Your Life Is More Than a Wellness Project

There is so much information available about how to be healthy that sometimes I think we've managed to make wellness incredibly unhealthy.

We track our steps, calories, protein, water, sleep and heart rate. We worry about ingredients, supplements, hormones, cortisol and whether we're exercising enough. We hear that we should wake up earlier, get morning sunlight, walk after meals, lift weights, stretch, meditate, meal prep and somehow still get eight hours of sleep every night.

None of those things are necessarily bad. In fact, many of them are really good things. I believe taking care of the body God gave us matters. I've spent years learning about wellness, changing habits and helping other people do the same. But somewhere in all of that, I think we need to remember something important:

Our lives are more than a wellness project.

When Taking Care of Yourself Starts Feeling Like Another Job

There is a difference between caring for your body and constantly trying to fix it.

Wellness was never supposed to become another measuring stick we use against ourselves. Yet it's incredibly easy to finish a perfectly good day and decide we somehow failed because we didn't drink enough water, didn't hit our step goal or ate something that wasn't on the imaginary list of foods we're “supposed” to eat.

That's not much of a life.

Taking care of ourselves should help us participate more fully in our lives, not make us afraid to live them.

Sometimes wellness looks like preparing a meal filled with protein and vegetables. Sometimes it looks like taking a walk because the weather is beautiful and your body needs to move. Sometimes it's going to bed early because you're exhausted instead of forcing yourself to finish everything on your list.

But sometimes wellness also looks like sitting around the table with people you love and eating something covered in cheese without mentally calculating what you're going to have to do tomorrow to make up for it.

Food can nourish the body, but sharing food can nourish our soul.

Your Body Is Not the Enemy

I think many of us have spent far too much of our lives fighting our own bodies.

We look in the mirror and immediately notice what we want to change. We become frustrated when our bodies don't respond as quickly as we'd like. We compare what we can do today with what we could do ten or twenty years ago. Sometimes we even begin treating our bodies as though they're problems that need to be solved.

But this body has carried you through every single day of your life.

It has walked through heartbreak, celebration, exhaustion, change, loss, laughter and ordinary Tuesday afternoons. It deserves care, absolutely, but it also deserves a little grace.

Scripture reminds us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). I don't read that as an invitation to obsess over them. I see it as a reminder to honor what God has entrusted to us.

There is a big difference.

Honor says, I want to care for this body so I can live the life God has given me.

Obsession says, I will finally be okay when this body looks or performs the way I think it should.

One brings freedom. The other can quietly steal it.

Health Is Bigger Than What Is on Your Plate

A healthy life includes what we eat and how we move, but surely it cannot end there.

It's laughing until your stomach hurts. It's digging in the dirt and growing something. It's creating. It's worship. It's sleeping when you're tired. It's having conversations that matter and being ridiculous with people who know you well enough to understand your weirdness.

It's walking outside and noticing the wildflowers instead of rushing past them because you're trying to close a ring on your watch.

It's making memories.

It's allowing yourself to enjoy the life you're working so hard to make healthier.

Jesus said, “My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” John 10:10

A rich and satisfying life sounds like more than simply getting all the numbers right.

Take Care of Yourself...And Then Go Live

Make choices that help your body feel better. Eat foods that nourish you most of the time. Move in ways you're able to move. Drink your water. Get some sleep. Learn what your body needs and pay attention when it speaks.

But leave room for birthday cake.

Leave room for slow mornings and spontaneous adventures. Leave room for dinner with friends, bare feet in the grass, messy kitchens, vacations, laughter and nights when the plan completely falls apart.

Leave room for God to interrupt your schedule.

And please leave room for joy.

Because the goal of wellness isn't to become the person who follows every wellness rule perfectly.

The goal is to be healthy enough...in body, mind and spirit...to show up for the life God has placed in front of you.

Take care of yourself, friend.

But don't get so busy trying to build a healthy life that you forget to actually live it.