If you resonate with these beliefs, you’re a Joy Fueler!

If you believe what I believe (about self-care,  joyful healthy living, and a nourished life?)…you might want to consider yourself part of a movement!

There are many possible definitions of “tribe.” But recently I heard a definition of  “tribe” that really sparked something for me.

Apparently it comes from British/American author and motivational speaker Simon O. Sinek who wrote Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.   

This definition describes your “tribe” as people who believe what you believe.

I LOVE that!

I also heard another speaker say that a clear set of beliefs is like “the spine of your thought leadership.”

It makes sense. Think about any group you feel a sense of belonging with,  or anyone whose work you follow.

There’s probably some core belief (or beliefs) that make that person stand apart for you from others in their field. You share those beliefs—even if you haven’t completely actualized those beliefs, you aspire to! You believe it’s possible, or ideal.

Beliefs are what make a person’s approach different from others. They’re why you resonate with one person and not another even in the same wheelhouse.

Beliefs (and values, which I think of as “cousins” of beliefs) are certainly at the heart of many people and things I choose to be involved with.

I choose everything from my health care providers to my grocery store to my workout partners to my favorite artists to my teachers and yes, my clients, based on beliefs and values. We attract one another because of these.

We share a belief something is possible—and we want to make to happen. So we participate, or we help each other.

This also got me thinking about MY “beliefs” related to my work in health, fitness, self-care, and aging—and how they truly do form the basis of my mission. I think differently and do things differently than a lot of practitioners, teachers, trainers, and coaches in this field. I know that’s a big part of why the people who work with me, read me, or follow me have chosen to do so.

So I decided to make those beliefs more explicit and fully articulated.  Because as you know, for me this stuff isn’t just about my own life and it isn’t just a business either.  It’s about changing the entire conversation around healthy living—creating new language and thinking that changes bodies and lives for the best!

My big outrageous dream is a population that no longer thinks or talks about the mindless meaningless concept of “weight,” that is no longer confused or resistant about healthy choices—that knows HOW to fuel their cherished bodies and fullest lives, and actually DOES it. Unstoppably, and joyfully.

The result will be way more resilient people, nourished for strength and energy—and freed to give their gifts to the world, without distraction or premature debility.

So I started making a list of my beliefs about this huge piece of life that so many people struggle with—because actualizing these beliefs eliminates the struggle and brings joy, ease, and power to the practices that create vibrant radiant health!. 

And I wanted to share with you what I came up with. It ended up being a whole “Manifesto” of Nourishment! (Or maybe a Declaration of Independence from Diet Thinking.)

The list is at the bottom of this post. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Which of these beliefs most resonate with you? Which most strongly represent what you, too, believe?

Which of these beliefs are ones you hold dear, yet struggle to embody?

Which get you most excited or hopeful?

Do you get jazzed by the idea of  a movement of informed and inspired joyful healthy-living enthusiasts and emissaries, kicking ass in health and life?  (I do!)

Post your response below or in my Healthy Joyful Nourishment Facebook group (just click “JOIN” if you’re not already a member).

If these beliefs resonate with you and you consider yourself  “with me” on them, I’m thrilled to be in partnership with you!

Let’s make it happen!

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NOURISHMENT AS A MOVEMENT:
THE NOURISH U MANIFESTO

I BELIEVE THAT….

1. Healthy nourishment and self-care can be fun, joyful, clear, and easeful. It’s isn’t as complicated or unappealing as many believe—and as media and even health authorities unwittingly reinforce!
2. We are each athletes in our own life events, and can treat ourselves as such—in body, mind and spirit. We can “train” and care for ourselves as if we seek to excel and thrive in this event.
3. People need BOTH information AND inspiration to be able to nourish themselves joyfully and fully.
4. Self care stems from self-love. Or, if that sound too lofty, self-appreciation and self-valuing. We don’t trash what we treasure.
5. Self-care is not selfish. In fact, it’s selfish not to be good to yourself. You can’t serve if you’re not nourished. Giving takes resilience. And when you bring your undernourished self, your B-game, you’re not serving at your fullest.
6. Self-care is about giving yourself good things, for good reasons. It’s kindness and generosity—not a list of drudgerous chores, obligations, and to-dos. It’s more about what you GIVE than what to “restrict.”
7. Nourishment is EVERYTHING you put on, on and around you. It’s not just “diet and exercise!”
8. When we deeply, consistently connect what we most value to our daily choices, those choices become natural, a priority, and self-evident. There is a key spiritual and personal growth conversation that is largely missing from health and fitness—and its lack keeps the whole thing small and stuck.  Making the connection between our self-care, our bodies/health, and our lives/vision/purpose is the most powerful thing we can do.
9. Health education needs a massive overhaul because of this failure to connect in the above ways, and inspire ease and joy.
10. “Weight” as a concept is a meaningless, nonsensical, illogical and misleading diversion—and needs to be 100% eradicated from the healthy living vocabulary, and from science and medicine. We don’t get healthy when we weigh X. We get healthy when we do healthy things. 
11. Words like “adherence” “compliance” “regimen” “stick to” “stay on”  “plan” “management” and many other negative, destructive “diet thinking” language need to be scrapped from health education and coaching.
12. Being “told what to do” or given a “plan to follow” without context will never work.
13. If we understand our bodies, we will cherish them. When we are connected to awe and  reverence for the miracle of being alive, it brings our choices to life.
14. “Laypeople” can be deeply knowledgeable, and health is a partnership between us and “the experts.” If we treat people with intelligence they will act in kind. People CAN and WILL make good choices when given clear information and inspiration.
15. Kids can and need to learn to understand, respect, appreciate, fuel and care for their bodies early in school—and make the connection between this and their lives (and the planet too).
16. We need not fear age and disease; while we will age, it need not be as troubled as it often is due to lifestyle-related problems and illnesses. Great longevity without disease is not only possible but probable when we nourish our bodies in key ways that are not as mysterious as they are “sold” to be. Genes are turned on and off by our actions and exposures.  We can age more slowly, healthfully, and attractively (and sexily!) than we typically do.
17. There is no “one thing” or “magic bullet” for health—we need to see nourishment as a whole cloth, in the context of whole life. Our own wholeness and fullness depends on a smorgasbord of nourishments.  What works is to do healthy things, not random things.
18. There are key nourishment pillars that support that whole (food, movement, rest and sleep, meditation and stress reduction, nature and outdoors, chemical/toxin-free products, healthy relationships and community, herbs and natural medicines, art and creativity, plus other unique needs like climate or travel).
19. Your health, self-care and nourishment are not just about you.
    Your strong, resilient, energetic body is needed to power your gifts, contribution, and purpose. You are needed. And this will ultimately move you more than “how your clothes fit” or “how your thighs look.”
20. Healthy is SO beautiful. And beauty comes from health. Beauty radiates from joy and the power of freedom, choice, and clarity.
21. How you feel AND how you look tells you almost everything. You don’t need numbers (unless you must monitor specific chronic illness biomarkers).

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ROBYN LANDIS is an ACE-certified holistic health coach, fitness trainer, fitness nutrition specialist, behavior change specialist, bestselling author and herbalist who likes to call herself a “joyful nourishment instigator.”  A 25-year veteran of the fitness industry who vibrantly walks her talk, she believes that we can evolve how we think about healthy living to make it a natural, joyful choice.

She has helped thousands overcome health-info overwhelm, and crack the code of “motivation.” She weaves nearly three decades of study and practice into a signature blend of science, spirit, and common sense—refreshingly free of hype, regimens, and extremes.

Robyn’s books (including Herbal Defense, cowritten with one of the world’s top plant-medicine experts) are published in five languages with a combined 200,000 copies in print, and her third is on the way. She coaches and trains privately and in groups, helping people love getting the body and energy that’s fit for their purpose, and grow “chronologically richer” fearlessly and beautifully. Her clients learn to integrate food, exercise, rest, meditation and traditional healing, and become deeply happy getting exceptionally healthy™ —with energy to spare and the health to thrive and live fully. 

She also speaks and writes passionately about how we can transform medicine and fitness culture to inspire people to be good to themselves—which is what self-care really is.