My Mind, My Body, My Journey™ 

I experienced some writer’s block last week, so I apologize for being unable to post anything.  

Knowing your worth and value is one of the more important things to accomplish for your wellness journey. Knowing who you are is important when you decide to pursue various career paths, romantic relationships, friendships, and other passions. There are many ways to learn who you are and what you want for your life. Some recommendations include:  

• Continuous learning 

• Embracing a mindset of continuous learning allows you to be more prepared to embrace change, new experiences, and opinions that may differ from your own. Unfortunately, not everything is taught in our school systems for varied reasons, so learning is something an individual must seek out for themselves. When you learn something new, it allows you to reshape your perspective on a situation. Learning helps with physical wellness as it helps your mind sharpen, which will be important when you age. Learning can also help with your career goals as you remain competitive and current on issues in your chosen line of work.  

• Self-Reflection  

• Self-Reflection involves looking at your own feelings, behaviors, and actions to gather meaning and learn from them. It helps you become aware of who you are and track your growth. You can reflect through journaling or engaging in a creative outlet while you process the events of the day. Because I write so much for work, I do not write in a journal but will listen to music, color, or spend time in nature to reflect. Self-reflection is a method to ground yourself, experience, inner peace, and practice self-care. It helps you develop self-love because you can see how much you have grown and accomplished.  

• Self-Love  

• Self-love is the ultimate form of self-care. It involves many things such as forgiving yourself when you make mistakes, being assertive, setting boundaries for yourself, prioritizing your health and wellness, living life based on your values, setting realistic goals for yourself, and accepting your flaws, imperfections, and quirks that make you unique. We will explore the last two points in more detail later in this blog. 

• Associating with like-minded people  

• There are so many phrases about the company you keep. You heard expressions such as “birds of a feather flock together” or “guilty by association” when you received warnings about who you choose to befriend. Unfortunately, when you seek growth members of your network may need to change. I want to share a bible verse that resonated with me and is relevant to the need to associate with like-minded people. Proverbs 22: 24-25 states “Do not have anything to do with a man given to anger or go with a man who has a bad temper. Or you might learn his ways and get yourself into a trap” (New Life Version). So, if you are with someone who is always angry, negative, or aggressive their negativity and way of viewing situations can rub off on you. Likewise, when you associate with growth minded people, you are more likely to embrace a growth mindset.  

Once you know your worth, you are more comfortable and confident in your ability to leave unhealthy situations and demand more for yourself. You do not have to stay in an unhealthy relationship, friendship, and work environment. Even if leaving the situation means you must start over, recognize your strength, and realize you are starting over with experience, which is completely different from starting over from scratch. Always be kind to yourself and speak daily affirmations if needed. There is a scene from the movie “The Help” where Viola Davis speaks daily affirmations to the young girl she is caring for. She tells the little girl “You is Smart, You is Kind, You is Important.” This young girl in the movie does not get much love and affection from her mother, who does not seem happy with the girl’s appearance and size. Viola Davis strives to make the young girl feel important every day. It is important to note that some of us may have grown up in environments where you did not receive love and affection, but those experiences should not be allowed to shape who you are today. Someone else’s inability to see your worth does not diminish who you are and what you can accomplish. Your value does not lower based on someone else’s opinion. Many people struggle with recognizing that opinions and perceptions are subjective. Your current boss may dislike you, but a new boss may think you are an amazing person and worker. This is why I believe that setting realistic goals for yourself and accepting your flaws, imperfections, and quirks that make you unique are the ultimate ways to love yourself.  

• Setting realistic goals for yourself 

• You can only control the goals for yourself as others in your life (i.e., parents, boss, significant other) may have a separate set of goals for you. When you set goals for yourself that are not realistic, you set yourself up for disappointment if you cannot achieve them. If you want to lose weight, try to strive for a goal of 1-3 pounds a week, which is realistic and sustainable long-term as opposed to a goal of losing 20 pounds in two weeks.  

• Accepting your flaws, imperfections, and quirks that make you unique  

• No one is perfect or has a perfect life, so it is important to accept who you are and your circumstances. Embrace your upbringing, which may include living in poverty or being raised in a single parent household. Know that your circumstances have helped shape who you are and what you can become. You do not have to be a product of your environment, but your environment can be a product of you.  
• Body positivity is so important for self-love and wellness. Embrace your freckles, dimples, curves, thighs, nose, lips, hair, and skin tone. The ideal body size is subjective as what is ideal in the US may differ from what is ideal in Paris, China, or Australia. Other measures of health and wellness are more important than what may be reflected on the scale. Someone who is a size 0, could have high blood pressure and cholesterol, whereas another person who is a size 12 has healthy ranges of blood pressure and cholesterol. Likewise, the size of your clothes and number on the scale do not provide a measure of your body composition. Someone with an hourglass shape may have to go up a size to accommodate their shape, similarly to someone who is taller with an athletic body build.  I think the media can do more to highlight different body types to show that healthy weight can look different for each person. I also believe that when we only look at body size as a measure of health, we miss other important health factors, such as mental wellness, social wellness, financial wellness, and spiritual wellness.  

Start creating your own affirmations each day, display them at work, and home and embrace positivity and growth. Here are some affirmations I like: 

• I have enough of everything I need. 
• I can overcome anything I put my mind to. 
• Today is a beautiful day. 
• I deserve to be happy. 
• I am beautiful. 
• I am loved. 
• I am brave. 
• I am ready to start my day. 
• I am drawn to positive people and situations.  
• I can do remarkable things. 

Wishing you health and happiness