Self care is a must.

Your health care is totally under your control to self govern. So why do so many people not take charge of their own care? I know why and now… you can too!

It seems nowadays that many of us place our self care at one end of the spectrum (bottom usually) and the health care provider at the other end. In this modern society, we turn to medical advice before listening to what our bodies are telling us. Those symptoms we book the appointments for…that is our body talking to us. We have lost the art of listening to that inner wisdom. You can begin to understand what your body is saying by learning to ask the right questions of yourself.

What most health care professionals don’t think to ask about is your passion or lack thereof for your work, your key relationships or financial situation. Few ask about our spiritual practice…if we have one.

We have stepped away from faith in our own intuition and are lacking the courage to return to the ways in which subtle energy works.

Why are we so willing to give our power away to the “experts”, when the answers, amazingly, are inside us to start the healing process?

Those experts are not the experts in all those areas and often don’t know who to refer to, but furthermore…they are not the experts in YOU. With rising health care costs, their time is budgeted in the office and they can’t even find the time to learn more about you. That is where you come in.

Who do you turn to?

Why not yourself?

You are your best advocate to finding the right expert in all areas that you are suffering in.

Remember when you used to hear …you have a right to a second opinion? What if that second opinion is …yours?

It can be a challenge to hear what your body is trying to tell at the beginning of a pattern of thought change, when it seems like the whole world has an opinion on this subject. It takes courage to #Reshape the way you think.

Have you ever felt dismissed or discredited and wanted to find a voice in today’s health care paradigm? Then read on…

Say you grew up in a family, like I did, where all the adults died young, from so called “lifestyle and preventable diseases” and you one day got a sinking feeling inside like…crap, I better change some of the things I’m doing before it’s too late?

So, you look at your diet and try some new foods, go to a new practitioner of natural healing and maybe do a detox or two. You notice you have lost some weight, gained some energy, maybe sleep better, don’t have the usual headache and oh, yeah you spend less time in the bathroom…bonus! Not bad for a start to relying on your intuition to find the right way to care for yourself.

headache - healthPop Quiz: Do you get a lot of headaches …do you know why?  Choose from the list below.

    1. Loud noises at work / home.
    2. You need to eat something.
    3. You need to drink more water.
    4. You need to see a chiropractor.
    5. Who knows…you just take something for the pain most days.

The correct answer is 3 or 4. If you answered correctly you are already intuitively good at your own self care.

Most headaches are caused by dehydration, and/or an out of alignment spine can cause you a “pain in the neck” too. But did you know you can also get withdrawal headaches from the medicines you take? The National Headache Foundation (a quick question to Google and there they were!) says you can get medication overuse headaches (click here)

So, now you have gained some confidence in your own ability to care for yourself and then you do what we all do…you tell your friends and/or family what you have been doing. Oh boy, …they freak out and say you should go to the doctor instead or worse, tell you a story about their cousin’s neighbour’s daughter who did what you are doing and terrible things happened to her.

Don’t worry, I’ve been there too.

Listen, it takes a while to shut off the negative talk of others and turn inward and really listen to what is going on inside us. We are all bio-individuals, which can mean no two of us is the same!

So, how can we know what anyone else is thinking right?  Try to ignore the peanut gallery and when you get that uncomfortable gut feeling that you know you are doing the right thing and what others are saying is off….listen to that! That is proof positive that you are on the right track!

We can also be our worst critics! What are you saying to yourself about self care? Are you saying to yourself, “I don’t have time to listen to my body’s signals?” “What are you talking about?” Or maybe “So and so needs me to be strong and healthy now, so give me the quick fix please!” You have probably been having this internal dialogue for a while so turning it off will take practice.

Look around you, what are the others closest to you saying/ thinking or doing for their self care? Do they even know how to care for themselves? Do they bother to ask questions or do they give their power away to others?

If there are emotions stuffed way down deep inside of us…it takes time and patience with ourselves to get really good at loving on ourselves to heal from the inside out!

We are going to talk about this a lot. There are many ways to self care ourselves to prevent disease and to heal from where ever we find ourselves at this moment in time.

I found inspiration in the book The Art of Extreme Self-Care by Cheryl Richardson (click here).

There are many books and articles on the subject to send you on your way to loving self care! See my list, Renée’s Reads, for suggested reads.

Renée Harrison is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach who thrives on the new conversation of personal responsibility to put faith in our bodies to heal back into our healthcare model.

*The opinions of the author offered are for informational purposes only and are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified health care provider with any questions you have regarding a medical condition, and before undertaking any diet, dietary supplement, exercise, or other health program.