It's Mines

“To keep the body in good health is a duty; otherwise we shall not be able to keep our minds strong and clear” ~ Buddha.

No words spoken about the connection between body and mind- and soul if you want to get down to it - could be truer.

Our bodies are the temples where our heart and soul resides, and when our bodies are not feeling well neither will what makes up the health of heart and soul, our minds.

When you get to know yourself the ability to find a way to take care of your body on a daily basis will follow inline as well.

And quite often a method where you will not just find you enjoy but come to need and love; making that “unavailable time” we all use as an excuse nonexistent.

It is a scientific fact that exercise helps simulate the body, but it also stimulates the mind to produce serotonin that we need for the sense of well-being and to combat depression.

It also decreases the production of cortisol, the stress hormone that aids in weight gain, as well as other major health problems.

Depression is a stress factor upon not just the mind but the physical body as well, creating an endless cycle – unless you take the steps needed to break the cycle.

I call depression a stress factor because it seems to me, in my past battles with depression, I start out not understanding or knowing where it comes from, once I realized what was going on.

The original depression is deepened because then I also have opened my eyes to the results of being depressed and feelings of letting everyone around me down because I have been in a stand still.

(It really is a stand still for us because the rest of the world is moving and we are, well, stuck.)

Then I also dwelled in the disappointment in myself for not being able to “pull myself out of the hole” and for allowing life to pass me by, which deepened the depression even more making me feel like I was in quick sand – sinking even more.

What could be more stressful?

Feeling like I wasn’t just a burden but a disappointing burden at that, which could do nothing more than sink deeper and deeper into the void.

How isn’t that stressful?

Even to those around me because they knew it didn’t matter what or how they tried to help, I had to be the one to find myself again so I could pull the pieces back together and pull myself out of the muck and mire.

Anyone who has been in this place and fought the way out to be on the other side of the proverbial fence knows that no matter how well-intentioned and great our families are there is nothing they can actually do to make us “better,” it is very much a personal battle we must win to truly be victors.

So in the midst of getting to know who I am I understood a major missing piece, I was not physically taking care of me.

I had begun spiritually taking care of me, because I have always been a spiritual person and knew my connection to the Universe and all things was a piece of what was to save me, but I still lacked a couple major pieces.

When I realized the larger missing pieces I admit I had to laugh, because despite realizing it before it had actually been a part of my life off and on for all of my life – at one time forced because we were pretty poor growing up and then later because that is what I knew: Eating conservatively and exercising.

The “forced exercise” was because where I grew up we lived in town in my teen years and I never had a car so I walked everywhere I wanted to go, there was no borrowing my mom’s car.

I never minded walking, then or even now- that is where I began the physical healing - but upon becoming, walking became a love for a different reason.

It allowed me to plug in my ear buds and go, sorting out all the things I had been thinking about to music I enjoy, all the while relieving the stress that had built up in my head, body, and soul.

No matter what you may think now, I urge you to see for yourself, they are all connected.

The more I walked and the more I sorted I realized not only was my mind taking on a different outlook so was my body.

And on the other end of this physical care I began to eat conservatively again in a manner that fuels my body and not sugar coats my body.

(I have had many, many issues with food – but that will be in a different series of columns, because I know I want to and can help there as well.)

And from all of these activities I began to realize I had stuffed Me down so far that I was only beginning to recognize the real me, but it feels great!

It may take trying out many, many different exercises, at first, to find just the right one for you, but the key is to remember not to give up, You are worth it.

These days, I have moved past walking– though I still love a good long walk and never pass up the chance to do that when I can on top of the other exercise I get.

I found out that I love Insanity, no not the mindset, though according to most people’s definition if insanity (which is so far off it makes me laugh) I honestly don’t so much mind that either - but the workout.

It seems I constantly go back to it, even after trying many others, because I love the way I feel when I am done; exhausted, hurting from toes to hair, sweating in places I didn’t know had sweat glands and smiling because I know I just did right by me.

A part of me I have gotten to know and understand, but more importantly embrace, is I’m a masochist when it comes to working my body, the more I feel the better I feel because the more I have aligned my head, heart, soul and body chasing away depression with the force of a 10 point Earth quake.

Or at times, when I am in the midst of a depressive cycle, making it end much quicker than a summer rain in the middle of July here in the Nebraskan panhandle.

And for now, I will end this column, but until next week smile much, laugh hard and love with all your heart ~ especially yourself, because when you do the world around you changes.

Contact Tina Mines at [email protected].