- Have you/they eaten?
- Have you/they had enough sleep?
- Do you/they feel loved?
The first two may seem trite, but simplicity almost always wins when it comes to health. The most obvious things really are the most important. What and when we eat affects how we feel, our level of anxiety or calmness. And that is because of our blood sugar. Our brain needs fuel to function and whether it’s from fat (if we’re able to dip into our fat stores – and most of us are not adapted to do that) or glucose, the only way for our calm reasoning brain to work properly is to be fed. When our brain is not getting fuel the reasoning part (our frontal lobe) shuts down and we function from our reptile brain and you can guess how that goes.
Number two, has there been adequate sleep? Without sleep, our blood sugar is less stable, our energy stinks, our immune system doesn’t work optimally and we just don’t handle things well. And there are so many other reasons to get proper sleep. But mood and feeling like our balanced selves is right up there in importance.
Do you feel loved? Think about it…why does a bully, bully? We know that bullies are insecure, and don’t feel that great about themselves. But why? Deep down, they don’t feel loved. Feeling loved gives us security. Makes us feel calm. Our nervous system can relax. And maybe we feel loved, but when do we snap at people? When something is bothering us, maybe we feel insecure about something – maybe in those moments we don’t love ourselves.
Who do you know that acts terribly, feels miserable or anxious when they can check all three of these boxes ?
Well fed
Great sleep
Feels loved
I’ll tell you. No one! Really think about this and focus on what you or someone else is missing the next time you are wondering why you don’t feel balanced. The solution is much simpler than you think!