Health is Key To Living a More Beautiful Life and You
So lately the idea of health has been weighing on my mind. With worsening health conditions I thought: am I ever going to catch a break and feel pretty again? Am I ever going to lose some weight? Is my skin ever not going to ache with acne? Am I ever not going to be depressed? Am I ever going to be okay? Are these dark circles ever going to go away? Am I ever going to get on healthy eating habits?
Truthfully, the answer to all this was simple. But it’s not easy. Just like Mel Robins says in her TedTalk gettting what you want is simple, but not easy. Eating healthy when you feel bad is like having a horribly infected limb cut off, it’s painful but necessary to heal. I’ve always wondered why I wasn’t the prettiest or thinnest girl. Why were other girls blessed with genes that allowed them to lose weight fairly easily? I was even told by doctors that losing weight may be darn near impossible but I should always try to maintain. I felt horrible maintaining though, the girls around me were beautiful and…thin. I was always the heavier girl. The less pretty girl. It’s weighed on me throughout life.
So as of today (when I’m writing this article), I’m working out for the first time in a long time. And sure I might fall off the wagon again. But when I think about who I dream of being, she’s not who I am today. I’m not comfortable being like I am today. I hurt all the time and skin looks bad. I wanna take care of myself. When I look in the mirror or someone calls me beautiful, I don’t have to lie to myself to feel like that’s real. I want to look in that mirror and know one thing: that girl is beautiful on the inside and out.
I once read somewhere that, “hurt people hurt people.” I realized this is so true and I am hurt and all I’m doing to fix it is nothing but putting it off till tomorrow. I’ve realized I’ve grown so discontent with who I am that I’ve started to hurt those around me accidentally. I feel so horrible doing this, but I know that I need to start stopping and taking time for self-care and not over exhausting myself. I want to be the best version and that starts with health.
Photo by Trang Doan
Health is beautiful.
Being healthy is even more beautiful.
I realized that I have a lot of opportunities to be healthy. I realized then that if you or I want to be something, we’ll find no excuses. Or on the other hand, if you only want to pretend to want that thing, you’ll find every excuse possible. I’m chugging water now because I want to be healthy, I’m not saying “I will do it later.” I’ve realized that the reason I don’t feel beautiful isn’t that I’m not. It’s because I had exhausted myself and not taken care of the most valuable thing I had been given: my mind and body.
Our bodies are all beautiful starting out. But they need care and repair. I’ve learned with the craziness of college, work, and everything going on we can neglect the key to being beautiful – healthy minds and bodies. Healthy does not mean the same thing for everyone. Everyone is made different, but for me, that means having some quiet and having some coffee, working out regularly, writing and reading often. I still everyday have to remind myself doing my best is okay even if it seems like everyone else is doing better.
So please, let’s stop letting everything consume us and start to form healthy habits. Cut out toxic people, relationships, things, shows, tv, movies, whatever it is! Throw it in the trash and don’t look back.