Taking responsibility for your health is hard. Unlearning everything you thought to be true and replacing those beliefs is excruciating. Almost like mini ego deaths each time. I’ve been through many ups and downs on my healthy journey and when I was just starting out, it was tough. It was painfully tough. I was complaining, resisting, and getting frustrated everyday. Luckily, I had a strong support system around me to keep going and keep pushing. Looking back, there’s so much I would tell my younger self to make it all easier; that’s what we’re talking about today! Here’s 5 things I wish I had known when starting my holistic health journey.
#1 Do you want to be right or do you want to be healthy?
I was a spoiled and fortunate kid. I (usually) got everything I wanted and didn’t have any major obstacles to overcome. By the time I was getting introduced into the health world, I was always looking for the tactics and tools that already fit my current belief system. Joovv red light therapy? Yea right, as if that actually works. Gut health drinks? That’s literally just expensive dirt water. But ohhhh calories in, calories out, low fat diets, everything is good in moderation, that all makes complete sense!
I was operating from my current level of being, and that’s a huge lesson I’ve taken with me moving forward. To level up in life, you have to upgrade your current level of being. What got you here, won’t get you there. If you want to be healthy, you actually have to be a healthy person.
It makes total sense, but is so widely ignored. People are always looking for the quick fix, the new tactic, the next secret that will make them lose weight, get rid of their health problems, give them a six-pack, etc. Those things don’t work because that person hasn’t adopted a new mindset and they continue to operate at the same level as they always have. To level up and make progress, you need new habits, new beliefs, and new perspectives.
Had someone come to me as a young kid and flat out roasted me, “Do you want to be right or do you want to be healthy?” I think my full body and life transformation timeline could have been cut in half.
#2 Health takes time
Although asking yourself a tough question like above can work wonders at the start of a health journey, it’s also important to recognize that health takes time. For many of us, our bodies have undergone years and possible even decades of dealing with harmful food, chemicals, environmental toxins, and stress. Although the body is a miracle healing machine when given half a chance, it’s going to take a few months or years to reach optimal functioning.
Even though my weight dropped 45 pounds, my anxiety and depression cleared up, and my allergies were for the most part gone after 3-6 months of my holistic health journey, there were still underlying issues to be resolved. A great piece of advice that I heard was to adopt the pace of nature. Just slow down, relax, and let the process unfold.
Had I heard this advice at the start of my journey, the burden and stress of trying to figure everything out as soon as I could would have been lifted from my shoulders.
#3 Work on your mindset first
I firmly believe that no change can be made in our lives unless our minds are in the right place first. If you don’t have a growth mindset, you close yourself off to alternative possibilities and potential. When you don’t know your why and your reasons, you have nothing motivating you to stay the course. If you don’t know how to make a change, you can’t make a change!
Improving mindset is, and will always be my number one piece of advice for anyone starting, in the middle, or having already undergone a holistic health journey. It is just so incredibly important to build a strong mind that’s open and curious. There’s so much in the health realm that doesn’t make sense, or is based solely off of anecdotes and personal experience. Sometimes, it’s ok to trust that and take a leap of faith to experience the healing for yourself.
Not only that, but a strong mind helps you push against the grain. It will help you keep your head up even when all of those around you question what you’re doing and what you’re eating. My holistic health journey started in high school, and as you can imagine, it was not easy being “that kid”.
Mindset has been something I’ve been obsessed with over the past few years; if you want to be at the top of your game in any area of life, your mindset needs to be on point first, plain and simple. Had I known just how powerful mindset shifts were and had an openness to even the craziest alternative health claims, it would have been so much easier to overcome struggles and roadblocks during my early journey.
#4 Find a friend to join you
Everything is easier and tends to get done more often when with a friend. Asking a friend to join you on your holistic health journey will make the whole process so much more enjoyable and do-able. It’s easy to get off track alone when no one is counting on you. It’s harder when you have a friend that you need to keep up with show up for.
Use a friend as your accountability partner for making progress towards your goals, having fun, and sharing breakthrough information!
On my journey, my accountability partner was my mother who was going through her own health issues at the time. You can listen more about our stories in my TEDx talk. I know for a fact that without her constant support and nagging, I would not have made it so far and stuck the course as I did. I was ready to stop and quit so many times.
With the help of a friend or support partner, you will experience a world of difference and results.
#5 It’s worth it
Your health is always worth it. No matter the cost. This is your one life, your one shot at doing and accomplishing everything you have ever hoped and dreamed for. You don’t want to blow it by neglecting your health.
Take a moment to envision what your life could look like if you were fully energized, confident, and had no health problems. Even better, close your eyes and visualize what your best life would look like. Feel the feelings and soak them up. Then bring those feelings to the current moment and use them to propel you forward. You can create those exact feelings right here, right now. All it takes is a choice. You always have a choice. Your health is your responsibility. And you can do this; it is worth it.
