So tell me, do you know someone with diabetes? I’ll bet you do. November is diabetes awareness month, but I’d much rather they call it love yourself month. Why? Because the more you love yourself the less likely your chance of developing diabetes, or the greater your chance of reversing it if that is an option.
When I say love yourself, I mean a few things.
1. Take care of yourself. Just as you love your children or significant other and you do what you know is best for them, do that for yourself too. I often mention how we put others needs before our own, or how we make sure to take care of our loved ones but neglect ourselves. When you get proper rest, nourishment, and emotional wellness, you are putting yourself in a position to be healthy and thrive. When you don’t you set yourself up for diabetes and other diseases.
2. Really love yourself. What words are you hearing in your head? Do you ever hear “I am so stupid” or “I’m so fat” or “I always mess things up” or “I don’t deserve it”? Would you ever say any of those words to anyone? Then you certainly should not say them to yourself. Diabetes is one of many autoimmune diseases. In my study of the spiritual connection to disease, I’ve found that autoimmune diseases result from prolonged self rejection/self hatred. After so much negative self talk the body has been trained to join in the attack against self. I will not say that this is scientifically proven, but wouldn’t it just feel better to speak positive encouraging words to yourself? All that negative self talk has got to be doing something harmful. That has to stop if wellness is the goal.
3. The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, right? That sounds like love to me. So cooking for yourself falls in this category. If you can’t make the time to nourish yourself, your priorities are jacked up. Yeah, I said it. Take some time, just one day a week, to make sure you are getting good home cooked meals that you prepared yourself. There is something extra special that says “I care about you” when you cook for someone. Don’t you deserve that too?
Many people are unaware that diabetes is one of those diseases that you can totally manage yourself. So when you hear of someone who knows better and can do better losing a limb or their eyesight, or even dying from diabetes complications, that is a total lack of self care, which is the same as a lack of self love when you break it down. If you know someone who has diabetes and they are allowing it to slowly kill them, do what you can to love that person. And better yet, do what you can to get them to love their self. Hiding the cookies from them or getting mad at them because they don’t take their medicine isn’t helping at all. Get all the information you can to help them better manage the disease. But ultimately, it’s up to them.
Spinderella (of Salt-n-Pepa) in the photo above, tells of dealing with diabetes and having several family members with this disease. Becoming educated about the disease and cooking home cooked meals are ways that she listed as dealing with it in a healthy way. You’ll find one of her favorite recipes for Asian chicken lettuce cups and many other diabetic friendly recipes here.
Do you know someone with diabetes who could use a bit more TLC? What one thing do you think you can do to help them out?
