Posted on March 19, 2020 by dragonspitapothecary
Our son is now in 3rd grade so every subject receives a grade for his work. He has become used to seeing letters and scores on his papers and tests. As a family we are expecting him to do his personal best on all his school work and get the best grade he can. For me that is not always an A or B. In some cases a C grade has been personal best and in others an A or B is his best. He is learning and growing and as we know we don’t always get shiny A’s on our work the first try. One day he asked if a C was a good grade? I asked if he did his personal best and he said yes. So I said then it was a great grade showing he did his best.
When it comes our wellness journey I think we often fall into this trap of rating ourselves too harshly. We measure our success based on a number of pounds lost or inches gone. We criticize and mark up our progress like the red ink of an angry school teacher scolding us for not trying our hardest. We overlook the good we did all because a shiny goal wasn’t entirely met. We fail to give ourselves credit for effort and personal best. So many things in our life get graded like this don’t they? Our job performance is subjectively rated by our managers and we receive a raise based on their score. The labels on our clothes tell us if we are skinny or fat. Everything is graded and ranked. If that grade is not an A or B we scold, ridicule, judge, beat up, and punish ourselves for failing. Did we really fail though?
All this year I’ve been inviting you to the 2020 Wellness Challenge as a way to focus on your whole being’s health. Maybe for you that is losing weight or picking up more energy. Maybe it’s sleeping better or not being so grumpy feeling all the time. Here we are three months into this challenge and I ask how many times have you scolded yourself for not trying harder? Have you been in this mode of negative self-talk that has become a barrier to progress in improving your health? Sometimes it’s not the number on the scale that should be used to measure our progress. If we are not doing well on improving our health being negative to ourselves won’t fix that problem. Being healthy starts with improving our own messaging to ourselves.
If you’ve been following along on this 2020 Wellness Challenge you know we started this year with the Natural Health Cleanse (that you can do anytime and should do every 3-6 months). This cleanse was about eliminating the things that are not serving us in body, mind and spirit. As we moved from that cleanse we were free to define what was next for our health without barriers we imposed or that were imposed on us. We could choose what to do in our own power and voice. We could take that critical next step to focus on eating better, increasing movement and supporting our health needs with a clear head and heart. If you have not seen any progress since that cleanse I ask you this: Is it time to repeat the cleanse and reset your body, mind and soul?
Sometimes our progress is limited because we are not deligent in our efforts. More often than not it is the result of letting toxins back into our space. Negative thoughts are toxic. Scolding yourself for not sticking to a diet or skipping a workout is a toxin. Giving up because we feel overwhelmed is a environmental illness. This is where restarting at the Natural Health Cleanse reintroduces us to this beautiful connection between our minds, hearts and body. We can align and lift ourselves up so that we can refocus. It is permission to try it again and learn where we need help. This is our chance to redefine what our personal best is and how we want to be graded, ranked or measured against our goals. I challenge you to set those in a way that is supportive, encouraging and uplifting to your health and well-being.
The other side of this if you haven’t made any progress is to ask yourself if you are and have done your personal best. If you have then you have made significant progress and your results are positive even if the scale didn’t move much! You tried and while you didn’t meet a goal you learned. You grew. You can move forward on this journey with grace and acceptance. Maybe we need to try something else, maybe we need to learn from what happened and try again or maybe you made more progress than you realize! The point is if you did your personal best then you did get a good result.
When we struggle with a goal or change we’re making in our lives it is frustrating and we feel like just giving up most days. It’s hard to keep at something and not see progress. We are very much our own worse critic and as a result we miss so many things that are progressing, improving, being enriched and benefiting from the small steps we take every day towards a goal. Are you doing that to yourself? Are you struggling? I see that as a beautiful thing my friends! The only time we won’t see progress if is we give up. Despite the challenge you are continuing to try. That is personal best and will always get an A in my book.
Give yourself credit. Assess your progress realistically and kindly. Learn from where you stumbled and grow from those experiences to build on that. Being healthy from the inside out in our body, mind and soul starts with us being loving to our own being. It is deepening the relationship with ourselves and being uplifting and encouraging when we need a nudge. It is all about not giving up on yourself and the goal you desire in your health. Grade yourself on a curve that always ends in your positive favor. There’s always extra credit you can extend to yourself. You are a whole person in body, mind and soul who deserves to give your personal best to yourself.
It is never too late to join us in the 2020 Wellness Challenge. You can start where we are and start working on your personal health goals today. Join a group of loving, supportive and encouraging women working to improve their health one baby step at a time. https://www.dragonspitapothecary.com/forum