Mind-body wellbeing habits that hold you steady when everything else feels shaky
Sometimes when things get tough for me, it feels like the wellness tools I’ve worked so hard to cultivate get thrown out the window. The white flag is raised and self-care or self-improvement efforts become temporarily impossible to execute.
After a while of recent wallowing, though, I realized that the foundation I’ve worked diligently to build keeps me steady enough to stay afloat. It helps me catch a breath of air when a deep breath feels like it just can’t surface.
My foundation also makes many of the tools become so habitual that they don’t always feel like something I need to reach for or force. After some time and practice, they end up being natural parts of my lifestyle that often arrive by default, or at least with a lot less effort than when I was first introduced to them.
Because when I’ve floundered and sunk in the past, it’s the foundations I’ve built that have kept me steady enough to find my feet again. And it’s not just about lifestyle hacks or habit and supplement stacks, it’s also the community I’ve built that nourishes me—in-person and virtual, near and far.
It reminds me of the way homes in my childhood neighborhood were rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake: the updated foundations were reconstructed to both support the structure of the home by default and allow it to move with rather than resist any earthquake-related movement (think old-school jello mold). So the house could survive a quake, even if the quake freaked you out and things got messy inside.
Voilà—here are a few foundational tools that have helped me personally during my own shaky moments. Let them inspire and empower you to develop your own toolkit, and see how it serves you. For what it’s worth 🙂
Read the full post and subscribe on Substack.
The more we keep practicing something, even when we flop or mess up from time to time, the more habitual it becomes—whatever the literal or emotional weather. And the steadier our foundation, the more naturally we’ll be able to weather any type of storm (or earthquake… but I’m done with those, please and thanks).
Our foundations all look different, and they can shift depending on our circumstances and life path. But cultivating them weaves the net that catches us if and when we fall, and that can make an immeasurable difference. Remember that by supporting ourselves, we equip ourselves to better support others, too.
What are your mind-body wellbeing foundations?
How do they support you in daily life and during tough times?
Book a free coaching assessment call to cultivate and personalize your own foundation(s).
Take good care,
S
Here’s a nugget from the full post on Substack:
Nourishing eats
Not comfort food that ends up giving you a belly ache (although no judgements toward whatever brings you joy!), but food that feels nourishing on a deeper level. Think grandma-style chicken soup when you’re unwell—my family used to call my Neapolitan grandma’s chicken soup “Italian Penicillin” for a reason.
The more you know what feeds both your body and your soul, the more you’ll know how to keep nourishing yourself when life feels really hard—even if it’s just simple oatmeal in the morning, baguette and cheese for lunch, or boiled potatoes for dinner (all of which got me through a broken wrist and a few emotional shutdowns).
Beloved activities + hobbies
Yoga has been a huge foundation for me for the past 16 years—I don’t know how I would have moved through such uncertain and intense transitions without it. It quickly became an anchor I never knew I needed, and that can be a variety of things for anyone: music, painting, film, sports, gardening, carpentry, cooking, and so on.
When things felt really off in the past—both small grievances and colossal emotional waves—yoga always felt like something I could turn to. Even if I just pouted on my mat or cried in downward dog (I don’t recommend, it’s messy and will plug your nose), it’s a practice that has become natural enough to maintain and meet me where I’m at.
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