I know, we are still in the month of Resolutions and I don’t like them, and I’ve already written about this fact.
You know, sometimes there comes a point when enough is enough and things have to change.
What better blog topics than to pick them straight from my own small corner of the world. So, I deviate slightly from this month’s topic.
Our bodies are an amazing, scientific, and I wanted to say experiment but the function of the body and the way all the pieces work together in a complete and perfect orchestration is not really an experiment. It is a work of art that has perfected itself over evolution. Each of us have our own unique orchestra based on our genetic makeup. Some of us purer in our genetics, others of us more like mutts. I get carried away but the beauty of this drives part of my passion for health. Back to the blog.
The experiment really lies in the staying healthy part. The deck didn’t used to be stacked against us but every day the task of just remaining healthy gets more and more difficult. Even people that know what they are doing have a tough time without becoming militaristic and almost psycho to the outside observer about their health, their food, their space, etc. etc.
Besides the deck that the food industry, the medical industry, the environments that we live in stack against us, we stack our own decks against ourselves and I have stacked a pretty good deck against myself.
The reality is that I have worked very hard to create an environment for myself to be healthy within in my attempt to eliminate the deck, but it hasn’t worked as well as I might have liked. My point is, as hard as you can work at your health or think you are working at your health, it isn’t going to get you to the point of true health unless you are all in. It can’t work unless you are all in and if you aren’t all in, you are just spinning your wheels. Potentially delaying the inevitable, and maybe even feeling ok for the short term but ultimately, partial efforts will not help you for long.
I do like to state things plainly and in saying this to you, I am also saying this to myself. You cannot half-ass your health.
What does that mean? You can’t live healthy in a household that won’t participate. It is impossible. If I change my health, you change your health. If you are looking to correct significant health conditions, you will not get better living in a house that does not participate in your choice or need to be healthy.
Bottom line, they are not living in your shoes, it is not their life, it is yours.
They may or may not be intentionally disrespecting you by not supporting you. Clearly, they aren’t ready to take that journey with you but that is neither here nor there. If you have chosen health, they have to be healthy too. You can’t share a kitchen with people that don’t honor your choice of health and expect to get healthy. You can’t.
I find that many of my clients are women and givers. Putting yourselves out there and sacrificing yourself for your families. We don’t understand self-care. We continue to compromise our needs over everyone else, even when crisis dictates that we need to look after ourselves. We find compromises so that the family or the loved ones don’t have to be uncomfortable. I’ve done it, I do it. And this also plays into our ability to truly be healthy.
As I said above, enough is enough.
Where does being healthy start. Where can one “change my health”? It starts in your home, my home. This is your space, where you live. And if you have chosen health, your space also needs to be healthy and respected by everyone. Why, because if you don’t, you might slow down the progression of illness, but you will not win the battle. It is like putting out a forest fire with a garden hose. The cost goes up, the time widdles away and you could have already been on your positive path to health had you just put your foot down in the beginning and said, we are doing this, all of us together.
This is a very difficult, very expensive lesson to learn. It is a frustrating lesson to learn. It is an infuriating lesson to learn. I hate repeating lessons, this won’t happen again ever.
If you are in a place that you are struggling and must choose health for yourself, I hope you heed my words and get on it in the way that your body requires despite the complaining, lack of support and negativity that you might experience. And although you have chosen to share your life with others, you still must respect what is required for your life.
If you don’t stand up for yourself, no one else will and that is the bottom line.
Photo by Caroline Attwood on Unsplash
Leave a Reply