Health and wellness start in your mind, not on your plate.
Negative thinking and making excuses, are the top two things that stop us achieving our healing goals. Having the right mind frame and attitude is essential for success.
Making lifestyle changes can be stressful, as you adjust to a new way of thinking and new habits.
It takes effort, desire and commitment to heal naturally and unfortunately, not everyone has the interest or energy to step out of their comfort zone and commit to something new.
If you want to heal your body naturally, then let's take a look at where your head needs to be, so you can be successful.
1. Healing is not a success only journey
Healing takes time and is filled with ups and downs. It is not a success only journey.
Some days we make great progress forward, whilst other days we will take a step backwards and feel frustrated and sorry for ourselves. And that's just life, some days are harder than others.
Setbacks and hardship create incredible insight and learning opportunities. Our intuition and understanding of our body grow, as we learn from our mistakes.
When we embrace the losses and disapointments, as well as the wins, we can prepare ourselves mentally to cope with all the highs and lows that comes with healing. See the graph below for how healing might look.
With the right attitude, setbacks will seem small compared to the massive gains towards healing and long term health.
Healing is two steps forward and one step back.
2. Change is difficult
Daily routines and habits make us feel safe and in control. When we start to change them, we get pushed out of our comfort zone.
We need to exercise self-control and willpower if we want diet and lifestyle changes to stick. This can be mentally draining, but the good news is, the longer we do it the easier it gets!
Falling back into old habits is easy to do. It can be hard to conquer the impulse to grab an unhealthy snack or skip exercise. The solution is to change our mindset, and accept and prepare ourselves for the imminent discomfort that comes with breaking old habits.
3. Excuses are the enemy
There is a never-ending list of excuses why someone can't change their diet and lifestyle right now.
Let's be clear, there is never a good time to start a healing program, because there is ALWAYS that next social event, holiday, family illness or some other reason coming along.
I remember starting my journey before Christmas and having to miss all my favourite festive foods and drinks. We must make sacrifices if we want the reward and it's all about attitude.
It's easy to find excuses not to take control of our health, so if you find yourself listing reasons why you can't start, STOP and change your mindset to YES, I can do this.
It might be inconvenient to change things right now, but you can start by taking baby steps and changing things, one step at a time instead of all at once. Smaller things you might like to commit to are things like:
- Starting each day with a green smoothie
- Being in bed by 9pm
- Getting more active
- Getting 5 minutes of sunshine every day to boost vitamin D levels
- Swapping out toxic cleaning products with natural options
- Meditating to relieve stress
- Talking with others about your intentions and getting support
- Read a self-care book
Stop saying you can't and start doing things today. There is no time like the present and the longer you wait the more damage you will have to repair.
4. Put yourself first
Healing is a time to be selfish and to put your needs first. That doesn't mean neglecting other responsibilities, it's about prioritising the time to work on yourself and to look for help and support.
There is no shame in making yourself priority. Asking for help does not make us a failure, when we ask for what we need, it makes us strong and empowered.
Others can support you by:
- Making meals
- Helping with cleaning
- Encouraging you to rest when needed
- Accepting your decision to opt out of social gatherings
- Looking after children while you exercise /rest
- Listening to your concerns
- Attended appointments
- Picking up shopping
- Not eating junk food around you
- Giving a massage
If your feeling unwell and someone offers help, take it without guilt. Be graceful and thankful in accepting help from others.
You need to listen to your body and to your needs and rest if you're tired, exercise if you're feeling low, meditate if your stressed and don't feel bad about saying no to things that don't serve you well.
When you look after yourself, you can better take care for those around you. Like on a aeroplane, you should always put on your own safety mask first before attending to others.
You may get resistance from friends and family when you start to put yourself first, so you will need to explain to them, why you are making these changes. Whether or not they accept or understand your decisions is not important, they only need to respect your decision.
Self-care can be a lonely journey sometimes, so go out and find support, my coaching services can help you achieve this also.
5. Be open to learn new things
There is a lot to discover about natural healing and we need to maintain an open mind, a willingness to learn and courage try new things. If we're mentally prepared for this, then healing will be a positive experience.
Those who resist change, will have the toughest time.
Only by looking for better ways to do things are we able to ditch the old habits that don't serve us and create disease.
Your path to health is an adventure which is filled with excitement and surprises.
Don't focus on the difficulties and challenges, but instead look at the benefits and the positive things you'll gain. Having the right attitude and staying optimistic, grateful and strong leads to successful healing.
For more information about my anti-inflammatory program and how it can help you, click here.