Creating 2015—Day 74:   Consequences

I started feeling like shit about a week ago.  A tender, shooting pain on the left side of my head, a swollen throat, and body aches, nausea and fatigue.  Initially, I thought I was fighting off a bug of some kind.  Then I thought it was allergies.  But when it wasn’t going away or lessening, I knew what was really wrong with me—neglect.  I had stopped exercising regularly and, I had stopped religiously following my pre-diabetes nutrition plan three months ago. Actions—or lack of them—have consequences.  I started neglecting my health and now I am paying for it. What cures neglect?  Attention.

Contemplating how in the hell I got here…again.

The holidays and stress were the two main culprits that kicked off my descent into poor health choices.  One poor health choice doesn’t make for overall poor health but add them all up over a span of time and you have a cumulative effect. Bad health can sneak up on you.  My pre-diabetes diagnosis sure did.  I know, I know.  Excuses are like assholes, everybody’s got one.  And I don’t mean to be making an excuse but obviously I am!  It’s hard not to laundry list what gets in our way.  And I do think it is important to understand how you arrived at a particularly shitty point. But, focusing for too long on what I don’t want—to continue neglecting my health and feeling like shit—will only get me more of the same.  It’s putting my energy into the past and the problem instead of the solution and the future.

My intention is not to make excuses for how I’m feeling.  My intention is to change how I’m feeling.  I’m going to start by simply putting my attention back on healthy actions—putting down the wine glass and putting on my sneakers instead.  Channeling my stress instead of eating it.  Reaching out for help instead of going it alone.

Until tomorrow, create from what you have…Sunday contemplation.

Kelli Joan Bennett is a filmmaker, actress, writer, entrepreneur, advocate for creative thinking and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Think Outside The Box Inside The Box Media.

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