As I sit here before the sunrise on a beautiful winter day, my heart is troubled and my mind is laboring about my country.  It’s health is failing.  People around me are dying slow deaths and most of the time unaware.  Depression and its related medications are at an all time high.  My country is spending more money on healthcare than any other country in the world, yet its health ranks last among all other industrialized nations.  Something drastic needs to happen, and fast.  Although I am only one person, my hope is that I am able to do my part in saving our nation…our children.  My deepest belief is that it is essential to remember that health is a journey, not a destination.  You will not wake up one morning and joyfully declare that you’ve “successfully made it”, you’re “officially healthy”.  No, there is always one more step to take, one more change to make over time to enhance your health journey.  And truly, that’s the key…small steps over time reap insurmountable rewards for you and your family.  Trying to change everything overnight will undoubtedly lead to failure.  We must strive to let go of our ‘must have now’ mentality and learn to enjoy the process.

I am gaining an increasing awareness that health is so much more than just how your body feels or works.  I think of health as a triangle with 3 main categories, Chemical, Physical, and Emotional, with the Spiritual component taking precedence over all of them.  We should strive to understand how we are not our body, our outward appearance, our attitude, our personality, our face.  The YOU that is really YOU is the Spirit inside.  YOU are a Spiritual being having a human experience on this place we call earth.  In order to have the beautiful and fulfilling experiences we were destined to have, it is important to allow our Spirit to properly implement all aspects of the three categories.  The Chemical aspect of wellness includes anything you put into or onto your body, from diet to makeup to floor cleaner, and everything in between.  How these chemicals are effecting you and why, and what easy changes you can make to begin removing these hindrances from your life are what you should be taking daily steps toward.  The Physical component includes your structure; muscles, bones, ligaments, organs, etc.  It is important to know how to exercise and which exercises feel right to you.  Which exercises do you enjoy most, as those are the ones you will stick to.

Find ways to multitask your exercise with other things you need to do so you can save time and be efficient while keeping your body physically fit.  Maybe you are someone with a sound diet and exercise regime, but are still having difficulty losing weight, chances are you have not properly addressed the emotional aspect of your health.   Physics now clearly shows us that thoughts produce reality.  If the chronic ongoing background music in your head sounds like:  I’ll never lose weight, I’m always getting sick, I can’t stop eating junk food, there’s too much to do in one day, this weather makes me sad, I’m never going to get the job I want….’; well then I’m afraid that will be your reality.  Take inventory of your current underlying thoughts, the things you are saying to yourself on a daily basis.  Now take a look at your life right now.  I can guarantee they match exactly.  The great news is you can change that.  It’s your choice to train yourself to input a positive thought where a negative one once was.  Step by step, your life can only get better!

Listen to yourself!  Trust yourself!  You know what’s right for YOU, and YOU are unique.  Let go of care and worry about what everyone else around you is doing for themselves; and what they think of you.  What is it that makes YOU tick?  Spend time each day in silence, prayer, meditation.  If you can do this consistently for as little as 10 minutes daily, your life will start to make a dramatic shift.  Spending time for just YOU is not selfish.  It actually replenishes you to help others even more-just like pushing the reset button or re-starting your computer.  Stop living in the future and the past!  YOUR TIME IS NOW!