To think about my Be Well thumb, I like to use the Human Compass:
It’s overwhelming to try to do everything I think I need to do for my wellness, and honestly, impossible. Can I really: make all my meals at home, from scratch with organic ingredients, get 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a day, do strength training at least three days a week, do back exercises, pelvic floor exercises, range of motion exercises, learn a new language, put together a jigsaw puzzle, have daily supportive interactions with other humans, follow a spiritual practice, improve my breathing, improve my balance, and get at least eight hours of sleep every night? (I’m sure there’s more—what’s on your list?)
It reminds of when I worked for McDonald’s. There was a 5-inch-thick red binder (in the olden days before it was online) with everything a McDonald’s manager was supposed to do to run a proper restaurant. If you added up the time required to do all the things, managers would need to work 26 hours a day.
What I do instead is look for weak links and do something to strengthen any weak link. It’s a bonus if an activity supports more than one area.
Right now, this is how I’d evaluate my compass:
Body: Weak link = breathing.
Spirit: Strong link (474-day streak of meditating every day).
Soul: Thin link, continue to focus on a weekly 1:1 with a friend.
Mind: Strong link (this used to be strong thanks to learning, but my need now is a calm mind, and meditation calms my mind).
If you were to evaluate your compass, what would you see?
Where there’s a weak link, it’s efficient (but not always best) to do activities that overlap, strengthening more than one area of the compass. When I walk Roxie, I get to be with the dog I love (soul), and we walk fast on the return trip (body), and I do a breathing exercise as we walk (body + mind).
This illness I’ve had (I’m much better now but still regaining my strength, thanks for asking) has been a gift. It’s made me realize two things:
- I don’t currently get enough of a cardio workout in my life.
- The way I breathe is shallow, shaped by my history of being fearful and hypervigilant.
Realizing that my thinking influences my breathing, I have a new mantra I say sometimes during breathing exercises:
In: I fully and freely
Out: dance with life.
In: I am divinely protected
Out: and completely loved.
There’s one more ingredient to Be Well. We’ll save that for next week.
*New to these here parts? The series on the Human Compass and the Hand begins here.
Chewing the Cud of Good
Thankful for the moon. And the astronauts who took us there.
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