health and wellness coaching – Wellspring Health and Wellness

morningsunrise

When do you think your most important work of the day takes place? Maybe it’s in the middle of the day when you are in the thick of creative projects at work? Maybe it’s the volunteer work that you do after your “real” job? Maybe it’s in the evening when you are spending time bonding with your family? Maybe it’s right before bed as you spend time reflecting on the day? This is all important work.

For me the most important work of the day happens right up front, first thing in the morning. I wake up early – always have – a blessing and a curse passed down from my Dad’s side of the family (mostly a blessing, I only say a curse because I’m usually toast by 9:30 pm). I’m on autopilot a little first thing. I put the tea water on, do some yoga while waiting for it to boil, and then fortified with my steaming mug I sit down and get to work.

And by getting to work I mean I sit down and meditate. How can I consider sitting and doing “nothing” as my most important work of the day? Here’s what happens for me when I meditate. I give myself permission to relax with purpose. I can physically feel the calm wash over me as I start. When my mind starts to chatter (which it will inevitably do) I give myself permission to let it go. Have you ever had the experience when you can’t stop thinking about something, or someone, or a certain situation and you go over and over it again in your mind? Meditation is like taking a deep breath and saying “time out”.

Meditation helps me let go of the chatter and opens up space for calm, for creativity, for peace, for gratitude. It helps me to recognize that I already have everything I need in this moment. It makes me feel more positive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve finished meditating and when I’ve looked up I’ve been struck by just how beautiful the world around me is. And those feelings often stay with me through the whole day. They help me to be a more patient parent, to be a more creative soul, to approach stressful situations in a calmer way, to focus on the positive, to want to connect with the people around me.

I’m certainly not trying to suggest that meditation makes me perfect – just that personally it helps me realize who I want to be and how I want to move through the world. And that for me is the most important work of the day – to set an intention of how I want to see and interact with the world around me.

So how will you set your positive intention for the day? Some people pick a daily mantra, or give themselves a pep talk in the mirror. Some people pray. Some people break a sweat. Some people snuggle with their children. The way we start the day matters. It is important work. It sets the tone for the entire day and that spills over into the rest of our lives. Find whatever it is that makes you feel love, connection, happiness first thing in the morning and do it every day.

Be happy, be healthy, be well.

Here is a little more food for thought for the importance of starting our day in an intentional way:

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I’m a podcast junkie – I can’t even tell you how many conversations I’ve had with people that started out with, “I was listening to this podcast…” Well here I go again! I was listening to this podcast that I really love and the woman who creates it is also a blogger and initiated a challenge to her listeners to sit down and write why it is they feel inspired to do what they do. So here goes!

This health and wellness coaching thing has been a long time in coming for me. I was not a person who felt like they had a “calling” from a very early age and even when my friends seemed like they were getting it all figured out and finding careers they loved or starting families I was still a little unclear about what was the right way forward for me. Yes, I had interests and jobs I liked and people I loved and in general I would say I’ve always been a pretty happy person but I still felt like there was something a little bit beyond my peripheral vision. Something I was supposed to be noticing but couldn’t quite get a focus on.

Maybe sometimes our dreams are so big that we aren’t at a point in our lives where we are able to step back far enough to have the perspective to see them? Or maybe we just need the right amount of time to let them simmer and grow and develop. For some people that can take longer than others. I was a late bloomer so to speak and it was scary for me. I was starting to feel a little swept along by life and that the whole idea of finding purpose was just not going to happen for me – but I wanted it so badly!

In a way that feeling – that struggle of wanting so badly to be inspired or called or certain about my purpose or however you want to think about it – is exactly what led me to health and wellness coaching. Because I realized what I really want is to live in a world surrounded by inspired people. I want to feel that way myself and I want to help others feel that way too. I want people to experience more moments of awe in their lives. I want to be a force that helps spread positive ripples out into the world. I want to inspire mindfulness in our every day experiences. I want to help people to look up from their daily lives and realize what a miracle it is that we are here.

I’ve chosen to start by helping people learn how to take care of their bodies because it is such a gift that we have them. I personally believe when our bodies feel good, when we are at home and confident in our skin, it’s not as hard for us to address the other really important stuff. When we are at peace with the physical it is easier to be aware of our surroundings, and appreciate our lives and the people in them. It allows us to have the energy and creativity to start working on growing the rest of us – to become our inspired self. We take care of the physical first but it’s just a step towards taking care of everything else about us. Our emotional state, our relationships, our spiritual growth, our purpose.

When I’m long gone I want people to remember me as someone they were glad to have known. I want to help people to have the confidence to take a step back and gaze unabashedly at their big dreams. I want to leave this place feeling like I’ve made a difference, like the world is in an upward spiral and somehow I was able to be a part of that.

Maybe that sounds a bit grandiose or idealistic? But I think ultimately leaving the planet a better place is probably something a lot of us want. I’ve chosen health and wellness coaching as a means to a big end but it’s just my way of hoping to inspire people. In fact I think there are probably as many different ways to inspire as there are people on the planet – my friend Christian inspires people by mixing up awesome beats, my friend Jenny makes the world brighter with her ridiculously funny sense of humor, my friend Amanda blows me away with her ability to listen and express compassion. Really each person out there has their own thumbprint for helping create an amazing, beautiful, kind, happy, peaceful, inspiring planet to live on. And damn it, that’s a place I want to live!

So there you go. Podcast blogger challenge accepted.

Be happy, be healthy, be well!

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