Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. Harriet Tubman
Living Well Naturally is the purpose of this blog and all the work which I do from nutrition workshops to teaching kids about worms in compost.
Living Well encompasses discovering and accepting your life purpose; inspiring you to take personal responsibility for how you feel physically, emotionally and spiritually; helping you release and eliminate disempowering habits, addictions and relationships while building a network of loving support; motivating you to achieve stable financial abundance doing what you love and; and encouraging you to make a genuine contribution to all humanity — so you can experience wellness in your health, career, finances, relationships, emotions, habits and spiritual beliefs.
The first step to living well is to define what it means to live well. Well is a Feel Good Word...think about it. A well is an opening for good things to flow out or come forward. Good things coming from the inside out implies that living well naturally starts on the inside and flows into the world. We live in a world populated by over 680 billion human beings…imagine how different the world would be if half of those 680 billion were living well.
Living Well is a personal choice and decision which affects everyone that you come in contact with and spirals out to change the world. We all make thousands of decisions everyday and these decisions and choices determine not only our lifestyle but the lifestyle of our family and the culture which we are creating in our community. Many of the decisions we make are done from habit because that is what our family or friends do or that is the way it has always been done or because we are in a hurry to get things done or it is what we have been told will make us happy, healthy, skinny, etc. Habits are decisions set in stone or hardened into our belief system until they are no longer free choices. Living Well requires examining these habits and changing values in our belief system. Changing your lifestyle means moving out of your comfort zone.
This reminds me of something that I heard many years ago at a workshop in California and you must forgive me because having attended so many conferences across the country and talked to so many inspiring people though the years I can’t remember where or from whom I heard the different words of wisdom. When I do remember or know the knowledge source I am a name-dropper or I will refer you on to acknowledge the wonderful people who are living well and changing the world.
When we talk about comfort zones I always think of The Boiled Frog Syndrome. If you put water in a pot on a stove and turn up the temperature until the water starts to boil…throw in a frog…the frog will jump out. Different scenario: put three frogs in a pan of lukewarm water…put the pan on the stove and gradually turn up the heat under the pan until the water starts to boil. The frogs will stay in what they conceive to be a comfort zone until it kills them. Living well requires examining your present lifestyle comfort zones and making decisions which may require leaving others behind because they are not ready to jump out of the pot.
Living Well Naturally is a skill that is not taught or valued in our western society. As with any skill or talent it must be taken in small amounts and practiced daily in order to develop the talent of being the “Star” of your own life. I can remember times in my life when I felt like I was the stage person in life…always busy running around doing the hard work setting up the stage for others to star in the show of my life. I felt like I was in dress rehearsal always trying to prepare for the future when I would live well. I am here to tell you…that time will never come. The only day that you have to practice being the “Star” is today. Life is a now process…the show is live…no reruns…no instant replays…no fast forward… and most important no redos. This goes against everything we are told in the media or technology video world today where adults are playing “reality show” and children are playing “animation games” with their life.
The way that you start each morning sets the tone for the entire day. If you start the day tired (such a depressing word…even more depressing is to duplicate it as in retired…can you imagine enduring years in a career looking forward to double depression) how can you expect the day to get better.
I learned the practice many years ago of counting my blessings first thing each morning before opening my eyes. I am blessed with life, a body, a family, etc. There are so many things to be thankful for that we take for granted or even have the audicity to complain about or find fault with. The next thing that I do each morning is yoga which is breath work, postures and meditation. If the word yoga does not fall into your belief system try breathing very deeply into your belly and slowing releasing the air several times, gently stretching the muscles of your body and thinking about the things you love in your life while pledging to do no harm in the world today with your words or actions. Peace on Earth starts with peace in each individual life.
This practice sets the pace for my day regardless of the stresses and issues thrown out by other people or situations. It also makes me more compassionate and understanding to the behavior of other people who wish to share their misery and get me caught up in their drama addiction.
Speaking of addictions, I am often asked as an Environmental Nutritionist what I think about drinking coffee in the morning. I answer truthfully, “I drink coffee, not for my health but for the benefit of those who come in contact with me.” There is the answer, I have a caffeine addiction and without my morning coffee, I get withdrawal symptoms. There will be more in future writing, of course, on the environmental and nutritional considerations of coffee. I invite you to join me in the mornings for that cup of coffee while you are reading the daily posts on Living Well Naturally which includes Environmental Sustainability, Social Justice and Spiritual Fulfillment.
There is no modern technology or graduate degrees in living well. The only requirement is to have an open mind, release judgment, comparisons or expectations of other people’s behavior and be willing to take personal responsibility for how you feel physically, emotionally and spiritually. When you believe that you personally make a difference in the world with the way you show up each day…then you began the practice of Living Well.
Love, Light & Lots of Laughter…Joa
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