Are you malnourished in your life? Not physical malnourishment. I’m referring to being malnourished in your inner life. This type of malnourishment feeds depression, loneliness, lack of purpose, and more. Read on to know the ways to start feeding your inner life to thrive.
Childhood and emotional trauma cause malnourishment in adults. So does lack of proper self-care…which oftentimes is due to trauma as well.
The good news is that no matter how malnourished your inner-life is, you can stop it. You can thrive if you’ll feed yourself the proper inner nourishment.
I’ll show you 10 ways feeding your inner-life will stop malnourishment so you can start to thrive.
You matter and deserve to be nurtured and cherished.
TEN WAYS TO FEED YOUR INNER LIFE:
ONE – Understand & Take Ownership
The first and primary way is to understand what the word nourish means so you can take ownership of your choices to nourish yourself with intention. A healthy vibrant inner-life doesn’t happen by accident.
The word nourish comes from the Latin word nurture. It means to feed or to cherish.
If you think this sounds self-centered, it’s the trauma in your life distorting your perception of your value.
Consider the opposite definition of nourish: starve, abandon, neglect, and deprive. Those are things that cause trauma.
You matter and deserve to be nurtured and cherished.
TWO – Inner Joy-Laughter
A healthy sense of humor is critical to your wellbeing for multiple reasons.
This powerful combo of inner joy-laughter is more than making jokes and laughing. It operates like a pilot light for your sense of humor. It’s a joy-filled undercurrent in your soul.
You nourish this joy-laughter through playing and having fun in childlike ways.
Joy-laughter is about *Getting Your Inner Laugh Back.
Read To Feel List: How To Make Your Daily Life Easy And Joyful
THREE – Positive Life Filled Words
Words are powerful containers. They build up or tear down depending on what they contain. Negative, destructive words malnourish the inner-life. Truthful positive, encouraging words contain life that nourish your soul.
There’s a lot of negativity in the world, and in a malnourished inner-life.
Life-giving words feed nourishment to your inner-life causing it to thrive. What words exactly do YOU need?
You identify that by listening to how you talk. I’ve learned it’s true that “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks”. When I started to listen to what came out of my mouth it revealed the malnourishment of my inner-life – what I lacked. *How Do You MIND? Ask Your Mouth.
Feed your inner-life the positive life-filled words – it tells you it needs.
FOUR – Quiet Solitude
The world is a noisy place. That noise creeps in, turning your inner life into a noisy place as well. One evidence of this is sleep problems.
You need time alone with your thoughts. This can be *difficult if you’re not used to it, or have *unresolved trauma. But it’s imperative for a well-nourished inner-life.
Times of quietness are needed to process unresolved issues, decompress from the busyness of life and/or new experiences.
Some people need more time than others. If you are an introvert you will need more than an extrovert will.
Quiet solitude feeds the soul peace.
Read 12 Signs You’re A Deep Thinker Who Enjoys Being Alone
FIVE – Being Part of Community
This may seem to contradict the above need for time alone but it doesn’t. A healthy inner-life needs both because they work together.
Knowing you’re loved and feeling like you belong is a byproduct of good community. Getting the needed support from others, as well as being able to give support feeds the soul well. Online communities are good but you need face to face relationships too.
Healthy relationships that have proper boundaries are nourishing.
SIX – Feed Your Self Love
Humans cannot live without love. The need is inherent. You and I were created to receive love and to give love. To others and to ourselves.
How do you feed love to your inner-life? By learning to love yourself, and practicing *self-care.
Be kind to yourself. Forgive yourself. Remind yourself how much God loves you. Take proper care of yourself by getting sleep, eating well, doing things you enjoy and even *celebrating yourself.
Feed love to your inner-life and watch it flow out to others more.
Read 12 Tips To Self-Love And Compassion
SEVEN – Self-Awareness & Self-Care
This can be challenging at first to cultivate if it is a foreign thought. This isn’t self-absorption or self-preoccupation. The two work together.
Self-awareness is listening to yourself: what you are thinking, what you are saying, what you believe etc. It’s paying attention to what you need to do for yourself and noticing how you feel.
Self-care then takes that information and addresses the need instead of avoiding it. It’s knowing when it’s time to *return to your comfort zone.
Becoming more self-aware will help you know how to nourish your inner-life.
EIGHT – Being Able to Trust
Trust is made up of faith and hope. It takes time to develop strong trust. Trauma destroys it. But it can be rebuilt inside of your inner-life.
Worry, ruminating and betrayal tear down trust. Having a healthy trust muscle empowers you: to find meaning in failure, to have a silver lining mentality, and to believe things will work out when something goes awry.
Having strong trust in *one who is trustworthy gives you deep roots.
NINE – Sense of Purpose
Just as humans need to receive love the inverse is also Giving to others, serving others, and sometimes personally sacrificing for others feeds the inner-life purpose.
The saying “it’s better to give than to receive” is true. However this doesn’t mean to make yourself a doormat. Reread about being part of a community if your trauma triggers you here.
Purpose that flows out of a healthy inner-life multiplies the satisfaction.
Read How To Cultivate Your Sense of Purpose
TEN – Continual Growth
When your inner-life starts to stagnate, malnourishment returns and you start to die inside. You are a living thing and living things grow.
It’s nourishing to your soul keep learning.
Your mind needs to be challenged. It needs problems to solve, things to figure out.
Your emotions need to be listened to and addressed. They grow through the exercise of leaving and returning to the comfort zone. They need to practice forgiveness.
Your will needs to exercise choices. Your spirit needs to exercise faith.
A healthy thriving inner-life is continually growing.
WHAT NOW
- Where do you want to start? I challenge you to pick at least one way listed and start feeding your inner life to thrive.
- Let me know which one (or ones) you chose in the comments.
Written by: Danielle Bernock Originally appeared on: Daniellebernock.com Republished with permission.
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