Health (this is for YOU)

There are many forms of health. Physical and mental health are the two most people probably think of first. Then there's spiritual and emotional also. Everything connects and flows together and causes things to be the way that they are. So today I'm going to talk about health!!!!

To warn you all, this is mostly just a blog of my experiences and it's a little all over the place but eventually connects. I hope some of you can relate to some of this, maybe in different ways.

As many of you have probably seen in my open and vulnerable past couple of posts, my physical health has been struggling lately. In the past four months I have been informally diagnosed with endometriosis and formally diagnosed with epilepsy. I have never been a health hazard so both of those things were totally out of nowhere. If this had happened any year before 2016, I would be in shambles right now. I had struggled with poor mental health for like 17 years of my life. This on top of that would have been the end of my world. However! I am peachy keen.

THE STEPS I TOOK TO BECOME HEALTHY.

Firstly, I plugged myself into a Christ-loving community that was cheering on my growth with The Lord daily. That in itself fixed so many of my emotional and spiritual hurts. (this....is going to be a blog post all on it's own someday.)

August of 2018 I had the honor to take a class from my favorite human being, Pastor Jason. He taught me (and a few others) quite a bit about self awareness and how/why we operate as people. I began to discover what makes me tick and what grinds my gears. PJ began pulling me out of the shameful mindsets, where I didn't think having the negative emotions (sadness, fear, confusion, etc) was okay. (But God made us in His image, and we have all the emotions He has too! We just need to use them as He would.) I learned much more than I can put into a paragraph.

That, with counseling, helped my brain SO MUCH. This bled into the emotional health side, where I realized several things. Being vulnerable was okay. Disagreeing with viewpoints was okay. Standing up for certain things was okay. Sharing what my mind is processing was okay. Wanting justice was okay. Getting sick/not being able to do everything was okay.

For the past 6 years since my first Christian BFF of high school passed away, I had gone into depression every April through July.

IT

TOOK

ME SO

LONG to actually go process through her death with someone who could help me cope. Beforehand I had just dwelled on it. But just in the past year I've finally accumulated skills to get me out of that yearly seasonal funk.

(SO HERE IS MY PLUG FOR COUNSELING--IF YOU HAVEN'T PROCESSED THROUGH SOME TRAUMA OR LIFE ISSUES WITH A PROFESSIONAL, I PROMISE YOU IT CAN HELP AND BREAK OFF SOME CHAINS. DO IT. IT LITERALLY CANNOT HURT YOU.)

And not saying that Anna's loss was the only reason for depression ever in my life, but earlier in life I had huge issues with anxiety and depression. So this recurring trauma was just making it a thousand times worse. Luckily though, as I've very briefly mentioned before in other posts, finding that community of Christ loving people who just wanted me to succeed and grow literally diminished 95% of all of those mental/emotional issues.

I've talked about the emotional and spiritual and mental, and how God led me to all these places of healing for those hurts and missing pieces. And with the physical stuff going on, like I said...If this had happened sooner, I would think all hope is lost. But I'm just chillin'!!! The doctors found answers much faster than others have experienced, I'm sure. And the people in my life with me as I'm figuring all this out have given me so much grace and have been so patient. I literally cannot even imagine how much better all of this could have gone, at the end of the day.

So all of that being said......... "A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body;" Proverbs 14:30a

(And while, obviously, none of us are immune from sickness...because we are human!!! A peaceful heart definitely leads to less issues. lol)

SO what I'm trying to say is...find outlets that will help you become healthy mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Taking care of your soul is just as important as taking care of your body, if not more (because it effects so much)!! If there's something you've been putting off, like finding a good community of people or going to counseling or diving in with The Lord more or even working out, by all means let this be your "sign" to go for it!!!! You have way more supporters than you think.