Physical Care Helps Heal the Heart

My Lovelies, Isabelle here. Welcome back to another week and another edition of our blog here at Pawz and Prose! Athena and I are grateful for your continued support and we’re happy to have you as a part of our Pawz and Prose family. To all our new followers/subscribers… a special welcome is in order and thank you for joining us.

On this post, I wanted to share with you a little more about how I’m continuing to go through this time of loss and grief. If you’ve been following my journey, you’ll know that life threw me a HUGE, painful, and completely unexpected curveball with the loss of my husband. I won’t go into much detail regarding this particular time of my life as 1. I’m still in the process of trying to process the entire thing myself (pardon the redundancy here) and 2. I have a post or two that I have written for you in the past that goes more in depth on this topic (you can always go back to the blog section of our website and read or re-read them if you like). What I can share with you in this new post is that his passing has completely transformed my mindset.

Not long after my husband’s departure, I began thinking more in depth about how I could honor his memory. It may sound strange if you haven’t gone through a similar situation but, pretty much as soon as I meditated on this question it’s like I heard his sweet voice speaking back to me from above saying “take care of yourself, my Chiquitita (my shorty). I need you to look after yourself and stay strong”. I immediately promised myself that I would focus on ALL aspects of my health to honor his request, starting with looking into my nutrition and my physical activity. I reached out to a high school friend of mine who I knew had become an AWESOME and AMAZING life/health coach (*waves* a HUGE shout out here to you, Amanda!) and told her my situation. She promised to walk by my side and that together we would honor my husband’s memory by getting me down a healthier path. She began guiding me into finding ways to become a better version of myself in every aspect of my life: in nutrition, fitness, relationships, etc. I have to share this part of my story with you because 1. It is me keeping my promise to my babe and fulfilling his request to me to look after myself, 2. Because Amanda has not left my side till this day and has been my biggest cheerleader in this whole journey, and 3. Because it was this step that led me to the biggest part of my life transformation… my decision to return to the gym.

You see, my mom had been attempting to motivate me to join the gym for years now, but I had already gone through that experience once. I had joined 24-hour Fitness and, though it was a great experience, there wasn’t really any motivation at that time to push forward and continue working on my physical fitness. During my journey with Amanda, I decided to finally take up my mom’s offer and have her connect me to her contacts at the gym and formally sign-up for a membership at LA Fitness (not sponsored wink wink LOL). It’s hard to explain in exact words; however, what I can say is that this has been a game changing, eye opening, and lifesaving experience for me in so many ways. I believe that, for this round, it has been the mix of added support, knowing this is something I’m doing from the bottom of my heart to honor my husband’s memory, and me being completely motivated and committed to the life change that has made the experience completely different.

The gym has become so many important things for me at this point: my therapy, my friend, my goal, and my way of taking care of myself. I know how many of us talk about how mental health is the same as physical health and that we can’t neglect it and believe me, there’s no bigger believer in this fact than yours truly; however, we must remember that this goes both ways. I have noticed that going to the gym gives my brain the boost it needs to be able to get through the ups and downs of life. I know for a fact that I have been able to resist busy/chaotic days or days where my grief wants to flare up because I am able to focus on my fitness. Every visit to the gym is a welcome training session and opportunity for me to practice mindfulness. Every time my brain wants to go “haywire” during my workouts I make sure to go deep into my next set, that way, even if my mind does keep wandering, I’m able to let the thoughts pass. I am able to let them become a floating cloud that passes along with the other thousands of less impactful thoughts that cross my mind a day. The gym allows for me to not become fixated on them; thus, significantly reducing my anxiety.

Many of those that follow me on social media may see that I am posting more regarding my workouts and time spent at the gym and this is exactly why. It’s important for people to understand that we “gym enthusiasts”, “gym addicts”, “gym rats”, whatever you might want to call us, don’t always post to flaunt. We post because of the hard work that it takes to see results and many of us also post because we want to share how beneficial our workouts have been in other areas of our life (AKA: our mental health). The gym for many of us has become a sanctuary and our therapy of choice. It’s a place where we sweat out pain, anxiety, fear, stress… it’s a place of safe release if done right. Alright, I’m not going to front and say that there isn’t the added benefit of losing weight and getting fit with the gym as well because that is a HUGE plus well, LOL  but that’s just the delicious cherry on top of the whole journey.

In short, my lovelies, this post is meant to be a quick reminder that life is a balance, and just as mental health can help our physical health, let’s also remember that we’re interconnected, and our physical health can also impact our mental health. I’m so grateful to have found my gym and to have started my health journey at this crucial point in my life. I’m also wholeheartedly grateful to those who have been around me cheering me on and keeping me on the right path. My wish is that all you lovelies find something and/or someone that can pick you up, at all times of your life of course, but especially if you are experiencing something major in your life. Stay healthy and stay happy!

Much Love,

XOXO Isabelle ❤️😘 XOXO

Babe, this is also another way of me honoring you and I promise to stay strong and promise that I will take care of myself until we see each other again. XOXO always, your Chiquitita.