Brainstorming About Health

I've come up with a new plan. I've scaled the list of 30 virtues that I covered last month down to a list of my 10 essential virtues and so, for the 10 weeks I will choose (at random) one of those virtues to explore. Even though a week goes by fairly quickly, I plan to pick the particular virtue apart as much as I can, to figure out what it means to me and how I can best practice it in my daily life. I plan to come up with a tool chest for each virtue. Something that will help me practice and live with the values that I hold most dear. Being that this is the first week, I'll be flying by the seat of my pants, not sure how to best proceed or what I'll end up with, but...that's part of the fun. This is exciting for me.

The virtue I drew out of my little heart-shaped box for the first week of May is HEALTH. Health. Sounds boring, really. Of course health is important, that's no big news. We talk about it and read about it and fret about it constantly. Theories about achieving optimum health abound. Many are conflicting and some are downright scary. There is always plenty of news on the health front and plenty of general knowledge and common sense practices that nobody needs to have reiterated. But this is about me. I'm building my own personal paradigm about health. This is about how I envision health, and how I plan to use the virtue of health as a constant, important tool in my walk through life. So I started by brainstorming, just to see what associations and feelings and ideas HEALTH brought up for me. With brainstorming, there are no wrong answers and things are never in the order of importance. Try this with me, if you will, just to see how you feel about health.

Here are the questions I posed for myself:
What words do you associate with health?
food, sleep, diet, water, sleep, rest, balance, exercise, muscles, fresh air, sun, socializing, happiness, joy, care, boundaries, love, connection, hygiene, beauty, stretch, peace, yoga, sweat, cleanse, detox, closure, openness, self-respect, self-love, no more shame, no fear, taking care of business, do what needs to be done, friendship, limits, schedule time for the most important things, music, meditation, prayer, spirituality, God, honoring self, saying yes, saying no, going the extra mile for myself, caring for myself, encouragement, encouraging health in others, laughter, fulfillment, purpose, acceptance, children, activity, hiking, honesty with self, discipline, ability, confidence, energy, excitement, thrive, purity, strength

What does health look like?
There is order. Health looks like true beauty; bright eyes, clear skin, toned muscles, rested countenance, peaceful spirit, quiet strength, shiny hair, open mind, self-confidence, honesty, responsibility, faith, awareness, integrity

How do you think health feels?
Health feels strong and awake and capable. Health can choose faith and starve out fear, instead. It is the glorious comfort and joy that I'm surrounded by God's light and suffused with His strength. Health gives me the confidence to seek out and allow new experiences. Health feels exciting and peaceful at the same time. Health feels sexy and beautiful and confident and capable and alive.

How does it sound to choose health?
I am worthy of the care and effort it takes to be my healthiest best.
I choose to surround myself with healthy people, opportunities and situations and turn away from/severely limit those things that do not contribute to my good health.
Living in health is living responsibly, honoring God's gifts to me of life, body, mind and spirit. 
I choose health and the things that lead me there.
The healthier I am, the more blessed, joyful and powerful I am.

What things are barriers to being your healthiest?
not enough exercise, not enough outdoor time, allowing others to influence my choices, lack of planning, lack of time management, fear, laziness, inability to prioritize, poor food choices, too much food, binging, going to sleep too late, isolating, not enough socialization, depression, anxiety, lack of discipline, disorganization, disregard of self, not drinking enough water each day, not enough sleep, too much internet time, not finishing what I start, avoidance of uninteresting or unpleasant things, lack of stamina, not enough faith in myself, 

What are things/activities/practices that could be changed or added to each day for increased health?
Make time for both prayer and meditation during the day.
Outdoor time - sun and fresh air.
One or two affirmations on which to concentrate throughout the day.
Less time spent on FB, Pinterest, etc. 
Prep meals and snacks for next day.
Drink at least 32 oz. water throughout the day. Stay hydrated!
Soothing yoga/stretching before bed (particularly hips and back!)
A better nighttime routine with earlier lights out.
At least 1 hour scheduled into each day for exercise.
Take care of pressing/difficult chores early in the day to avoid anxiety thread.

And that was yesterday's brainstorming session. Not that it's worthy of being published, but I'm collecting data for myself, so I can build my tools and habits. Today I created a Pinterest board for Health where I will pin links, memes and infographics that inspire and inform me regarding better health practices (exercise routines and videos, recipes, and meditations, studies, etc.). I also came up with a prototype of a "healthy day" schedule that I will try to stick to tomorrow. It includes time for exercise, prayer, meditation, stretching and some leisure, as well as giving me enough work time, chore time, and getting me into bed with lights out by 10:30. The lights-out time is the thing I'm worried about. I'm such a night-owl - usually getting to bed by 1:00 or later -  but it hasn't been doing me any good, because I also have trouble sleeping past 7:00. I'm going to try for 8 hours of sleep.... Can you imagine?

Tomorrow's exercise? I'll be doing a 4+ mile power walk, lunges, squats and bench pushups, all outside in the fresh air and sunshine. Then I'll come home and do this  fast core workout from fitsugar.com. It's fast and effective. I also plan on doing this yoga-based hip-stretching routine before bed. My hips are not the happiest of campers. In addition to hurting a lot, they tend to also cause me a lot of knee and back pain. 

And since there are some rather large stressors occurring in my life right now, I will work on these things as well, to keep fear at bay. Fear is a killer. 

That's it. I'll prep for tomorrow tonight and I'll let you know how it goes.