The choices we make every day have the greatest impact on our lives. A choice is the act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities. Given that we live in a world flowing with possibilities, we are constantly making choices.
Making choices is not always easy. In fact, it can be downright daunting especially with the world wide web at our fingertips. Everywhere we turn, something or someone is trying to capture our attention. Here’s the latest and greatest…out with the old, in with the new…try this not that…did you hear about the new and improved….it’s any wonder we easily get into overwhelm. FOMO (fear of missing out) and FONE (fear of not enough) kick in and our anxiety levels sky rocket.
Never mind the endless stream of anger and fear churning out of every news media, but I’ll save that rant for another blog.
Even in the hardest of situations, we still get to choose how we show up. Is this a tragedy or a blessing with a lesson? By no means am I trying to minimize the hardships in our lives, but it is through these tough times that we often grow the most.
When it comes to health and wellness, the day to day choices we make deeply influence whether we maintain vitality as we age or whether we end up settling for a lesser vibrant version of ourselves.
How do you sift through it all? Here’s the deal…there is not a one-size-fits-all anything! While I do believe that we are woven from the same cloth – after all, we are all human – we are individual and unique. This applies to every area of our lives, including our bodies and how we nourish them. There is no one-size-fits-all body shape or size. And, there is no one-size-fits-all eating plan either (notice how I didn’t say diet ;-).
The choices we make are based on our current level of awareness about ourselves. Making choices that best support our health is easier when we are tuned into our selves. When we are aligned with our true self, we can nurture and nourish what we are truly craving.
Interestingly, we make choices either consciously and unconsciously. Some choices are habits, other choices may be based on beliefs we adopted long ago, and some may be deliberate and (hopefully) consciously aligned with our true self.
For instance, if we were to choose to eat a sleeve of oreos (or insert your poison here) knowing that we may feel remorse and physically ill afterwards, the question to ask is why? What’s driving us to make this choice? Tuning inward is crucial to becoming aware of what we are really craving.
Perhaps it was something else that we really desired rather than oreos, which we know is only a temporary fix anyway. Maybe we were tired and needed a nap or some down time. Maybe we were lonely and craving attention or upset and needed a friend. Maybe we reluctantly said yes to something that we really didn’t want to do and then subsequently felt cranky and overdone. It could be that we are angry at something or someone and we are not sure how to process our feelings. Worst yet, maybe self-doubt reared it’s ugly head and sucked us into believing that “I’m not good enough” delusion (again).
I want to take pause here to clarify that I’m not saying we should not allow ourselves to numb out every once in a while. I believe that is part of the ebb and flow of growth. However, I do believe that self-awareness is crucial and what ultimately keeps us from going down the rabbit hole. Being aware of why we do what we do will allow us to bounce back quickly, keeping it to a conscious splurge rather than a binge.
Taking time every day to tune into to ourselves will help us make better choices that support our wellbeing. And it’s easier than you think. Take pause throughout the day– a few deep breaths, getting out in the fresh air, moving especially if you’ve been sitting for a while – to tune in. Ask yourself, what will make me feel that way I want to feel? Then listen. Your inner Goddess will tell you exactly what she needs.
