Each day the world bombards us with the latest ways to get healthy. It may be a new exercise craze that guarantees you will have ripped abs if you just follow these videos or a pill that will make you shed those extra pounds without having to change anything in your lifestyle. While all of this sounds wonderful and can work, the question is will it last?
We know that diet and exercise will help us shed the pounds. If we eat right and workout we will get healthy. Many studies have proven this……..but there is more to getting healthy. I believe True Healing Starts With The Heart!
On a chilly January evening in 2011, a large room tucked in the woods was filled with people. People of every shape, size, and color; all there to celebrate an amazing man’s accomplishments throughout his career. Hiding out in the kids area with her son was a woman who was embarrassed with how she looked. She was there to celebrate her wonderful father’s retirement but was so forlorn with how she looked, that everyone was seeing her again after years of watching her grow up, seeing her extremely heavy and unhealthy. The spandex didn’t hide her shame, didn’t hide the pain she felt. The pain of her son’s autism diagnosis and a husband’s illness that all came to close together. The shame that she had allowed food to be her comfort and her way through it.
After that night she was determined to never let anyone see her that way again. Never again would she hide behind spandex. That night she was determined to get healthy for her family and so that no one would ever see her that way again.
Over the course of the next 3 years she ate healthy, walked, worked out and took loosing weight very seriously. She dropped 75 pds and felt better than ever. She was healthy and strong or so she thought.
You see she didn’t start with healing her heart. She didn’t know that not taking care of what was going on inside would eventually catch up with her on the outside. She didn’t see that the old habits were slipping back in, because the pain and loss of her father, best friend, great aunt and beloved grandma in a year were to much to bare. The food became a comfort again. Rather than deal with the pain inside she dealt with the pain by the chips in the cupboard, handfuls of trail mix or the granola bar that was supposed to be healthy. It didn’t click until 20 pds creeped back on like a thief in the night.
That woman is me. Rather than deal with the pain it was easier to eat it away. Easier to deny the feelings and hide them with food. We need food to live but to be healthy and whole we need to heal the heart.
What is going on in your heart right now? I’m not talking about the physical shape of your heart (this is very important too) but the emotional state of your heart. How are you feeling on the inside? What is holding you back from being happy and healthy? Are you holding in anger, fear, hurt, pain, shame, etc? In order to truly get healthy I believe we need to start with the heart.
Proverbs 17:22 says “a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength”. We have to heal the brokenness inside of us in order to be healthy. This isn’t going to be a quick fix. It’s going to take time and patience. Maybe it will mean forgiving and letting something go that you have held onto for far too long. Perhaps it’s something that you did that has left you feeling guilty and full of shame. It could be years of comparing yourselves to others and never feeling good enough. Whatever it is, it’s time to start healing the heart, to start letting it go and letting God heal you.
The healing process will be different for everyone. Each of us was created uniquely and therefore will heal differently. Don’t allow yourself to fall into a comparison trap. Dig into scripture and ask God to show you where your healing needs to begin. If it all feels like to much at times find a trusted friend or a good counselor to help you sort out the feelings inside. There is no shame in asking for help. Asking for help in the healing only helps you get stronger!
As the heart begins to heal so will the rest of your body. So let your journey begin to truly getting healthy and whole by healing your heart!
Blessings, Michelle