Thriving In These Times
We have all spent the last year doing a lot of coping. With the advent of spring, I feel a renewed sense of new beginnings and have decided to do more than "stay alive", I've decided to thrive.
An anonymous writer once wrote, "In our youth, we spend our health creating wealth. In our later years, we spend our wealth trying to buy back our health." I would add that we are also missing out on life as we scurry to tick off the boxes of our never ending "to do list". But this isn't a call to "stop and smell the roses", it's an observation that everything we do, everything we strive to accomplish and everything we have achieved can be enjoyed so much more from a place of optimal health.
I don't know about you, but when I am frazzled and rushed, worried and hurried, I stumble more. When I am tired and sluggish, I can't get my mojo to get up and go. And when I am sick or in pain...well, nothing happens at all! Why didn't I stop and think of my own health before I rushed out to save the world?
Think a moment about your goals. Are they something like, "I am creating financial abundance!", "I am buying a new car/house/boat!!" "I am taking that tropical/ski/outdoor adventure vacation." or "I am on a path to finding my perfect partner/having kids!"? Always postponing happiness until the goal is acquired. Wouldn't it be a much easier, more pleasant if you were strong, fit, mentally clear, and filled with peaceful determination. An example are couples dealing with infertility. When they come in my office, they are so often stressed, overworked and drained. Their bodies are telling them, "You are wiping me out and you want me to make a baby!? Oh, heck no!" Health and well being has to come first. You cannot drink from a stream that has run dry.
Consider what happens once you achieve those goals. You've worked hard, scrimped, saved, sacrificed and now you have that dream home. But how dreamy is it if you come dragging home at 9:00 PM, eat a late dinner and fall asleep in front of the t.v. (oh, yeah, you know you do!)? Then insomnia has you tossing and turning until you have to get up and start the cycle all over again? Or the the boat that sits in dry dock because your chronic fatigue has you flat on your back? The children you can't romp and play with because you have a migraine headache? And how fun is that adventure vacation, when your asthma gets triggered by allergies to the pollen and cedar? Wouldn't it feel amazing to really take pleasure in achieving your goals and then have the health and vitality to truly enjoy the fruit of your labor? You can make it happen if you make your health and well being a priority.
