Tag: Journaling

Finding Balance: My Journey to Mental Wellness

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” – Carl Jung

As we moved into 2025, I took a much-needed mental health break from blogging. I focused my energy instead on personal reflection and growth. Coming off a difficult injury recovery, I knew that I wasn’t in a good place and needed that time. I had a micro tear in the arch of my foot, which was not responding to PT. Could it be that I was not going to bounce back this time? Was this part of the aging process? Would I no longer be able to engage in the activities I loved? Would I live in constant pain?

Choosing to step away and focus on my wellness was a hard, but necessary decision. I needed to put myself first and ensure that I didn’t give up on the journey to reclaim my health. I had done that when I gave up running, after my last marathon. This led me to the unhealthiest point in my life – overweight, stressed and depressed.

Healing Plan

In January 2025, I went to my doctor frustrated and in tears. I told him candidly that I needed to find something to help me heal this foot. I told him how hard it was not to be able to engage in the activities I loved. I expressed clearly that it was affecting my mental wellness. I needed a plan of action to heal my foot, because I still had pain with gentle walking.

We discussed alternative treatments that I could try and I settled on dry needling and electric stimulation. By February, after painful dry needling, I was able to walk without a limp. The PT gave me the green light to try gentle yoga classes and see how the foot felt. I then added a beginner Barre class, which offered great stretching of the foot. By late February, I walked back on the pickleball court for the first time in months.

Self-Reflection

During the months I was struggling, I engaged in a lot of self-reflection and journaling. Self-reflection can help you get unstuck by giving you a clearer understanding of what’s holding you back. By examining your thoughts and feelings, you can identify patterns or fears that are keeping you from moving forward. It helps you recognize your strengths and areas where you might need improvement. By understanding these aspects, you can set realistic goals and take action to achieve them.

Reflecting on my history, I realized that my identity was strongly tied to my ability to engage in sports. When that was removed, I tended to give up on living a healthy lifestyle. It also affected my mental wellness and confidence. Therefore, my motivation was coming from external sources, not intrinsic sources.

I believed my pursuit of wellness was driven by my commitment to health, but discovered it was fueled by my need to compete. Therefore, rooted under all that was my need to be valued. This understanding has helped me set healthier sports goals as I move forward. It’s definitely a work in progress, but I am making better choices when planning my fitness goals these days.

Begin Your Self-Reflection Journey

As in my case, starting a self-reflection journey can be transformative. Here are three tools that helped me, and can help you, to get started on your journey.

1. Set Aside Regular Time: Dedicate a specific time each day or week for self-reflection. Choose a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted, allowing yourself the space to think clearly and deeply about your experiences and feelings.

This was hard for me, but early morning seems to work best. I need to have the house alone to truly have space to self-reflect without distraction.

2. Start a Reflection Journal: Write down your thoughts, experiences, and emotions in a journal. Reflect on what happened, how you felt, and what you learned from your experiences. This process not only helps in organizing your thoughts but also provides a reference for observing patterns over time.

I purchased journals in bulk to always have on hand. I used a separate journal for self-reflection.

3. Ask Yourself Reflective Questions: Use guiding questions to delve deeper into your thoughts and actions. Questions like “What did I learn today?”, “What am I grateful for?”, or “What could I have done differently?” can help you explore different aspects of your experiences and gain new insights.

In my case, I asked, “When have I felt like this before?”, “What could I have done differently?”.

Reflections on My Journey to Heal

Reflecting on my journey through injury and self-discovery, I’ve come to appreciate the impact of self-reflection on my personal growth. By taking a step back, I’ve set myself on a path toward a more balanced and fulfilling lifestyle. While the journey is ongoing, I am empowered by the self-awareness I’ve gained, which will guide my wellness journey.

Whether you’re facing similar challenges, or starting self-reflection, every step moves you toward a healthier self. Please share your experiences in the comment section to inspire and connect with us all. As always, feel free to reach out to me directly at laurakump@reclaiminghealth.blog.

Dhanya Vad: I Feel Gratitude

Today in yoga class, my teacher shared the following mantra:

Dhanya Vad – I feel gratitude. When I’m grateful, I find grace. By looking for the blessings in my life, I open up a space of light in every experience; I open up the path for grace to flow. I make room in the middle of everything for gratitude.

This mantra truly resonated with me, especially as we move into my favorite season. The essence of Thanksgiving serves as a reminder to be grateful, but gratitude is more than a one day event. As an elementary school Principal, the school motto we created included the mantra, “have an attitude of gratitude.” It is something we sought to instill in our students, staff and selves. As much as I engaged in this worked, it was not always easy to truly stay in an attitude of gratitude.

Last year when my husband was very sick, I was struggling to balance work and his illness, which made it very difficult to maintain my focus on gratitude. Being at my unhealthiest definitely didn’t help either; in truth, it felt like whatever could go wrong, did. My attitude of gratitude was slipping away and in its place an attitude of complacency seeped in. I didn’t care what I ate, what I drank, how little I slept or moved. I didn’t care anymore about getting healthy, in fact I decided I hated healthy living. Que sera became my new mantra and I felt I’d just take life as it came, one day at a time.

It’s funny that I didn’t notice at the time, but the more I walked away from my attitude of gratitude, the more negative my life felt. When my trainer told me to create a gratitude journal and write in it each day, I laughed. I mean, really? She needed to tell me that? After all the work I had done around the importance of gratitude, someone needed to remind me of the power of it. Well, yes, I actually needed that reminder.

In the summer, I pulled out an empty journal I had here and decided to begin writing in it each morning. I kept things simple and followed the same pattern each day on a new page. First, I wrote about my why; why I wanted a healthy lifestyle and why I was on this path. I wrote three positive statements about myself each day. Finally, I wrote one power statement – what I hoped I would accomplish as a result of this lifestyle. I wrote these things every single day. It took about two months before I started to feel the power of them seeping into my soul and each week I felt myself growing emotionally stronger.

The truth is, I have so very much to be grateful for. Despite all I went through, I’ve found a way to get some traction again. I need to hold on to that and continue moving forward. I share all this, to remind you of the importance of gratitude. When I look around, as the mantra says, I see the blessings of my life. This has helped me find and give myself some grace. It has opened me up to new possibilities, that I would not have engaged in had I stayed focused on the negativity.

If you are feeling stuck, perhaps you can look at the blessings of your life. Believe me, sometimes I know they are hard to find, but I promise they are there. Perhaps begin with a journal as I did. Keep it simple. Take a breath and give yourself the grace you deserve. I hope this week brings you the will to start again and join me on this quest to reclaim our health.