What does, 'I Strive to Thrive' mean?
A few years ago I learned to move out of surviving and into thriving. I made a commitment to always strive to thrive in my life. This decision came from something I began to understand beyond just the words; for the first time in my life, I felt its knowing in the core of my being. The understanding is that, this is it.
This is the only chance I will ever have to be me.
To live this life, in this body, at this time in history. I will never receive another opportunity during my life to replace this body or mind that I came into the world with. The words sound simple and obvious, however the feeling that comes with this knowing, is potent. Viscerally understanding that I will go through my entire lifetime with this one incredible body and this one precious mind, has changed how I care for myself.
I’ve been incredibly fortunate that I haven’t had any major health issues throughout my life. I certainly haven’t always honored my body or my mind. In fact, for decades I neglected my health, which I now know means that essentially I neglected myself. My body, this vessel that carries me through life day in and out, continues to work extremely hard for me, even when I have greatly mistreated it. I spent decades abusing this (now) beloved home for my soul; fueling it with garbage, consuming things that were toxic, and continually running on empty, yet it continued to move me through life.
My mind, which is invaluable, requires a positive environment to flourish in. Have I always created that space for it? Nope! But when you know better, you do better. I now understand that I am the sole caretaker of my beautiful complex mind. This knowing means I want to do all that I can to help it remain clear, sharp, and working at its highest form.
Obviously my life will end at some point, this I know for sure. Yet, I do believe that I will live longer and be healthier than my ancestors. I believe that the way in which they lived their lives, both good and bad, serve as education for me. I choose to learn from what they did or didn't do, doing things differently where necessary in my own life.
In the advanced world we live in, we're provided more opportunities to know about our health and well-being than any generation before us. This knowledge gives me more opportunities to care for myself, in ways those before me didn't know how to.
Not only do I want to live for as long as I can, I want to live a long life where my mind and body are as healthy as they possibly can be. A life that is not only filled, rather overflowing, with abundance in all areas.
What I’ve come to know is that survival is good and thriving is better.
I’ve learned that it’s fairly easy to survive and most anyone can do that. Put food in your body when it’s hungry, even if it’s junk, you’ll likely survive. Get some sleep, even if it’s not as much as you require, you can still survive. Live in an emotionally toxic environment and you can survive; you may not be very happy but happiness isn’t necessarily a prerequisite for survival. So many people live their life only surviving and they may survive for many, many years. They may live to be in their 90’s and have lived all those years and decades, only surviving.
Now thriving on the other hand requires courage, self-love, nurturing and dedication. Thriving requires having a passion for life as big as, or even bigger, than life itself. And because surviving is so easy to do, not everyone is willing to move up into thriving. I wasn’t, until I began to understand that, this is it. Once I moved past the intellectual knowing of this truth and felt it within every cell of my being, I realized that for the rest of my life I will
STRIVE TO THRIVE
What I do today will impact how I feel tomorrow and for tomorrows to come. The better I am to myself today, the more likely it is that I'm not only thriving right now, but that I'm also setting myself up for a better opportunity to be thriving tomorrow. It’s a little bit like a security deposit….do the things today that I know I require to live optimally and beyond, in order to help sustain a healthy mind and body tomorrow.
If I feel rundown and ignore that feeling, push myself to keep going and not rest, eat unhealthy, think/speak negatively, invest my time doing things I don't love and with those that drain me, then I'm likely to feel awful tomorrow. Doing even one of those things moves me from thriving into surviving. Not just today, tomorrow as well. It's like waking up with a hangover from too many cocktails the night before. Even if you did everything the day before to feel amazing, that one decision to consume too much alcohol can leave you feeling terrible the next day.
The good news (well actually, the fantastic news) is that each day provides you a new opportunity to do better than you did the day before. And if you do wake up in a surviving state, you can move yourself into a thriving state. It'll require a bit of extra work, however it can be done. And the even more fantastic news is that the more effort you put into thriving, the more it pays off.
I've come to realize through my visceral knowing of this is it, that I'm committed to living my life always striving to thrive. And what a truly remarkable space it is to live from.
If you love this blog, I'd greatly appreciate you sharing it so that others can benefit from reading it as well. Thank you.
Looking for more tips to help you live well? Check out Your Live Well Journey - The Podcast, every episode offers ways to help you improve your self-care.
Related Posts for You to Enjoy:
7 Simple Effective and Free Self-Care Practices
Workout for Your Health Not Vanity
If you'd like to learn more about how you can thrive in your life, click here to learn more about my Mentoring Program and book your FREE consultation today!
