I think it is safe to say that we’ve all made at least (1) health-related resolutions. Many of us, year after year, resolve to lose weight, exercise (or exercise more), get more rest, eat healthier, drink more H20, stop smoking/drinking, get out of debt, practice meditation, become more spiritual, etc. Over the past three years, I’ve made the decision to be more intentional.
Since my “sudden” health crisis from 2018-to 2019, I have become more intentional about my overall health. It’s not that I wasn’t healthy and in great shape prior to 2018, I just thought that I could outrun a bad diet. Being in the Army, I’ve had to temporarily live in some environments that were not conducive to my well-being (i.e., Burn pits in Iraq and heavy pollution in South Korea). But when you undergo surgery to remove a malignant tumor and nine months of intense chemotherapy that cause you to go into heart failure, I can’t help but be more intentional about what I eat, how I manage stress, etc.,
It wasn’t until I experienced that “suddenly” health crisis is when I really began to view health as multi-dimensional, and that as human beings, we are more than the sum of our parts. I often say that “an imbalance in any area of our life creates disharmony throughout our entire body.” Our mental, emotional, spiritual, social, environmental, occupational, sexual, financial, as well as our physical well-being is equally important as the other. You would think that as someone who has been in the nursing profession for over thirty years that this would be a no-brainer, right? It is one thing to care for others, but it is an entirely different experience when you become the patient and my experience as a patient changed the way I viewed health and self-care.
As it relates to our health-related new year resolutions, tradition alone is not enough to cause us to make the change we desire to see! It is important to know and understand our WHY because a resolution is nothing more than a decision to do or not do something. But a decision does not necessarily lead to results. It requires intention!
There’s nothing wrong with making New Year’s resolutions but a decision (in this case, NY resolution) without an action plan and the discipline (i.e., commitment) to execute it consistently will not lead to the desired results! Resolutions don’t require discipline, but goals do. A course of action is key in reaching the desired result.
Genetics, family history, ethnicity, our environment, and other factors that we cannot change, and have absolutely no control over may affect us but in the long run, it is how we care for our whole body, in its entirety that will count.
So, I’m intentional in everything I do because I want to maintain my healing, my health, and continue to be the healthiest version of me that I can be!
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