There comes a time when you have to take authority over your own life and wellbeing, You have to determine the kind of life you want to live. What things your life will be free from and what things your life will be filled with. Only then can you truly live #thewelllife.

The Well Life initiative was born out of my own need to be more intentional about the ways in which the pressures to “multi-task” or be “productive,” led to my adopting toxic life practices. For years, I pressed my mind, body, soul and spirit to their limits until I arrived at a place where my body and mind simply shut down.

6 weeks lying flat on my back only able to do the very basics for a few moments each day with no diagnosable cause, I knew that I had arrived at and passed what I’d heard so many refer to as “burnout.” The truth was that I’d arrived there months earlier, but had kept pushing, telling myself that I had no choice. I gave myself the minimum time to recover only to jump back into the same practices. A few months later, my body crashed again and I woke up blind in my right eye. These things would continue to hit me back to back, even as I tried to make life changes.

Somewhere, along the way I declared that I was making the decision only do things that I could do “well.” I didn’t mean “well” as in the quality of the work. I am a perfectionist. What I meant was that I was no longer willing to do things that would result in my being “unwell” in any area of my life and that I would seek to cultivate activities that were as restorative and replenishing to me as a refreshing drink from a cool well of water.

The thought was liberating, but it would take me a while to figure out this new way of living. In truth… I’m still figuring it out and unlearning toxic habits.

Even after that decision, I kept working way too hard in some areas and, after nearly a year of that, I landed in an emergency room with a heart that had nearly stopped, with no diagnosable reason. I knew the reason… I was exhausted, dehydrated, burned out …. again.

I remember lying in that bed with cables and tubes and dozens of people around my bed, being told to “stay awake” thinking about my baby boy. I remember saying (not sure if I said it out loud), “I’m not going anywhere, I’ve got too much to live for.”

The Well Life is intended to be a space where I document my journey and invite others to come along as we seek to live our lives fully and intentionally WELL. I’ve curated a Well Life playlist on my Youtube Channel here and many of my blog posts are committed to this as well. I hope you will, visit, comment, subscribe and join The Well Life community.