Road Map to Health
Where is the map?
I still remember the days of traveling with a paper map or our printouts from Map Quest. It is really hard to get to a destination without a map. Recently my husband and I were able to spend a few days in Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park. The drive from Denver airport to Estes Park was beautiful and so peaceful. One of the reasons that this was such a joy, was because we had GPS turned on and felt confident in the directions it was giving us. We had already mapped out our lunch stop, coffee, and a grocery store along the way. Having these touchpoints throughout the drive gave us a sense of freedom. We did not have to search along the way for where to stop or get frustrated when we drove past a much-needed stop.
Life is so much the same. We desire a roadmap to get to our destination while being able to appreciate the drive along the way. So often without that road map, we miss the beauty of the drive due to the stress of not knowing where we will end up and the stress of looking for the right turns and stops, without really knowing where we are and where we are going. We can so often miss the beauty of the drive and the change of scenery in the process. Our great climb up to the mountains could have been easily missed if we had not had a map in front of us. We had a plan, and an itinerary for the whole trip which made the beautiful hikes and our days run smoothly and without missing anything, all the while still having good boundaries around our energy and time.
Where to start?
We might have a desire of where we hope the map will take us but we often can get stuck in the question of where do we start?
Foundations
Foundations are the basic needs that we need. They are the first step in any healthy road map.
So often these things are boring and are not nearly as flashy as other things but without them, we often fail. We get to our beautiful destination quickly without the pit stops for food and fuel, but how long will that sustain us?
In health, I have seen this played out so often. We rush the foundational pieces to get to the flashier pieces. Two things often happen. First, we have nothing to fall back on when it comes to maintenance. So we rush through clearing infection, we rush through detoxes. Often we will feel better but then after a while, we are feeling sick again. What do we do? We run back to those same things. We run back to those detoxes without realizing that in part, it is our lack of foundational support that is the problem. Secondly, I have seen that when we are really intentional with the foundational pieces, we do not always need the additional root cause support, or at least when we do get into that part of the journey, it goes really smoothly and easily. I see this, especially in kids. Those who have lifestyles and routines that are calm, consistent, and focus on foundational support, get better much faster and the healing they find, endures.
Foundations in health often look like, building up nutrition (macro and micronutrients) that has been depleted. Hydrating the body well. Supporting the drainage pathways in the body. Make sure blood sugar is balanced, and that you are sleeping well. Eating well. Breathing well. That your overall inflammation is being lowered and that you are doing what you can to manage stress in your life. Changing the way you eat, sleep, and breathe all have huge implications for your health. These can make a difference between thriving and surviving.
Discernment along the way!
There were a few times we questioned if we had planned out the right stops. What if something else came along that looked better? What if this hike wasn't as good as the other one we had not chosen? We often had to pause and remind ourselves to trust the process. That there was freedom in trusting the process. Comparison is the thief of all joy. Part of the journey is learning to be in the moment, praying against all fear of scarcity. Understanding this, in part, is an identity issue. The healing journey can often bring this problem to the surface. The Bible tells us of the man who built his house on the sand. As the waves rose his house was destroyed. It is foundational to understand your identity apart from your health. If this is not firmly placed on the rock, the waves will come and knock it over, and you are left with a lot of fear of if you are on the right path.
This plays out most often with clients running from practitioner to practitioner, detox to detox, and searching social media trying to find the one person that will fix all their problems.
Other times we realized that the timing of things or the plan of things could be re-ordered easily and thus able to fit more in while still holding on to the boundaries. I have always loved the idea of rhythm over routine. Routine feels rigid and when I was trying to live this way, the minute my time blocks got off kilter, I would get so discouraged. The moment my perspective changed, and I was focused on Rhythm (the idea of routine but with more flexibility) I found much more peace and process.
Healing is not always linear. It can look like you are going in one direction, only to shift the other way. Being able to find a fixed routine while walking it out with more flexibility can bring a lot of hope to your situation.
