Follow Your Heart
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee is one of Europe’s most influential doctors with more than two decades of treating patients as a General Practitioner in the UK. In addition to hosting a successful podcast and widely viewed TED Talk, he has authored 5 Sunday Times bestsellers including The 4 Pillar Plan where he explains that simple small changes can have a significant impact on health and happiness.
At @Well, we couldn’t agree more! Chatterjee believes there are 4 focus areas that are as important to your health as any medication and encourages his patients to choose one area to begin improving their health and happiness: Food, Sleep, Movement, Relaxation.
@Well has further SIMPLIFIED this approach for you to achieve profound and lasting wellness with only 3 essential pillars:
Fuel your Body - not dwelling on the food alone. Small changes in sleep and water intake can have a huge impact on your metabolism without even changing your diet.
Move with Intention - We agree with Chattergie. Beginning with as little as 5 minutes of simple movements (walking, calisthenics, etc) 5-6 days per week will have an impact. It is the consistency that builds change that lasts.
Feed your Soul - While relaxation, such as taking time for yourself, unplugging from technology, and mindful meditation, are important practices, relaxation alone is short-sighted. In a recent interview with @melrobbins, Chatterjee himself was asked which of the 4 Pillars was most important in his personal journey to better health and happiness. “Solitude,” he replied. Solitude is intentionally quieting the mind and is also an ancient form of prayer. We encourage our @Well clients to develop their spiritual wellness, including practicing solitude and gratitude. It’s what we call, intentionally, “feeding your soul”.
We want our clients to follow their hearts and not their minds alone. Choosing one area to focus on may lead you down an exhausting rabbit hole.
You cannot “fix” your fitness, nutrition, dress size, relationships or anything else without taking a holistic look at your wellness. I made this mistake for many, many years.
As a nurse, I was consumed with trying to get the food and movement part right every day. After all, how could I be credible if I did not practice good nutrition and exercise habits? I was making it way more complicated than it needed to be. And in fact, though I needed to lose weight and keep it off, that is not where I needed to begin at all.
After completing a similar wellness inventory, I was surprised to learn that I had angst about relationships outside of work. I loved work and allowed it to be the reason I did not have time to build personal relationships. I excelled at work. My boss and career mentor once said, “Kelly is capable of an enormous workload”. I wore that comment like a badge of honor. I felt accepted and “loved” in my professional life. So much so that I proudly ran on 5 hours of sleep for decades and forgot about drinking enough water! I was so dehydrated I had flakes under my eyes, afraid if I drank more, the scale would just read more lbs! I could not understand why I could not eat “normally” like others and still not attain a healthy weight.
Realizing I felt vulnerable and even sad at times in my personal relationships caused me to eventually dig deeper. Why did I prioritize work so much? Why did I feel like I did not fit in or look like other women my age? The truth is, all human beings have a hardwired need to feel accepted and be loved. And human love is incomplete. As wonderful as it is, it will never fully satisfy the deep yearning we have in our souls. We are made for a relationship with God. As I explored my spiritual wellness, I realized that I had wounds from my past that I was completely unaware of. These wounds caused me to see myself as unacceptable and unlovable. Work is where I found acceptance. I was able to earn “professional love” and recognition and paid a price for it with personal relationships and physical health and wellness for years! And success at work still did not satisfy my soul.
Many of our followers have watched my physical transformation over the past 5 years. It has been “inside-out” and worth the work! Trusting in faith and truth led me to the simple solutions to elevate my health and happiness! I have had numerous people ask, “Kelly, what have you done? You look great!” Friends, I have done the internal work with God’s help. None of it was hard once I invited Him into my journey.
BE WELL ❤️
KELLY