Your Balance Story: Erin From Creative Soul In Motion

This post is part of the reader-submitted Your Balance Story series. This series showcases stories by readers where they have achieved balance in their lives. If you’d like to submit a story, please click here.  This post comes from Erin at Creative Soul in Motion.

——–

Last year I found myself in a slump.

I was tired of the same old, boring gym routines, I always felt “blah”, and my life seemed to be lacking something that I couldn’t really pinpoint. Eventually, it dawned on me that only I had the ability to make changes in my life and I couldn’t keep putting it off.

This is my story about finding balance through:

1. Starting a meditation practice

2. Giving up meat, fish and dairy

3. Signing up for a Triathlon

Taking a Moment to Breathe

One of my biggest problems was concentrating and staying focused. It seemed like there were all of these voices in my head saying: “you’re forgetting this”, “worry about that”, “don’t forget this”, blah, blah, blah.

One day, I took a deep breath. And then another, and another, and slowly I began to feel a little better.

From then on, I decided to take up a daily meditation practice. I won’t lie, it didn’t come easy; but after a while I learned that the most important part was focusing on my breath and gently pushing thoughts away.

These days, I can’t imagine going through a whole day without taking just one minute to sit and breathe.

Becoming a Healthy Vegetarian

I’d always been a meat lover.

I even made fun of my friends that were vegetarian, calling them “broccoli” or “carrot”.

But after a few years of indigestion issues, a lack of energy, and a growing concern for our planet, I began to see vegetarianism in a new light. After reading books like Skinny Bitch and Vegan Before Dinnertime,  I was becoming a changed woman; I stopped eating meat and fish and adopted a healthy vegetarian diet.

That was almost a year ago and I have never been happier.

Since I became a vegetarian my indigestion issues have disappeared, I have tons of energy and feel more in line with my values and beliefs.

Believing in Myself

Over the last couple of years, my exercise routine has included yoga (which I love) and running on the treadmill. After a while, running on the treadmill day after day got really boring and I realized that I missed being outside and challenging my body in new and exciting ways. So, I took a huge leap and signed up for a triathlon.

Training for a Triathlon gave me a goal to work towards and provided unlimited motivation to keep pushing myself day after day.

After months of training I completed my first triathlon on 9/11 and I am proud to say that it was the most empowering day of my life. It helped me realize just how powerful, strong, and capable I truly am.

If you told me two years ago that I would be a vegetarian triathlete that meditates I would have called you crazy. Now I can’t imagine my life any other way and feel an amazing sense of happiness and fulfillment every day.

For me to achieve balance, I needed to take responsibility and be open to change.  Then I quickly realized that anything is possible.

——–

This post is part of the reader-submitted Your Balance Story series. This series showcases stories by readers where they have achieved balance in their lives. If you’d like to submit a story, please click here. This post came from Erin at Creative Soul in Motion.