Healthy, Wealthy, Sexy & Wise

By Heather Tydings for Sass Magazine Fall 2022

Most of us strive to move through our days feeling healthy and wildly abundant. Some of us even want to go beyond strong and prosperous, adding smart, bold, creative, spicy, gentle and/or captivating to those “feels.” It can be arduous to work, pay bills, raise children/pets, be present, engage blissfully in hobbies or launch our dream business when we don’t feel vital and alive in the skin we are in. 

Our health is one of our most treasured and valuable resources. “When health is absent, wealth becomes useless,” the ancient Greek physician Herophilus once said. However, good health encompasses more than just our physicality; it includes our social, spiritual, financial, sexual, emotional, and mental wellness. 

So, how do health and economic prosperity hold hands? When we focus on living a high-quality existence that includes more than eating kale and doing a daily downward dog, we are able to hear our intuitive voice guide us to people and things that elevate us. A high-quality life works toward incorporating healthy relationships, morals, mutual friendships, engaging in pleasure, being fiscally responsible, doing meditative practices plus using our talents and skills to both work and delight in life. 

There is so much emphasis on eating well in a culture that simultaneously hands out processed food samples at every Costco, stocks grocery store shelves at eye level with cheerfully colored treats and promotes quick nutrient deficient foods at every family sporting event. It’s confusing. It fuses the idea that family and fun also means inflammation. In 2019, research out of Brigham and Women’s Hospital found “unhealthy diets account for almost 20% of U.S. health care costs from heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.” The research also showed the “annual economic burden of health care costs from cardiometabolic diseases adds up to about $300 per person or $50 billion nationally.”

We know maintaining a healthy weight, having adequate muscle mass, removing toxins from our foods and products, eating (mostly) well, and achieving a balanced life boosts our immune system, reduces trips to the physician’s office and lessens or eliminates the need for prescription medications. It also unburdens our healthcare system and keeps our out-of-pocket expenses and health care premiums lower. It should be said that it is significantly easier for privileged people to have access to resources and foods rich in nutrients than it is for those who have a lower income level. Research shows there is also a knowledge, time, and accessibility barrier. 

For women, overall health often includes learning to set solid boundaries. When we are internally clogged and cluttered with things that don’t serve us, we tend to move unconsciously through our gorgeous life just checking boxes. We don’t live with integrity. We say a resounding YES until we are depleted.  We must stop and pause to figure out when we swerved out of our truth and start to own our NO. Otherwise, our innate creativity, our ability to see the big picture and make informed, abundantly juicy decisions is squashed. 

In addition to setting boundaries, we can learn to heal our history (her-story) especially when it includes deep hurts, trauma, rejection, abandonment, neglect, being unseen and unheard and/or feelings of powerlessness. 

There are findings that unprocessed trauma and stress negatively impacts our neuro-endocrine and immune systems and have a possible association with breast cancer. In Christiane Northrup’s well known book “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom” she writes, “We tend to hold very personal and deep hurts, regrets, and fears close to the heart. Many find that their breast changes are often manifestations on the gross, physical realm of these emotions stuck in the heart. Time and time again, women note that their masses resolve on their own as these emotions are unwound and released.” 

Reducing our individual risks by learning to regulate our hormones, lowering our stress and decreasing or eliminating alcohol, helps to increase our longevity, vitality and breast health. Ancient medicines teach us how to care for our breasts in ways western medicine does not by using detoxification strategies, breast massage and castor oil treatments to remove lymph and stagnations. 

We have been given one vessel while we are here on this earth. Learning to treat her kindly, lovingly and with intention is the greatest gift we can give ourselves. When we are glowing and internally lit, others want to be close to our flame. This allows for greater opportunities that simply seem to land in our lavish laps. The more we are in tune with our healthy, wealthy, sexy, and wise selves, the easier it is to manifest what we want in life and the higher we can soar — abundant in all ways.