I was born with a severe congenital heart defect. By the time I was in high school, I had already had two open-heart surgeries, a pacemaker and successfully been treated for endocarditis. Before graduation, I had received a heart transplant. I learned how to prioritize my health without allowing it stop or define my life. My experiences have shown me how essential it is to take care of our holistic health.
Our health and well-being are important. The degree to which we need to focus and prioritize our health may vary, but whether we have major health challenges or have never experienced health issues, none of us can neglect our health and overall wellbeing. If we do not take care of our bodies, no one else will.
Our life experiences can shape our expertise, and from mine I have learned to be a fierce health warrior arming myself with knowledge, techniques, and approaches to successfully take care of my health while LIVING my life. Some of the aspects that I have found essential to prioritizing your health without allowing it to define you are:
- Become attuned with your body and intuition.
- Play a major role with your healthcare team, as a collaborator, contributor and self-advocate.
- Do everything in your power to take care of your holistic health- your mind, body, spirit, and soul, as your thoughts, feelings, actions, and reactions all impact your ability to not just survive but to thrive.
How can you begin to take a more proactive role in taking care of your health and well being from a holistic perspective? To help you discover how to get started, ask yourself these questions:
- Have you connected with yourself, to see how your mind and body are feeling? If not, take some time to do this.
- Are the thoughts that you are thinking uplifting or depleting you?
- Are you feeling stressed out? If so, what can you do to reduce your stress levels?
- Are the foods you’re eating helping you feel healthy or leaving you desiring to choose different foods to fuel your mind, body, and soul?
- How can you begin to advocate for yourself to make your holistic health a priority?
- What is one action step that you can take to become an all around healthier you?
