Health is something we tend to take for granted until it’s impaired in some way. You never fully appreciate how good it is to feel well until you don’t. This post is designed to help you re-commit to your health, before you get a wake-up call.
Our bodies are always talking to us, giving us feedback about how the things we consume, think, and do are working out for us. And that dialog isn’t something we tend to put much stock in. We think, “Oh my back is hurting, but I’ve gotta keep going.” Or, “Wow I’m feeling tired, too bad I have to go to work today and that thing tonight.” You know? We drag our bodies around behind us and ignore their messages. It’s typically only when things escalate that we pay attention. I’m hoping this week’s episodes will be a lot more friendly of a reminder to re-commit to your health.
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Check-in On Your Own Health
Gandhi said that, “Health is real wealth, not pieces of gold and silver.“ It deserves and requires our attention in order for it to sustain us. Now, before winter truly kicks in and the holidays are upon us, is a perfect time to stop long enough to check in on your own health. Not just in the context of the last few days or even weeks, but at this stage in your life.
This is top of mind for me because I recently went through a health thing. I’m not going to call it a scare or even a crisis, but it was definitely a thing. For a few weeks, I felt dizzy. And then I noticed that it felt like my heart was either racing or beating too hard. It didn’t help that I’m also on the menopause spectrum and was also having hot flashes. And then I went to donate blood and after that it got worse. I was over-reacting to little things that would normally roll off my back. I got so upset about something that was truly not that big of a deal that my heartbeat sounded like a three-legged horse. Boom boom boom ba boom boom boom.
Around this same time, my daughter did an impression of me sitting at my desk–which is an alcove off the living room, which worked great when everyone left the house every day, but since quarantine has put me right in the middle of everything and everyone in the house. She typed furiously on my keyboard, told me to hang on a second while she finished something before she would talk to me, shouted out “Where’s my phone?” and “I hate group texts!” And then told me to go watch TikTok or something. LOL. It was an exaggeration but it was also spot-on.
Live Life The Way You Want To Be Living It
Between these two things, I had a moment where I was like, “Am I living life the way I want to be living it??” I could see a direct line between the amount of work I was forcing myself to get done every week and experiencing actual physical symptoms of overwhelm.
It got me to the doctor, where I discovered I was anemic. Why then begged the question, why? Which got me to schedule a colonoscopy, since sometimes something causing bleeding in your GI tract can lead to anemia. The top line resolution to this story is–I took some iron supplements and started feeling better. (Also, my doctor told me I had the cleanest colon she’d ever seen, which, hey, feels good.)
But the deeper implication is that these events have gotten me to re-think some things. To actually–gasp–say no to some things. To take steps so that I can not be a whirling dervish at the keyboard, but to contain my energy differently so that I can still do all the many things that matter to me but do it in a way that isn’t worthy of parody. (And just to be clear, I love that my daughter held up that mirror for me, she’s a natural ham and it got me to laugh at myself, which is a major gift).
So, I have two questions for you to help you re-commit to your health:
One, if someone you loved was going to do a parody video of you, what would it look like?
And second: how is your health?
Not by the numbers, necessarily–not your weight or your blood pressure or blood sugar levels. But what is your physical experience of health like at this moment?
How’s your energy? How do your joints feel? Your digestion? How’s your thinking? How do your muscles feel? What might this compilation of feelings be trying to tell you about how you’re living your life?
Take a couple minutes to think about it and jot some things down.
Raising awareness is always the first step in making a proactive change. The rest of the episodes this week will help you figure out what you want to DO about that awareness.
