so natural and comfortable for you that you actually stick with it? It isn't as elusive as it sometimes seems, I promise- the key to maintaining health and wellness is answering the above questions for yourself with honesty, accepting your own responsibility in creating your state of health, and then making the choices, decisions, and rituals that ill support and sustain your own approach to health and wellness.

So, now what? Where do you go from here if you've answered the above questions and realized that between all of the conflicting advice out there and your own personal circumstances and challenges, you could really use some good solid information and some help in making these supportive choices and practices to create a new state of health and wellness? You'll need to call on someone to help and guide you that intuitively feels right to you; someone who provides you with the accountability that will help you in achieving your desired goals but who also possesses the awareness that your health, your body, and your wellness are ultimately your own creation- someone who will teach you a new way to live so that you can take care of yourself forever, rather than relying on an external system or person that ultimately cannot create or sustain your health and wellness for you. We all benefit immensely from help, support, information, tips, tools, and guidance, and those resources are available from professionals such as myself and many others who provide our clients with the beginning of a new relationship with health and wellness. The help obtained from these resources, however, can only be realized to its full potential when we are taking responsibility for how we live our own lives once we go home, and that means taking the initiative and prioritizing our needs for what will balance and sustain our state of well being.

If you realize that you have become an inactive participant or even just an onlooker in your health and wellness care (or lack thereof), it's time to take it back. I can tell you from plenty of professional and personal experience that it is what we do in day to day life, the choices we make for our own bodies, hearts, and minds, that creates wellness. It is what and how we eat, it is when and how we make time for ourselves to relax and unwind, it is if and how we express our emotions, how much we joyously move our bodies, and especially how we listen to our bodies when they are alerting us to something that is wrong and act accordingly. Pain , illness, disease and discomfort are all signals from the body that it is time to pay attention and make a change, and time to take action to bring back balance- we have the power in our own hands to do so. I am here to help you with ongoing information, support, and practical and natural tools for optimal nutrition and wellness according to your own unique needs, and will do so in a way that grows and fosters your ability to truly take care of yourself in your own life and by your own hands...please contact me at erica@wellnessrealized.com if you are interested in my help.

Your health is in your own hands: Hold onto it!


Interested in finding out more about what foods are right for your own body and why? Looking for personalized information and support to help you change your eating and lifestyle choices in order to achieve your own specific goals for health and wellness? Contact me to set up a consultation: erica@wellnessrealized.com

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