Hello Friends!
I love the idea of a theme word for the year—one simple word to come back to whenever you need to re-center and make sure your actions are consistent with your values, priorities and focus for the year.
In 2017 my word was “growth”. I had a new business that was not even a year old and many goals for personal and professional growth. So when I created my vision board for the year, I put the word GROWTH right in the center, and then divided my board into the areas where I wanted to grow in the coming year. You don’t have to make a vision board to have a theme word. But I love both of these tools so much. There is such power in setting intentions for what you want for your year and praying about it, believing in it, planning for it and working at it until it becomes reality! And 2017 truly was a year of huge growth for me—both personally and professionally.
This year, the word I kept coming back to is “authentic.” For me this word is a calling to be my true, authentic self and a reminder to share my heart and passion with you even when I’m far from perfect. Which is not always easy! I’m a perfectionist by nature, and I have a hard time letting those around me see my flaws and imperfections (which are many, believe me!) Being a wife, mom, health coach & small business owner is a messy, complicated, often imperfect business. Lets face it–being human is messy and imperfect! So this year I’m making a commitment to myself and all of you to let go of perfectionism, quit worrying so much about what others think, and just:
- Be true to my beliefs, my faith, my values, my dreams, my priorities …
- Be the authentic, genuine person God created me to be …
- Be honest with myself and others and always speak the truth in love …
- Be true to what I’ve been called to do and share information and resources that can help you change your health and future …
even when it’s scary or hard (which, let’s be honest, is a lot of the time)!
A word can be such a powerful tool to help you set and focus your intentions for the year! Do you have a word for 2018? I’d love to hear it if you do! Or join me in letting go of perfectionism and making more authentic living one of your goals for 2018.
Those of you who have been with me from the very beginning of this blog know that my passion is nourishing our bodies with whole foods to help us resolve symptoms of chronic illnesses, feel great and reduce risk of disease. And that is still my first priority for sure!
But the past six months I’ve been doing some additional schooling through the Institute of Functional Health Coaching. It is an amazing program and I am learning so much that I want to share with all of you! The Institute teaches a functional, whole person approach and focuses on seven fundamentals of good health:
- Whole foods
- Sleep
- Stress perception
- Safe movement
- Fun
- Faith, and
- Trauma
As I’ve gone through this course, continued to research and study each of the fundamentals, and started applying this approach in my own health journey as well as with clients, I am becoming more and more convinced of its wisdom.
Food choices are an essential piece of our health puzzle. But all of these other fundamentals play a huge role as well. We can be doing everything right with our food choices, but may need to address stress or sleep in order to progress in our health journey. Stress especially, I believe, can override everything else! Chronically elevated stress hormones impair digestion, which means we aren’t digesting or absorbing or fully utilizing all of those amazing nutrients we may be consuming.
Chronic stress impairs weight loss and fertility and creates a cascade of other health problems. It creates chronic inflammation in our bodies, which we are learning is the root cause of many of our symptoms and most diseases. It can prevent our immune system from functioning optimally and our bodies from truly resting and recovering.
You may have noticed you can be doing everything right to keep yourself healthy and then you have a day or two or three of especially heightened stressors or a night of no sleep and the next thing you know, you’ve caught a bug. This has certainly happened to me! Stress wreaks havoc on our bodies, as does lack of sleep, lack of movement (or OVER exercising) and lack of fun! Sometimes we may even be doing everything else right but we have trauma in our past that hasn’t been addressed and is making it impossible to move forward in our health.
So in 2018 you will continue to get new recipes and inspiration for healthy eating from my blog posts and emails. But you may also notice me expanding my focus a bit and sharing what is currently on my heart and mind about some of these other fundamentals of wellness!
Thank you for joining me on this wellness journey. I am so thankful for the time you invest with me and in your own health and wellness and I never take it for granted!
Wishing you and yours much health and happiness in 2018!
PS: Join me on my Facebook page THIS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9 at 10am where I’ll be doing a Live Q&A. Bring your healthy living and eating questions and post them in the comments or send me a message in advance to make sure I address them!
PSS: If you’d like some time to focus and get clear on your goals and priorities for 2018 and make your own vision board, please join me at Sift Yoga on February 17 for a vision board workshop we’re calling Visualize your Life!
Nourished for Life Wellness Coaching | Kristi Cirignano, CHC | nourished-for-life.com | kristi@nourished-for-life.com | 812-760-6527
