Healthiest You - Health tips for finding your healthiest you
|

10 Simple Ways to be a Person of Growth and Health

There is something about being the healthiest you, the healthiest version of yourself that has captivated our attention over the last few months.

After waking up this morning and thinking about how quickly I can make coffee, I contemplated the journey I’ve been on to find that place of health.

A place of learning to be a person of health and growth in many areas of my life.

We all know that in the busy, crazy of life, in a world full of chaos, finding health can be a struggle.

Being surrounded by unhealthy people or unhealthy situations or constant stress and transition can make it extremely difficult to find your healthiest you. Not only to find that place, but to stay there.

I sipped my coffee and thought, “Staying there is the hardest part.”

It’s so easy to slip back into unhealthy patterns when life gets crazy, things change or challenges come our way.

Healthiest You - Health tips for finding your healthiest you

In talking about this together, Jeremy and I have made a decision to be healthy, to be the health in the crazy situations around us. We want to model health for our girls and to represent health even when unhealthy people react in unhealthy ways. We have determined, that together, we will be our healthiest selves.

Honestly, we fail at this often. This is one of the hardest goals we’ve set for ourselves, for our marriage, for our relationships and for our family.

It’s a goal that needs Jesus on a daily basis.

But with his help, we are finding that slowly we are changing. We’re growing and finding health.

We’re finding ourselves in the most unsettled year of our lives with some of the most outrageous challenges and realizing that each day is a day to choose health.

As God writes every single page of our story, I want to learn, grow and develop the areas he is teaching me. I want to be a good steward of pages of my story.

In the process, I’m learning some health tips that might help you on your journey to your healthiest you.

Healthiest You - Health tips for finding your healthiest you

These health tips are simple, real and can quickly be applied to your life.

Of course, there is a lot more to being healthy but this is a list to get you started.

I’m including lots of links to things I’ve previously written or new resources I’ve found around the web that have been helpful to us over the last few months.

Simple health tips:

1} Stay faithful in the Word – We love the youversion app for this. We are currently reading through the Bible with a shared plan that helps us stay accountable to each other in our reading and allows us to be reading the same things so we can talk about them. Whether you read on an app, keep your Bible open on your desk, print a list of verses to read while you get ready in the morning… however you choose to include God’s Word in your day will help you be the healthiest you. You can not be healthy on the inside without putting healthy things in on a daily basis. You can’t pour out healthy things for others if you aren’t pouring healthy things in.

When Devotions are Messy

10 Phrases that Purify

2} Look inward – Say a prayer and ask God to help you see yourself in new ways. For us, this was learning more about the enneagram and taking the DiSC profile with our organization. Where I’ve always been a little leery of personality tests and self-help assessments, I’m realizing that to be my healthiest self, I need to know myself. I need to look inward, find out why I do the things I do and learn more about the lens through which I see the world around me. This has been immensely helpful in our marriage, in our family and in our ways of responding to those around us. The enneagram specifically has increased our knowledge of people, our understanding of ourselves and our compassion for why people do/say the things they do. I can’t say it enough… learn about you by looking inward to find your healthiest you.

Helpful Resources for looking inward:

The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile

The Sacred Enneagram by Christopher Heuertz

Your Enneagram Coach on instagram stories and her free assessment

Typology Podcast by Ian Morgan Cron

FYI – Jeremy is a perfectly adventurous 7w8 and I’m a steady 6w5. We’ve loved learning about this together and quite often find ourselves laughing our way through things that before caused frustration and tension. Now we know why Jeremy has a new idea every 10 seconds. We also know why I have 10 questions for his every new idea and then, 10 reasons why his ideas will exhaust me!

As always, there’s balance: When Self-Discovery Becomes Self-Worship

3} You time – This is a real thing, friends. As we’ve learned more about ourselves, we’ve learned what kind of time helps us be the healthiest we can be each day. For me, it’s QUIET. Time to read or write or journal or sleep. Time without people or expectations or problems to solve. If I don’t carve quiet into my day or make sure I get enough sleep, I can’t expect to be at my best. For Jeremy, this means going somewhere, doing something fun, planning an adventure or trying a new hobby. Spending a quiet afternoon by the pool with me is not refreshing or healing for him. Going hiking through the hills of a nature reserve is not refreshing or healing for me. We must remember that it’s not selfish or demanding to need “you time” to be your healthiest you. It’s a valuable investment for you and for your family.

How do you know if you need more you time? Read this.

Healthiest You - Health tips for finding your healthiest you

4} Keep learning – We can’t be healthy and choose not to learn. We can’t be healthy while being settled, stagnant and stuck. This life is full of new things, new places, new cultures, and new ideas. Honestly, the last 10 years of our lives has been one lesson after another from beginning missions, language study, budget raising, moving overseas, language learning {yes, that is different from study} and culture discovery. In the midst of all of that, we’ve realized how much we have yet to learn about leadership, ministry, people and our world. This journey to find our healthiest selves has us pursuing new degrees and finishing old ones. Also, in an effort to learn, I keep a journal of new things I want to learn on my desk to inspire me to just keep learning.

5} Choose well – I’ve found myself in some very difficult situations over the past years. As a 6 on the enneagram, I don’t mind tough conversations or hard discussions. I tend to see the good, the bad and the ugly of these moments. I can see a mess, sort it out and find the best course of action. My gifts include problem solving, acting and fixing. But that isn’t always the best choice. Sometimes I need to choose a different response. In one situation, I had to sit silently because I knew that to bring health to the situation, I needed to stay quiet. I needed to just listen. Not speak. Not defend. Not ask. Just listen. That was the healthiest choice at that moment. Not only for the other person, but for me. I get tired quickly {my 5 wing} so expending energy on unhelpful conversations or unwanted ideas is not healthy for me.

Evaluating, thinking through, making wise choices towards health is very beneficial on this journey.

6} Find community – This is very important. Find community that is also on a journey to health. Find friends who are looking inward and talk about what you are learning. Follow instagram stories of those who are taking steps to choose well and stay in the Word. Listen to a podcast, go for lunch with a friend, read a blog post, share a comment… all with the focus of finding more people on the same journey as you for health.

7} Speak truth in love – So many unhealthy situations, practices, conversations, moments in life are unhealthy because they are clouded in secrecy, closed rooms and untruths. In becoming your healthiest you, you must determine to speak truth in love. To shed light on darkness, to speak life and light into unhealthy places and to be the one willing to be vulnerable. We have found this to be especially true in missions and learning to live overseas. Our promise to share life #behindtheprayercard is an effort to speak truth, bring health, and be vulnerable in a way that reconnects our pastors, churches and friends with missionary life, overseas challenges and ministry in other parts of the world. To strike down the missionary pedestal and give you a glimpse of real life overseas. For you, you might need to speak truth into a family situation or speak truth over coffee with a friend. Learning how and when to speak truth is a valuable lesson in being your healthiest you.

8} Physical health – This is such a hard one. In the very real crazy of life, choosing water over a cold Coke or deciding on no ice cream at the end of a long day is not easy. I prefer M&Ms and french fries over carrots and cucumbers any day. I also prefer cuddling up on the couch with a book over walking on my treadmill while listening to a podcast. But… the journey to the healthiest you means making these kinds of choices every day. Being physically healthy plays a huge role in your overall health. It greatly impacts how you feel, how you handle day-to-day situations and how you process what is happening around you.

Top Ten Weight Loss Tips – easy practical things you can start today

Home Remedies for Beginners – small changes you can make in your home for health

Running Tips for Beginners – Want to run? Read this.

Tips for Family Bike Rides – just a few things we’ve learned bike riding with kids

9} Go slow – Becoming the healthiest versions of ourselves is a life long journey. It involves waiting, making mistakes, relearning past lessons and choosing to do the next beautiful thing. Go slow. Give yourself grace. Invite Jesus into the process at every turn. One day at a time. This comes into play by taking time to rest. Don’t hurry this journey of growth and health. It means taking the time to name your feelings, talk about them, pray about them, and recognize them in those around you. {see the wheel below}

As Jonathan Trotter states “It’s easier to deal with my feelings (or someone else’s feelings) when I identify what it actually is that I’m (they’re) feeling.” You can find this wheel and more resources from Jonathan here. Go slow… take the time needed to recognize what you are going through, what those around you might be experiencing and pray about out what God is showing you through these real thoughts, emotions and feelings.

I wrote a little bit about my journey at Grit and Virtue: A Soft Strength – Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

10} Stay in your own lane – You can only choose health for you. Don’t try to compare yourself with others. Don’t try to run at a pace that isn’t your own. Be you and allow God to work in you in his timing, in his way and in his plan. Being healthy is a journey, a story he is writing just for you.

As I write out these simple healthy tips, I’m challenged to keep on the path of learning, growing, and becoming healthy. I feel a renewed sense of purpose that these simple steps towards health are worth all the struggle, time, effort and angst to get there.

Just to keep it real… I recently sent out an apology message to a friend because I’d once again failed to be the healthy voice.

None of us are perfect. But we all can be on a journey to our healthiest selves.

We all can choose health on a daily basis.

Then, as we take these simple steps, we can sit back and watch what God does through healthy lives serving him in healthy ways in all areas around the world.

The Family of God working in tandem, in health together.

What a beautiful, precious, worthwhile goal for us all.

What simple steps toward health are you taking today?

What are some ways you are becoming your healthiest you?

One Comment

  1. You have challenged me once again. Thank you for writing this article and thank God for speaking to my heart about it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *