Wellness Calls
It’s like a whirlwind of activity. Suddenly we’re looking for what’s trending, like in losing weight and getting buffed bodies or yoga butts. We can count on these topics showing up particularly when January ushers in the New Year, and for renewal in the spring. However, lasting results elude far too many of us. I cannot for the life of me zero in on why folks who want to have a healthier lifestyle settle for less, as if they don’t have a choice?!
After many years of wrong thinking and taking wrong actions, finding out that I had a choice was the piece that opened the door for me. It wasn’t about the weight as much as it was, and continues to be, about the soul. Anyone who tweaks their food plan and invests time and preparation can manage healthy eating. Throw in regular exercise and the weight will drop off. There is nothing unique about this process except it leaves out feeding the soul—spirit, emotions, and free will.
The Remix
Our body knows the way to go. It knows what gives it trouble and knows what makes it feel calm. The problem is, we tend to overload our digestive system so we cannot hear what the body is saying.
While we are totally responsible for what we put in our mouths, the quality of what we eat is not fully under our control. It is not our fault that the food supply is greatly flawed, full of chemicals and man-made substances that the body doesn’t recognize. We have to give the body a chance to speak by adjusting what we take into our mouths. We can test food groups and food types by a slow process of elimination and then reintroduction, with assessment as to how we feel during the process. Everyone can achieve a higher level of health by doing this. Each person has to find their own personal connection and tolerance to food and what is used to process or produce it.
Exert: “The Walk of Faith-Triumph in Troubled Times” Gayle Smith
Our mind, the thinking tool for our body, is the place where we win or lose by simply making the right choices. The biggest hurdle is to get the body and mind to work together. Our motivation to initiate the process of food changes and stick to it has to override “feelings” and “food addictions.” Resisting all of those comfort foods—quick food like snacks with salt quantities that invite heart attacks and strokes and sugar quantities (more addictive than heroin) that invite diabetes and obesity—is not easy. You get the picture.
Living Change
Perhaps you are now saying, “Tell me something I don’t already know!” Here it is: Take some time to figure out what is eating you and not what you are eating. Devoting some time for new beginnings, renewal, and rebuilding from within is the answer to getting the mind and body to work together.
While we cannot explain why or how these systems—whose natures are so completely different—impact one another, we know that they do. The body’s sense organs cause sensations in the mind while the mind causes our limbs to move, as well as arousing our emotions, images, and behavior. Our Spirit gives direction about which route we take the body and mind…a choice between roads that will lead to chaos or peace.
In the Spirit, we become more conscious of God’s presence—how we breathe, move, speak, and interact with others—and the experiences we feel in our bodies. Tapping into the Spirit allows us to become aware of these and choose alternative perceptions of expectations and limitations that are more difficult to connect to by focusing on the mind alone. Freedom from old patterns of behavior (habits) and blocked energy (wasting time) enable us to live life to its fullest.
Remarkably, it is the process of working on the relationship between the body, mind, and spirit that affords you the opportunity of wholeness, wellness, and the new you that you crave.
