Welcome, My Friend
Welcome, my friend. I’m so glad you’re here. I’d love for you to read these posts like we are sitting across from each other at a table with a hot cup of tea/coffee/matcha/take your pick of a delicious drink to enjoy while we discuss topics of physical wellness, mental wellness and emotional wellness. Yes, yes, I know this website is focused more on depression and how to manage it, but as you will see, everything is connected; our mental wellness is connected to our physical wellness is connected to our emotional wellness is connected back to our physical wellness. It might sound crazy, but I am able to manage my depression symptoms better now that I have tools from different factors of wellness in my toolbox. I want to show you the tools I’ve learned and hopefully they help you too. As I will probably say several times, me telling you these things is not saying, you MUST do these things or you will never get better. Think of it as a combo between a buffet and a toolbox. I’m going to lay out a buffet of things to consider or items to take action on, but let me be clear: you don’t have to do anything. You have a choice of how you want to live your life or what fits into your life. 100% of the information I will share will not 100% apply to everyone because we are all different people with different responsibilities and priorities.
So take what you need or what is helpful and leave the rest. And once you take the information, you can start building your own wellness toolbox to use in your own life. Throughout these posts, I want you to ask yourselves, what do you need in this moment, in this stage of your lives. Let’s start building trust with ourselves of learning what we need and when we need it. Also, the things I will say to you, I am telling myself the same things at the same time. I have not “arrived,” but I am right on this journey with you; running, walking or even crawling forward. I’ve got you, for as long as you want to continue reading. So, of course, the first question is always, ok, this sounds great, but where do I start? Great question.
We start with awareness (and compassion). I’m including a “Health Checklist” that my functional practitioner gave me for me to provide an honest check-in on where I am currently in my health journey. I used this to provide an occasional status of my health journey to myself and since it was so useful to me, I am hoping it is also useful to you. This checklist is for awareness purposes, not shaming purposes. In order to grow, change, improve, we first need to figure out where we are currently. We can choose to look at these as data points, to give us an idea of where we are now and where we want to go. You can use this checklist in several ways:
A) Use exactly as is
B) Keep some of the items, discard others or adjust some items
C) Discard it altogether and write your own
Health Checklist
At least one bowel movement a day
Rarely experience bloating, cramps, indigestion
My fingertips, hands and feet are warm
Regular cycles, which last 26-33 days
I have little to no PMS symptoms
I can maintain my weight easily
I sleep throughout the night with no interruption
I exercise 3 times a week
I eat breakfast within an hour of waking
I don’t have an afternoon slump
I am satisfied with my libido
I have minimal sugar cravings
I have a healthy relationship with food
I have clear skin
I wake up with energy
You know you best; you know your priorities and how to navigate those priorities with your current challenges and life complications. This is your life, your choice. How do you want to show up for yourself?
Suggested Tool: Give the gift of awareness to yourself by going through the Health Checklist (or making your own) and making a note of where you are currently in your health journey.