living well deeply...........

It's becoming increasingly clearer to me each and every day that I am the ultimate factor for the state of health in my body and mind. I've been looking at this for years and yet am only just now arriving at the place that it is truly impacting me. I can no longer look the other way and wish that my body/mind health would just 'happen'. It's just not going to be that way. I thought that I could make little changes here and there and that this would be enough to allow the shift to happen to good health all around or at least venture largely toward it. I am now learning that it's just not that way. There needs to be a total commitment to my health to have it manifest for myself. It's a much bigger picture that provides total health for us in body and mind and its a much deeper process than I realized. I love the fact that I continue to learn and can make changes that will affect the rest of my days even though I am at this point 55 yrs of age. Who doesn't want to live out their life the best way possible. It seemingly is more important to me now than when I was 25 or even 40 and I'm pleased to be in the midst of this shift of understanding.

I have done alot of research regarding stress and came to understand a long time ago that the nervous system plays a large part in our health and wellness in terms the effect it can have on our body and organs. I knew that whatever emotion we felt became a message that travelled along the nervous system and arrived at and was carried into each and every body organ that we have. We all know how our physical body responds to emtional responses. Our stomach can become upset instantly, we might get goosebumps all of a sudden, lose our appetite in an instant or a headache comes on quickly following an incident. I knew all of this and yet for me there was one thing missing that would really drive it home. What was missing for me was that all of the emotion experienced actually went all the way to the cellular level because of a cascade of actions that occur within the body in response to these emotions and determines how each cell functions. Changes occur in each cell following emotional incidents and this will steer the cell activity away from what it should normally be doing and instead take it off its course because of the invading emotion. Now, we must remember that positive outcomes occur with positive emotions, but the vast majority of our thoughts are not always positive. All of this struck me as huge. I'm not sure why I didn't 'get it' in terms of realizing that the body organ is in fact made up of cells, but I guess I just wasn't looking at it this way. It may have been a subconcious decision on my part. This does mean though that it goes to the absolute core of who we are as a human being. It doesn't get much deeper than this. The only thing that can be broken down any further is the cell itself and it will in fact 'break' if we continue with the negative thoughts or emotions. Our cells provide us with life and yet we play recklessly with how the cells function by how we choose to live our lives. What we 'feed' ourselves not only in terms of actual food but also in terms of spiritual and psychological nutrition is so important. So once again we are in large part the designers of how we move through life physically and emotionally. It's not left up to anyone else but ourselves and somewhere along the line we have determined it to be not so important because many of us live with ill health or health that is not optimal to say the least. I'm currently reading a book that spells this out in a scientific manner, but the message is loud and clear even being a lay person. The author is not only a scientist, but also a spiritualist in terms of the understanding that the mind and body are not separate entities, but interconnected with each other. She even writes about how music can help to heal the body. A quote from her book states "music, which is a patterned vibration can bypass and directly resonate with those (cell) receptors, interacting like a drug or an emotion. The vibrational frequency of the notes turns on the receptor, setting in motion all kinds of cellular activities." She goes on to say "that's how music can heal, interacting directly with your molecules of emotion to charge you with energy, get your juices flowing, and make you feel good." Wow.....I knew that music could be soothing, but now I understand how it can actually help to heal the body. And the key areas with all of this are the receptors on the cells. They are the gateway to the inner workings of the cell and so what goes in those gateways will determine how we live with health or disease. Understanding this from a scientific level just makes this so much more important to me. I simply 'get it' better now. I might have figured it out if I had really sat and thought about it, but who really does that.

It's interesting to note that I have had this book in my library for several years, maybe as many as 6 or 7 and only now have I picked it up to read it. I'm sure that only now I am able to absorb the information and once again 'get it'. I probably wasn't ready to be 'informed' before, so the book waited until I was ready. The book was the 'teacher' and I was the 'student' , all created by Spirit to work itself out in perfect timing. I love it when that happens.

I hope that you are able to live life well and be truly happy, deep inside.

Namaste......

the 'simple' life......

I'm sure I've blogged about this before but it seems to be something that is calling to be written about again. At least in my world right now it seems that way. I'm not writing out of a great need to put this into type on the computer as we sometimes need to do when we journal per se, but instead it seems to be resonating with me in a great manner lately. For myself the 'simple life' is something that I have been moving and working towards for a long, long time for many reasons. My life in the past was filled with being a single parent with lots of demands on myself and often by my own doing. This created a life which was fraught with overachieving efforts, a far too busy life day to day and large levels of stress. Did I say large?? Well, that would be more like HUGE. Sad to say (or rather 'thank goodness') my physical life began to deteriorate and I was bordering on chronic illness according to my naturopath. Funny how it occurs to me now that if I was seeing a naturopath that I did at least hold some regard for my health and welfare, but obviously not quite enough. My biggest problem was in fact my own ego and the thought process that I in fact would be someone who could live this hectic lifestyle and not be affected by it. I was sorely wrong about this. I remember sitting in her office and hearing her say those words that rang in my ears and knowing right then and there that I needed to make changes in my life. I had told myself this all before but this time was the clincher....there were going to be no more chances. It was time.

So the 'simple life' came into effect and I can say that it is something that I work on each and every day. My biggest issue was that I was in fact addicted to my former lifestyle. Yes, addicted. It's not just a matter one day of waking up and deciding to change the entire way you live your life. You have habits and patterns that reside deep inside of your being. It is almost like having to extract or remove these characteristics from who you are. An extraction might have been easier in fact. Quick and effortless and then life would be good right? No it's never that easy. I needed to change and of course we all know that change is something that we often resist or can find hard to accept. The 'old' me thrived on my previous lifestyle and somehow received silent accolades from the part of me that resonated with these now all knowing poor lifestyle choices. Yes, it's that inner rush you get from doing the impossible and yet there you stand having done it. Never looking at the damage you are doing, but just reveling in the moment. How filled with ego is it when you think that you and only you will be able to live this kind of life and get away with it not affecting you? Now, there may be others who can live this kind of life and it doesn't affect them in an ill manner, but I will predict that they have something in their life that helps to balance all of it. I didn't. Mine was all one-sided and ready to tip over.

So 'simple' for me remains to be a challenge each and every day. It may sound silly but I need to remember things such as making the effort to speak, walk and even look more slowly. I try to 'think' less quickly in terms of really understanding that which I am trying to process. Being in the present moment is one that I really enjoy in terms of where I am and what is happening right then and there. I make sure that I don't overextend myself and like to block time out for just me. I can tell when 'simple' is getting away from me because I will begin to feel irritated and my agitation meter will begin to rise. But that's my signal to slow down so I take stock and sort of rewind. All emotion ends up residing in our body and mine is no different. And of course the emotions that I am concerned about are the negative ones. I have studied the effects of stress for years and am finally applying it to myself. I know that every thought I have and each emotion I feel will express itself in my physical body. So I am the driver of all actions and reactions and am responsible for how this unfolds.

I need to sip a cup of tea and truly enjoy it. I need to look with my eyes and really 'see' all that is around me. I need to speak words and really hear what it is I am saying. I need to be with my family and really be in their presence. I need to go to my job and be able to keep a balance for myself when I am in an environment that is filled with high energies. I must make the right choices if I want to live with good health mentally, physically and spiritually. There is no more time to wait on this one. Each day is a challenge but each day I get better at creating a life that has softer edges and allows me to live 'simply'. For this I am grateful.

I hope your life can be a 'simple' one and that you can look back at the end of each day and be proud of how you chose to 'be' in it.

Namaste...........