If you’ve ever gone down a wellness rabbit hole and come out more confused than when you started, I understand.
One account says eat six small meals. Another says fast until noon. One says cardio is everything. Another says cardio is ruining your hormones. Count your macros. Never count anything. All of it confident. Most of it contradicting itself.
And somewhere in the middle of that noise, you’re supposed to figure out what to do with your one body, your one life, your one exhausted Tuesday morning.
Here’s what I’ve come to believe after getting lost in that noise myself. The problem isn’t that there’s too much information. The problem is direction. Most of us are trying to build our wellness from the outside in, starting with what’s trending, what works for her, what the standard looks like, and then trying to squeeze ourselves into it.
But ginhawa doesn’t work that way. Ginhawa works from the inside out.
What does that actually look like? For me it looks like this.
Some mornings I follow a workout video. Some mornings it’s a walk to the caffè with my husband and daughter, a cornetto, a slow start. Some mornings it’s fifteen minutes of pilates on the floor while my daughter plays nearby. None of these look the same. But they all feel the same, like movement that belongs to my life, not to someone else’s routine I’m trying to copy.
The same goes for how I eat. I don’t follow a meal plan. I eat when I’m hungry, I choose whole foods when I can, and I take my supplement every morning as a small signal to myself that the day begins with alaga. That’s it. Simple and honest and actually mine.
And when my daughter needs me earlier than expected and the whole morning falls apart, I don’t restart from zero or spend the day feeling behind. I just adjust and continue. No guilt. No drama.
This is what inside-out means. Not ignoring what’s true about wellness, fresh air, water, rest, movement, nourishing food, these things are real and I don’t question them. But finding your own way of living them. The universal truth is outside. How you live it is yours.
The internet wellness will always have a new answer for you. A new protocol, a new study, a new thing you should probably be doing. And some of it is genuinely useful. But none of it works if you haven’t started with the question that actually matters.
Not what’s trending. Not what she’s doing. Just this: how do I want to feel?
Start there. Then go out and gather what seems useful, bring it back, and see how it actually sits in your real life. Keep what fits. Let go of what doesn’t. That’s not guesswork. That’s ginhawa.
Instead of starting with what’s trending, start with how you want to feel. Trust yourself to know the difference.
Instead of starting with what’s trending, start with how you want to feel. Trust yourself to know the difference.
With love,
Kristen
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Curious about my morning ritual?
A lot of moms ask me about the supplement that’s part of my morning ritual.
If you’re curious too, send me ALAGA on Instagram. I’d be happy to share.
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