Are you writing checks that your body can't cash?

Sleep deficits.  Insomnia.  Stress.  Overwhelming schedules.  Poor eating habits.  Sugar and caffeine excess.  Processed foods.  Fast food.  Lack of exercise.  No time for myself.  Have to get this done.  Hurry.  Constantly connected.  Any of this sounding familiar?  Are you writing checks that your body can't cash?  Are you withdrawing from your body's account without making healthy deposits?

Self care has been on my mind this week.  Mostly because I need to practice it more.  Because I'm feeling exhausted, tired and depleted.  Sometimes in the hustle of getting things done, working long hours for paychecks that don't stretch, and trying to do it all - we forget to make health deposits for our bodies.  Until we either get sick, have an accident or hopefully remember to check in with ourselves.  Our bodies find a way to remind us to slow down and pay attention to the empty reserves within us.

Burning the candle at both ends depletes our body's health reserves.  I often hear patients say things like I used to be so healthy when I was younger, but once I hit __ years old everything fell apart.  Or "don't get old, it really sucks."  The way we treat our bodies (what we put into them - food, drinks; what we put on it - chemicals, cosmetics, dyes, pesticides; not resting or exercising; toxic buildups of stress), will determine our future health.  This is not an excuse to give up.  Even if you've abused your body for years and are dealing with multiple health challenges, it's not to late to turn things around.  But it won't be easy.  Big changes will have to be made.  A serious commitment to health.

Be very careful how you treat your body and health.  It won't be there for you forever.  If you're young, you don't think about future health issues.  You usually bounce right back.  If you're getting older, you've started to notice that it's harder to bounce back.  Pay attention now.  Start making small daily choices and changes to take care of yourself from the inside out.  Start taking a few minutes a day just for yourself - and build up to longer periods of time.  Find your balance between work/play/food/exercise/relationships.  Yes, it's difficult to make time in a busy schedule.  It's hard to turn people down or not be involved.  But your health is sooo much more important than external things.  Unfortunately many people don't realize it until it's too late - or they choose to ignore it.

So take a bubble bath or a long walk.  Hug your kids, your dogs, your partner.  Change one thing today about your diet.  Start journaling to assist with stress.  Go to bed a little earlier.  Drink more water.  Begin an exercise plan and stick with it.  Be kind to yourself.  Take some "me time".  It's not selfish.  It's self investment!   Let me know your thoughts on this or tell me what you'll start doing now to invest in your health.  Comment here or you can reach me at julie@er4urlife.com.

Are you media fat?

Are you media fat?  Do you suffer from information overload? How much do we really need to know? When was the last real, honest conversation you had with someone face to face and not through electronic media?  These are a few of the questions I've been wrestling with recently.

I tried to learn mindful meditation and started having panic attacks at having to spend that much time in the present with my own thoughts, looking inward.  That was a huge eye opener for me!  I've always been content to spend time alone with my thoughts.  In fact, I usually have to remind myself to focus outward more and not the opposite.  I tend to be quiet, introspective, more of a watcher on the fringe.  So being uncomfortable with my own thoughts was a wake up call.  Something more was going on that I needed to explore.  I had to stop meditating though, in order to listen to my inner self at a slower pace.  I needed time to process and sort through things with a different approach.  I realized I had been forcing myself to try to meditate instead of listening to what my mind and body needed at the time.  I haven't given up totally on meditation.  And I would still highly recommend it to everyone.  But I had to learn to let my body and mind dictate the pace.  And I began to wonder about incredible amount of input that we absorb every day.

How much information/news/tweets/Facebook posts do we really need?  Do we even realize how much time we spend each day on the computer/smart phone/ipad, etc?  While I haven't been actually tracking my time online, I've been paying a bit more attention to how often I check Facebook and email.  I basically work on computers for 8+ hours a day at work, 5 days a week as a cardiac sonographer.  I've come to realize that I'm hooked on information - checking email every hour and Facebook up to 10 times a day or more as well as texting, etc.  I call myself the Google Queen.  If anyone poses a question I don't know, I whip out the smart phone and google it.   My addiction started after my divorce when I was traveling for work.  I have friends and family all over the U.S. and in other countries.  It was the only sure way to communicate with most of them on all the various time zones and work schedules.  How else will I find out what they are up to in such concise, frequent, distilled, sterile, distant sound bites?  How else will I feel that I'm not alone when I can reach out to someone in any time zone at any time of day or night with just a few keystrokes?

So I've been paying closer attention.  I see patients who absolutely cannot stand to be quiet and still for 20 minutes or even 10 minutes or even 5 minutes.  It's absolute anathema to them.  They twitch and itch and squirm and scratch and shift and whine and sigh and huff and ask "how much longer?"  I realized that when I try to limit the amount of times I check Facebook and email that I get antsy like a junkie.  That's not good.  That's not healthy.  I've been learning and working on cleaning up my diet.  I've read about and am learning about the chemicals that we absorb through our skin.  But what about the excessive ingestion of information?  Most of the patients I see and people I know have trouble sleeping at night.  How much of that is due to the massive amount of information overload and stimulation from TV, computers, wifi waves, music through earbuds, etc? Our brains need time to process.  What if we're taking so much information in that our brains use most of the night just to process it instead of working to self-heal (repair), detoxify and renew our bodies?  What if we are so distracted by the fatness of our media absorption that we are missing the life around us?

Maybe, just maybe, it's time to start limiting our multi-tasking, media fat, e-connected ways.  If you're having a conversation or writing an email (or even a real hand-written letter!) - turn off the television.  Do one thing at time.  Not three.  It's been suggested that you should turn off all electronic devices at least an hour before bed.  And that you should remove or eliminate them from the bedroom.  Try reading a book, telling a story, re-living good memories, prayer, meditation, gentle stretching or just deep breathing and listening. Hmmm, good ideas.  Think I'll turn this computer off now and get back to my book..... What do you think?