This month has been challenging on the personal and family front. Dealing with some sicknesses and some unfortunate incidents have left me, and many around me, emotionally drained. But it’s also been a month of reflection and learning-- because if we don’t learn from life’s challenges to face them better and bolder the next time around, then what’s the point, right? Life is always going to throw us curve balls. The question is: how do we face these and grow from these bumps in the road?
You may ask what this has to do with health coaching, and I’m sharing this because I think it has a lot to do with coaching. I believe wholly that health is not just about how many vegetables we eat or how many miles we log (although those both matter), it’s also about how strong we are mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and socially. Health is about how we show up in the world, and how we live our everyday lives. It includes all of the small habits that we stack to optimize the way we live -- and that must encompass so many more aspects than just kale and treadmills.
I wanted to share four lessons I’ve learned from my challenges this month, in the hopes that they may inspire or help you in your journey as well:
1) Relationships like friends and family matter, a lot. Friends and family are our lifelines. We have evolved as social beings - we are not meant to deal with every challenge and every bump solo. We NEED other people and other people need us. So, invest in those relationships that matter. Take the time, make the phone call, leave a message. Because at the end of the day, your people are the ones who are going to be there when you need to talk, when you need to cry, and when you need a sane voice saying “this too shall pass.”
2) Make the time for things that bring you joy. It’s too easy to get wrapped in the doing, and forget that life is meant to be joyful. But joy doesn’t just come all the time -- sometimes it requires effort to make the time to do the things that bring us joy. But we MUST. Because a joyful life is the one that’s worth it -- and we are blessed to be here, breathing, everyday. So we MUST make the time to live this precious life with joy.
3) Take the time to ground yourself. Whether that’s through a meditation practice, through deep breathing, through working out, through walking barefoot in the grass, or through journaling, find your thing that grounds you, and do it, every. single. day. And while you are doing it, focus on gratitude. Use this practice to calm your nervous system, to move into parasympathetic mode. You cannot heal in a state of stress or sympathetic dominance. You cannot get stronger in a state that breaks you down. But using your breath and your mind, you can shift your state at any point in time. That is the power you hold -- remember that.
4) Focus on your health, too. Remember that simple, daily actions matter -- like drinking lots of water, eating whole, healthy foods, exercising, breathing, and smiling. Don’t forget that you must take care of yourself to be the best version of you -- to face these challenges that life throws your way. Without health, we have nothing.
Yours, in health,
Payal