Finding your keys to health, wellness and personal empowerment.
Bio-individuality™. Doctors, naturopaths, nutritionists, yogi gurus -- no one will ever know your body the way you have the opportunity to. Your one-of-a-kind temple of complex systems, pumping heart, teeming gut, zitty back, hairy toes, etc., is yours, your bio-individuality, to nurture and become intimately knowledgeable of.
If you don't value your temple, why would, or how can anyone else do so?
Listen to how your heart races, your gut gurgles and flutters, your eye twitches or head throbs -- your body is trying intently to communicate with you, but are you truly listening?
Most of us are not. We aren't taught about bio-individuality that no two people have the exact same lifestyle, nutrition, fitness and wellness needs, and that self-knowledge is true power.
The frustrating full understanding of this happened for me after visiting a naturopath for post-pill amenorrhea (absence of menstrual cycles). He asked a few questions, gave me a generic paleo meal plan, and never talked to me about food again.
I immediately dove into eating meat with every meal from my former plant-based ways, reprimanding myself for "depriving" my body for so many years and questioning all my self-truths concerning wellness. But after a few weeks of this insanity, the concept of bio-individuality sunk in. I needed to STOP living solely from outside influences, from doctors, media, cultural trends, etc. A one-diet-fits-all is completely unrealistic! I needed to learn to listen and trust inwardly for my physical and mental health, not to mention my sense of personal empowerment.
Really, the naturopath did nothing wrong. He subscribed me an anti- inflammatory diet that tends to support most illnesses and intended on addressing my imbalances with Chinese herbs and supplements. But, I am thankful for the epiphany to see that I had put another external factor on a pedestal. I had been looking to him to give me a magical solution to all my health woes (as I had in the past with fad diets, workout trends, miracle books and wellness products) instead of listening to and trusting myself to understand what was working for my life.
AND this experience kicked off my commitment to learning, learning, learning to be able to coach others on the path to vibrant living. It was meant to be!
Yes, experts in their fields can support and guide us to health and wellness with their test results, education, past experience and outside perspective of the temples that we live in daily. My belief, though, is that we each have to play an active role and understand how our own bodies function in order to be our own advocates and leaders of our own unique lives.
Whether it is understanding how your body processes food, emotions, relationships or activity, a few simple reflective exercises can help:
Journal - find a time, as little as five to ten minutes each day, to reflect on how you acted and reacted to scenarios.
Intentional breath work - take three, three-count breaths in, then three-count breaths out to reconnect yourself to the present and how you are feeling.
Walk - find time to clear your mind and refocus on your status through physical activity, ideally outside.
Mantra - we all need a magic word to snap us out of mindless eating, spinning emotion, or any self-sabotaging behavior, find a word or phrase, that resonates with you: FOCUS, Shine bright, Honoring me, STOP, I've got this, Be the change, Chasing my goals, Just do it, etc.
Let me know how I can support!
Gemma xo