Planning a Health Toolbox

Health, health, health. This is day two of figuring out how to apply the virtue of health to my life in a holistic way.

One thing is already evident. Health takes planning. Today's schedule, though I'm an hour behind, is working well for me. It'll take some fine tuning as I forgot to schedule in little things like travel time and how long it takes my hair to dry. Still, I started off with Lemon Water, prayer, a 3 1/2 mile power walk, squats, lunges, pushups and crunches, and 10 minutes worth of meditation all before I showered or had coffee. That was pure ME time. Excellent start to the day. I want to try it again tomorrow, more or less. I'll have to chart it out.

 Today wasn't an extraordinary day, save for the fact that I formally started my self-care plan. But there are so many different types of days that I anticipate coming up, and I have to have plans for those days, too. Those are the days that generally force health and self-care into the trunk while emotions and whimsy take up the wheel and drive us off a cliff. Let's face it, we all have *those* kinds of days.

There are the sad, mad, bad, too-tired days, that make us want to crawl under the covers with a lasagna and some cocoa. Those are the days when good intentions seem so flimsy and unimportant and we can't be gratified, no matter how far we sink into sloth and gluttony. There are sick days and vacation days and days off, that can easily spin out of control, like a centrifuge flinging all our planning and good habits into deep space. I'll definitely need a few plan revisions and safety devices for the emergency pop-up days; those days when you feel fine and capable but find yourself putting out unforeseen fires and rescuing projects and people, with no time or energy left for yourself. Of course I'll need plans for when I have company and plans for when I'm someone else's company; plans for how to respect my own needs and health while respecting the needs and routines of other people. And I'll need a big, giant safety mega-plan for when I forget to have faith, let fear and sadness take over, and feel like the world has crumbled under my feet. I'll need plans for all kinds of days, plus a whole box of tools for this and that.

Don't get nervous about my usage of the words "schedule" and/or "daily plan". Practicing virtues means building habits and building new habits takes effort and mindfulness and, in my case, a place on the to-do list. But I know myself well, and know that more often than not I push things to do with self-care to the end of the list where they just linger, rarely actualized. I also know that I tend to over schedule my days, not thinking about how long to devote to any one thing. So for starters, I'm drawing up daily plans with scheduled time slots. This is a project, people. Yes, it feels OCD and over-indulgent to me, too. But I want to see it through. Why not? If I walk away from this week with a handful of tools for bad days and a good start to some good habits, I'm gonna be pretty happy.

What I Need for the Health Toolbox


DAILY PLANS FOR:
Good Ordinary Days
Sad/Mad/Bad/Too-Tired Days
Sick/Injury Days
Emergency Pop-Up Days
Company Days
Out-of-Town Days
Holidays
Day-Off Days
Pit of Despair Days

SPECIFIC TOOLS TO COMBAT:
Cravings/Need for Comfort
Fear/Anxiety
Sadness/Depression
Boredom/Angst
Non-Specific Anger/Frustration
Laziness
Colds/Flu and other things that push people under the weather

SPECIFIC TOOLS TO ENCOURAGE:
Healthy Eating
Faith and Joy
Gratitude
Confidence
Socialization
Creativity
Continued Interest in Exercise
Peace

Not yet sure what any of these things will look like, though I have tiny budding ideas. My next several posts - starting tomorrow - I share some of the tools I've found and hope to create for my Health Toolbox.


Start with this article on how to fix 6 imbalances that cause you pain. That painful knee might be caused by trouble with your hip. Find out about neck, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle and back pain and see if any of these fixes help you.

And know that this is the truth: