On Thursday, I suffered a pretty terrible sprain in my right foot and ankle. I’m going to save you from any photos of the baseball sized swell that formed on the top and side of my right foot, but I’ll share some photos along the journey here below in today’s written story. Today’s podcast is going to explore the relationships of how our physical health and in particular, how injuries and labels we allow ourselves to carry can leave an impression on our integrated mental, emotional, spiritual, and social wellbeing. In today’s episode I’ll be talking to you off the cuff a little about how I feel about injuries, labels, and how we often are our own worst enemy and hold ourselves back much more than necessary. In fact, I believe… The more negative labels we carry, the more we will negatively think and feel about ourselves. If we recognize our need for physical movement is an absolute fact, we can plan to structure around our daily rhythms that can help support our healing process with other positive experiences that can substitute / support us in times when we won’t have the same level of natural muscle-moving serotonin and endorphin release like we might get from exercise. Now, I know that was a mouthful, but I’m quite confident you understand what I’m talking about here. Instead of staying cooped up inside all day, letting my mental and emotional health decline along with my temporary physical movement hiatus, I am actively pushing and pursuing time with friends, little moments of walking when I can get them, and as much sunlight as my skin can handle. In addition, I’ve been taking phone calls for clients and receiving unexpected phone calls for friends since the injury as well. As a natural extrovert, my people time is ACTIVE healing recovery time. You see, we get to choose how we live our lives. We get to choose our own form of hard, as they say. And I refuse to let cabin fever take my sanity…. ZigZag Nutrition is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. “I just want you to know that you have a lot greater opportunity to change your life for the better than what you probably ever gave yourself the chance to believe.” Make the Most of Every Moment Life is but a game. Humor. Chaos. Beauty. In every moment. We get to choose how we want to respond to this game called Life. The whole time I was sitting there in this small little waiting room was, “It would be nice to take one of these home. I wonder if my insurance would cover it…?” 😂 Humor is incredibly helpful when we get to see this life as a wild experience, entirely unpredictable, but always full of unexpected blessings, brokenness, and healing along the way. I’m grateful for my peace of mind in moments like these. Gratitude is the Best Attitude 💫 The first thing that came to mind when I snapped this photo and shared it on Instagram was my caption, “At least she matches….” I’m someone who tends to believe that unrealistic optimism paired with a “realist” type of perspective is one of the best ways to navigate this world with unexpected unfortunate events. We can’t change what has already happened, so we might as well make light of it and enjoy the journey. And a lot of this goes back to foundational principles of psychology. * Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset * Internal Locus of Control vs. External Locus of Control * Optimism vs. Pessimism vs. Nihilism We all come into our formed identity and personalities with some sort of bias, but that doesn’t mean we can change our mental frameworks, change our minds (literally) and take on new paradigms. “People don’t live up to their desires, they live according to their standards.” - Tony Robbins “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.” - Henry Ford As I have mentioned before, if you want to change your life you need to change the way you think. If you don’t want to shake the binge drinking alcohol, late nights out with your friends on the weekends to ignore the pain and self-neglect of the work week then go ahead and keep thinking the way you do. If you want to keep using nicotine, caffeine, or sugar as your broken crutch to brace your self-care instead of doing the deep work to truly heal your longing spirit and strengthen your soul, go right ahead. But some people desire more. Some people desire change. Some people go so far as to make something BETTER their standard for tomorrow. You have to transcend your reality today and project yourself into what you want your life to look like in the future in order to get there. You must commit yourself to radical changes — as your standard operating system — if you really want to live a radically different, much improved life. So, whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are most certainly right. ZigZag Nutrition is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts & support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Related Stories to Catch Up On for Additional Reading: Rethink How You Think to Break Through Your Broken False Beliefs. 3 Behavioral Modifications to Transform Your Health Learn from my mistakes and take the chance to take your health in a better direction. ZigZag Nutrition represents the pursuit we share as we strive to live this life as best as we can, learning and growing, flexing and adapting along the way to better align ourselves to the most nutritious life and lifestyle that meets our needs and nourishes our body, mind, and spirit - together. Thank you for being here. Please consider sharing this story with a friend or use it as a catalyst for conversation. See you next time! 🤙 You Can Find Me on the socials for more engaging content, health hints, and sharing stories on all things holistic health and wellness: Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn Check out last episode below. Don’t forget, you can find ZigZag Nutrition on Spotify now too! 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