The word Inspiration has always made me think of a person who has overcome extreme difficulties to achieve what feels impossible or from a very challenging circumstance. Inspiration is often derived from external sources like experiences or role models and can be self-sustaining, fostering personal growth and creativity that has a lasting impact. For as long as I can remember, I felt that other people inspired me. However, after further evaluation, I realized that my perception of being inspired by others was skewed as I would compare myself to the inspiring person, thus making myself feel worse. And this is when I realized I needed to find inspiration from within.
Earlier this year, I hit a low point of frustration in my health journey. At the recommendation of my then-nutrition coach, I went to a functional medicine clinic to have a comprehensive lab panel. Sparing the specific details of the results, which led me down a rabbit hole of additional testing, I eventually found a holistic nutrition consultant with a behavioral health background. I was tired of the band-aid-to-a-symptom approach and was ready to seek the root cause as to why I was unable to achieve my ideal weight. What started as a long, expensive journey to “fixing” my physical health, I discovered my entire wellness, including how my mental health may have been the driving factor to my physical health barriers.
A primary focus of working with the holistic nutrition consultant was focusing on my relationship with myself, including how my subconscious thoughts could be sabotaging my overall health outcome. She suggested I complete a daily thought download, spending five minutes journaling anything that came to mind. Then you find the most unproductive thought and analyze the feeling, action, and result of that thought. These thought exercises helped provide awareness of how my unconscious thoughts were sabotaging many aspects of my actions. Then identifying how these actions, or inactions, create the results, whether positive or negative.
The more awareness we have of our thoughts, the more we can redirect them to more productive thoughts and reprogram them for positive outcomes. Throughout this process, I identified my why to inspire by reprogramming my thoughts to change behaviors or habits no longer serving my why. The first step to being in control of your own inspiration is getting really clear on the deep reason why you want something, why it is important to you, and why making decisions towards that goal every day.
This process reminded me of the Five Whys technique, which seeks to find the root cause and implement a new solution. Identifying my root ‘why’ helped redirect my thoughts and behaviors and has resulted in a weight loss of more than 25 pounds, reduced stress, and, most importantly, a much-improved relationship with myself.
