I often get asked to help people from a ‘where do I begin?‘ point of view, said with an air of desperation in the undertone.
Whether it’s someone dealing with severe food intolerances, seeming unable to add any new foods, to a mother overwhelmed with all the options at hand to start her family towards better mineral balance… it all can cause an inertia of what to do first as the ‘best’ thing to do.
Something I’ve come to realise is, there is no ‘best’. There is no one task I can suggest as a blanket ‘start here’ recommendation to get started that will apply to everyone. Not even breaking things into sub categories for certain symptoms or conditions…
Why?
Each person is on their own journey, and the need to connect with self to be able to tune into what feels best… THAT is what’s best for you. You need to try SOMETHING in order to determine what your ‘best option’ is.
It may be that you are so sensitive to the world around you, that the combination of what you can cope with mentally, and your body can cope with metabolically, is to use two sprays of magnesium each day, only increasing once a week.
…and that’s ok!
This gives you a combination of histamine reduction, combined with something achievable that’s not too overwhelming to remember to execute.
It may be changing your family’s eating habits by adding one new ingredient every week or two and trialling it in every form known to man gives you that same capacity to change one thing and see how you go.
Feeling changes to your routine (for better or worse at that point) and not hitting a point of overwhelm, THAT is your best way to move forward! As you can recognise things that did or did not work, you can form an informed decision on what to do next.
‘I’m sleeping better having that magnesium in my routine’ OR ‘I ended up feeling a bit dizzy with introducing that to my routine’… you learned something that impacted on you, and you can then make adjustments as a result.
Many of us sit in a perpetual state of self hate and blame where we don’t start anything new because we don’t have the perfect answer to everything to see the best outcome or the volume of outcomes become intimidating.
I’m such a bad mother if I keep eating the foods we eat or don’t give my family more variety in ingredients, but I don’t know how I can afford it to change and don’t know where to start!
…and/or…
If I change anything the kids won’t eat what I touch, so I’ll keep doing what I’m doing until I find the best solution from the best <insert specialist, guru or other person besides ourselves>
Meanwhile, if this person purchased one new ingredient (not ditching everything in the pantry and starting fresh with ‘all the best’ things!) and started to smuggle it into recipes the family are familiar with over a period of weeks, or set the family challenge to see how many different things we could try with it… likely they will find some things that are liked and perhaps some not (yet?) liked.
Is it such a bad thing to make some foods which all family members don’t immediately like?
Chances are someone will if you go slowly in introducing it, or, if you build them up to work with you in positively anticipating change. Reality is, at least some of the time, our families will work with us in the direction we as mothers want. Again though, it’s experimenting to find what works best FOR US that will give us the magical answer, not someone else giving us the silver bullet.
Own your own power, don’t leave it in the hands of someone else – no matter how much they may tell you or seem to be a guru or person who knows best due to their training or experience. You’ve been training for years to get where you are, now listen to that gut instinct on what’s best for you, and get curious!
By implementing one change each week, month or school term, it becomes something that anyone can do without the excuses of life getting in the way.
So now I’ll ask again, what’s the best thing to start? Pick something. Start it today. Trust that you know what’s best for you!
One foot in front of the other…
Until next time!
– Kristan