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Introduction
If you have been feeling run down with your health physically, mentally, or spiritually, you might be wondering what you can do to get back on your feet and feel whole again. Life’s troubles can lead us down different paths than what we had imagined for our lives, but that does not mean we aren’t capable of making changes to make our lives better.
The main goal of being whole means you need complete control of your health and life, but how is done? It can be simpler than you think when you break it down into steps and actions you can concentrate on every day.
This eBook has been put together to concentrate on the life actions and steps you can take to being whole and becoming your true self. With this eBook, you can begin to take practical actions to achieve the life and self you have always wanted.
While this book might not have all the answers for your unique situation, you can use it as a guide to bring you through a lifealtering journey. It will also help you overcome your personal demons and teach you how to rely on faith to help you through life’s most difficult challenges.
One Small Step Can Change Your Life
Being whole and mastering your health in all forms seems like a big journey, but every journey begins with a small step. Some people choose to wait until they have everything in order to begin big life changes, but if you keep waiting, eventually you will not be able to start the journey at all. You need to start being whole with just one small change, no matter how small the step is. Remember that small steps are better than no steps, as long as you are heading in the right direction.
Stop Making Excuses
On your journey to being whole, you need to stop making excuses in order to start your first small step. One thing that drastically affects mental health in today’s society and culture is the use of social media. Social media does have some important uses though, such as keeping you connected to friends and family that might be living in different parts of the world.
However, if you constantly find yourself on social media comparing yourself to others, you might need to take a break for your mental health. It’s easy to make excuses when it comes to social media, but if you can’t get off the screens and become more productive, you are hindering yourself from being able to take that first small step to become whole.
Quitting excuses is one of the hardest things you might ever have to do because it involves changing parts of yourself that might be set in their ways. As adults, we get stuck in habits, and many of them are distracting us from being whole.
To stop making excuses, you need to force yourself. For example, if you want to begin exercising more as part of a physical fitness journey, you need to carve out time in your schedule to make it to the gym or the park. It can be easy to make excuses, but as soon you can force yourself out of the excuses, you will be one step closer to being whole.
Setting Reasonable Goals
Making the first step means having reasonable goals and plans.
If you do not set clear expectations for yourself and your goals, you will have a very hard time accomplishing them. If you want to get a new job because your current one is not boding well for your mental and spiritual health, you need to start making reasonable goals to find a new job.
One of the best ways to do this is to set a goal to send out 3 or 4 applications a week. This is reasonable for most people’s timelines, but you can always adjust it to fit your schedule. While it might be tempting to tell yourself, you are going to send out 10 or 20 new applications a week, this is not usually practical for most people and you will only be setting yourself up for failure.
Not achieving your goals can be a huge setback when it comes to making small steps. That’s why it’s extremely important to make the goals clear and reasonable so that you give yourself room to accomplish them.
With reasonable goals, you can also make new habits and new lifestyles. Having goals allows you to be more productive because you are always working towards something, whether it be big or small.
Making Routines
Taking one small step also comes with creating structure and good habits for your life. You can’t make good life habits without a routine. Having a routine will also help you to take small steps towards being whole because you can engage in the same discipline every day.
If you have never had a routine or schedule before, make sure to start small. For example, if you want to spend time working on your spiritual health, you can make it a habit of spending the same time every day in spiritual practices.
Maybe you wake up every morning an hour earlier so you can read a spiritual book, the Bible, or a faith-based book that you
want to read. Waking up earlier every day is a simple and practical approach you can take. It’s also a small step that doesn’t involve too much effort.
Accountability for your Step
Once you have a routine, a step, and reasonable goals, you need to make sure you are keeping yourself accountable. If you have a hard time with this, you might also want to engage someone else to help you stay on track. Many people share their steps with a coach or friends.
You need to make sure you are creating time for accountability. This could mean sitting down at the end of every week and going over your progress. Did you wake up early every day like you said you would? Did you send in the job applications that you said you would? If not, don’t be hard on yourself. But make sure you are ready for better the next week.
The Power of Small Steps
Taking a small step might seem like a big deal. You might be thinking you need to try harder or take a huge step to change your life, but most people will tell you this isn’t true. Taking steps that are too big can also set you up for failure if you don’t prepare correctly. It’s hard to fail with small steps.
Once you complete one small step, you can take another one and another one until you have reached your goal. Taking small steps can also save you from actions that might be too risky whether it be financially or mentally.
Understanding the Mind-Body Connection
If you want to be whole and reconnect with yourself spiritually, mentally, and physically; you need to understand the mind-body connection and how it affects your development. Under the mind-body connection, people believe that physical illnesses or problems come from how your mind is processing social and biological factors.
This simply means that your emotions and feelings can affect your physical health. If you have ever been in a stressful situation such as a divorce or unemployment, you probably know how stress can make your body feel worn down and slow. Stress can also affect things like blood pressure and blood sugar.
Your body can also respond to stress by having gastrointestinal issues or even stomach ulcers and headaches. You might also experience fatigue, insomnia, or shortness of breath. Many people visit the doctor thinking they have physical ailments that need to be treated, but their conditions are actually being caused by issues such as stress and anxiety.
Knowing how to control things like stress and anxiety can help you better manage physical symptoms and can get you into better health overall.
Improving Mind-Body Connection
Knowing that mental health can affect your physical health, you might be wondering if there are some ways you can improve the mind-body connection. There are many ways you can improve the connection, but you need to make sure you are making a solid effort and committing to wanting to become better.
If you are having serious physical conditions, your doctor might want to put you on medications such as blood pressure medication. While taking medicine though if needed, you can also do some things at home to improve your mind-body connection.
Stress management techniques are one of the top ways you can reduce stress and get your body back into better health. Stress management looks different for everyone, but many people think that practicing a hobby you enjoy can help reduce stress and enlighten your mind.
If you already have a hobby, you can make time to practice it more often. If you don’t have a hobby, try and find one. Anything can be a hobby from writing, to reading, to painting. Hobbies can also include physical things such as bike riding, yoga, or running.
