2020 Committed to Healing

New Year’s Resolutions have never been my style. Maybe because I believe in a regular cycle of reflection and action throughout the large and small moments of life. When I notice a need for a fresh start, I adjust, right then. There is no need to hold onto old choices that inhibit my best life.

In spite of a revolution culture that makes commitments and forgets them all too soon, I do love the coming of a new year. I love the celebrations and possibilities a new year can bring, honoring accomplishments and embracing the new opportunities and experiences to come. In 2019 Green Gurneys was officially released to the world. While I have many goals for improvement, just beginning was no small act. So instead of 2020 resolutions, I am claiming a year of healing – For my own body and soul, but also for my Green Gurneys tribe. I invite you to join me in a fresh start, making choices to claim our own Roaring Twenties. 

Plans for Healing 

Committed to the Green Gurneys Tribe

My commitment to healing begins with you, my Green Gurneys readers. What kind of blog posts and recipes do you want to see in 2020? Fill out this survey to give me feedback and help me plan this coming year. 

Do you also feel the urge to take care of your neighbors and friends? Find an overworked mom or a family that is sick and bring them a meal! I love to make large batches of soup and freeze them in mason jars. The soup is always ready when a friend is in need. Try my chicken sweet potato kale soup, or pumpkin chili, I have yet to find a friend who is disappointed. Join in the joy that comes from surprising someone with a healthy meal.

Do you have a friend who could benefit from Green Gurneys? Whatever the need, share Green Gurneys with your friends by sending the link or connecting them on Facebook or Instagram. Maybe something on my page could be uplifting at just the right time. 

Committed to Safe Foods 

In 2012 I radically changed my food choices and have never looked back since. I am stronger, I have more energy, my skin is brighter, my attitude is full or charisma and my autoimmunity is healing. The chronic symptoms that use to plague every dark corner of my life no longer haunt me. So in 2020 I will still follow my safe foods list, not just some days, or some meals, but all my days. Even if it’s the weekend, my birthday, my brother’s wedding, I am sticking to foods that make me well. Meal prepping is a huge part of this! I always have something ready to grab and throw in a lunch box. Meal prepping doesn’t have to be hours of cooking. For me, it means doubling or tripling recipes when I’m already cooking so there is plenty for later. It also means beginning with great grocery store choices – a new post coming soon! 

Committed to Autoimmune Treatment

My functional medicine doctor is integral to my healing process. She uses lab tests as well as Kinesiology (Muscle Testing) to determine what supplement protocol I need to function at my best. For the last year and a half she has been treating my SIBO. Read part 1 and part 2 of my journey for more info. While this treatment on the front end feels expensive, I believe I am investing in my health. I don’t want a lifetime of prescription drugs riddled with side effects. While prescriptions can be important, I first seek to heal myself at the source. 

I have the benefit of being married to my investment advisor. He is very careful to protect our finances so we can put money towards the most important things. We spend little on entertainment to be sure we can invest in supplements and healthy food. Our cars are not fancy, they are practical. We sold our beautiful home a couple of years ago to scale down to a simpler farmhouse that dramatically reduced our living expenses – I don’t regret it for a minute. Even our Christmas gifts focuses on health. My mom gives me a gift card to my doctor’s office and puts supplements instead of candy in our stockings. People prioritize what’s important to them. While healing can be expensive, I believe it is possible to make it work in the budget! 

Committed to Balance

Jonathan and I have a tendency towards too much YES. If our bodies would allow, we both would like to work three jobs while regularly seeing our families, serving our community, our church, and still have plenty of time for active adventure. Yikes this is dangerous! Nobody can do all of those things! In our nine years as a married couple, we continue to relearn and recommit to balance. We are more careful with YES and more intentional with NO. This leaves more free time in the schedule, which also requires intentionality. Free time, we have learned, should be less about entertainment and more about restoration. 

A few years ago I read Present Over Perfect by Shawna Nyquist. Her words helped me reshape my days with a beautiful balance of productivity and joy. Her words have given me a mantra to help redefine my life. She writes, “I’m finished hustling for perfect. It did not deliver what they told me it would. And so instead, present.” 

So for the Gurneys this means Sundays are for repairing our bodies and souls. They are not for expectations or calendar events. We have adventures, we cook healthy food for the week, we snuggle, we rest. Balance means during the work week, I use phrases like, “I would love to help you with that! It cannot happen today, but I could help a week from now.” Balance means less lunches in front of my email and instead stealing a few minutes to walk around the neighborhood. It means we set hard stop times in the evenings where work goes unfinished and phones are ignored so family and marriage and love happen. This is the magic of life, to ignore expectations so we don’t miss out on the best moments of life, holding hands on the porch while catching a glimpse of the stars in the heavens. This is where healing takes root and sustains.

What are you committing to, not just this year, but as a new way of life? Share this post with your thoughts so I can cheer you on and use Green Gurneys to support you. Happy New Year Tribe! This is a new and beautiful beginning. As Shawna Nyquist writes, “Stop. Right now. Remake your life from the inside out.”