Wholistic Health is a Life Change!

Many years ago, my dad ended up in the hospital with diverticulitis; in fact, he had a perforation in his colon making his body septic. After removing part of his intestines, and a few days in the hospital, they sent him home. I asked him if he was given any dietary recommendations. He replied “no, they said just don’t eat strawberries.” Really?! Either that is all my dad wanted to hear, or they seriously couldn’t come up with any better recommendations than to tell my dad (and most likely any other patient that suffers from diverticulitis) to avoid sweet, delicious, God-made strawberries. Sadly, I have a feeling it was both of these. My dad didn’t have the best of diets or lifestyles. Maybe some think having dinner at the bar at the local pub with a couple of whiskey and water drinks beforehand, 4-5 nights a week, is a healthy diet and lifestyle. Apparently though, strawberries are the sole culprit of one suffering from diverticulitis!

What Are You Willing to Change?

If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten! This is the definition of insanity. We simply can’t keep doing the same things that cause us health problems (like eating dinner at the bar five nights a week) and expect to NOT have the same problems , or worse yet, expect different results. Cutting out a body part that has been affected certainly doesn’t fix the problem either. Health just doesn’t work that way. Think pulling weeds out of your yard – do you just pull off the part that is showing and expect to never see that weed again? Or do you have much greater satisfaction when you dig that whole thing up, root and all? You have to determine the root cause first, and then restore the body back to good health using natural approaches to really achieve true health.

Once you’ve uncovered the root cause of the problem, to truly restore your body back to good health, the first thing you need to do is to take an honest assessment of your health as a whole: mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. Set aside some time, grab a piece of paper and pen or your laptop and a word document, and start being honest with yourself. Write some goals as to what needs to change in each of these arenas. You might be in better balance in some areas than in others at the moment, and that’s okay; write each of them down.

Click “Here” to get your free copy of “LEARN ABOUT THE 7 WELLNESS MYTHS KEEPING US FROM ACHIEVING TRUE HEALTH”

Where Do I Start?

Start with a heading for each of these quadrants of your health and write at least one goal for yourself under all of them. It might be a simple goal in an area that you are fairly disciplined in—maybe your spiritual health is quite strong at the moment—so just write something you would like to simply tweak in this area. Then move on to mental health, keeping in mind that what I mean by “mental” health is your time management, budget, career, schooling, goal setting, purpose in life, etc. For example, are you trying to fit 28 hours into a 24-hour day? If so, what can you do to improve your time management? Next is your emotional health, including relationships. Finally, address your physical health. Start by taking an assessment of your sleep, water intake, exercise, diet, and your spinal health. To have a greater understanding of each of these foundational pieces for our physical health see my book “Are You Being Deceived About True Wellness?” Perhaps, for example, you will still eat dinner at the pub but make a healthier choice or take half your dinner home with you. Perhaps you’ll have one cocktail rather than several, or maybe a beer or glass of wine instead of hard liquor.

The important thing is that you start – determine a goal in each quadrant of your health. Then determine the action steps needed to reach this goal. No step is too small. If your first step to lose 10 pounds is to simply “put on sneakers” – then write it down, put the sneakers on, and check it off the action steps list! While this may sound too simple, it creates satisfaction, and satisfaction creates motivation. And above all: Write the goals and action steps down! This truly is a must. Otherwise it is still just a desire without a commitment to a game plan for change.

Will My Small Steps Even Make a Difference?

These goals don’t have to be far-reaching, unrealistic, huge goals—start with small goals. Dave Ramsey, the developer of Financial Peace University, says his philosophy with the seven baby steps to financial freedom isn’t mathematical—it’s psychological and emotional. Starting off by simply writing down your goals is a huge accomplishment for most people and psychologically rewarding. You have to write down your goals; otherwise, statistics show there is a high likelihood they aren’t going to happen. For starters, these are the things that will help you turn the corner and put your “plane” back on the correct coordinates towards greater health. It starts with a life change.

In Summary

• You have to be willing to make a change.
• Keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.
• Write your goals down.
• No action step is too small.
• Every small step adds to the next – how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
• Wholistic health IS a life change.

To book Dr. Jackie for speaking engagements go to: https://jackiemckool.com/schedule-jackie/

Did you miss some of these earlier blogs? These could give you some great insight to the Truth About Wellness:
“Is Holistic Health Even an Option for Me?”
“A Wholistic Health Approach to Your Diet”
“Natural Wellness: It’s More Than What You Might Think”