Eating healthy and exercise. Is that enough?

These are words that I have lived by for a very long time. Teaching others how important eating healthy and exercise is in one's life. I still believe that these are important to feeling good and living a healthy life.

BUT IS THAT ENOUGH?

Time for my me to be completely vulnerable and share my story in hopes that what happened with me will help others. My life this year knocked me off my tracks and put me in a very dark place. Why? I lived my life in the best way I could. I was exactly where I wanted to be. What was I missing?

I was like many, I juggled life; worked, cared for those I loved, giving my time whenever I could. I would volunteer when I was needed. I enjoyed being busy. Again I am sure many can relate to this.

Earlier this year I started to have issues with sleep; yes this is something that is very common today and for many is just a part of life. I have a close friend that says she wakes up but within minutes will fall back to sleep. So why am I sharing this very common issue?

My sleep issue was not a few days but lasted for months. and became very debilitating. It was affecting all aspects of my life. Bringing what I loved doing to a halt. I would wake up with panic attacks that would sometimes put me in the ER just to be told everything was fine. I was feeling a bit like I was going out of my mind. It eventually led to me to a place I would have never expected and a very dark place. I had to stop working, I was losing weight as eating became very difficult My busy life was empty and scary as I felt very lost. Anxiety was an every day thing; night and day. So why the drastic change in my life?

I had my aha moment when I was reading a book called "The 12 Elixirs" As I was reading each one I realized that exercise and eating healthy were not the entire answer.. My life started to tumble out of control when my life of continuous motion and not knowing my own limitations began to cause me to burn myself out. I would notice small things that were telling me to slow down but ignored them an kept pushing along. What this did was caused my immune system to tank and I would pick up things more easily which again would continue to disrupt my sleep and affect my work. The lack of sleep heightened my anxiety. As of today I am still struggling to get this in control which is taking a lot of hard work but I am seeing some positive changes and I have realized the strength I have. Life will always have unexpected changes; I am using this as something to learn from and how can what I am experiencing help others?

I am hoping that we really look at how much we need to listen to our bodies when they tell us to slow down and STOP TO SMELL THE ROSES. I am learning to be in the present moment and learning to be content and not taking on the world. I grew up with the thought that putting yourself first was selfish thinking. At age 60, I am having to learn how to love myself enough to say "I cant do that. I'm spending time with myself right now.

What has helped me along the way was the support from friends in the way of their time, their knowledge and even brought gifts of food as it was a difficult thing for me as I did not have an appetite and making and decision on what to eat was hard so having this available helped with my healing. Nourishment is a huge part of healing.

I am also hoping that what I have learned on this journey may help others as knowing our resources can be a very helpful tool.

I am now learning to just be in the present moment and spending time with a very special person.

ME!

I will talk in detail in my next blog of what we may be missing which can prevent what I am going through.

Much love to all of you