Vital
Today I am grateful for the weekend and family time. I am also grateful for my sister Zita and the good relationship that we have. Happy Bithday today Zita! This year, Zita will be ten years out from her breast cancer diagnosis. I am so grateful she is doing well. I am grateful for all seven of my sisters.
Those "v" words just kept grabbing me, so I will finish with one more: vital. One of the definitions of vital makes it a synonym for yesterday's vivacious. I want to focus on one of the other definitions though. Necessary. Essential. Extremely important. Life-sustaining. Indispensable. You get the idea.
What is vital to my overall health? Exercise. Proper energy via nutritious food. Enough sleep. My cancer medication (tamoxifen) and Vitamin D supplement (the medication and vitamins are debatable, but for me they are important), my daily recovery from alcoholism, my writing, gratitude practice, the love of family and friends.
We often start with aspects of physical health when we are talking about health, but I always consider health to include mental, emotional, and spiritual components too. They all go together and they each impact the other. They are all vital to overall wellness. That means they each need attention and time and commitment from me. I am better at following through on that commitment these days because I have been shown how much better I can feel in all areas if I do some work in all areas.
Some days I do better than others.But I try not to get complacent. And I keep in mind, as was shown to me when I was going through cancer treatments and surgeries, if one area of health takes a hit, the stronger the other areas are, the better everything will go. My health is a combination of systems. Gratitude practice helps all of those systems. If I slip in my gratitude practice, I feel off. I try not to let that happen anymore. That which is vital requires diligence.
What things are vital to your overall health? Do you make time for them each day?
Those "v" words just kept grabbing me, so I will finish with one more: vital. One of the definitions of vital makes it a synonym for yesterday's vivacious. I want to focus on one of the other definitions though. Necessary. Essential. Extremely important. Life-sustaining. Indispensable. You get the idea.
What is vital to my overall health? Exercise. Proper energy via nutritious food. Enough sleep. My cancer medication (tamoxifen) and Vitamin D supplement (the medication and vitamins are debatable, but for me they are important), my daily recovery from alcoholism, my writing, gratitude practice, the love of family and friends.
We often start with aspects of physical health when we are talking about health, but I always consider health to include mental, emotional, and spiritual components too. They all go together and they each impact the other. They are all vital to overall wellness. That means they each need attention and time and commitment from me. I am better at following through on that commitment these days because I have been shown how much better I can feel in all areas if I do some work in all areas.
Some days I do better than others.But I try not to get complacent. And I keep in mind, as was shown to me when I was going through cancer treatments and surgeries, if one area of health takes a hit, the stronger the other areas are, the better everything will go. My health is a combination of systems. Gratitude practice helps all of those systems. If I slip in my gratitude practice, I feel off. I try not to let that happen anymore. That which is vital requires diligence.
What things are vital to your overall health? Do you make time for them each day?
I am very grateful to have you in my life as well, not only as a sister, but as a good friend!
ReplyDeleteThanks Zita! I feel the same way. And I even forgive you and Leonice and Ruth for trying to keep me out of our room at times when we were younger. I can understand why you may not have wanted the "difficult one" around. But we all made it through didn't we? Memories :-)
ReplyDeleteI guess we did make it through, although I thank you for your forgiveness for us for picking on our little sister. Siblings can sure be nasty to each other sometimes, can't they? Wild Bill and the swing-set was another mean thing - sorry about that one, too. Fortunately we grew up and grew out of that stage!
DeleteWe had a lot of fun on that swingset, the tire swing, and playing badminton and volleyball over the clothesline, among other yard recreation.
ReplyDelete