Restoring Hope with Deborah Bigda
Deborah is a passionate entrepreneur who is committed to igniting women with hope to live a life full of passion. She believes that every women is destined for greatness and just needs the right community to help achieve it. As a mother of 4, married for over 27 years, she has experienced both the highs and the lows of life. She knows all too well what it feels like to be thrown into a trench, through no fault of her own, and the challenges of finding the treasure when all hope seems to have disappeared. While facing years of unemployment, she and her husband also endured skin cancer, a tornado, loss of a parent and a depression so dark that no light ever seemed possible.
After climbing out of this trench, Deborah finally found relief for herself and her family through a holistic approach. As a holistic health coach, Deborah is committed to teaching women how to restore health for both themselves and their families, as well as restoring hope to those who feel like all is lost .
Join her each week as she and her guest speakers share from their hearts so that you may have your hope restored and live life to its fullest being the person that God has designed you to be.
Restoring Hope with Deborah Bigda
Unlocking your Vibrant Self: Mastering the 5 Pillars of Your Well-Being
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Let’s voyage together to uncover the secret to your most vibrant self. There are five pillars crucial to overall well-being – mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, and physical health – and I'm thrilled to share my personal journey where I discovered these pillars, all while trying to support my son through his health challenges. An unexpected journey that led me to become a certified holistic health coach.
We'll dissect the interconnectedness of these five pillars exploring how stresses in one area of your life can finances can impact everything. So put your earphones in, and let me accompany you on this empowering journey on the Restoring Hope podcast. Here's to restoring your hope and health!
Download your free workbook on the 5 Pillars to Your Overall Well-being. Click link https://deborahbigda.com/downloadable-5-pillars-to-well-being
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The Five Pillars of Overall Well-Being
Speaker 1I'm Deborah Bigday , and this is the Restoring Hope podcast , where you can come to discover that , no matter how bleak your situation may seem , you can experience true hope and ultimate health . And I'm not referring to just your physical health . I'm talking about a holistic approach to your health , including your mental , emotional , spiritual and financial health . Join me as I share inspiring stories , incredible guests and tangible actions that will transform you into the healthiest version of you , that version of you that is fully restored and helpful for all that is possible . Have you ever wondered how some people can seem to be eating all the right things , exercising and still not lose weight ? Or other people seem to have it all right , they've got plenty of money , they've got a great family , and yet they're unhappy . Well , today I want to talk to you about the five pillars of your well-being and how you can unlock your most vibrant self and life and be full of passion and energy , feel like you're living with a purpose . Welcome everybody to the Restoring Hope podcast . I am so glad that you're here with me today , so I want to tell you how it is that I came about these five pillars of your overall well-being , because I think that it is so critical for people to understand that you cannot separate your physical health and try to be healthy I'm doing my little air quotes here try to be healthy unless you really look and assess what is your mental health , what is your spiritual health , what is your emotional health , what is your financial health , and then what is your physical health ? So those are the five pillars and here's how this came to be .
Speaker 1Years ago , son had a lot of GI issues and we ended up in the hospital with him . We had gone to many , many different doctors and specialists . We tried all the elimination the youngest , we tried all the crunchy granola type things , if you will of different alternative supplements out there . Everything really seemed to work and we ended up in the hospital with my son while on vacation in the middle of absolutely no man's land . So it was close to a two hour drive to get to the nearest pediatric emergency room . I honestly thought his appendix had ruptured and it turned out that he was completely impacted , which means that you're full of poop . So , long story short , their solution was basically mirror locks around the clock for the rest of his life and I was like , yeah , I am not doing that Now at this point .
Speaker 1I was not a certified holistic health coach but I had done a ton of reading on God , health and everything else , so I knew a lot . But I had been hearing about some supplements and , honestly , completely discounted them because , from all my research , there is no way that they would ever work . But I was a very , very desperate mom and so I came home and we tried the supplements , fully expecting to ask for my refund within 60 days . And , lo and behold , guess what they worked ? And they worked incredibly well , not only for my son and husband , who had traditional GI issues , but for myself , and I had no GI issues whatsoever . So I was like but what I did have is like really heavy periods , like chronic sinus infections for my entire life , allergies since I was a child to include allergy shots , you know all these things extremely heavy periods to the point where they thought I was bleeding internally , I was swallowing digital cameras , so I had all these things . Well , all those things disappeared when I started these supplements as a cheerleader with my husband and son , and so it got me thinking .
Speaker 1I was like how in the heck did this stuff work and why in the heck did it work Like , I mean , we were eating really , really healthy food , getting the organic stuff , whatever grass fed meat , not having a lot of junk food , and I am doing a lot of different probiotics and stuff , and so I wanted to understand why in the world these supplements worked , especially when they were a fraction of what I had been spending . So I started like digging into the ingredients , digging into medical research articles and reading and reading and finally I was like , hey , I am doing any nervous amount of research here . I might as well I don't know go get some piece of paper to hang on the wall , right , like some certificates kind of really make you be more knowledgeable or more worthy of talking to people . But it was something I decided . I was like I'm gonna go do this . So I signed up with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and it went through their year long program and became a certified holistic health coach . And through that program they talked a lot about your primary food and that your primary food has absolutely nothing to do with what you put in your mouth and that it is all these other categories . And they talked a lot about this circle of life .
Speaker 1If you could almost picture like a circle , like a pie , and you divide it into pie pieces . So you've got these lines coming through and each little pie piece is a different category . It was like physical exercise , relationships with family members , your satisfaction in your career , your hobbies , your spiritual life , relationships at work . There were probably 12 different pie pieces and what they would have you do is kind of a sass . And so when I first started coaching people , I would use this little pie chart and I would have them as sass For each one of these categories . Draw a little dot on this pie chart . Now if you're on the outside edge of the circle or the pie , that means you're 100% . Life could not possibly be better in that particular category . And if you were dead center of this circle , then it was like you really couldn't imagine how things could possibly get worse in that category . And you would go through each category and if you can imagine like you've got the circle and the lines dividing it into pie slices right and so on that line , for each pie piece you would draw a little dot . And ideally what you want is you want all your dots to be on the outside edge of the circle . And if they're on the inside edge then you kind of got like a flat wheel tire , if you will .
Speaker 1Well , I liked that diagram but I was like , well , sometimes that can kind of really be feel like a lot for people , and so when I really started studying it and working with clients over time , I was like , you know it really boils down to five categories it's your mental health , your spiritual health , your emotional health , your financial health and your physical health . And I am all about imagery , pictures , analogies , because I think it helps people understand things better , and so I like to use the five pillars . I like to visualize , if you can like , if you can almost close your eyes and picture , I don't know , like an old Greek building with five pillars , and just picture that these pillars are on the ground and on top of the pillars is this large plate or solid surface , and then everything the building or your life is above it , right and above . That would be like fun , success , abundance , hope , freedom , health , joy , happiness , strength , all of these different things that we all want in life Energy , right . And if one of your pillars starts to crack or crumble , the things on top of the pillars , the structure , your life , all of these happiness , fun , joy , success , passion , health , hope , all of that fulfillment purpose starts to potentially fall down . Now , if four of the pillars are still nice and strong , then things might kind of stay up there , right . But as another pillar starts to crack a little bit , the structure starts to fall down , and so on my website I actually have a really great it is a free downloadable workbook on these five pillars . It puts everything in such an incredible visual format . So I really encourage you all have it down in my show notes where you can go click to download this free workbook . It talks about it , it gives you diagrams and then it will have questions that you can ask yourself , reflective questions to try and assess for each of these categories .
Speaker 1But each one of these pillars is again your mental health , your spiritual health , your emotional health , your financial health and your physical health . And what I like to tell people is that if one of the pillars starts to crack and crumble , you might be able to kind of hold things together , right , because the other four might be able to hold up that structure or your life , all of these things that we're trying to strive for the joy , the health , the freedom , the happiness , the abundance , the fun . But if another pillar starts to crumble , or if multiple pillars are crumbling a little bit , everything will come tumbling down . And so there is this weaving right , this interconnection , this interdependency upon these five pillars that you really want to strengthen all of them , because when one crumbles it will impact all of the others .
Speaker 1There's no way it is possible to have horrific , say , physical health and not have it affect you financially , emotionally , spiritually or mentally . Same scenario there's no way to be like in your top notch physical , peak performance , but have something happening in your spiritual health that is causing issues and then not have it affect your mental , your emotional , financial or physical health . All five of these are dependent upon one another and while , yes , one can start to crack and crumble a little , if the other four are strong , it might hold up the structure long enough , but you need to then work on that pillar , okay . So the question you might have at this point is I'm really great in all of my pillars , right , like I don't have any emotional issues or mental issues or financial issues or whatever the case may be . And so in this workbook that you can get again from my website it's free downloadable I kind of talk a little bit , I hint a little bit towards what each of these pillars entails .
Speaker 1So let's take emotional health , for example . You might say I'm in great emotional health , but some of the things I would ask yourself is when your day dreaming , for example , you're driving in your car , you're thinking , or something happens , do you immediately jump to the worst case scenario , the negative , do you let your mind wander there , or are you always thinking of the positive outcomes ? Right , how about people that are around you ? How about people that are around you ? Emotional health has to do with a lot of relationships as well . Do you have that person or people maybe more than one in your life that when the phone rings and the call ID comes up and you see their name , you kind of like instantly , like cringe and shiver just a little bit like I don't really want to have to answer that .
Speaker 1Are there toxic people that are around you , whether at work , in your family , maybe through the different activities that your kids are involved in , the school that your kids go to ? Do you have the ability to kind of bounce back ? Are you resilient and are you able to cope effectively with life's challenges and setbacks ? Or do you kind of , when something bad happens , kind of like wallow in it and can't really now . I mean , that's not to say that when something bad happens , you can't have those feelings of being sad or angry , right , but how long do you sit there ? For how long do you let it impact you and when do you say , okay , so this happened , but I can see beyond my circumstances . Are you one of these people that can't see beyond your circumstances ? Again , there's no judgment here . This is just like evaluation .
Speaker 1Financial health here's a great thing . So you may say , deb , you know what . I'm really lucky . We have plenty of money and we can pay for all of our bills . We are in great and we've got plenty of money saved up . But financial health goes well beyond just can you pay your bills and do you have plenty of money in your savings account and your retirement account ?
Speaker 1Financial health goes to what is your relationship with money ? And I know that sounds really weird to be like what is my relationship with money ? But how do you view money ? Do you view money as a good thing ? Are you able to probably say I want more money and I want lots of it , or does that make you kind of like feel greedy or selfish ? Because here's the thing I've learned Money is not the problem . It's what people do with it and how they think about it . That's the problem , right ? Money buys you options not only you , but one of the options that could buy you is the option to be able to help lots of people . So money is not the issue , but a lot of people , even if they have lots of money , and maybe especially if they have lots of money , don't even know exactly where all of their money is going , and so sometimes we may not have the best relationship with money , even if we think we have plenty of money , and we do have plenty of money . But our relationship with money may not be that great , because either A we may not know where it is all
Financial, Mental, and Physical Health
Speaker 1going .
Speaker 1Sadly , some people may not even be able to survive an unexpected emergency , whether it be a large repair in a car or the house , or a health crisis or losing a job . Could you survive ? How long could you survive if you suddenly lost your job ? One month , two months , three months , four months , five months , six months ? Could you make it six months without having cut any expenses ? Could you make it six months if you cut some expenses ? Or would you be in trouble after month one or two . And when I say can you make it , I'm not talking about do you have enough credit line on your credit cards to just start charging everything . I'm not talking about could you drain your 401k accounts . I'm talking about do you have enough money in savings that you could survive ? Do you have enough money in savings that , if you suddenly had some because , let's face it , when you own a home and you have to replace something like your HVAC , a hot water heater , you know , a roof , those things are thousands of dollars and for some people that has to go in a credit card . So that's something to look at about , because when we are stressing about finances , it makes a major impact on our physical health , our mental health , our relationships .
Speaker 1For your mental health , some super quick , easy questions ask yourself is do you live in a mindset of self sabotage , talking I could have , should have , would have done ? Are you actively doing things that you're passionate about ? Guys , god wants us to live a life full of passion and purpose , and that means having some sort of passion , project or a hobby that brings you joy . Our purpose here on earth is not to work ourselves to the bone and constantly be waiting hand on foot on people . Right , we need to do things that will charge our like , refuel our body , and that is something that you're really passionate about , something that brings you enjoyment . But don't take your passion project or something that brings your enjoyment and go overboard , where that's all you do , because that is not good for your health either .
Speaker 1Do you have some type of trigger that you find suddenly maybe you're kind of getting agitated or upset with people and when you really take a step back and look at it , you're like I don't really know why I got upset at them , because it wasn't that big of a deal . If that's happening to you , then that means your mental health category is suffering a little bit and that you are just dealing with feelings from past traumas rather than truly being healed from them . And when I say past traumas , guys , I am not talking about some massive physical abuse or sexual abuse obvious or emotional abuse Obviously those fall into that category . But I'm even talking about how is it that you identify with yourself ? Right ? We all have our identity to self . And is your identity to self this like I'm not good enough , I'm not special enough , I'm not smart enough , I'm not popular enough . People won't love me , I'm not lovable , I'm not wanted .
Speaker 1Those are thoughts that are put into our brain at a very young age and a lot of times we come up with those thoughts on our own from something that is so insignificant . When we're looking back on it , we don't necessarily understand how that happened . Now there are times where it's more severe , but the reason why I point out that it doesn't have to be that sphere is because maybe you're like me and you're like , well , I didn't really have anything bad happen in my life . How could I have those types of thoughts ? And I just want to tell you that until you really address them , you cannot truly be your most vibrant , passionate self . So I bring up these five categories , not to go into large depth of them right now , but to make you be aware of how each one is .
Speaker 1And I'm going to use an analogy Again . I love visuals , so I want to use this analogy of a car . Now , I use this analogy all the time for this car when I'm talking about physical health , but I'm going to use it here for the pillars , in case the pillars didn't quite do it for you . I'm going to use the car analogy . If you can imagine that your car has four tires , right , and gas . And if you know anything about cars and , by the way , my husband's a big car guy and he's always talking about how , if you have fully inflated tires and right kind of gas , you can get the best gas mileage out of your car . And if your tires are even just slightly deflated , your gas mileage is going to go or whatever . Yeah , gas mileage , miles per gallon , whatever is going to go down . You get the point right . So I want you to think of .
Speaker 1You could also think of this mental health , physical health , emotional health , spiritual health and financial health , as four tires and stick . One of them is your gas . I don't care which one you choose , it doesn't matter . But if all four tires and you've got the right kind of gas going , you're going to get the best gas mileage out of your car . Your car is going to run smooth .
Speaker 1If one of your tires starts to come deflated , you can still drive that car . Guess what ? You can still drive that car . If all four tires are going low , right , your gas mileage is not going to be that good . The flatter one of those tires gets let's say one is completely flat you can still drive your car . Now , you might be damaging the rim at this point and you're going to hear a flip , flip , flip , flip , flip as you're driving along . Right , but you could still drive your car . You could probably even drive that car with four dead , flat tires , I promise you . You're going to damage the rims and you're certainly not going to go anywhere fast , okay , but you could drive that car . Could you drive the car or move the car ? If you had no gas ? Sure , you could get out and push it right .
Speaker 1Same thing in your life . You can let these pillars or these categories start to deflate or run dry , but your overall life is not going to be that great . So if you can keep them fully inflated , you will see an incredible difference . So , whatever analogy works best for you this car analogy , the pillar analogy what I want to do is I want to give you four fully inflated tires with the best gas out there . I want to give you five pillars so strong that you are just filled with vibrancy and energy and passion and purpose and you are alive and just living your best possible life , because then , and only then , will you be able to serve those around you to the level that you really , really want . Guys , I have loved being with you here today . I hope and pray that something in here has sparked a thought on what it is that you can do to improve your life so you can live with passion , you can live with vibrancy and you can serve others around you to the level that you're just dying to do it . And remember , go ahead and download that free workbook . It's on my website . I'm going to put the link to it in the website and I look forward to chatting with you next week .
Speaker 1We have some incredible guests lined up over the next couple of weeks stories of amazing hope and perseverance and resiliency and I look forward to sharing their stories with you . Have an amazing Monday . Thank you for joining us today at the Restoring Hope podcast with your host , me , deborah Bigdale . It would mean the world to me if you'd like and subscribe to this podcast , share it with your family and friends , those that you think might benefit from what it is that we've shared today . Follow me on Instagram and Facebook . Check out my website . The link is listed below . My prayer for you , my friends , is that you are able to lean into the person that God has truly designed you to be Restoring hope for both yourself and all of those around you . Until next week , have an amazing day . Love you all . Can't wait to chat next week .