WELLNESS

I’m a sport dietitian and cycling Olympian with the Canadian Sport Centre in Calgary, where I consult several national teams. I was also the Performance Dietitian for the Canadian Olympic Committee and Team Canada at the London Summer Olympic Games. I was their main support during the games when it came to food selection and dietary needs.

My alarm goes off. My body instantly springs into alert mode twisting, limbs flailing, eyes dry looking, scrambling, searching trying to find the button to make the madness stop! Like the average millennial, my cell phone has become a handy alternative to that old thing, what was it called? An alarm clock? Now that I have my phone in hand, why not check to see what I’ve been missing for the past 8 hours? I check my email to find that I didn’t get accepted to the freelance job board I’ve been waiting for.

Brain: “You’re a loser”

Happy National Women’s Health Week, ladies!

How perfect to follow up Mother’s Day with a reminder to care for our mind, bodies and soul.

So I ask you today. When you think about meditation, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Bogus? Boring? Ineffective? I’d never do it?

Well, let me ask you another few questions: Are you overwhelmed? Are you stressed? Are you short-tempered? Has the joy been sucked out of your life? Does life seem a lot like groundhog day? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should meditate. Yup, you should.

We are not supposed to go down into the darkness of the core. Yet, if we can risk it, the something born of that nothing is the beginning of truth.” —Adrienne Rich

Readers, it was time to write about Edgar. My heart feels strangely lighter. A great weight has been lifted from my soul. Still, I couldn’t have written this story any earlier because my level of self-security was too low— and my thoughts about what happened took decades to coalesce. I wasn’t ready to confess to having so much shame either. Shame prefers to remain silent, and tiptoe around the attic like a reclusive ghost. Shame never comes downstairs to eat with everyone. Shame places you inside an invisible garbage bag, and everything that you are feels like it belongs in a dumpster—permanently. Also, the silence of deep shame is always at war with the possibilities for healing.