It might sound like a rhetorical question, I know. But if you’re anything like me, I procrastinate on things I know I should do.  Sometimes, I put off the easy stuff too!  But even taking simple action on my health is not easy when I’m not feeling inspired to do it. You feel what I’m getting at here? Don’t get me wrong. I think like most people, I know all the reasons why I should exercise, drink green smoothies, or take my vitamins. But there’s just something about health that can feel, oh I don’t know: boring, scary, daunting, pricey, calculated, medical, tasteless, etc. Sure, I’ve had periods of my life where I felt so excited to try a new exercise program or start a new diet fad, all in the name of better health! Emphasis on the phrase, “periods of my life”, ha.  Although I generally enjoy exploring new products, programs and the like, more often than not (at least for me), it’s just not as easy or motivating as it all sounds!  

The roadblocks:

Everyone has their own personal roadblocks to pursuing a better state of health. It could be not knowing where to start, information overload, or even money. For me, it’s mainly not being on board with diet culture (anymore) and trying to remember not to obsess about health – it can leave me feeling like I’m not even sure what health is!  For instance, if you’re pouring your attention into what you eat and how you move all the time, it can leave some people feeling anxious.  Overall, I’ve reached a point in my life where I want health to be more of a byproduct of the happy and in tune life that I strive to live, more so than an end in and of itself. Which begs the question…what exactly IS health?

What is health?

This is a loaded question, I know. But I think it’s helpful to think of health as a process, and not so much an end goal. It’s also relative and dynamic, because as human beings we are constantly changing, and we often have to adjust to changes in our bodies and our environments. Moreover, what could be healthy for one person may be downright dangerous for another. For instance, when I used to live in TX, I never had a vitamin D deficiency, but then boom, I move up north for 6 months, and my blood test proved I’m not getting near enough sun as I was before. When I was younger, I was prone to disordered eating patterns where I thought I was the “healthiest I’d ever been”. I counted calories, fat content, sodium, you name it, and I was only 9 years old.  I didn’t even realize that my childhood was encompassed by this, until I exited that time of my life.  Was it worth it? Of course not!  Now that I’m a mother, I know I would be devastated if my son started all of a sudden restricting his eating to that extent. For those who have been a victim of diet culture, there is a very thin line between pursuing health and pursuing unrealistic perfection. But I think the quest for good health can feel like this, even if you’re not prone to perfectionism. It’s hard to know when you should strive for more action versus when you should just relax and let go already!  After all, your mental health can play a huge role in how your body feels and even how it absorbs nutrients and oxygen.  It’s all connected. 

So in my health journey, I’ve come to realize that health is an ever-changing dynamic process of adjusting to our own bodies and environment.  We have to pay close attention to our bodies’ cues, so we know when to slow down and take care of ourselves.  If we push past our breaking point mentally or physically, especially with repeated assault to our bodies/minds, one or more systems will eventually shut down, no kidding. I have no greater proof of this than with my own chronic condition, ulcerative colitis, and how stressors snuck up on me, piling up to the point where my symptoms made me feel out of control.  Since I wasn’t listening to my body’s cues early on, I easily allowed it to spiral. I felt the gravity of the situation when the medicine I normally took for my flare just plain didn’t work anymore. I was floored. How could I not count on modern medicine?  That’s when I rediscovered meditation, and took it on much more seriously as a practice. What else did I have?  I also realized that I needed to take my sensory health more seriously. As an occupational therapist, I knew the information about sensory processing like the back of my hand, and applied it diligently to all the children I treated. However, it just hadn’t crossed my mind to truly apply it to myself.  In that darker time, I knew there was something there I was missing there. As a newer mother, I also felt much more dysregulated overall. I almost felt like I didn’t have the same body or brain. Here’s what I learned…I needed much much more sensory input to feel regulated than most people. I needed more proprioception (being a seeker in this area), which is the body’s ability to know where it is in space mainly through pressure input to one’s muscles and joints. I also was sensitive to visual stimuli (clutter), so realized I needed to transform the space around me. A huge difference in my mental health emerged. And that was just two out of the eight senses.  Then I realized I could put the two together – both meditation and sensory strategies, to maximize my sense of peace and the results not only blew my mind, it blew my colitis away. The medicine began to work, and I felt healthy once again. Now, I’m taking on new areas of my health. I’m exploring my spiritual and physical health even deeper and am realizing once again…anything is possible.