Tuesday, March 20, 2012

What would it take?


What would it take for you to...

... Exercise consistently for a year?
... Lose the belly you've been complaining about?
... Eat and live naturally?
... Accept the way you are but still work to improve?
... Happily make healthier food choices?
... Sleep 7--9 hrs a night?
... Go organic?
... Meditate daily?
... Truly take care of yourself and your world?
... See that your body is a miracle?
... Experience your mind as unlimited?
... Be who you want to be?


If these healthy views seemed like long shots, ask yourself why?  If these healthy commitments feel like they would take a big sacrifice, what is so important about what you think you have to give up?  Does any of this ring a bell!?

What has helped me to make all these a priority in my life is a view of my body, my life and the natural world as sacred.  When you view your body, other living beings and the natural world as sacred you treat things differently without much effort or sense of sacrifice, it is just the natural order of things.  Yes I said sacred earlier, don't tune out.  The word sacred can feel like some out of touch religious talk or hippy talk, but what I am talking about is something you know.  Sacred to me is not a concept or a religious adjective.  My body and world became sacred to me through the simple experiencing of the world purely and directly in those moments when they are not clouded by our rushing, pleasure seeking, and anxiety driven mental states.  

When we aren't caught up in rushing to work we experience the renewing energy of the sunrise.  When we aren't worried about being first in line we notice the generosity inducing beauty of a little girl smiling at her mother.  When we aren't disappointed in the way our bodies look, we appreciate how astonishingly perfect they adapt to the conditions they are placed under.  This is how we begin to see ourselves and our world as sacred and make these healthy views, commitments and actions come naturally.  

While science continues to help us understand the body, the mind, nutrition, exercise, disease, healing, and the phenomenal world, there is a huge amount we don't understand and understanding it doesn't make it any less miraculous.  We are sacred beings living in a sacred world.  Tapping into this gratitude and sense of wonder through meditation, nature, etc. has helped me to keep my body and world as the highest priorities over money, fame, achievements, and other more self centered ambitions. I think it can help us all, we just need to remember to look, listen, feel and connect with that sacred part of everything instead of rushing past it all as old news and just the way things are.  


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