There’s no “one size fits all” when it comes to health and wellness. That sounds obvious, but it took me years to fully embrace it. Every time I decided to embark on a new wellness-related venture, I felt bombarded with images of people doing it better than me. I felt that if I didn’t immediately master some complicated yoga pose while sipping on a homemade smoothie made with ingredients I bought that morning from the farmers market after meditating for 45 minutes in a sunray at a park and Instagramming every moment, I had already failed at this wellness life so I might as well just call it before I even began.
Ironically, every time I shared this feeling with someone, they told me I should learn to meditate.
So I tried. I tried and failed to learn to meditate for literally years. I took a mindfulness-based stress reduction course and dropped out after week three. I bought (and was given) countless meditation CDs that just gathered dust on my shelf. I downloaded meditation apps that remained unopened and were eventually deleted to make room for apps that did the opposite of keeping my mind quiet and instead made me busier. I bought meditation tools like fresh sage and beautiful mala necklaces that have become little more than decorative reminders of my meditation failures. I just couldn’t do it. I just didn’t like it. Every time I sat down to meditate, I’d feel anxious or bored or I’d suddenly remember that there was something else far more important that I should be doing and I could always find a way to justify doing that instead.
Finally, I told myself that I wouldn’t ever be able to meditate and the shame I was feeling because of it was just making everything worse so I decided to stop trying. But even though I believed that meditation wasn’t for me, I still yearned for a peaceful mind. I love tea, so I decided that every day, I would make a cup of herbal tea (or, if I wasn’t at home, I’d find a coffee shop and try a new tea) and sit with it for a minimum of 10 minutes, phone-free, book-free, just observing the sights, sounds, smells around me and savoring the taste of my tea. I was excited about having an excuse to buy new tea, so that felt totally doable. It took me a full month of doing this daily before it hit me: I was being mindful! I was actually meditating! Suddenly I realized that wellness doesn’t have to be hard if you just figure out what works for you. I started looking for other ways to be well in my life that were more customized to me and I stopped comparing my wellness activities to others’. It was a transformational moment and I’ve never looked back!
Because of this, I don’t believe there’s one path to wellness, but I do believe that everyone can be well and live truly fulfilling, truly balanced, truly harmonious lives – the key is to stop trying to fit the typical “wellness mold” and find out what makes you personally sing!
Whether you have a specific goal in mind or just want to explore new customized ways to find health and balance in your life, I would love to be your partner in your wellness journey. Let’s figure this out together! Contact me for a free 15-minute phone consultation to see how I can best support you in maintaining balance and living your best life!
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