The Anchor of Reality

“Reality, what a concept” as Robin Williams so famously quipped, but indeed the term itself would infer a quality of immutability, a constant which would always be exerting a gravitational pull on us, so that no matter how far astray we allowed our minds to travel, we could always have a psychological home to which we could return when we grew weary of the world of thought and experimentation. But with belief systems so disparate, how can the Christian and the Jew or the agnostic, the fundamentalist and the scientist all agree on what reality is? Does it exist or is it in fact as Robin Williams eluded, just another concept? Is everything a matter of faith or belief and if so, isn’t everything relegated to interpretation, an amorphous cloud of deception, leading us further away from any sense of connectedness to each other or the universe?

With the following, I hope to help you answer these questions for yourself, because adopting the assertions of any self-proclaimed prophet robs each of us of the opportunity to have our own epiphanies, to discover truths for ourselves in an empirical way that goes beyond faith and belief, but instead becomes for us, a tangible foundation upon which to build the complex and at times unwieldy structures of our lives.

So with that said, now collect yourself, stop, feel your feet on the floor, your butt in the chair and listen to the sounds around you, what are you hearing? Are these sounds real or imagined? Now, go deeper, become aware of your breath, notice how the expanding of your lungs happens without thought, in fact, it is only when I draw your attention to it that you again become aware of it. Can you feel your heart beating inside of you? Is this not an example of a reality or an imagined concept? In fact, there are many such miracles of reality happening inside of us right at this minute. Perhaps that is plenty for you to digest for now, as you go through your day, draw your awareness inside of you to the fantastic phenomenon of reality that sustain your life. This is an example of the macro-attitude, which was discussed in the last installment. When you become more invested in your senses, more aware of the constants happening inside and all around you every second of your life, you realize that there is an anchor of reality upon which we can all rely when the storms of adversity rain down upon us. Later, perhaps today, tomorrow or this week, get out in Nature, look around you with the eye of a scientist and discover for yourself other realities that have perpetuated since the beginning of time. These realities do not exist on some remote plain of cosmology, but are part a parcel of the very forces that sustain you in this moment. Are the tide and the wind, the rain and the sun not real? Indeed they are the most obvious examples of the incredible truth of our existence, as we are quite literally the offspring of the sun, benefactors of the rain, we share a mineral kinship with our earth’s crust and our hearts, like the tides do the weather, sustain us, regenerate us and bind us the truth that our spirits and bodies do have a home, even if we drift off into the imagined world of our thoughts, we are always tethered to the umbilical cord of life, and that is a reality that no one can deny.

Adjust Attitude / Emotional Health

Attitude: manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc. with regard to a person or thing; tendency or orientation, especially of the mind, a cheerful attitude.
This is the Webster’s Dictionary definition of attitude and I would like to explore and expand on that somewhat, as this is an important component of the Emotional/Physical Health connection to the 8 Wonders of Integrated Living.

Consider the following questions as you read. Your answers will determine how valuable the following concepts and exercises might be to improving your life:

1. Are you happy with your life?

2. Are you happy with yourself, the way you are this moment?

3. Do you have a clear vision of your future and how to get there?

4. Do you feel that, to the best of your ability, you are in control of your future?

5. Do you feel at odds with yourself or the people around you, coworkers, friends,family?

6. Are you easily irritated by events occurring around you?


A new light on Attitude

If you will indulge me, I am going to coin two new terms, at least I think they’re new; micro-attitude and macro-attitude. A micro-attitude is the way we relate to friends, family, coworkers, our extended nuclear community if you will. Macro-attitude is the way we relate to the world as a whole, which includes our community, but extends beyond to our relationships with nature, our inner universe and humanity in general. We will be focusing on the macro-attitude, for an adjustment on that level will affect every other level of interaction as well. Though it is important to understand the distinction between the micro and macro, the macro reality originates in the higher functioning realms of the subconscious, where the codes to our behavior and attitudes are formed and stored.

Because the realm of the subconscious is not tangible, like a car or house, we cannot presume to understand or connect with it in conventional ways. We must gain access to these codes through specific pathways or activities that open the subconscious to transformation. These would include, but are not limited to: meditation, walking (especially in a natural environment) reading and writing (we will explore these individually later). Viewing evocative art is also marvelous way to unlock the subconscious. The visual queues stimulate the mind as would a physical experience. For an example, have you ever felt yourself being drawn to a painting or photograph as you pass a gallery or while waiting in the doctor’s office? Did you feel yourself being transported somehow into the imagined world represented by the art? This is because experiencial centers of the brain are stimulated by certain visual triggers. These triggers are different for each of us, depending on our personalities and unique events which shaped the view of our world. The surreal nature of the work gives us pause as we take the time to contemplate its meaning for us on a deeper level. This is what it feels like to have the subconscious open and available for transformation. For that moment, we are reminded that there is a larger world beyond whatever little problem we might have been thinking about. That is when the shift from micro to macro-attitude occurs. The challenge is to retain the macro-perspective even when the vortex of details in our immediate lives compels us to condense our existence to the head of a pin. How is this accomplished?

Most of us operate on the micro-attitudinal level throughout the day, indeed throughout our lives. With such a myopic view of the world, it is understandable that small changes in our environment would be unsettling, leading to one being in a constant state of perturbation: hence, a bad attitude. However, when we routinely expose ourselves to the experience of the macro world, slowly, subtly, these perturbations diminish in the same way a stone creates less disturbance when thrown into a large body of water than a small one. But this ‘open-minded’ view, it would seem, is not automatic in most people, perhaps one might assume because the infinite number of small details with which we must grapple on a daily basis requires a sort of focused micro-management. While that may be true, I submit that the micro and macro perspectives are not mutually exclusive, they can exist in the mind simultaneously, but it takes work and repetition to mold the mind to this new paradigm.

Is religion the answer?

Ritual plays an important role in the transformation of our minds and our lives. Certainly when one thinks of ritual, the natural inclination is to presume a religious context. While ritual is intrinsic to religion, the goals of religion are often focused on the spiritual realm, improving the odds of a blissful existence in the afterlife. Whereas the shaping of attitude is more akin to behavior modification, a more practical application of ritual that can be applied today with the potential of a cause and effect result. However some of the really valuable aspects of religion are belief and faith: a strong conviction about one’s relationship to a spiritual constant, a sturdy anchor when the storms of change conspire to rip us from our underpinnings. How can we harness the galvanizing forces of belief and faith into our daily lives, without the dogma so often associated with a religious life?

Perhaps the answer is best expressed by the following poem by Rudyard Kipling :

If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

More later

Emotional Health / Keep Anger in Check

As I will demonstrate later in this article, anger is not just a social issue, but also one of long term health, both physical and mental.There are indeed many things at which to direct our anger these days, traffic, taxes, run away prices, bad service and so on. Then there are the more personal insults we suffer from time to time, rejection, embarrassment, annoyance, etc. How we respond to these things should depend really on the mutual consideration of two factors:

1. How best to reestablish equilibrium with the other person(s) involved.

2. Reduce our internal discomfort with the situation without doing damage or ourselves.

As you see, one is external (other persons) and the other is internal (ourselves). These components are complex and equally important, in fact, I might say the latter is more so, for no relationship is of greater significance to our physical and emotional health than the one we have with ourselves. But let’s analyze these elements one at a time using a fictional situation.

You live in an apartment, it becomes apparent that your neighbor is having a party on a week night. Not only is it loud, but it continues after 10:00pm, the accepted standard for quieting down. You can’t believe your other neighbors haven’t stormed over there and demanded they cut the volume. You become obsessed, viewing it as a personal insult, you can’t concentrate on anything else as your blood pressure builds. Finally, you remember a saying you read somewhere “evil persists because good men do nothing”. You realize that you have to take these idiots on, because everyone else seems to be afraid to make waves. So you emerge from your apartment and steam down the hallway like a locomotive, you stop where the party is still in full swing, muster your courage and pound on the door. Suddenly the noise stops, a lump builds in your throat as you think to yourself ‘there must be 50 people in there and in a minute their all going to be staring at me’.

Slowly the door opens and a little old man appears, he says “can I help you?” Well, it was so noisy in here, I thought there was a party going on, you sheepishly admit. ‘I’m sorry, I’m hard of hearing and I guess I had the television up too loud, I've been meaning to call my doctor to see about getting some hearing aids. With your tail between your legs you slither back to your apartment, hoping no one saw the humiliating exchange. You drop into your lazy boy and realize you're exhausted from the emotional roller-coaster you just put yourself through. What was gained? What was lost? How could this have been handled differently?

What was gained is a relatively inexpensive lesson in your own impulsiveness. It takes insight into our own patterns of response to see that they are counterproductive. The easiest thing is to do is what our emotions tell us, or to act on our more primitive notions of territorialism and revenge. What takes more discipline and contemplation is to postulate the cost benefit ratio of a particular action and allow that conclusion to be the final arbiter. Once we decide that this is not worth going to war over, the power behind our emotions dissipates and we find we can move onto other things and be less distracted by the behavior of others.

What was lost is less simple to quantify, but of equal importance and that is the impact upon our physical health. Now it has been debated back and forth whether expressing our anger is better than holding it in, in terms of the impact of stress upon us. That cannot be resolved here, but it seems to me that the discussion should instead be focused on how to diffuse the emotional response before it whips us into a frenzy driven by a powerful but destructive combination of stress hormones. In primordial times, these hormones provided the necessary energy to run from danger or overcome fear. But in today’s world of sensory overload, that primitive brain, which still exists below our cerebral cortex, produces these ‘fight or flight’ hormones in response to a multitude of ubiquitous stimuli, whether it be in traffic, at work our in our homes, keeping our systems at a heightened level of alertness throughout the day. The downside is that these chemicals can become toxic to our cardiovascular system, breaking them down and making us more susceptible to strokes or heart disease later in life. High blood pressure, erratic sleep patterns and malabsorption of nutrients are other side effects resulting from a long term pattern of overreacting to stress. So, as you can see, our lives are not only better when we keep anger in check, but very likely longer as well. Save your ire for the rare situations that really call for an increased physical and emotional fortitude. It doesn’t require practice, anger will be there when you need it, your mind is hard wired for it.

Physical Health / Adequate Rest

Organization, one of the important elements of an integrated life which will be discussed at length in a later installment, is its most advantageous when it provides us with enough time to rest. For the sake of this discussion, I lump together sleep and waking rest (restorative and intentional inactivity). The degree to which adequate rest is critical to a well functioning body and life cannot be overstated. Real physiological changes occur the longer the body is in a state of prolonged wakefulness and no degree of fitness can overcome its deleterious effects. In humans, it has been demonstrated that the metabolic activity of the brain decreases significantly after 24 hours of sustained wakefulness. Sleep deprivation results in a reduction in body temperature, a slowing down of immune system function and an indequate release of growth hormone. Sleep deprivation can also cause increased heart rate variability and nervous system malfunction. Lack of rest is linked to impairment of memory and physical performance as well as a reduction in the ability to carry out mathematical calculations. If sleep deprivation continues, hallucinations and mood swings may develop. Essential hormones that effect the breakdown of proteins, maintain optimal emotional functioning and that fight invaders like viruses and bacteria are released in sleep. But so much is demanded of our minds and bodies in today's 24/7 culture that even when one receives adaquate sleep (7-8 hours) there are circadian rythmns throughout the day during which activity is more taxing to the system. Many have lost touch with these natural lulls in energy and motivation, forced to meet deadlines, sit in traffic or suffer the rath of over-committment. While it may seem that rest at these times would cause us to lose ground as we run to stay just ahead of wave of responsibility, actually the truth is our productivity is increased. Our and problem solving skills are sharper, creative juices are refreshed, focus is more keen and bodily functions like digestion and circulation are invigorated. How does one find the time to get 15-20 minutes of rest once or twice a day? Well, just like your financial budget, you must consider your time a limited resource as well and budget it carefully as well to support your physical and mental health as well as the important tasks of a busy life. This is where planning and organization are essential. Stay tuned for more on that.

Looking back to a period when my own life was in a state of disarray, I felt that time resting or not filled in the pursuit of creating or completing something was an opportunity wasted. Behind this frenetic activity, I now know, was a sense that I had not accomplished enough up to that point in my life, in a word, inadequacy. The only way I could quiet the voices of self-reproach was to be tangibly engrossed. I suspect many of us feel from time to time we have not lived up to our own expectations or those of family, coworkers or friends. This is part and parcel of the human condition. But if you think the need to accomplish is a phenomenon of modern life, consider the story of an extremely ambitious 40 something Julius Cesar, who, whereupon learning that Alexander the Great had conquered most of the known world at the age of 31, wept at his own perceived ineptitude. Those who are driven to conquer, accomplish, create or learn are fortunate, but this good fortune often turns against them, pushing them to reach some theretofore undefined point of satisfaction. It was rare, at least in my own life, to know that sense of completion, to hear myself say ‘there, I did it, now I can take a well deserved break and ponder my accomplishments’.

Its not so much that having goals is in and of itself is counterproductive, but many goals are a work in progress, they may not be accomplished in an afternoon, a week or even a year. Throughout history, giants of science or the arts have devoted their entire lives to the acquisition of some new and seemingly unattainable knowledge or skill. How did they manage to rest, knowing that what they sought was far off in the then, unforeseeable future? They broke the larger task into smaller more manageable ones. This is an art in itself and requires an ever evolving discipline. I find the act of committing ideas to paper to be valuable, drawing a schematic or hierarchy of the tasks to be accomplished and in what order. It cannot be rigid however, for as each element is completed, the order or importance of the remaining ones comes clearer into view. Or, it becomes apparent that new components must be added to the plan, pieces of the puzzle that could not have been anticipated before.

Planning enough time for adequate rest and sleep is the ultimate in self care. It’s an acknowledgement that in spite of the demands the world might be placing on us, we have to take care of ourselves first. It is not selfish to feel this way, indeed, if everyone was well rested, imagine how different a place the world might be. Driving to work would be a joyful experience where politeness rather than territorialism would reign supreme. There would be no need for overtime as you’d have plenty of energy to complete all your projects before they were due. You’re supervisor would be so impressed with your speed, accuracy and enthusiasm that he’d gladly grant you that promotion you so richly deserve. When you got home, you wouldn’t be sent into a rage when you slipped on the doggy bone left in the tile entryway, you’d have time to sit and help your kid with their second attempt on a report about Moby Dick. The clerk at the grocery store wouldn’t snap at you for screwing up your debit card transaction, for the third time and the telephone company would actually offer you a free month of service as a consolation for the extra $5.16 they mistakenly added to your bill….OK, maybe not. But you catch my drift.

Now, how do you ensure that you receive the most benefit from your time resting and sleeping? Well, like everything, it requires some planning. Exercise is an important component, it relaxes you and dissipates the waste products of mental and physical stress that have been accumulating in your bloodstream throughout the day. If possible, do some moderate exercise before and after work, but finish several hours before heading off to bed, as the energy boosting endorphins created by exercise might interfere with your slumber. Don’t eat or drink after 6:00 pm. Going to bed on a full tummy is bad for digestion as well as getting a good nights rest. Plus those foods are much more likely to become converted to fat and that’s not good.

Emotional Health / Addiction

Addiction is everywhere, some types are obvious, while other, not so. But suffice it to say, that at some point in their lives, most have suffered with some sort of short or long term addiction. Addiction is insidious, it creeps into our lives unnoticed and begins to take control of our thoughts and actions. It is truly amazing to see someone who is obviously spiraling downward from their constant preoccupation with a substance or behavior and how this unholy alliance seems to take on a life of its own. Friends and family can see that this person’s spirit is being sacrificed to maintain this nefarious connection, but because they have come to believe that their very existence now depends upon these obsessions, they will deny that anything is wrong. Even an eminent threat to their health will not bring them to their senses.

If you’re addicted to smoking, drinking, drugs, food or abusive relationships and you’re ready to change, you’ll see yourself in the forgoing paragraph. If you’re addiction is still in control, you’ll rationalize that this applies to someone else and move on. Until you’re ready, nothing will be capable of penetrating the wall of denial you have put between yourself and the healthy life that awaits you. If you are ready, but the addiction still has you in its steely grip, you are in a very vulnerable state indeed. It’s as if you are attempting to leap from one precipice to another and in between, there is nothing to hang on to. As your inner self attempts to reemerge, you’ll feel increasingly alienated by the people that were the focus of or the support for the life you’re trying to leave behind, that’s understandable. But what’s really scary is that now even family, coworkers and old friends seem strange. As you struggle to remake yourself, old patterns are suddenly uncomfortable, you cannot be who you were before, even the old you is like a shed skin, the addiction has changed you. As the nubile flesh is still adapting, senses are heightened, familiar sounds are annoying, you’re out of step with the world around you.

This is where many choose the path of least resistance, change is painful and frightening and most will seek the relative security of their obsessive patterns and be less likely to ever challenge the power of their addiction again. I have compassion for those who have drifted close to salvation, only to run scared from the darkness of the unknown. It was the most difficult time of my life. I had to leave everything behind. My marriage, house, friends and even my job reinforced my destructive lifestyle. I left it all for a filthy little rented room in another county to weather my 'dark night of the soul', which lasted several months. The only sanctuary I knew were a few of my favorite CDs that I played over and over, a support group that I found on the internet and a book (Codependent No More), which I read and re-read, until I understood that everything I was feeling was normal. I highlighted passages, took notes on my feelings and spent time soaking in the calming strength and serenity of nature. The house where I was staying was on a huge wetlands preserve. Every afternoon, a flock of Canada geese would fly over, their cacophonous call filling the air with wildness. It occured to me that if I could still experience the wonder of magical moments like that, there was hope and hope felt like a beautiful sunrise after a long cold storm.

Let me know your thoughts...

Symptoms of Codependency

Physical Health / Nutrition

What is a healthy diet? The answer differs greatly depending on who you talk to. Additionally, there are myriad ways of typing people into groups based on blood type or genetic heritage or body type and the list goes on and on. Food also carries with it weighty social issues as well, such as that demonstrated by the various extremes of the animal rights movement and the degree to which they are willing to remove any trace of animal byproducts from their culinary intake. These considerations are beyond the scope of this article, as I am interested only in passing on what I have learned about the foods which seem to provide the most benefit for the creation of energy, the maintenance of a healthy weight, anti-oxidant potential and delivery of essential vitamins, minerals and enzymes.

Through the many health challenges which have confronted me over the last 5-6 years, I have indeed relied heavily on established medical intervention, without which I surely would not here to write this today. The advances in diagnostic and surgical techniques as well as drug therapies have turned previously fatal afflictions into manageable conditions. This however has become the double-edged sword of technology. As medicine has found ways to overcome our most dangerous threats, people are relying too heavily on the instant fixes promised by drugs and doctors and taking less responsibility for their daily health. After all, why should one abstain from a life of excess if its sins can all be magically expunged by the wand of medicine?

Well, besides the cost to society in terms of the soaring medical expense, the potential side effects of medications and the fact that a startling number of deaths occur in hospitals as a result of surgical mistakes, drug interactions and infection, this approach has a profound effect on one’s daily quality of life. As the body slowly grinds to a halt under the increasing burden of fatty foods, toxic fumes and lack of exercise, we have less energy, we are more likely to become depressed, our weight and body image are affected and we age more rapidly. For these and many other reasons, the importance of learning about and consuming healthy foods cannot be overstated. And while there are healthy alternatives in your local grocery store, they are difficult to find and often relegated to a small alcove with limited space to carry sufficient variety. When I realized this, I decided to visit my local ‘health foods store’, presuming that I would soon be overcome with sticker-shock and resigned to settle for what my meager budget would allow. But much to my surprise, not only did I find a cornucopia of new and exciting foods presented in creative ways but after leaving with the ingredients for several healthy meals, I found the total on my receipt was far more reasonable than I had expected.

A company which has all but cornered the market on healthy cuisine is Whole Foods Markets Inc. Their stores can be found all over the country and I visit them wherever I might be traveling. I always find the staff knowledgeable and courteous, the store clean and well organized and the foods fresh and enticing.

In the next installment, I will continue to elaborate on specific areas of your daily fare and how with a little know-how and a few extra minutes in the kitchen, you can create delectable dishes that carry all of the goodness that Nature intended and more flavor than you ever imagined possible.

Physical Health / Exercise

As with so many things, when most people set out to improve their physical well being, they do it with a religious fervor, like some do with smoking cessation or a new career. Human beings are definitely given go excesses, but we must tame this tendency, especially when endeavoring to change our bodies and minds, rapid change is a shock to the system, it is unpleasant and therefore, there is very little incentive to stick with it. It is important to take a ‘holistic’ approach. I don’t mean adopt a quasi-spiritual mindset, I mean only that we must involve all of ourselves in the process of change. So that when we exercise, we are doing so in a way that not only brings benefits to the body, but also the mind. As I will articulate more fully in later installments, the intent of this process is to establish a totally new relationship with yourself, while you exercise, make it a time for reflection. Visit those dark recesses of your mind that have languished far too long. Treat yourself as a dear friend or a lover, be romantic. If you can, find a special place to walk several times a week, a place that elicits a greater feeling of connectedness to the world around you. In cities we are so cut off from the healing bright colors, scents and sights of Nature. I believe this contributes to a feeling of isolation and despair. So involve as many of your senses into your exercise regime and you will gain benefits far greater than just losing weight. And unlike a forced session of running and weight lifting, you will want to continue, make it part of your lifestyle.

Variety is important too. While I believe that walking in a quiet natural setting should form the foundation of your exercise program, it is also important to involve as many of your muscle groups as possible over the course of each week. If I were to choose the next most beneficial exercise for body and mind, it would be swimming. Now, many do not have access to a pool in their home, but many communities do have public or private pools that one can use for a small membership fee. Now, for many of you, the first response to this will be ‘where am I going to get the money for that?’ Remember, this is a holistic change, that means also taking a look at your finances (as we will cover later). Where are you spending your money lotto tickets, lattes, late nights out? Just for grins, keep all of your receipts for a month and then sort them by expense, such as entertainment, gasoline, groceries, etc. I’ll bet you’ll be surprised how much expendable income you are squandering that could be used to really make a difference in your life. I’m not saying don’t have fun or to live like a monk, just put it in perspective. If that seems too severe, than you’re really not ready to change, perhaps you need a wake-up call like the one I had. But take it from me, better to change now, than take the risk of a heart attack later, because statistically speaking, you’re not likely to survive it!

A note of caution: Before beginning any exercise program it will be important to establish your current health status. For those 40 and over, it is strongly suggested that you get a baseline physical examination, including cholesterol and blood pressure testing. This is especially important for those with a family history of heart disease. Remember, heart trouble can strike at any time and the first symptom of heart disease is usually death.

Physical Health / A Passion for Knowledge

If you are serious about living a long and healthy life, do not treat this education as a casual affair. It must become a passionate pursuit, especially at first, as you have much to learn. As these pathways develop, the process of integrating the mind and body will become more automatic. And as you begin to see results your desire to improve your knowledge will hopefully be enhanced. In future postings, I will suggest where to find new and engaging information that will deepen your interest and give you real tools to change your life for the better today as well as in the future. Once this flame is ignited, my hope is that it will light the way to your pursuing further research unique to your particular health and life circumstances.

Physical Health / Understanding Your Body

Drawing from my own experience, I was fortunate to have the type of constitution which didn’t require much maintenance. I could eat whatever I wanted and demand as much or as little of my body as my circumstances required. That is until I reached my forties. Suddenly, the years of neglect had caught up with me and I began having debilitating health issues, such as a compressed disk in my neck, a reoccurring gastrointestinal ailment and worst of all heart problems, the first indication of which was a heart attack at the age of 45. Prior to that, I thought I was doing all I needed to do for my body, because it was performing well for me. I now understand that what we neglect in the present, will most likely affect us in the future, and in ways we can’t even imagine. Furthermore, it’s not just the big things like exercise and nutrition that are important, but maybe even bigger factors like rest, attitude, mental workouts and introspection which may provide more lasting benefits as we age.

But before you can begin making significant changes in your lifestyle that will affect your health today and tomorrow, you really need to have a much better understanding of and relationship to your physical body. It is after all, a most marvelous machine and like any machine, requires periodic oversight by a trained technician to keep it running at its best. Most people will respond to this by saying ‘I go to the doctor once a year, he is the one trained to maintain my body’. I am here to tell you, that is not enough. Not only is your doctor too busy to ask all the necessary questions to ascertain whether or not your health is on course, he will never have one very important piece of information, the daily experience of living in your body.

Unfortunately however, many of us have lost a real connection to our body’s daily experience, we are increasingly living in our heads, with more and more of our time committed to solving problems and processing mundane bits of information. Our bodies have become little more than a scaffolding to support our busy brains, receiving only minimal attention while subtle processes begin running awry, setting the stage for a future time bomb. The best way to begin to reestablish a connection with your body is to learn how it works. Your body doesn’t come with an owner’s manual, but it should! Why is it we know more about our computers or our cars than we do about your most precious possession? I believe as you learn more about the interconnectedness of your bodily functions, that the very process of informing yourself becomes a synergistic one. Not only is your awareness heightened, but you’re actually building new neural superhighways between your brain and body. These can act as a conduit for receiving and sending important signals which will be necessary to maintain oversight and control of your health.

Wonders of Healthy Living

1. HEALTH














Physical Health
· Passion for understanding your body.
· Exercise
· Nutrition
· Stop Smoking, Drinking.
· Adjust Attitude
· Adequate rest

Emotional Health
· Keep anger in check
· Observe patterns and reactions that elevate stress and modify them
· Organize your life to reduce frustration.


2. INTROSPECTION
· Take inventory of your emotional and psychological health the way you should with your physical health.
· Talk to yourself as you would a dear friend
· Take notes, review them frequently.

3. HONESTY
· Vanquish self-deception.
· Seek to understand the structure of your life and how it benefits or undermines your overall well being.
· Evaluate relationships, healthy or unhealthy, what can be improved, what cannot? How would life be different without them?


4. COURAGE
· Take steps to act on the revelations of your introspection and honesty.
· Fix what is not working in your life.
· Modify or leave relationships that are destructive or counterproductive.


5. BEAUTY
· Surround self with beauty
· Seek beauty
· Develop internal, external beauty
The sensual life in not a hedonistic, unhealthy life, on the contrary, the senses must be exercised, indulging them provides psychological and physiological benefits.


6. SOLITUDE
· Have special places to be alone.
· Take frequent walks alone. Walking elicits thought, creativity and improves overall health.
· Be spontaneous, when you see or hear about a place or thing that is intriguing, take yourself there.
· Be romantic with yourself.
· Take time to be alone, to experience and explore your emotions completely, truthfully.
· Get to know yourself apart from the way others view you or the way you wish to be viewed.

7. JOY
· Feel your spirits lift in the presence of beauty and the miracle of experience, remember the sensation, let it become part of you. Revisit it often in your mind.
· When you feel happiness and satisfaction, temper it with humility and gratitude. ·Recognize the rare spontaneous nature of joy and accept it as only part of a complete life. Understand that it arises on its own, only when we have created the opportunity, through healthy living.

8. BALANCE (Work vs. Personal Time)
· Take inventory of time spent at work and in repose.
· Is there other work you could do that would be more satisfying?
· How could you enhance income while increasing personal time?
· Do research, find ways to improve your financial health today and in the future.
· Pay off bills, streamline expenses. Live simply, material goods are fine, but evaluate the cost to your free time, sanity, etc.

Now, follow along as we begin to explore the meaning behind each one of these concepts and how to integrate them into your life. The content will be posted as it is written as this is a living document, an honest examination of my own counterproductive patterns and the methods I have used to transform them.

I encourage you to post your own responses as you read, so that together we might create a truly powerful collaborative work that helps to inform and transform ourselves and those who follow.