Health Refined – Pillar Three: Relationships
This is the third post in a four-part series. You can find Part One HERE and Part Two HERE
The next pillar that I believe creates a “Joyful You” is Healthy Relationships. There are many “relationships” that fall under this category. I’ll list just a few:
Your relationship with others – this includes people like your family, parents, in-laws, spouse, co-workers, friends, etc.
Your relationship with yourself
Your relationship with food
Your relationship with money (yes, I said money)
The obvious, which is your relationship with others, is the one most people think of. Did you know that our relationship with others is not based on the actions of others? It’s based on the thoughts we have about others. This is why one person can say their relationship with so-and-so is struggling and another person can think the same relationship is going great.
For example, do you remember the movie Groundhog Day from the 1990’s? Near the beginning of the movie, the main character Phil has an encounter with Ned Ryerson? Ned thinks of he and Phil as being close friends and Phil has no idea who Ned is? We can interpret a relationship to be anyway we choose.
When it comes to having healthy relationships with others, we need to drop “the manual” we have for them, and focus on thinking the kind of thoughts we want to have about them that will lead us to treating them the way we feel is best.
Let’s talk about your relationship with yourself. This includes what you think about yourself, how you talk to yourself, body image, and how you treat yourself (also known as self-care). Are you treating yourself the way you’d treat your best friend or are you treating yourself like your worst enemy? Are you taking care of yourself – physically, emotionally, and spiritually the way you’d take care of a small child? A healthy relationship with yourself is really important for overall good health.
Your relationship with food is also an important factor to overall good health. Is your relationship with food one that fuels your body and serves you, or is it used to punish yourself, or used to medicate your unwanted feelings?
Last but not least is your relationship with money. This is often overlooked because people don’t sense the connection between money and their health, but there is one. In fact, I believe everything is connected. When you have a scarcity mindset towards your money – you feel like money is hard to come by, there is never enough, and you have to work hard for it- you live everything else in your life through this same scarcity mindset.
When we view money and therefore our life with an abundant mindset, we’re happier, more content, and at peace the majority of the time.
One reason having good relationships is so important is that it helps to keep stress levels down. Stress is terrible for our health. It disrupts digestion and food assimilation, causes depression and anxiety problems, throws off our sleep, and is the cause of a myriad of other issues.
Having healthy relationships all comes down to asking ourselves one thing: What feel like love?
Did you miss Pillar One Nutrition
Find them HERE
and HERE
