What’s the health and wellness legacy your parents or caregivers left you?
How did your parents or the people that raised you take care of their own health and wellness in mind, body, and spirit? Were they healthy in mind, body, and spirit throughout their lifespan? Did they spend money and intentional time on their health and wellness? This is the health legacy you inherited.
Most people that I’ve met, myself included, were left a health legacy of not being very healthy. Please understand, this is coming from a place of peace and non-judgment, it just IS. We learn what to do or not to do from our parents, just as our parents learned from their parents. Our parents did the best they could with what they knew, just as their parents did the best with what they knew, and so on.
So please, read on and remember everything I write is written with love and non-judgment.
For many of us, it seems easier to spend money on something that only brings instant gratification versus spending the time and/or money for the health and wellness practices that you know are good for you.
Add in a dash of our culture and our brain’s love of instant gratification and it’s easy to see why for many of us it’s easier to spend money on unhealthy meals, nice meals, vacations, shoes, clothes, and/or other outside investments versus spending money and time on our health and wellness.
Please note, there is NOTHING wrong with spending money on these things, but do you give yourself the same time and investment to your health and wellness?
It can be scary to invest in your health and wellness when it’s new. The brain doesn't like new. It can't predict new. Our brains like doing things that are the same to keep us safe, even when it’s not what is best for us.
Some of us are learning to break these cycles of fear and intentionally put our own health and wellness as a priority. It takes practice and intention, this practice and intention come from having support, accountability, and the just-right programming.
If you never saw your caregivers spend money and time on their health and wellness practices this is why it’s so hard for you too. This is also why it's hard to pay for support, accountability, and programming. This is all new for your brain.
So where do we go from here once we have come to this realization? How do we begin to make a change?
Follow these steps:
1. Be Compassionate - our caregivers didn’t see anyone putting their health and wellness as a priority, just as their parents before them and so on. Give them compassion and give yourself compassion and grace. It is pointless to blame anyone, including yourself. We can not be upset for what we didn't know, but we can learn.
Truly wise people learn from their journeys and from the journeys of others. No one ever taught you these health and wellness skills and no one taught you that in order to change the lifelong health and wellness habits you do have you need support, accountability, and the just-right programming. You didn't know. Be gentle with yourself now that you do know. Also, be gentle with others on their journeys as they figure it out too.
2. Notice - Notice your thoughts and actions when it comes to spending and investing in your health and wellness. This helps to create space between beliefs and thoughts that no longer serve. Without judgment challenge these thoughts. Some thoughts that pop up for many include:
- Money doesn’t grow on trees…especially for “extras”
- If you’ve been taught that money is always lacking, generally speaking, your financial habits and actions may support this. Isn’t it interesting that we think of health and wellness spending as an extra or luxury when it should be number 1? It's a necessity. If we don’t have our health, what do we have? We need our health just as we need breath. It's that important.
- Changing my habits to healthy sleep, eating, exercising, mindfulness, peace, etc.. - I can do that on my own
- As a professional woman, you have probably heard this many times about the services that you offer and are an expert in. You know at the end of the day this voice in your head is forgetting that there are health and wellness professionals that know way more than you do. Just like you know way more than others about your profession where you are the expert.
- I don’t have enough money
- Do you not have enough money or are you not used to spending money on your health and wellness? Is it more comfortable for you to spend money on ordering food online, eating out, spending money on new heels, purses, or the latest iPhone? Perhaps, the money we do have is being spent on other things that are not helping our health and wellness.
- That’s a luxury and it’s not in my budget
- Does your budget include your health and wellness? Do you instead budget for other luxury items that you know you don’t really need?
- The way I sleep/eat/drink/etc. isn’t that bad.
-So you’re saying it’s bad. This was me. Years ago, I remember thinking that the way I ate wasn’t that bad or that I wasn’t that out of shape. However, it was that bad. I thought my sometimes healthy meals or attempts at exercise were enough, but they weren’t. Fast forward to today and I’m the oldest I’ve ever been yet I feel the best I ever have. It is possible for you too.
3. Take Action, Be Proactive - Make a cognitive and intentional decision to spend money and time on your health and wellness for your mind, body, and spirit. Invest your time and money by hiring a wellness professional. Remember they are experts at helping you feel your best. Every moment you don’t do something different, the same unhealthy patterns get stronger. I know you want to feel your best, so do something different, click here to schedule your risk-free consultation.
The financial and time investment to your health and wellness legacy is already being written. How are you writing it?
The money you need to start investing in your health and wellness is not money that needs to be made or saved for. It is already being spent with money or time in ways that are keeping you unhealthy but making you feel good at the moment.
Redirect those funds and time; these funds and time will redirect this energy to health and wellness which redirects your whole life and changes your health and wellness legacy for you, for your loved ones, and for your community. Yes, your health and wellness affects everyone you cross paths with. The better you feel, the kinder you are, the more creative you are, the more you help others, and so it goes. Prioritizing your health and wellness in the 2020s is not just for you, it’s also for all the others that you cross paths with on your life journey.
Our new lives will be written about in history books. Will you help to create a health and wellness legacy of lasting change for you, for your family, and for humanity in the higher recognition that you are a spiritual being present during these rapidly changing times?
Will you help to create a loving change in the way we lead our lifestyles - for our mental, spiritual, and bodily health and wellness?
Click here to change the course of your life in mind, body, and spirit with a consultation for $33. I am a wellness professional that can give you the support, accountability, and just right programming. My journey is to help you feel your best on your life journey.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, I appreciate it very much!
Laurie