January 21, 2024

Hello friends,

Back in high school, my health and wellness teacher introduced me to the “Wellness Wheel.” She drew a picture on the blackboard of a wheel with eight sections: physical, spiritual, emotional, occupational, intellectual, environmental, financial, and social.

She asked us to evaluate our wellness wheels and color them in to see how balanced or unbalanced they were. Then she asked us to develop a plan for filling up one of those segments. Tracking and completing that plan was our major assignment for the rest of the semester.

I picked physical and went swimming for 30 minutes three times a week. Being graded was a very effective way of actually getting me to exercise. Around the same time, I was also going swing dancing every Friday night with some of my friends.

I think that semester was probably the most consistently active I have ever been. Earlier in high school, I had injured my back. The swimming really helped my pain. Dancing is some of the most fun I have.

It was amazing how exercising for a grade and because dancing is fun felt so different, and so much better, than exercising to lose weight or because I was unhappy with my body. The reframing was so much more effective than any other time I’ve tried to force myself to exercise.

That is the last time I’ve felt really happy and at peace in my own skin. Right now is also one of the times I’ve felt most happy and at peace in my own skin. Cutting carbs significantly and cutting alcohol almost entirely has really reduced my inflammation and improved my pain. While I’d still like to exercise more, shifting my motivation and the framing around that has also really been helping. Now, I do my tai chi together with the people that live with me and being able to remind each other and help each other with motivation has really helped. In German, we have a saying that “Geteiltes Leid ist halbes Leid. Geteilte Freude ist doppelte Freude,” meaning, “Shared pain is halved pain. Shared joy is twice the joy.” Seeing how much better and happier we all feel after we’ve moved together somehow helps me integrate that more deeply than just feeling that for myself. While we haven’t yet, we’ve also all started talking about going out to dance more. While I love swing dancing, I also want to experience new things, so I’m curious about trying out Salsa and Bachata. I’d like to go out to do that once before the end of February.

Take 5-15 minutes and write about

Write about a time you felt happiest and the most at peace in your own skin. What can you do to incorporate that feeling into your life more often?

Your friend,
Laura