WHY NOW IS THE TIME TO INVEST IN YOUR HEALTH
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been brought up to know that when you get a headache, you take a pain killer to make it go away. You know that when you have certain medical problems, maybe an ongoing hip pain, severe sore throat with white spots, or gut issues causing chronic bloating, you book an appointment with your family doctor. If it’s something more urgent like a fall with a potential break or cuts that might require stitches, you’d likely visit an urgent care centre. We’ve been educated to understand that only when we have a physical problem requiring a fix, we find and follow the appropriate solution.
This way of managing and understanding our health is leading to many issues, some with potentially catastrophic consequences. Waiting for something to go wrong before taking any action to resolve is an outdated and risky formula to apply.
I advocate for everyone, of any age, investing in their health and wellbeing right now. I share the message of how important it is to nurture your mind and body at all stages of your life, regardless of how well you might feel right now. I coach that not understanding how your mind and body work independently and in conjunction, can have very damaging consequences to your health and way of living, without you even realising it.
My own journey to building habits for strong wellbeing has resulted from frequent episodes of challenging physical and mental health over the past twenty-six years. My ailments and issues over many years ranged from severe anxiety and panic to migraines, constant colds and viruses, bladder issues and gut problems. I’ve had tennis elbow, frozen shoulder, a broken wrist and experienced issues with my reproductive system. All of these things have resulted in many visits to doctors and consultants, lots of tests and scans, pain relief injections and two pretty invasive operations.
I am a very logical, process minded person, who likes to understand the flow from A to Z. I need to be able to connect the pieces of the puzzle and know exactly why they fit together the way they do. I took this approach with all of the health challenges I experienced, convinced there was always a very specific physical cause for me having the ailment or issue. There had to be, that’s how the body works isn’t it?
But that’s not quite true. As I found out after many, many referrals and tests.
These experiences led me to where I am today. They allowed me to have no choice but reassess what might actually be the reason for what I was feeling and suffering from. Because in a lot of these cases, there was no medical root cause to be found and then fixed with a prescribed solution. Some of the things that impacted my physical health were being caused by me. They were a result of my mental health challenges; the mind-body connection.
I want you to flip the way of thinking about your health to go from reactive to proactive. I want you to feel the same passion I do about taking care of yourself. I want this because you deserve to live the best life you can and to live this way, you must take care of yourself. Taking care of yourself is not something with a start and end date, it’s something that needs to fit into your lifestyle forever.
Now is the time to begin this investment in yourself. To live healthy, happy and strong now and in the future, you need to know what you want to prioritise now and start setting the right goals so you can begin making the changes in your lifestyle to achieve them. Begin with the right small steps to build sustainable healthy habits for life. I want you to see that taking steps every day to build stronger wellbeing can flow with ease in your routines, rather than sit on a long to-do list, feeling like just another of your many chores.
Don’t wait to react when something goes wrong and you absolutely have to find a fix to improve your health. You should be investing in yourself right from the off, protecting yourself as best you can from illness or disease. Not only will investing in yourself right now help to minimise your risk for many diseases or illnesses, but it also really helps you to live the happy life you are craving to have.
When you are in good health and have good wellbeing as a result of your lifestyle choices, you will also be building a strong, positive mindset. The habits you put in place to nurture your wellbeing will, by the very nature of them, all add up to creating a much happier existence. Being happy is something you create through the positive actions you take. It’s something that is a skill you can train and work on. The lifestyle you have is directly responsible for the happiness you feel, how good your wellbeing is and the energy you have for your life. It’s been proven that lifestyle factors account for almost all chronic diseases and cost major health systems approximately 75% of total costs. Pretty staggering isn’t it?
The great news is how you live is totally within your control. Setting out on a path to build new habits may feel daunting, but it is completely achievable. It comes as a result of getting clear on what you want your life to look and feel like, and why this matters to you. Getting super clear on the vision of who you want to be and how you want to move through your life. Taking this vision down into goals and building out small actions to take those first steps towards navigating the changes you need to make. Forming sustainable healthy habits that flow in your daily routines and result in stronger wellbeing.
I know from my journey to building healthy habits and creating happiness, once you get going, the ripple effect is immense. Happiness and health bring greater happiness and health. It’s proven that positive thoughts and mindset will spur on even more positivity - greater self-esteem, empowerment, energy, motivation, improved relationships, improved cardiovascular health, stronger immune system, improved cognitive thinking. Plus many more incredible side effects!
For me, a top priority to living a healthy life as part of my overall existence is the example it sets to my daughter. I demonstrate to her what a healthy lifestyle looks like and let her see through my choices and behaviours, how she might too adopt her own set of healthy habits. We learn and replicate behaviour through what we see, not so much through what we are told to do. So, I challenge you to think about your wellbeing, assess what you’re doing to invest in it right now, to give yourself the life you want, but more importantly to show the younger generation the way to live healthy, happy and strong.
If you want to get more inspired to take action now, check out this Ted talk with Dan Buettner. He shares some pretty staggering facts and thoughts about how the way you live your everyday life through good healthy habits and practices can add years to your life span - and make these final extra years count just as much as every year of your life.
Feeling Frazzled?
Do you want to build healthy habits?
Do you want to know you’re investing in your health for the life you want now and in your future?
Get started building the right daily habits with 5 great tips in my FREE downloadable PDF guide to help you take those first daunting steps.
