Tracy Hurst

Description: The continuation of our Be Healthy discussion with guest Tracy Hurst. This week we explore how our emotions affect our physical health, and how our bodies affect our emotional health…and how to truly BE healthy in mind, body and soul.

Click here to listen: B E Healthy Part 2 (www.bestillbefree.com)

THIS WEEK’S VERSE:

“My beloved friend, I pray that everything is going well for you, and that your body is as healthy as your soul is prosperous.” (3 John 1:2)

(If you haven’t listened to Part 1, click here!)

A Message from Monica:

Whoops. We were so excited to continue our talk with Tracy about physical health that we didn’t discuss a verse at the top of the show. But I (Monica) found the above verse in The Voice translation the other day, and it’s as if it leapt off the page and took root deep into my heart.

At the core of these two weeks on Be Healthy is this verse, you know? We want our souls and bodies to be healthy and prosperous! Because at the end of the day, we aren’t going to be able to DO all that God has called us to do (and face it, all that we have to do in a day), if our bodies are operating at 50% and we feel run down, sluggish and consistently down.

We have to BE healthy before we can DO what God has ordained for us to do.

So confession time:

I haven’t been healthy lately. My soul and my heart and emotions have been pretty healthy (relatively speaking…there’s always room to grow). But my body — my physical health — is pitiful. The past few months in particular, I’ve felt run down, lethargic, on-edge, headachy and generally feeling like I’m in a fog.

I hate feeling tired after just going up the stairs in my house, you know?

The frustrating part was that I’ve been exercising regularly and watching my food intake. However, I just realized I was watching the calories of the food I was eating, but not the food itself.

Don’t laugh — but I will always sacrifice real food calories for Cheez-Its calories.

Always.

And Cheez-Its calories — while delicious and satisfying in the moment — are not enough to fuel my body.

I’ve listened to this unpublished podcast episode no less than four times in the past two weeks, because I need help here. And I kept remembering what I said in the podcast about Michael Hyatt and his discipline in regards to physical health. And then I came across that verse from 3 John,

“…and that your body is as healthy as your soul is prosperous.”

And suddenly, one night last week, I had enough. I’m not even kidding — I went to bed determined to make a change, and on Tuesday morning at 5:30 am I made one. And for the past six whole days in a row, I’ve cut out most sugar and processed food. Because my body (at FORTY) operates best on a clean diet.

(I’m not saying this is what everyone should do — I’m not a nutritionist or expert whatsoever.)

(And I haven’t throw out the Cheez-Its yet.)

(The kids…you know.)

I say it to commiserate with you that we are all struggling to be healthy!

Just because discuss a particular topic on the podcast, it doesn’t mean we’ve learned it and mastered it. It’s always a process. And someone might be doing awesome when it comes to physical health, but struggling emotionally. Or kicking butt with spiritual health, but fighting with mental health.

We are all in the same race, running toward the same goal. Let’s just be real about it and cheer each other on, you know? (tweet that)

So Tracy shared some incredible insights with us this week about how our physical health can be affected by our emotions…and how our emotions can be affected by our physical health. There is such great content in this podcast — you have to make time to listen!

Here are a few highlights:

What we think impacts how we feel, and how we feel impacts our body.
Our bodies will tell us when something is wrong! Stomach pain, headaches, etc. may be symptoms of emotional issues that need to be addressed.
When your body is speaking to you through back pain, headaches, stomach pain, etc…it’s God’s way of telling you to slow down and BE.
Medication helps our bodies feel better, but our emotional health might not be where it needs to be if we don’t process our emotions and change our mind and the way we think.
Even in the Bible, God brought health in mind, body and soul to many people (example: Elijah).
God wants you to be whole — mind, body and soul.
Women need more sleep than men, like 7-8 hours! (Tracy said it so it’s true.)
We need to be able to recognize when to say no, so that we can nourish our bodies and our souls.
Our bodies need to operate at full capacity so that we can fulfill the destinies God has for us!
30 minutes of physical exercise a day can have the same effect on your body as taking a low-dose antidepressant.