I just finished listening to a HeartMath Podcast and am incredibly impressed by the discussion.
I am a Certified HeartMath Trainer and Coach, but I need to work at my practice every day. I am far from perfect and way too often forget to practice the self-care I encourage others to practice. Daily self-care involves adequate, quality sleep, good nutrition, and activity as basics. Additionally, self-care involves our emotional health. Unfortunately, we often don’t pay attention to our emotions or to our mental health. Why does this matter? Because our health encompasses mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. When one area suffers the others will also suffer.
Mindset
After listening to this Podcast, I was reminded of how important mindset can be. I have just returned from a few days away. We had flown to and from a visit with friends and family. I have been diagnosed with PBC and Sjogren’s, both autoimmune diseases. Among the symptoms of these are extreme fatigue, dry eyes, dry mouth, and much more. With Sjogren’s there is also body pain. The fatigue and pain often flair up because of overdoing activities, or just not paying attention and not eating and resting well. For me if I only do one extra activity per day, such as a medical appointment, or some additional baking or cooking I might be ok. If I have a busy day, such as cooking for company and visiting, I need to take the next day to recover. I do quite well at managing, most of the time, but not always. So, I now ask myself ‘why did I think I could fly one day, spend two days visiting, and spend the next day flying home?’ But I made that decision, and I have learned. I was beating myself up for making this poor decision. The podcast reminded me that rather than beat myself up for this ‘failure’ to remember that it doesn’t matter that I made a poor decision, which is now the past, what matters is what I do next.
Following the podcast, I reminded myself to use positive words and rather than say, “I suffer with Sjogren’s” to change that and say, “I have been diagnosed with Sjogren’s disease, which reminds me to practice self-care so that I can live the best life I possible”. I was reminded that today I need to give myself the rest I need to recover. This was all a mindset change. At the end of the podcast the listeners are guided through Heart-Focused Breathing. Though I had already meditated earlier, the Heart-Focused Breathing practice made quite a positive difference to my mindset.
This podcast was just what I needed today. I hope you will listen and be inspired to take care of yourself every day. 🌈 #leadership #work #coaching #podcast #life
I provide Life and Leadership Coaching via ZOOM if you need a little support to live the life you want.