Rosie's Journey of Mind, Spirit and Body: The Power of Why

I am a why person.

Whatever the issue is, I always step back and ask myself why. It doesn’t have to be about myself; it can be about the world in general. I suspect it has to do with me being an observer of life. I am also a data person, and asking why helps decipher the data you want to collect and inform your choices.

Why is such a great question, which takes you off in so many directions, but it is a focused question at the same time.

So what does asking WHY have to do with your journey Rosie?

Of course, those on a weight loss journey, are told to pick a why, but I’m talking about using it in a slightly different way.

The minute I stop and ask myself why I can change the direction of how things are going. It can take me out of a depression or my self-flagellation about my un-worthiness. It explains to me how I react to people the way I do.

For the last few weeks, I have been struggling. I know I have. But I realized that I haven’t been asking myself why. I have some instincts about myself, which has helped me not take giant steps backwards this time.

I want to take a moment and acknowledge that my current issues on a scale of 1-10 of life are at a 2. I have a roof over my head, a job, and a healthy family and friends. A day does not go by that I don’t acknowledge the wonderful things in my life. But that doesn’t mean everything comes easily and that there isn’t work to be done.

So why are things going in the direction they have? What are the whys?

I’m peri-menopausal, affected by weather, the isolation of working from home and general fatigue from COVID. But I also understand that having had COVID and taking my time to recover has messed with my equilibrium.

So how do I respond to it all? Hormonal changes, dark, rainy weather and how the pandemic vacillates are not things I can control. So I have to learn to work around those things. I have to accept that those things will pass. They may be replaced by other things beyond my control, but I have control over how I react to those situations.

Other kinds of changes that I have control over, in reality, are often harder to conquer. I know that activity, for instance, changes my outlook on so many things. It’s easy to make excuses for myself as to why I shouldn’t or can’t do it. But if I look deep into why I make those excuses, I realize that I am in fact holding myself back from those things that make me happier.

And if I want to be happy answering those whys and making the changes is freeing me to explore the deeper questions.