Our Bodies Are Not Made To Be Sick

(Written by Insights Into Healing, Barbara)

My grandmother was the one who introduced me to natural healing. When I was around 11, she told me what most people say about sickness is wrong…  and if you believe them, then you are giving in to that part that doesn’t have to be true.  She taught me I could heal any stomach ache, and almost any pain.  That’s where that belief stuck with me.

We need to teach children at a very early age that it’s not normal to be sick.   Our bodies are not made to be sick.   They’re made to be well!  Sicknesses often come from the misguided part of our beliefs, and that comes through from generation to generation.  You have parents that have a child who gets a headache, and they’re running them to the emergency room.   You’re teaching them at a young age that no matter how you feel, if it’s uncomfortable, there’s something wrong with you.   On the other hand, if you’re taught that you are well, that there is no sickness inside of you, then the opposite will happen.

Create and Reverse Illness...

Not only can our minds create illnesses, but they can also reverse them.  That’s how powerful our minds are.  We are the creator of our story, our life, what we carry inside us.

People buy into surgery and drugs as the norm.    Surgery puts your body through all kinds of trauma, instead of letting it heal on its own.  People are also tired of the medical field telling them to take this or take that pill.  You’re only meant to take them for a very short time, not a lifetime, and they give them to you for a lifetime.  Then they add to it because it no longer works.

The Mind Is The Power...

I’ve learned over and over again that our mind is the power.  If we can correct our mind to let go of the false beliefs, the ego, and what is dictated to us, then we can turn inward to discover whatever is inside our body, be it cancer or any illness at all, and literally heal it.   But it takes a lot of work.  Is it possible?  Yes, it’s possible, it happens all the time.  It’s about our inward communication.

The more I go in, the more work I do inside of myself, in my body, the more I discover that memory is stored everywhere.   It’s not just the stomach, it’s not just the heart, it’s everywhere, and our life stories – the things that have been painful to us, that have hurt us, that have created anger and hate -- are stored in all areas of the body, just waiting to come out and be healed.  The cells tell the mind what to do.

Going inward and surrendering to it will open the story.  It will pop a memory in your brain so fast.  To surrender does not mean to forget.   Surrendering is the part that says you just let go, and it comes out.  It’s not that all of a sudden the memory comes into your head and you decipher it.   When you do that, you’re putting It back into your body.

What you want to do is heal the pain, not just take it away.  The pain is there to remind you not to forget that there’s something that needs to be healed.  When you have the pain, you have that opportunity to go in and see what it is.   Is it a certain memory?  Is it a certain emotion?  When you find what it is, don’t take it and see what you can do with it.   Acknowledge it.  That’s it.   It’s in acknowledgment that the body releases it.   You no longer need to carry this. 

You can release it!

 - Barbara (Insights Into Healing)

Read all of Barbara's Columnist Posts

(Editorial assistance by Jeff Lemlich)

 

---

Barbara

Columnist

Unified Therapy

Visit Barbara At:

Facebook

---

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly and Barbara

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Can You Think Yourself Sick?

This is one of my favorite questions that I get asked frequently.  Can you think yourself sick?  Most certainly you can!  However, most of the time, we don't even realize we're thinking ourselves sick, even if we are aware we are able to do this.  Okay, I know this sounds a little convoluted, but let me see if I can explain this better.

I'll start by going back to an example from when I was a kid in high school.   Every week we had P.E. (Physical Education) class.  Now, I hated that more than anything in school.  I wasn't good at team sports and I got laughed at and bullied so much, that every time I knew P.E. was coming, my stomach would be in knots.  In addition, I was being sexually molested and abused at home, so undressing in front of a bunch of classmates was not the feeling of safety I longed for and I wanted to avoid it completely.

Knowing that I could not get away with this every time because someone would catch on to what I was doing, I limited the amount of times I pulled this stunt.  I would go to PE as much as I could and just put up with the name calling and taunts and bullying, but when it got to be too much, I did the unthinkable.

Raising my body temperature...

Shortly before P.E. class, I would start focusing on my thoughts to get my body temperature to elevate.  I did this with my thoughts, just focusing on raising my body temperature.  I would be sitting in a class prior to this and just do it silently.  No one knew it was going on.  By the time I got to P.E., I would tell the teacher that I wasn't feeling good and thought I was running a temperature.  Of course, he would tell me to go see the school nurse.

When I went to the school nurse, she would take my temperature and lo and behold, the thermometer would show I was running a fever.  Deep down inside, I knew I wasn't sick, but I was able to get my body temperature to appear that I was.  The nurse would call my mom and she would leave work to take me home.  My poor mom, I feel sorry for her.  If she ever suspected what I was doing, she never let on.  Of course, I had to continue playing the role of being sick but generally by the time I got up the next morning and my mom took my temperature, it would be normal.

I appeared sick...

See, I managed to make myself appear sick.  It really isn't that hard and in fact many people do this all the time.  I'm sure there is some psychological condition for it, but in my case, I just hated P.E. so much that I would do anything to get out of it.

While I know we can think ourselves sick, we also can make ourselves well.  Now, the trick is though, making sure you are aware of what you are doing.  Most humans go through life being disconnected and unaware.  They do things every day that makes them sick, but are not even aware they are doing it.

We diminish our own health...

Instead of taking care of ourselves in the best way possible, we do things that diminish our health and then all of the sudden we are sick.  We have some condition or situation that we now treat with some form of medicine, but we don't go in and treat the underlying reason that led up to the situation we are in.

While we can think ourselves sick, we can think ourselves healthy.  This means though, that we have to start listening to our body and becoming aware of all that we are, all that we feel, all that we sense, and not numbing or avoiding.  If you don't think you do this, I'd counter that you are probably of an alien species.  It is human nature to not be aware of our body, even if we trick ourselves into thinking that we are.

We can do so much with our thoughts, especially if it is followed by action and it comes from our core.  Just mere words will only get you so far, but learning to connect deep within your biological self will yield much more powerful and long lasting changes for your life.

I'm not suggesting that anyone use the stunt I used when I was in high school.  It really isn't good to mess around with your health in that way.  It is far better to be upfront and honest, letting someone know that you just need a day off for yourself or some activity or event is not right for you.  I took the easy way out.

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Abused In A Christian Church

It only takes a moment for a child to be abused sexually, but it continues to haunt the child for the rest of their life.  Sure, many child abuse survivors manage to find a way to thrive and get beyond it, but when you take the innocence away from a child, they live with that for the rest of their life.

Growing up, I was abused by my father, older brother, and some unknown individual that went to a church we went to and found me in the church basement bathroom.  All of these people messed with my mind something fierce and many of them told me that they were doing this because "God wanted to show his love to me".  They did it because God told them to do it.

It messes you up...

I'm sure in their sick and twisted minds, they believed what they were telling me.  When you're taught from a little kid on up, that if God gets angry at you, you are going to that bad place, this stuff screws your mind up.  It really messes you up because you're not allowed to breathe, eat, or think anything different than what they teach you about God.

What makes me really want to puke my guts out at the thought, is when I see the baptism video of my older brother on Youtube.  Once again, he rededicated his life to Jesus.  Jesus forgave him of all his sins once again.  I've lost track how many times that has been now.  He had a good teacher, because my father was the exact same way.

Here's the blog post that I just referred to about the baptism video of my older brother.

(click image to read)

Of course, it sickens me to see how his childhood friends stand up for him and act as if he is some poor victim.  Yes, I'm sure he was abused too, but unlike him, I didn't go on and abuse others.  He made that choice and all the forgiveness by Jesus will never change that choice in my mind.

These goodie-two-shoe family of Christians that support him act like I'm the brainwashed one.  They act like I'm the criminal and the bad person for daring to break the silence and expose what they did.  I guess, I should take some solace in these fine upstanding Christians that got caught by the IRS for how they ran their shady businesses.  Hey, that's okay.  You can lie and cheat and steal and God will forgive you, but don't you dare expose a child abuser because you are the bad person.  Maybe that is why they built that church for a community I lived in?

Sickened by Child Molesters...

I know, I've been through this area of my healing many times and I have made great progress.  At least I can attempt to be respectful in what I write here, unlike before where the language would have been much worse.  Even though I try to get away from it, it still haunts me.  I'm still sickened by the way these child molesters are treated and how the enablers feel sorry for them.

It isn't just the Catholic church that abuses their little boys and girls either.  This was all done while we attended a Baptist church of the GARBC (General Association Of Regular Baptist Churches) with M.O. Burman as the minister.  It also happened in other churches too because we skipped around many times.  Life was go to church and pray and sing hymns to Jesus on Sunday and then Sunday afternoon, go home and abuse those weaker than you or at least the children and your siblings (and the wife). 

I'll never understand most likely how the sick and twisted are coddled by those that enable them while shouting praises to God in the highest.  I'll never understand why there are some that steal the innocence of a child.  It will always be a mystery to me.

I keep working it...

For now, I keep trying to continue my own healing in child abuse.  I've made tremendous strides over the years, but sometimes the anger of what I see by the ones that abused me attempts to engulf my own life.  What I went through lasted for most of my growing up years and believe me, it is not easy to free myself completely from it.  I keep working on it though!

You can read more about this church we went to in the blog post, Haunted By Ghosts Of The Past.

(click image to read)

Question Of The Day

We're you abused in the name of religion or God or a church?  Feel free to leave a comment if you were.

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Onion Smell Makes Me Sick

At first it was just the taste.  Now, not only does eating onions make me sick, but the smell of them does as well.  I've known that the smell does bother me, but not quite like what I experienced today.

Today, a nice neighbor brought over some food from a church function that got canceled and she didn't want it to go to waste.  While I'm very happy that she did this, I opened it up and the smell of onions about knocked me over.

Within a matter of minutes, I could feel a headache forming and my head hurt.  I could feel my stomach muscles tightening and I was becoming very nauseated.  All of this from the smell of the onions in the food.  I had not tasted or ate the food at this point.

In the past, I know that the smell of onions has brought on an immediate and intense anger within me.  One time I was in a hotel meeting room and they were serving food nearby that had an onion smell.  It didn't take long for me to realize that I needed to exit the room or I might have gone postal.

Another time, I was taking a nap and someone heated up food with onions in the microwave.  The smell of the cooked onions literally woke me up and the next thing I found myself racing down the stairs in a rage.  It took me a couple of minutes to realize that I needed to stop in my tracks and find a different place quickly.

One time, we were walking into a restaurant and the smell of onions almost knocked me off my feet.  I had to immediately get out of there before the rage and anxiety got the best of me.

In fact, just writing about this, I can feel my stomach tense up and begin to hurt.  I can feel a nauseated feeling.  I can feel a little light headed as I write this.  If I got up from my chair right now, I'm not sure I could stand up straight.

A few days ago, I experienced smelling the onions and garlic in the produce section and thinking it was body odor from someone around me.

While I know enough about somatic type triggers, I'm beginning to suspect there is something behind the scenes working on me.  I suspect there is a trigger of some sort with the onion and garlic smell and taste.  It just seems logical.

At this point, I have no idea what is behind this or what is going on.  I've struggled with this for years and as the days go, it intensifies and gets much worse.

While I'd love to solve this one and move past it, I've had too much experience in the past that more horrible stuff will be exposed.  I'm not sure how ready I am to deal with yet another round of stuff in life from my past.

For now, I am just recording this to see how things play out.  It makes absolutely no sense to me at this moment.

You may also want to read what I recently wrote on the possible connection between onions, garlic and body odor.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

032716

Onions Make Me Sick

I used to love the taste but not anymore.  I'm talking about onions because they make me sick.  Too many places out there that serve food think that the more onions they put in food, the better it is.  However, for those of us that onions make you sick, it is a nightmare.

I can tolerate a small minute amount of onions finally.  For some time, I could not even tolerate them at all.  However, a food place we went to this evening decided that they were going to make a salad with mostly onions and a few pieces of lettuce.  I should have known at that point.

The next thing was the main dish.  It started out tasting good but there was a strong taste in it that I didn't recognize.  Finally I put two and two together and realized it was laced with so many onions.  I could not even finish the dish because the taste and smell of the onions was nauseating me.

Within a few more minutes, I could feel a burning in my throat.  In addition, it was not like I couldn't breathe, but my throat was swollen and breathing was much more difficult.  As I write this, my stomach feels nauseated.  The continued taste and smell of the onion in my mouth is not making things easy.

Why do these food places think that if a little onion is good, then more is better.  Sure, I know it is a "healthy food", but if it makes you violently sick to your stomach and keeps you from breathing, then how healthy is that?  Most food places don't get it either.

Its hard to find a lot of packaged products without onions.  Again, the food manufacturers go hog wild in putting onion in stuff.  I'm surprised they don't put it in bottled water because I think it is in just about everything else.

I've learned to cook a lot of foods just so they don't have onion in it.  Its the only way most of the time.  At times I can tolerate a little onion and at other times, it makes me so sick for days.

What gets me though is the over-use of onions in cooking, both in restaurants and in just about everything you buy.  Not everything out there needs onions!  You can make delicious dishes without it.

What is even more sad is that places could care less if onions are horrible for you or not.  Things that you would not think have onions in it, do have them.  Trying to find that out sometimes is difficult at best.  I've went round and round with Sweet Tomatoes only to be pretty much told, get lost.  I've learned that even if I don't think something would have onions in it, I ask if it does.  Sometimes the staff knows and often they do not!

I don't want everyone else to suffer because I can't eat onions, but I would at least like to see these food restaurants and manufacturers actually learn how to cook, not just drench the food with heavy spices.  I would like to see them notate what ingredients are in dishes you order and foods you buy.  That should be the bare minimum.

Of course though, in our society we just could care less about situations like I go through.  We think it is good for us and that's as far as our brain functions.  If you're a person though that suffers with a food allergy or sensitivity, its no fun going through it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
030116

I Did Not Listen To My Body

I did it again.  I did not listen to my body.  Nope!  I just kept pushing and shoving through, acting as if my body never needed the rest.  Sure, I write about this frequently and after what I've been through, you would think I would have learned by now.  Evidently, the lesson got lost along the way.

Starting up my business, I've been going nonstop. I'm kind of a one man band for the most part and often joke that I wear the hats of Information Technology, Graphic Artist, Human Resources, Accountant, Sales Person, CEO, Manager, janitor, warehouse purchaser and many others.  In fact, it really isn't a joke, because I do all of these things and more.

The only thing is, I knew that as I was approaching Christmas time, things were going to get more intense.  They always do for me.  I've made tremendous progress in this part of my life, but around Christmas, the difficulties I face with family issues weighs hard on me.  You could put a 2000 pound gorilla on top of me and it would not be any more difficult than what I experience.

Regardless, I kept going and pushing my way through it.  I discounted and neglected the signs my body was giving me.  I kept lining up events, working with clients, and doing everything that I could to not stop in any form or fashion or slow down.  Sure, I progressed along quite nicely with my business, but it was at the expense of my health.  I thought a couple of moments rest here and there was plenty.

Unfortunately, I kept ignoring my body.  I kept ignoring it until it said, "hey dude, enough is enough" and that's when it happened.  I got what seemed like the flu and was so tired I could barely keep myself awake.  Abdominal pains that got so intense, I cried out in agony.

Sure, I could have run to the doctor and they most likely would have run tests and prescribed some type of medication.  It might have helped me get over this, but I knew deep inside what was the cause.  The cause was exhaustion and stress.  I had pushed my body way too far.  This isn't the first time I've done this and one time I paralyzed myself as a result of doing this to the extreme.

Maybe I needed to have the lesson replayed to me again because I must not have learned it the first million times.  Now, all I can do is rest and repair and build my strength back up again.  I choose to not use drugs and medications and supplements because I know that if I listen to my body, I have more than I need within me to function in a day.

It wasn't that long ago that I almost did myself in with a job that sucked the life out of me.  I'm still building up and getting over that, so why I thought I could push myself this hard, I still don't understand.  Yes, I know without an income net, the urgency is there, but if I do it at the expense of myself, what will that profit me?

We all do what I just did and then we stop and wonder why we are sick with illness.  We wonder why we have physical issues and complaints.  Even if a doctor tries to explain that it is stress or we are working too hard, we still don't accept it.  Unfortunately, if we would look at the cause/effect of what we do in our days, it would come into view more clearly.

For now, I'm resting and trying to come back up to full speed.  I've got to learn how to regulate my days more and rest.  Yes, the urgency of starting a business is important, but I've got to learn that taking care of myself is as important as the business that comes in.  I can't be there for others if I can't be there for myself.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blog Post And Images (c) 1/7/16 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What Illness Teaches Me

One of the things that I learn when I'm sick is more how others feel.  Whether it is back pain or a cold or some muscle ache I've gone through, first hand experience gives me insight into what others face.  We may think we know what it is like to walk in the shoes of another person, but until we've walked in their footsteps, we truly don't understand it.

Even if we have been through some period of illness or pain, time often helps us forget the true ordeal we went through.  Yes, we may remember many parts of what happened, but so much of it gets lost in time.

I'm not promoting the concept that we should be sick and in pain all the time.  This would not be fun for anything and I would think is opposite to the human experience as one can be.  Yet, I know that when we face those rough moments in life, we're much more compassionate towards others.

How I Avoid The Flu

While many people seem to view getting sick as a part of life because everyone else is getting sick, I don't subscribe to that philosophy and belief system.  After all, it is a belief system whether anyone wants to agree with me or not.  Our human body is designed to be healthy, but when we throw external factors and stressors against it constantly, can we expect it to be healthy?

Many people feel that doing a few things like eating some warmed up frozen vegetables or maybe a salad here and there is being healthy.  Often people think that if they take a walk once a month or visit a fitness center regularly, that this is healthy behavior and all they need to do.  While these things are good things to do, they are just one part of the whole when it comes to the health of our body.

Too many in our society believe that they are healthy, when in reality they only do healthy behaviors as the need or time arises.  If everyone was truly practicing healthy behaviors, our fitness centers would outnumber the Walgreen stores in our cities and our grocery stores would be selling much different products than they are.  If you don't believe me, count up how many fitness centers are in your local community versus how many drug stores there are or take an inventory of how much space the healthy food takes up in a grocery store versus the junk food isles.

At one time, I used to get colds and flu just like everyone else.  When everyone was sick around me, I would pick the flu up at some point.  While I thought I was healthy, I have found out that I really did not understand what this meant at the time.  We can fool ourselves like I did much, but unfortunately in our society, we do not have healthcare.  We have sick care!

Onions And Garlic Hurt My Stomach

Even though I try hard to stay away from certain foods, sometimes it is unavoidable.  It seems like everything in this world has to have onions and garlic in it to be called food.  Yes, I know how healthy and beneficial these things are and how great they taste.  However, if your stomach becomes upset from them, it is hard to accept the health benefits.

I know I have written about this subject before, (see Phantom Smells Of Trauma, Onions) but yesterday I had some foods that had onions and garlic in them.  My stomach hurt with pains that felt like someone was inside of me punching the exterior wall of my abdomen with as much force and frequency as they could.  Normally I get very warm and a headache starts, but this did not happen this time.

In fact, I think I have actually gotten better with this food allergy or food sensitivity with onions and garlic than I was not long ago.  I have virtually cut out diary and I actually believe that has helped me.  In addition to that, I've been doing some intense healing work on myself, which is probably accounting for the change.

Emotions Of Food Allergies

Yesterday, I wrote about "Garlic Makes Me Sick" and today, I will expand upon the two items that really turn my body upside down. At one time in my life, I really loved onions and to a lesser degree garlic. In fact, I love the taste of them but the reactions I get from them are ones that I try to avoid at all costs.

Onions
Let's start out with onions because that is the one that will get my blood pumping quickly! Eating small quantities will make me sick or give me severe stomach discomfort. Just the smell or even the hint of an aroma will bring out a severe display of anger.

I'll give you an example of what I mean. I was laying down one afternoon enjoying a nap when someone in the house was microwaving some food that had onions in it. My nose picked the slight scent up all the way upstairs and the next thing I witnessed was not pretty. Keep in mind that I don't think I was fully conscious in this episode. I raced downstairs yelling and screaming, what in the blankety blank are you cooking!

Garlic Makes Me Sick

Well the ugly monster has once again arrived. Yesterday, I went out to eat at a well known restaurant and I try to make sure I don't eat garlic, but obviously I messed up yesterday. The reason I'm writing this blog post is to share my difficulty with others who may be experiencing this same thing.

I barely made it home yesterday, before I got very sick. I will spare you the details but my stomach feels like it was suckered punched for days. I've felt weak because of it. At least my headache has now subsided. My face and body no longer feels like I am sitting inside of a 2000 degree box.

This is not the first time I have experienced this result when I inadvertently ate garlic. It has taken me some time to begin to narrow it down, but even a small amount of garlic can cause a horrible chain of events, that leave me praying for a small moment of relief. It isn't pretty and it isn't fun.

The Power Of Your Mind

Have you ever thought about the power your mind holds? It is much more powerful than we often give it credit for in our lives. While it is often said that we only use a small percentage of our brain, in many ways that is not true. We use all of it to function but we often do not tap into all our consciousness and awareness.

When I was a child, I hated gym class with a passion and would do anything to get out of it. There were many reasons for my hatred of course. However, some days in gym class, the activities we were going to be doing were just too much for me to deal with. So on those days, shortly before the class would start, I would begin a process in my mind to make myself appear sick. To this day, I am not sure I could recreate that exact same process but most of it would be where I would "think" I was sick or running a temperature along with stomach pains.

I learned early on that if I just complained about feeling sick but showed no proof , I would not be excused from gym class. They might make me go in and sit there or do something stupid which wasn't any better to me. I learned that I had to show them proof. So I would concentrate on thinking that my body temperature was high and I was running a fever. The process was not much more than having myself believing that my body temperature was high . This of course was fueled and motivated by my hatred for gym class.

Sure enough, we would get to class and I would inform the teacher that I didn't feel well. It gave me just a little longer to work the body over and exhibit the symptoms. The teacher would then instruct me to go to the nurses office to be checked out. When I got there, she would ask me what the symptoms were and most of them I was not faking but when she would take my temperature, it would always be very high. It would register just high enough that would cause them concern and she would declare I was sick and I needed to go home. Then my mom would have to come pick me up and take me home, leaving me alone while she went back to work. That meant though, I would have to continue faking being sick for some time longer so no one suspected what I was up to.

But as I think back on that, I realize just how powerful thoughts can be. There was nothing physically wrong with me and even after getting sent home, I was still not "sick". The next day I would go back to school. I never let on to anyone what I was doing because if the secret got out, my fake illness would not work. In this case, it was all in my mind.

Each one of us has the ability to do so much with our minds whether it is physical illness or healing, positive or negative thoughts or pushing away/bringing in thoughts and things we need. We all can do this and we all do it every day regardless if we aren't aware we are doing it.

How conscious and aware we are in our lives is all up to the power of our mind and our ability to connect with it. In order to be a conscious person means, one needs to be fully connected with your body, mind and soul. By traveling deep within one's self, you allow yourself to heal, grown and evolve all parts of yourself. Of course, this is a constant ongoing process because the more conscious you become, the more you are aware. The more you are aware, the more conscious you become. It is a never ending process of evolution and becoming all you can be in your life.

How can you use the power of your mind to connect deep within and discover your own consciousness and awareness?




Blog Post & Images (c) 2/5/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

Stress Can Make Us Sick

All of us know that stress can make us sick but there is a disconnect in our society when it comes to actually realizing the impact of stress upon our life. If you don't believe me, just monitor how much time you spend relaxing and releasing stress in your life and how much others around you do the same thing. I have seen many people come in for a massage that is more like a treat than something healthy that they should do as often as they go through their week at a job.

Yet, we as humans and maybe more in our society push ourselves past our limits every day. Maybe it is this way in the whole world, I do not know because I am not able to travel and check it out. In our days, we have our jobs, our family functions and our organizational functions which we must attend. We are running here and there for everything, everyone and anything it seems. There is never a dull moment in our lives except when we are maybe watching the TV as we doze off to sleep. Our blackberry and iphone are filled with our schedule of many tasks we need to complete and we live to check those off one at a time.

Where is the sanity in staying so busy and treating our bodies as if they are a robot that is destined to be our servant in life? Where is the enjoyment of life when we can barely stop and smell the roses or notice the sounds of the birds waffling by our ears? Where is the the warmth of touch on our lives when we fail to connect with anyone around us in a meaningful way?

We all know that we push ourselves harder than we should and yet, many of us do very little about that. Maybe it is because we are not comfortable being alone in our body and in our mind for there are parts we just don't want to think about. Maybe you have been raised to believe that an idol mind is the devils playground. Some of us may feel that our self worth is defined by how much we accomplish and how successful we appear that we have become. Others may feel that it is our sense of duty or responsibility to never stop for fear of letting someone down in our life or letting ourselves down. There are many reasons and most of them need to be challenged to the core in our life.

Regardless of the reason, it is undeniable that what goes on in our mind and in our life is what is reflected in our body. They are one and the same. You cannot separate the two as hard as you might like to separate them. We can make ourselves sick because we do not stop and take care of ourselves. We can also make ourselves whole by stopping to really focus on our body, mind and spirit. It really is that easy and it is that difficult.

Consider the quote from the book, "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" by Robert M. Sapolsky on pages 2 and 3.

We have come to recognize the vastly complex intertwining of our biology and our emotions, the endless ways in which our personalities, feelings, and thoughts both reflect and influence the events in our bodies.

Extreme emotional disturbances can adversely affect us. Stress can make us sick, and a critical shift in medicine had been the recognition that many of the damaging diseases of slow accumulation can either be caused or made far worse by stress.

Further Reading:
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky


Blog Post & Images (c) 12/6/10 Don Shetterly - use by permission only