Leap year comes around only every four years, and for me my actual day of birth- I only get one every four years so I am raising a glass of green juice spiked champagne to embrace my visible birthday!
When I was a young girl I was teased about having a birthday only every 4 years, which I greatly disliked. I was the only daughter with 3 brothers , I didn’t have a real birthday, I was the only one missing my front teeth and I was a the only one in the family with triangle nostrils. Yeah, digging deep here ( pun intended) into the past I know but, I was a sensitive girl… stick with me.
It didn’t at the time make me feel special as it should have, and I didn’t like I had to celebrate an invisible birthdate, just something else to make me feel different. But now as I have gotten older each time Feb 29th rolls around I think of it as a special date on the calendar to use as a spring board of sorts.. Self-reflection, accountability, change, action and possibly becoming more visible.
And even though the calendar will only log 13 years, the reality is, multiply that number by 4 and you get my age. Most certainly not a teen, most definitely a few more circles in my trunk.
So I’M LEAPING!! I’m not sitting on the fence chilling, I want to action my life and inspire others to re-invent and action theirs as well and it all starts with getting real. Really, real.
There’s nothing that will make us evaluate life more than traversing the 50’s and learning to become an empty nester while simultaneously watching parents age. My hormones rise and fall, my sleep is in a constant state of flux and for every food or drink I consume on my “bad list”, the negative affects linger for days. The years of feeling invincible are gone as are the days of staying up past 11 pm. Have you had a hangover lately middle agers? Two days in the bed. On the other hand, early birds are quite nice, and totally less crowded.
For those that know me, you know I have an issue with food. I have many food sensitivities that arrived in my thirties that I manage on a daily basis and when I don’t, I feel it EVERYWHERE. I have some theories, linking it partly to silicone breast implants I had in years ago, but i’ll save that for another blog post. My point, It’s not worth it to me anymore to back track to less than optimal habits.
While living and working at The Retreat, https://www.theretreatcostarica.com/about.html (which I am aware is not the real world), I lived in the luxury of clean eating, yoga and gently being for 6 weeks. Hanging with myself most notably, but also being without excess; excess food, excess preservatives, frankly excess offenders.
And while the staff took care of me, I was also taking care of myself from the inside out, and I could see and FEEL the transformation as it unfolded.
From this amazing experience, I am reminded yet again, there is no greater wealth than health and I’m inspired to keep this going now that I am back home.
I’m not a fan of taking a pill prescribed to me by a doctor unless its absolutely necessary and I will throw shade at the western medical institution, because I’m unimpressed.
What happened to figuring out the root cause, instead of throwing a pill at the problem, right?
In Costa Rica, they have lived and healed themselves with the land. Sleepy plant? That will help any digestive issues you have, clogged ears from flying, nothing a little warm capsaicin in the ear canal won’t heal, insomnia? you get it, and the list goes on and on.
“So good, SO Fresh, SO Pura Vida.”
Similarly, I have tested myself through the years to discover my health challenges and taken steps to try to heal my own body. None have been more affective for me than an elimination diet while keeping a journal, scouring labels and mindfully eating to avoid inflammation. I eat mostly clean and grain-free and I consume vitamins, essential oils, herbs, teas, and probiotics.
For me, this works wonders yet is still very hard to be consistent with it 100% because I am a foodie at heart and love ALL the things. But, they unfortunately do not all love me.
And I’m still cleaning up my act. Upon my return to the states I trashed anything in my cabinets that could be toxic after reading through https://www.beautycounter.com/the-never-list/ and then I overhauled my skin care and makeup routine replacing it mostly with Beauty Counter.
I am digging the products and the platform of better beauty so much that I am now representing clean beauty as a consultant. http://beautycounter.com/meghanbarnard
It excites me when friends and family ask my advise about my skin care routine or have a health and wellness question and I can help them uncover what is not serving them and find the solutions to help them feel better. And I have a witch doctor bag wherever I go so I can jump into action at any given moment. Any Ennegram 2’s out there feeling me? Can’t help but help… You MUST let me help you…. Seriously, it’s a problem.
But, middle age is tricky, and usually the road to wellness requires a complete overhaul of the way you move, eat, breathe and exist and in addition HARD to do. Super hard, and sometimes you need a coach and friend who has done the work and figured some tools to become better aligned for better wellness. There’s nothing I like better than digging in and researching the variety of natural paths one can take to wellness.
Truth, I believe now I am living my middle age calling…. It’s fear provoking to make the leaps i’ve been making with my offerings at www.meghanbarnardyoga yet, the leap itself is taking me from “I want to be a woman who…. to THIS is the woman I am”.
So I’m thrilled to be adding coaching programs, and workshops to my list this spring to help those who are wishing to make measurable changes in their health and life.
Let this day be the day you LEAP into the life you’re meant to live!
Will you take the leap with me? Reach out.
Ready.. Set.. Fly!
Peace on,
M
