How do you nourish yourself…?

I’ve been trying to juggle a growing business, the end of a year-long education program, homeschooling my older child, engaging and nurturing both of my children, manage my household, feed the dogs *OH!* and be a wife.

In my house, we have nutrition down to a science.  But nourishment is so much more than what we eat.  And it, too, will affect our health.  Joshua Rosenthal, founder of Institute for Integrative Nutrition noted:

“If we are not physically starving, other dimensions of the human experience are much more important than what we put in our mouths. The foods you eat are secondary to all the other things that feed you — your relationships, career, spirituality and exercise routine. All that we consider today as nutrition is really just a secondary source of energy.”

More and more, doctors are finding that these non-nutrition-related things matter.  Research has even shown how maintaining relationships and social interactions increases the mental health of the elderly; and that the process of continually learning something new or challenging the brain delays the onset of dementia.  We have heard over and over again how stress increases hormones in the body that cause weight gain (it causes much more, but the media choses to focus on the topic that catches everyone’s ear!).  It’s NOT just about what you eat.

Here are some tips to help you get on the road to truly nourishing yourself.

• Set some goals for your life.  If you have serious trouble with this one, try writing your obituary and from there, you can set goals that would have you remembered the way you have written the obituary.  But having goals for your life gives you direction and something to work towards.  It actively engages your mind consistently and in a positive manner with some room for challenging/exercising it.  If you need help with goal-setting, feel free to listen to my free class on “SMART Goal-setting”.
• Find a mode of physical activity that feels right for you.  Whether it be a walk, some yoga, dancing with your kids each day, aerobic workouts, weight training–find your “thing”.  Experiment.  But move your body.
• Examine your relationships.  Are they contributing more positive than negative to your life?  What is your role in how they function?  How can you change your behaviors to evoke reactions from the other side that will help you both?  Or how can you nurture a relationship that you want to preserve and maintain?  Be an active participant.  If you feel that a relationship needs professional guidance, get it; and if the other person won’t go with you–go on your own to get help with managing the situation.
• Consider your spirituality–whatever that is.  What do you believe to be true above all else?  What are your guiding principles?  Know this and honor it in your life regularly in whatever way feels like you are holding that belief sacred and acknowledging it regularly.
• Commit to something you love.  It doesn’t have to be something big, but if there is something that brings you nothing but joy–commit and reserve time for it every week to restore yourself.

Being in good health is about more than what goes into your mouth.  It includes a world of things that people put on auto-pilot until there is a crisis, or that people generally don’t consider related to their physical health.  But more and more, the research pours in about how it’s all connected.

If you need help making changes to support new lifestyles for yourself, let me know.  We can talk about how we might work together to get you moving in the right direction.