Hello Beautiful Women,

As some of you might know, my mother passed away recently. I spent a few weeks caring for her, spending time by her hospital bed and being by her side as she slipped away. This experience has been earth shattering, her diagnosis was sudden, her decline fast and her death too soon. It left me stunned and in disbelief and I am still not quite grasping that it happened.

As I am slowly picking up my life and returning to work I wanted to connect with all of you. The focus of my work has been health but it has also been life. Living a life that is vibrant, joyful and on our terms. Defining for ourselves what healthy means for us. Learning to listen to our bodies and our hearts more than to “experts”. This focus seems more important than ever, in my own life and in the lives of the women I work with.

I am giving myself time to go through the stages of grief. I am easing into my practice and not pushing myself to do more. Some of my plans had to change and I will be launching some programs and classes at a later date. Doing things at a gentler pace is what I seem to need right now.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned and that I want to share with you is about prioritizing our own health. Making it important. Making it the most important thing in the world. As women we tend to ignore and neglect our needs and my mom ignored her symptoms for a long time, until it was too late. I am not writing it in blame or anger, but as a way to shed light on a pattern that so many of us have, myself included. We think it’s ok to not listen to our body’s whispers, we think it’s ok to not feed ourselves the most nutritious foods, we think it’s ok to not follow our hearts dreams, we think it’s ok to not see ourselves as the most important person in our lives. Well, it’s not. We are important. You are important. Your life is precious, so precious. You are so worthy. Please, take a moment and take it in.

Let’s all promise ourselves, that as long as we are on this earth, we will remember our worth, our significance, our impact and prioritize our lives and our health.

I will be starting a new Women Health Circle this Spring and invite you to join us and make your health the most important thing.

Learn more about it here: http://healthnutgirl.com/womens-health-circle/

With all my love, Rachel