Spirituality & Health
One in the same? Different? Part of us? This is something I struggled with for a long time because somehow this concept was absent in ‘eat right and exercise’ and ‘take your medicine (natural or pharmaceutical.. or both).’ Whether we’ve questioned what else or never gave it a second thought, or somewhere in between, don’t we deserve to finally ask why?! And get answers that we can feel good about?
The flip side of this is perhaps we did get answers we felt good about, our lives weren’t that disrupted, and maybe this lasted for days, weeks, years, and even decades! Until the adult acne came back, perimenopause is now starting in mid-late 30’s when your female lineage didn’t get it til their 40’s, bones aren’t as strong as they used to be, and aches and pain once chalked up to age seem to not sit right with us when we people in their 70’s and 80’s as active as ever. And weight gain, or just different distribution, seems to be a struggle and/or always present, and I haven’t even covered the prevalence of heart disease and overall mental health from current and prior generations…
Research has shown that while yes, many diseases we can inherit from our family (though nature is about 5-10% of our health destiny), there’s also behavioral and psychological components that are also inherited specific to origins of where we come from that could predispose us to chronic (aka lasting more than 3 months) disease with stress as a common factor. However, we need stress to be alive, so it’s not that stress is bad, it’s just how we handle situations both on our day to day (including how we view our symptoms).
While spirituality can get the reputation of being sunshine and roses, it can also be challenging to realize that beliefs we once had don’t serve us anymore as our brain tries to make sense of ‘why change, you’re still alive, so clearly you’re fine.’ The breaking point for everyone is different, and there may never be just one breaking point.
So, how do you navigate this?
Who told you to believe what’s not working? Remember the days of low-fat/high-carb diet? Perhaps it worked for a time, then you decided to do the reverse, and omg- felt amazing!! But how could you believe that worked..? Enter in likely some talking smack about yourself and the people or media who led you on. Leading me to:
We’re all doing the best we can. To some extent- I say that because depending on the message, it can be pure intention, a sale, etc. That said, even you! We’ve had so much stimulus to listen to everyone else BUT ourselves, that it’s like the moment we do, it can feel like a brand new world! Deep breath… onto the next step:
Forgive. Forgive yourself, forgive them- it’s not that what was done wasn’t right per se, but you’re forgiving yourself from blaming them and the burden that comes with this. If you find that proverbial ‘boulders rolling off your shoulders’, that’s energetic weight, stress, and feeling lighter may even translate to both your health goals, and even a more balanced emotional state. Love where you are now, because it’s everything leading up to this that made you realize what was.
You may repeat this a few times, or go back and forth, or sit with one for awhile, and maybe even mourn where you were. But it wasn’t working, and now you need to different values to rise and grow, much like the phoenix. For more tips to navigate these times, let’s connect on Instagram! :)