Personal Wellness: Part I

Hello!  After sharing with you about the last half of 2011, I wanted to make it a goal (or resolution, if you will) to make the proactive, necessary steps to a better, healthier me.  I believe in a holistic wellbeing - mind, body, and spirit - and my goal is to re-pursue that.

Background

MIND: I've developed some thoughts and cognitive processes that have tended to bring me down rather than lift me up.  When I discovered my faith and relationship with God, my mind seemed to be the healthiest it's ever been.  With nursing school, nothing else was quite a priority like my studies.  I put it before everything, including myself and my relationship with God.  Thus, I found it harder and harder to lift myself up (probably because I no longer trusted God to), I found it harder to become motivated, to focus, and to manage stress.  Sure enough, I got to a breaking point.  Duncan often said: "mind over matter" because he is a strong believer in how positive mental thought is the solution to everything.  Well, he's right, but I think it's a little bit deeper than that.  I believe the mind is affected by past events (triggers, conditioning, etc), by physical health, and by emotional health and what he couldn't understand (because the poor boy couldn't relate), is how much those three things were impacting my mind.

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BODY: I've struggled with my weight on and off most of my life.  I was overweight as a kiddo and then nearing high school had a spell of anorexia nervosa for at least a year and then on and off during high school.  Now, I am physically inclined towards it quite easily.  I say physically, not mentally, because sometimes if I do not eat appropriately or enough, my body somehow goes in to a mode where I don't feel hunger and will literally have to force myself to eat.  I first noticed this when I got my wisdom teeth out.  After two days of not really eating, my body (I guess) assumed that was normal.  It took me about 2 weeks to get back in to healthy, normal eating habits.  Anyways, the past few years I loved working out and eating pretty nutritiously (did you know I was undecided between nursing and nutrition?).  Before my health problems really started full-swing in 2011, I would work out most days of the week and love it.  Then, it became increasingly difficult to do so, and I just stopped.  Then I was stressed, and just ate anything and everything (not really over eating, but no longer caring about calories).  Being depressed also didn't help because I wasn't motivated to do anything.

SPIRIT:  I often attribute to my entire self to who I am in relation to my faith.  I believe my faith is a very defining attribute in myself and how I tackle my future and the world.  Duncan, fortunately, agrees with that statement and shares my beliefs.  However, as aforementioned, I started faltering in my beliefs as I found it was no longer a priority.  I would tell myself and people that my vocation was to school and school alone and that after I graduated I would get back in to the swing of things with my faith and religion.  Well, of course I often felt empty.  Then, since I was doing was studying, sleeping, and eating, I didn't take time for myself.  I didn't paint in 2011, I rarely read anything for pleasure, and I never just sat and relaxed. 

I believe that these three things operate in a circle.  They are very important and are interconnected for total, holistic wellbeing and health.  And I am going to work on them together.

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Goals

MIND:

• Optimism, positivity.
• I believe in myself and that God gave me the talent and skills necessary to accomplish what is in front of me, but I need to understand what I can and cannot do so that I do not overwhelm myself.
• Mindfulness.

BODY:

• Slim down 25 pounds in the next 5 months.  As you may have read on twitter, I bought my wedding dress a size 4.  It fit so well (except I probably had to work on losing some butt-- I have a pretty big one that often is a problem when buying pants).  The only thing I needed to alter was add a bustle (where you can pull the dress train up in order to dance and not trip all over the dress).  I hadn't changed much in body size and had remained a size 4 for a long time, so I figured there would be no problem with a size 4.  I took the dress home that day.  Well, now I need to fit in my beautiful dress!
• Mindfulness - a cognitive process and skill that I will use to help keep my body healthy.  I have no desire in being super skinny, but I do want to be healthy and feel healthy.  I want to build up my organs, my immunity, and my quality of life my being mindful of what I'm doing to my body.  As aforementioned, I love nutrition and believe it is a colossal factor in a person's holistic wellbeing.

SPIRIT:

• Yes, school is a priority, but it is not everything that I am.  I am going to be a wife to my best friend, I am a daughter to two loving and supportive parents, I am a sister, a friend, a dreamer, an artist, a biker, a cooker, a hiker, the momma to a Bostonian puppy who needs walk and attention, a Christian, a lover of the outdoors and all things beautiful and glorious.  These are things I need to embrace in order to be a better person for myself and for others.  How can I give to others if I cannot provide for myself?  I need to take care of myself before I can even begin to be fruitful in other relationships, projects, or tasks.  

I plan to periodically update on this topic, especially as a way for me to record.  Next week, I will share with you how I plan to accomplish these goals.

Thank you for staying tuned!  I pray you all find the inner strength to accomplish your goals and dreams!