Balance the Good & the Bad

I was listening to a podcast the other day about our ecosystem, and how things are changing and the importance of adapting.  The words adaptation and coexistence stuck with me.  Thinking about our how our physical environment – changing climate, population density, and pollution, along with our food environment which is all inter-related affect our lifestyle.  All of these changes affect us emotionally as well.  With this, consider ways we can adapt and coexist to stay healthy.  What are the best ways to coexist and adapt in these multiple areas of our lives: emotionally, physically and nutritionally.  

• Emotional Perspective -   Currently there’s a lot of upheaval in our political environment that is emotionally stressful and destabilizing.  Additionally, finances, change and instability are emotionally taxing.  We can adapt with stress management and finding joy in the things we have control over.  Moreover, being active in the areas that we have control over can lead to change for the better or we just choose to coexist until things improve.  Alternatively, spending time with family / friends, or delving into a hobby, find what works for you.  If you’re struggling, consider professional support with a doctor or therapist.


• Physical Perspective -  Emotional distress affects physical health, but what we can do is interact in our physical environment.  Getting outside in nature, making your body work and connect such as gardening, hiking, camping, walking your neighborhood. Discover how to build activity into your day.  Picking up litter, removing invasive species of plants these are volunteer activities to improve your environment and reap the physical benefits.


• Nutritional Perspective - Our food environment is changing; we have access to much more unhealthy, processed foods but do continue to have access to healthy food.  As long as you don’t live in a food desert and are able to find fresh produce, whether at the market, farm stand or farmer’s market. Accordingly, plan to compromise by adapting to the current situation, for example - eating more fruits and vegetables, even if organic is unaffordable or inaccessible.  On the other hand, if you’re traveling and have limited choices, adapting is necessary in the short-term.  Hopefully, these are situations are temporary, try to adapt, do your best and do better when the options are improved. Grow your own food, batch cook meal combos on weekends and/or buy prepped food from grocery stores to eat better when short on time.



From all these perspectives, what matters is what we do in the long run. A few days of poor eating won’t alter your health as much as years of poor choices.  Choose to make small changes on a daily basis as a path to better health.  Try not to stress about things you can’t control, know that you can control and make the best of it.  Be kind to yourself, you can accept imperfection as a journey closer to perfection.  However, don’t expect perfection to happen or you will feel like a failure.  Keep moving forward.

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