September 2021 - Labor of Loving Ourselves
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Week of September 12, 2021!
Hello Ladies!
So, I’ve been thinking about my last post and started reflecting back on some of the things we have focused on as a group this year. Here are some of the things we have done together.
We started drinking more water and eating more vegetables (more being more than where you were when you started). For a lot of you, these things have stuck, or at the very least, you keep remembering the practice of eating more vegetables and drinking more water and you practice it again … you start it again.
We played Nutrition Bingo, where you got to make your own Bingo Card which could have included eating vegetables, trying new vegetables, drinking water or anything related to nutrition. But also your cards could include some personal goals, like cleaning out a closet or finishing some other project around you home.
Some of you practiced playing Bingo and accomplished a few things on your board. I did and I’m still finishing my card!!
We created or chose motivational sayings or motivations as our own personal mantra’s so that we would all have our own little personal “mini pep talk” to keep us going when things fell off or got tough. “Practice not perfection” was a motivational saying that was on our list.
We did a Legumes and Lounges challenge.
And, we learned about preventing dementia and enhancing our brain health through our viewing of a TED talk and we know that exercise and physical activity is a big deal when it comes to brain health.
As I look at this list of the things that we practiced together from January to September, … if you did all of them, if you did half of them, or a quarter of the things on this list, … you can say that you did something this year for your health … that’s a big deal and worthy of celebration!!! And the year is not even over yet!! What would it look like if you kept going? What would it look like if you started again right now? What might you be able to say about your health journey by the end of the year? My encouragement today and always is to keep going.
“No work is insignificant …”
Brave not perfect,
Caroline Johnson Fit Chicks Movement, Community Manager
Week of September 5, 2021!
Happy Labor Day!
Hello Ladies! I hope you all enjoyed the extended holiday weekend!
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to share this week and so I started my thought process by looking up quotes around Labor Day. Here are my three favorite of the ones I read.
“The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.” ~ Oprah
“No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
“What we do is a measure of who we are. If we imagine our work as labor, we become laborers. If we imagine our work as art, we become artist.” ~ Jeffrey Patnaude
When I think of Labor Day, I don’t associate it with a celebration to honor and recognize the contributions of laborers or the labor movement in the United States. Truthfully, I have always just viewed it as a day off of work, a day off that allows me to have an extended weekend!
On this Labor Day, the labor that I am thinking of is not the work that I do to earn a paycheck. These quotes have me thinking about goals and “the work” that I have done for myself, for my mental and physical health, for my personal growth and self-care. This is work also. And it requires just as much focus, planning, taking action, and measuring progress as any job that provides a paycheck, any job of raising children, or any job that is a calling.
As I sit here thinking about how we are entering the last few weeks of summer and the last third of the year, I am asking myself what have I done this year, personally and professionally to grow? What has my work been? What have I accomplished for my mental health, my physical health, my financial health? Have I moved the needle on my self-care in the first two thirds of this year and what do I want these things to look like by the end of the year?
I can personally attest to the fact that I am not great at keeping a focus on the work/labor of taking care of myself and my health and well-being. It is super easy to get distracted by life and other’s needs. I can also attest to the fact that it has been a work in progress for me and that after 5 years of work, I see sustained movement in a positive direction. And because I keep laboring and working and practicing these things, my awareness around when I am not taking care of myself is higher than what it used to be. I can see when things are off in the form of not getting enough sleep, or feeling anxious, feeling overwhelmed and scattered, and overeating. And because I can see these things better, not perfectly, just better, I then have more opportunities to pause and re-focus, adjust my plan if needed, and take action or start again. I can also ask for help if I need to, which is super important for me. When I am doing “the things”/ the labor and work of taking care of myself, I am less likely to feel anxious, less likely to not sleep well or to stay up late, and less likely to overeat. I can also see that this labor of love of taking care of myself, is so worth it because I can see my progress. I can see the difference from where I was 5 years ago. I can also see how my progress has a positive effect on my children and my relationships.
I love the quotes above when I think of them in this context of the work that we do on our journey. Their are specific pieces of each quote that I love even more in the context of this journey …
… there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.
No work is insignificant …
… If we imagine our work as art, we become artist.
I am grateful that I started working and laboring on me. I am grateful that I keep starting again, and again, and again…
This September, I want to focus on this labor … the Labor Of Loving Ourselves.
So, here are the questions for you to ponder or journal about, AND comment on in the comments section at the bottom of this blog. Please share some of your journey.
Where am I in my personal life/with personal growth right now? Where do I want to be with my relationships, with my finances? With my health and fitness?
What have I done this year so far in these areas?
What do I still want to do in these areas to move the needle before the end of the year?
Brave not perfect,
Caroline Johnson, Fit Chicks Movement, Community Manager