Food For Thought: Fuelling the Mind

As some of you may know I am nearing the end of a fitness challenge (being held accountable just got very real!). When I began I believed that how I felt about my physical appearance would be my focus but the results so far have highlighted a lesson in myself that’s so much more important.

Like many of us, body image was a difficult subject for me growing up (as shown in the picture of my high school art assessment). For so long I lived by the misconception that getting my body physically fit meant that I was a healthy person. I just never realised the significance that it played on my mind and the importance in the relationship between the two.

Unfortunately, it took a rather taxing toll of events early this year for me to properly acknowledge the necessity of a personal period of sobriety and cleansing. Recognising the significance abusing an unhealthy lifestyle has on my mental health was the single most influential lesson on my overall health, but was without a doubt the hardest lesson to ever learn.

The more exposed I became to eating well and exercise the more I realised that this didn’t necessarily guarantee a healthy mindset. How many times have you eaten something you know isn’t good for your body and immediately felt guilty for it? The cleaner our eating and lifestyle becomes, the guiltier we feel when we do indulge. We have completely subverted our definition and priority of health to relate solely to that of the physical.

It’s taken a very long time to not only learn to embrace myself but also recognise the very powerful interconnectedness of our mind, body and how we fuel ourselves (with both the ‘good’, the ‘bad’, the mental and physical). The chaos of my mind reflects what is occurring to my body, so when my mind becomes chaotic, I simplified my life.

I started listening to myself, started recognising the highs and lows. The pit in my stomach; the breakout of my skin; the inability to sleep; the consistent feeling of angst and stress; the constant turmoil of over thinking toxic thoughts, the hypothetical conversations played out in my head and the fogginess of my mind. Sound familiar?

I now focus on the high of endorphins after I train; waking with clarity and purpose; being in a good mood ‘for no reason’; wanting to accept the invitation to try something new; the ability to find light in each situation; appreciating the times I have no plans and the gratitude felt for just being.

I most definitely don’t have it all figured out, what I do know is that when I feel off course these are the roots I go back to.

So if there is anything that you take from this piece it’s these:

1. Your mental and physical health are both equally important. You need to balance taking care of your mind and the one vessel you have for your mind to experience life. Mastering one does not accommodate for the other.
2. Your age does not excuse you from self-care. Abusing your body on the ideology that ‘you only live once’ is a hypocrisy, take care of yourself at every age as YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE.
3. Lastly, how you fuel your body and mind will inevitably reflect on the other. Limiting your mind with close-mindedness and fuelling it with toxicity, self doubt, harmful comparison and even people will affect your body. Just as fuelling your body with toxic food, smokes, drinks, drugs-alcohol… will hugely affect your mental health and wellbeing.

So like every other White Scarf post I leave you with an invitation to change your perspective. Next time you consider your health or a fitness challenge, consider it as an opportunity to shed more than just kilos, but to shed light on the importance of your emotional strength and stability. Don’t work out and eat well because you hate your body, do it because you love it. Learn to embrace your own balance, knowing when to swap your trainers and inside gym for barefoot sunrises in the earth. Recognise when your mind is craving clarity. Find that sweet spot you reach in between the endorphins from exercise and the choc chip cookie dough icecream.