Prince Humperdinck: “Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work, but I’ve got my country’s 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it; I’m swamped.“
Count Rugen: “Get some rest. If you haven’t got your health, then you haven’t got anything.”
The Princess Bride; 1987; Act III Communications, Buttercup Films Ltd., The Princess Bride Ltd.
The older I get, the more I understand the overall concept of health. It’s not just looking good or being physically toned. For me it’s being able to physically and mentally function well. I hope someday I can actually change that sentence to be physically and mentally functioning at a high level, but I’m not sure that I’ll reach that. For now I’m sticking to “well”.
Everyday my body has a general ache to it. I go to sleep achy and I wake up achy. In the fall of 2017 I had an emotional bomb hit me and for about 6 days I feel asleep relaxed about 10 or 11pm and woke up on my own sometime between 5 and 6am and felt refreshed. And I didn’t feel achy. Then slowly the achiness crept back in.
It was that moment when I realized how closely connected my emotional state is with my physical health. And I’m really grateful that our society is finally, literally advertising that fact. Cigna has a series of commercials lately about how your emotional and mental health can affect your physical health.
I know that this weekend I’ve got something emotionally going on with me, I’m just unable to pinpoint what it is. Instead, I’m eating a lot and just hanging out at home. I know I need that this weekend, I just wished it didn’t come with the eating part as that’s what’s caused my 20 pound weight gain. So as I dig into my emotions further (with some professional help) I hope that I can channel that into better physical health. Because I don’t want knee replacements at age 60 (or less) and I know taking that 20 pounds back off will help with that goal.
At this point in my journey, I think the best thing I can do is be nice to myself. I know I’ve been a couch potato this weekend, but I also got a lot of sleep and I needed that. I did spend 30 minutes on a stationary bicycle and I’m doing some writing. I’m not going 100 miles per hour like I’ve always thought that I should be and that’s ok. Maybe it’s been that pressure on myself that’s been the main source of my depression and weight gain anyway, so now I’m saying to myself…”Don’t be overly harsh on yourself for what you didn’t get done, be nice to yourself for what you did.” It’s helping a bit and I’ll practice more at it.
