If you don’t make time for your wellness, you will be forced to make time for your illness.
Read that again.
If you don’t make time for your wellness, you will be forced to make time for your illness.
I think we all inherently know this.
We know we should eat well, move our body, see the doctor (western/eastern) from time to time, take some time out for ourselves and do the things we enjoy to do, be kind, try hard and make time for family and friends. That’s wellness right? But how can we actually DO all the things?!
Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you Pilates is the only avenue to wellness. Pilates is not the only way to the healthiest you, but it IS the way I know to wellness. Wellness looks like many different things to many different people. It’s also not just about physical wellness but mental wellness too. I love this definition of wellness (ironically enough it comes from a large pharmaceutical company, Pfizer) -
“Wellness is the act of practicing healthy habits on a daily basis to attain better physical and mental health outcomes, so that instead of just surviving, you're thriving.”
I love how this definition distinguishes between surviving and thriving. As in, are you just going through the motions? Or is wellness an actively pursued goal?
Going through the motions might look like constantly applying eczema cream to your skin to treat the problem. While thriving might look like using the cream AND also seeing a specialist to find out if there’s another way of minimising or preventing the problem in the first place (eg. nutrition and diet).
Surviving VS. Thriving: My Story
Since having kids, my skin breaks out like it never has before. I hate it. I hate the painful bumps I feel brewing on my face every week. I feel self conscious and hyper aware of them always. In lockdown they were so bad, and I was so sad and mad about it. I chose to thrive instead of survive, and for me that looked like getting myself to the doctor to not only get something stronger prescribed, but also get a referral to a psychologist to help address the mental health aspects.
Another way I choose to thrive is through Pilates.
Pilates puts ‘me time’ front and centre in my calendar. It’s intentional exercise that helps me focus, be present and mindful about movements that build my strength and mobility to keep up with my kids, bend over and adjust clients on a daily basis, and reminds me that there’s more to me than just my skin. By being in touch with my body and its needs and capabilities, I’m reminded that I’m a human with strengths and weaknesses like every other person. Pilates helps me remember that acne does not define me and is probably the least interesting thing about me.
Choosing to Thrive in Wellness
Wellness to me is freedom in movement, contentment, growth mindset, making good decisions for my health every day but not stressing over poor choices from time to time. When my skin gets me down, Pilates brings me back up. It helps me thrive. It helps me achieve wellness.
So how do YOU choose to thrive? What are the small, daily habits that you do that add up to a life of wellness?
Remember the saying: you can’t fill from an empty cup. Sure, it’s cliche but it's 100% correct. Seriously.
How can you expect to care for others around you, if you can’t care for yourself? How can you expect to thrive if you are only just surviving? How can you expect to prevent illness, if you don’t make time for YOUR wellness?
If your child or parent was not looking after themselves, what would you say to them?
Now do yourself the same favour you would do for your loved ones, and choose your own wellness.
Choose to thrive. I’ll make it easy for you: come to my next event!
Balanced Escape
Balanced Escape is on November 20th. It’s got the vibes of a blissful, wonderfully fun, yet relaxing retreat, except without the time or money constraints. It’s a half day of movement, meditation, massage and microtrends, and it’s your gateway to “me time”.
So before the lead up to Christmas gets all too much, it’s time to carve out some space for you and the girls and get yourself along to Balanced Escape. I can’t wait to see you on the mat for some fun.
For more information and to buy tickets, head to the link below.