The Art of Serving Others

I finally saw what a toll being a lifelong people pleaser, female business owner, mom to four, and wife to a business owner takes on your life.

My friend, a functional medicine nurse practitioner, ran my labs. She and I are incredibly aligned in our beliefs, from medicine to faith. I practice what I preach from a clinical standpoint, but there is so much more to it. We are not just a physical body. I told my friend, thank you for mothering me right now…I feel so cared for. It’s hard to accept nurturing from someone else when you're always the caregiver. I wonder how many of you relate to this?

One of my childhood friends also experienced tragedy beyond our worst nightmare, and this has been weighing on me. This week has been emotional, to say the least. I carry them in my heart and pray, but I wish so badly that there was something else I could do.

I would say my labs are slightly worse than I expected, but I’ve also been working through the root cause roadmap, and I’m on a heavy metals detox, so my blood cells have not turned over yet. I’ll retest in three months and hope to see all the turnover and its impact on my body.

Chronic stress is definitely to blame for most of the breakdown in my body, as it is for other bodies as well! Often, we don’t recognize stress because it’s become somewhat of our nature. This means it’s still important to work on it rather than pretend it doesn’t exist. I’m not great at rest, and it's affected my sleep for the last 7 or more years. It is hard to be a business owner that serves others on their most significant asset. It’s very rewarding, but it’s hard not to take on their grievances when someone is struggling. Then, I don’t have time to get the support I need. I have a new book release this year, so the year is already feeling slightly daunting to me, so I’m getting some things in order.

Time: I won’t trade my motherhood for anything. No amount of money or worldly purpose is worth it to me. By the time my kids are home from school and while I’m getting them off to school in the mornings and our weekends together, my time is 100 percent sacred. There are no trade-offs in this department. I’d trade any luxuries of life to make this happen. Thankfully, God has created opportunities for me to have both. However, I have mismanaged my time, and every second is filled with work, so not only am I not prioritizing the support I need, but I’m also falling behind on household responsibilities, like laundry. Thankfully, my family is super helpful in this department, but I’ll be darned if another person in the home can carry Mama's mental load.

This is not a complaint, but maybe an opportunity for y’all to hold me accountable to getting better support in place for myself. This means prioritizing my time for workouts, which has always been incredibly important to me. I’m also way overdue for some talk therapy.😉 Gosh, I love some good boundary setting. I probably need to delegate some of my house workload. I have issues because I don’t love sharing my home with strangers, but I also recognize hiring help is an opportunity to give someone else work and resources. I hire out my grocery shoppers and love giving someone else the chance to work. I especially love it when I see these people also be mothers. It always warms my heart and urges me to give a generous tip.

In my membership, this year's theme is THE OPTIMAL BODY. The nice thing about leading a wellness community is that it allows me to join the movement! The optimal body comes from restoring the metabolic system, which, honestly, every lab I’ve ever looked at, including my own, had metabolic dysfunction. Do you know how you get labs run at the doctor, and they tell you everything looks great, but you feel otherwise? Yeah, it's likely metabolic dysfunction.

How do we achieve the optimal body? Much of it involves food and movement but also addresses stress, rewires the body, and settles the nervous system. We will work through all of this, and hopefully, by the end of the next 12 months, many people will feel the complete 180 because of the support, accountability, education, etc.

I never want to make my content or education about me, so I’m sorry if that comes off as self-absorbed. I hope it can connect us to the fact that we are all similar in carrying such heavy loads, being pleasers, not spending enough time on ourselves, etc.

I hope your new year is off to a great start and you’re excited about the OPTIMAL BODY! I pray that your art of serving others also takes a slight recourse this year.

2025 – let’s do this!