For an awfully long time I wondered why despite the fact that I valued health, I was not healthy. I mean, I am a physician who preached daily to my patients that they need to get healthy; yet, I was not healthy.

Being Healthy Redefined

Too many people make the mistake of believing and thinking that if they are the right weight and have money in the bank that they are healthy. When I was sixteen years old, I realized that something was wrong. There was this constant sense of unease lingering over my head. It certainly did not help that I am black and was growing up in a country where there is racial discrimination. Yet, it was more than that. I could never quite settle, and I could never quite be a carefree teenager. I was thin, I had three square meals every day, and our mother loved us dearly. I figured out then that a healthy life was more than the obvious. It took me decades to see that it was being healthy spiritually, psychologically, physically, and yes, financially.

If You Believe It, It’s True To You

It does not matter if a million people tell you that you are beautiful and smart, because if you do not believe that you are beautiful and smart, you will never feel beautiful and smart. Subconsciously you will think, speak, and act in ways that make you look ugly and dumb. If you believe you are not enough or not worthy, it matters not that you value success and being healthy. You will struggle to be successful and get healthy because deep inside you do not believe you are worthy of success in any arena. What you believe will be reflected daily in your thoughts, your emotions and your actions. Thus, if you are wondering why you can’t quite seem to accomplish a goal, check your beliefs. What limiting belief(s) is preventing or blocking you from living your full potential?

Getting Psychologically Healthy

In order to get healthy, we must first define the healthy parameters. Thinking healthy thoughts, believing in good, responding appropriately emotionally when life throws curb balls, and acting in ways that are positive. Most people set their values and develop their beliefs from their life experiences and role models. Unfortunately, if your role models did not have a clue, you may be one of the unfortunate ones who developed unhealthy coping strategies and have some limiting beliefs like me. Thus, if you have unhealthy coping strategies, limiting beliefs, toxic thoughts, destructive emotions, and unhealthy habits, you will struggle to live a life that reflects your healthy and positive values. To get psychologically healthy, one must clean up their emotional landscape and renovate their mental framework [psychological] and get spiritually healthy in order to flourish and live abundantly.

The Painful Process Of Revisiting Your Past

You have to go back and wade through everything to clean up the landscape and renovate the framework. You have to prune out the dead leaves, rotted branches, and the weeds that are trying to strangle your growth. You will have to discard some beliefs that are no longer valid or grounded in truth or honesty.

1. Get clarity about your identity and purpose.
2. Take everything you see, believe, or think and place them next to the truth.
3. Understand your value and worth has nothing to do with your accomplishments, your weight, the money in your bank account, or your report card.
4. Fear is trying to convince you to keep holding on because if you let go, fear no longer controls you [remember, you create your emotions; therefore, your emotions cannot control you].
5. Accept the reality that you can never change the past, but you can learn from the past.
6. Be grateful for the opportunity to fully embrace and trust love.