It is essential at the beginning of practice to acknowledge that the path is personal and intimate. It is no good to examine it from a distance as if it were someone else’s. You must walk it for yourself.
—Robert Aitken, “The Teacher in Everything”

Hi, my name is Becky and you’ll see me at the front desk most days.

Here’s a picture of me with Josh (operations manager, massage therapist, slow flow yoga instructor, and special needs yoga instructor extraordinaire).

I’ll be writing about some of my experiences crafting a personalized holistic health plan, leaning heavily on resources at Centered to do so. Since you always hear “consult with a physician before undertaking _______ health changes” I’ll let you know that I’m working with Dr. Amy Coleman, the physician on our team.

Around April 1 I decided to spend some serious time and effort into improving my health. My 33rd birthday looms, and there’s that ever-growing awareness of mortality. I’ve written pages and pages of “first blog posts” but they don’t feel finished, polished, or interesting. My intention is to post regularly for the next 2 years, discussing my newly-focused health journey. But I’m having trouble actually getting and staying focused, putting in all the effort I initially wanted to put into it. Like all of you, I have a lot going on in my life and I’m good at making excuses. I have financial concerns, work projects and stresses, hobbies, a social life, a romantic life, I just moved… the list goes on.

Last year I met with our Transformational Life Coach, Connie Milligan, LCSW and she introduced me to the idea of a Wheel of Life.

 

The idea is that we look at each individual facet of our lives and see where we are strong, which areas need more attention, and in general how our lives may be out of balance. We can then work to improve the areas that need improvement, ultimately striving for high numbers across the whole spectrum. Breaking it down in such a way is helpful. It would be even more helpful if I made more regular use of it.

So today I’m just posting a basic introduction. The rest will unfold as it needs to.

I could write (and indeed have written) pages and pages about this process so far, and all my little wins and less-than-wins, but I’ll leave this short and sweet. Later posts will address my experiences with yoga, walks, meditation and breath, hydration and nutrition, strength training, and probably a lot more. Stay beautiful, y’all.