My mind considers possibilities.
My feelings provide motivation and direction.
My physical action produces results.
We are three-dimensional beings made of mental, emotional and physical elements (Also, spiritual but let’s not complicate things).
We are born to grow, evolve and experience who we are as we live our lives.
I believe true health is being comfortable and accepting of your thoughts, your body and your feelings as they are.
In your lifetime, about 50 million gallons of blood will pass through your heart and it will beat around three billion times. Each day you take about 21,600 breaths, which add up to about 591,300,000 breaths over your lifetime. You have a complex organization of 600 muscles, which allows you to move. In your face alone, there are over 100 muscles allowing you to smile, eat and express. It takes 34 muscles to frown and only 13 to smile. Your skin is the largest organ in your body with a surface area of 1.5- 2 meters. Every minute 30,000 – 40,000 skin cells fall from your body and a completely new layer of cells is grown in approximately one month.
For women of average weight your total body weight is comprised of 27% fat, muscles 35% and the skeleton, about 12%. In a healthy male of average weight, the breakdown of total body weight is roughly 15 % fat, 45 % muscle and 15 % skeleton. The remaining body weight, in both cases, is accounted for by blood plasma, skin, connective tissue, tendons, organs, hair and so on. Water accounts for about 70 % of the total body weight of an average person. Muscle is roughly 75 % water, 20 % protein and 5 %minerals and other matter. Body fat and bones are roughly 50% water.
Your brain is made up of 10 billion to 100 billion neurons, which are organized in such a way to allow you to make choices and act upon these choices. For example, let’s say you choose to have a cup of coffee this morning. Chemicals are released from your brain, which reach the muscles of your body and through a complex set of instructions; you lift the cup to your lips and drink. All of this occurs without any real awareness of this vast mechanical and chemical dance. Consequently, the result of your drink produces a chain of effects, which cascade throughout your body systems.
In short (and to reiterate), your body is amazing! Since you live in your body, this means YOU are amazing! Unfortunately, for most, our introduction to our being has not been very positive. Instead, we focus our attention on finding reasons to avoid being abundant because we believe ourselves to not be good enough.
While the functional complexities of our bodies are of interest to a select few, one aspect of our existence is valued above all others. Our ability for higher thinking and reasoning is held as one of the greatest attributes which apparently, at this time, only we humans seem to possess. Our ability to think is the result of millions of years of evolution and we still have so much to learn.
Unfortunately, there is a belief we have about our ability to think that I believe limits our lives. We believe thinking is confined to the area above our shoulders and our minds exist only in our heads. This belief has caused some of us to ignore our bodies. The results of this approach to life are sedentary behaviors, which lead to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, constant aches and pains, as well as other health problems. While medicine has provided many wonderful cures for our modern world, the amount of prescription drug abuse has risen to frightening proportions.
Our bodies are capable of independent movement and actions. They provide us with varying extremes of physical sensations (different from feelings) in the form of pain to pleasure, heat to cold, and soft to hard. Our bodies carry us throughout the minutes, hours, days, and years of our lives. Our body ceaselessly works everyday at providing our consciousness with a place to live. Our body has so many beautifully synchronized systems that work efficiently at keeping your home on this earth so you can enjoy ice cream cone, the latest movie or the feeling of your lover’s arms.
The current technological information age in which we live has created an environment where we are constantly programmed by all we see, hear, touch, taste, feel and read.
These various inputs of our modern age can help support our health practices or detract from them through succumbing to: poor food choices, negative body images, financial pressures and social stresses.
In order to change, you first must be willing to tell yourself the truth.
I know this sounds obvious, but lying to oneself is one of the easiest things to do. The desire to be honest with yourself is step one. The next step is committing to what the truth within you wishes to express as fully as you can. Being truthful requires integrity and dedication. This is the work of training yourself and is no different than strengthening your body. The more you do it (lifting weights, practicing integrity) the stronger you get.
Next comes the choosing. To what degree are you willing to commit yourself to changing your life for the better? Be honest. Do you want fulfillment in your life? How badly do you want it? What are you willing to do to achieve this fulfillment?
We always have choices in life. There is a great deal of power in the choices we make. We can choose not to investigate ourselves and our lives for many reasons, but what I ask of you is to consider… a choice not to examine yourself is a choice which carries much responsibility. When you choose to stay inside a comfort zone and not reach for more in favor of comfort, your life narrows. It narrows because your life is constantly evolving in one direction or another. Either you learn to flow with change or you resist it with all your might. Resistance ultimately causes pain and pain can make you angry.
Anger leads to resentment and everyone you meet in your life is affected by your anger. You carry it with you like a signpost. You then begin to attract others who are also angry. Like attracts like and you will not have the love in your life you desire. So please, consider…our lives are not what they seem. Try something else. Open up to new possibilities and perspectives to help improve your life. When you improve your life and give yourself the freedom you deserve, it makes you smile. Smiling is contagious.