How is your "self"?

Each year we check-in with our doctors to check our physical health. We check our blood, our heart rate, our blood pressure. We fix what may be broken and we move on.

Each year we move on with our lives, each day we wake up and we do what we do.

Day after day, week after week. Days become months, months become years.

Each year we go to our physical, yet do we ever stop to check our soul?

When was the last time you checked in on your “self”? Not your physical body, but your mind, your spirit and your soul?

Do you ever stop and think about how you care for your “self” each day, each month, each year?

Why don’t we do annual self-checks to see how we are feeling mentally and emotionally?

Why don’t we stop and ask ourselves (and our “self”): Am I happy? Am I sound? How do I care for my mind?

Do we ignore these parts of our selves because we fear what we might find? Because we fear we may need to fix what is broken?

Taking a pill or getting a shot to fix our bodies is easy, but what about caring for our minds and our selves?

I’ve been thinking a lot about change. I’ve written a lot about change. My life has been filled with constant change, recently, and over the past two years. Some changes by choice, most beyond my control.

But when faced with the reality that I had to change, I took the first step towards looking at my full self. And I have learned that each change has made me stronger. Physically, mentally and emotionally.

My “self” feels stronger.

Some days I still feel like an imposter of who I once was, which shows my health journey is not over. Who I was and who I am are now different. And that’s not only ok, it was necessary.

When I really looked at my “self” I realized that I was not healthy. In body, mind or soul.

So I made changes, building on each every step of the way. I am much healthier in nearly every way now.

Next week I go for my annual physical. Each day, I check my soul.

Stress is dangerous. Stress is deadly. Happiness reduces stress.

A sound mind creates a sounder body. What have you done for your "self" lately?

And what can you do for your "self" today?