What are you holding on to?

What are you holding on to that could be interfering with your healing journey?

Most of my clients are super champs! They come to me bound and determined to sacrifice just about anything to regain their health. They want someone to tell that what to eat, what not to eat, how to manage stress, what they can do to improve their sleep and anything else that is within their control to feel better, stop the pain and start to heal.

Every once in a while though, I will get a few clients that really want to make better choices. They want to feel better but they struggle with giving up certain things and doing something new and different. Probably the most difficult thing I ask people to do is change what they eat. Sounds simple but, let me tell you, it is anything but simple.

After 10 years, I still have my moments!

It is really hard to watch people stand in their own way of reaching their goals.

It is so difficult to shed what is no longer needed because we can't imagine how to create a new way of being in the world without bringing along some of our old habits.

I grew up with a piece of bread in my hand at almost every meal. When I realized my health depended on changing the way I ate, I knew I was going to have to release the bread! Phew!! Sounds crazy but that bread was so powerful. It took me months to figure out what to do with a plate that didn't have a piece of bread. To this day, I can still recall the way that bread tasted and felt in my mouth, how the bread smelled and how versatile it was. I have a sensitivity to wheat and so my health really depended on me giving it up. I had to stop sabotaging myself.

Why do we choose to do harmful things to ourselves? I feel like we are one of the only (if not the only) species on Earth that chooses to do detrimental things to ourselves for a moment of pleasure.

It's hard to see the changes in the seasons here in Central Texas. We don't get to really experience the beauty of the turning of the leaves or the crisp wind slowly nudging the leaves from their branches and falling softly to the ground. However, there are subtle signs we experience here that the trees are shedding what is no longer needed to prepare for a new journey through winter. They are preparing to rest and then reemerge in the spring with renewed energy and beauty. There are necessary steps in this natural process.

This is the perfect time of year to really go inward and ask yourself if there is anything that you are holding on to that might be standing in your way of progressing into a healthier, happier version of yourself.

If you are not as healthy as you want to be or if you suffer with a chronic illness, it's worth taking a look at.

Would changing what you eat in order to feel better always feel like a terrible dilemma or sacrifice and make you miserable OR is it simply the difficult task of doing something new and different?

If you are hanging on to something that could be hurting you or preventing you from reaching a goal or regaining your health, take a cue from nature (and from Rumi) and simply let the leaves drop so that something new and exciting can emerge.