Jade's Journey in Caring for Her Whole Person!!

I think my journey for caring for my whole person started my Junior year of College. Sophomore year I was in a bit of a rut and it was honestly not a good year for me. I hung out in my room, in the dark, ate a lot of taco bell and other fast food, and basically just pushed anyone who was ever there for me away. I just wanted to be alone and to wallow in my aloneness. I did not take the time to even think about my whole person or what caring for that would even look like.

However, Junior year I realized that I was not happy and I needed to make some changes in my life. I started small by focusing on one aspect of my whole person that I wanted to improve, and for me that aspect was my mind. I needed to figure out how to get out of my rut and that meant I needed to change the way I was thinking about and viewing the situations around me. My goal was to take things less seriously and to really try to be more positive about my life and my situation.

Once I felt like I was doing well with caring for my mind, I was able to care for myself better socially. Making new friends and hanging out with people became easier and fun. I became funner to be around and most importantly, I began to enjoy being around myself. At this point I was really learning how to grow and love myself and I could proceed with caring for the other parts of my whole person.

A little over a year later, I am happy to say that I am still working on caring for my whole person. I very strongly believe that this will be a lifelong process. I am only human and I mess up and neglect caring for aspects of my whole person all the time. I am not perfect and that is okay. Today, I do my best to care for my whole person everyday in small and large ways.

Physically, I enjoy going getting up and stretching first thing in the morning, I also try to go to the gym three times a week.

Mentally/Emotionally, I am constantly reminding myself that I am beautiful, or that maybe I do not need a second cookie or a second helping of food. I also very much enjoy journaling. It gives me a less destructive way to get out my feelings. And figuring out ways to make my journal fun and creative, while still tracking my progress or keeping up with birthdays is mentally challenging and so much fun for me.

Socially/Emotionally, I enjoy hanging out with my friends and having dinner with them every night or just procrastinating on our thesis projects and other homework assignments. I am also beginning to enjoy meeting and getting to know new people, which is a huge step for me.

Spiritually, I like to pray in the evenings before I go to bed and study my Bible as often as I can; I am currently reading the book of Genesis.

Lastly, environmentally, I really just enjoy being outside in nature. It does wonders for my attitude and my soul to be able to spend time in the beautiful, green wilderness. I also do my best to recycle and care for my planet. I can finally say that I love myself and I love caring for my whole person because I made those small, but important, baby steps and decided it was time to make a change a little over a year ago.