Ahhh yes…life. This topic has kept people scratching their heads since the beginning of time. Few understand it, and yet most have questioned it. Have you? Have you spent any amount of time wondering how you’ve gotten to this point in your life and what you can do to make it better for yourself and everyone around you?
Through years of conditioning and loads of misinformation you’ve been trained to believe that starting over is painful, challenging, overwhelming and even requires a loss of things loved. It’s this type of mindset that can keep you from making any sort of changes and will keep the healthy lifestyle you crave constantly out of reach.
A shift in perspective is truly all that’s required to get you on your way to living your best and healthiest lifeever, and when you follow these four foundational lifestyle truths you’ll be jaunting down your life path in your own flashy style in no time flat. These four basic building blocks are going to pave the way for everything you do from this point on, so once we’re clear on these must-know principles everything else you do in life will have no choice but to fall into their rightful places. You’re ready, you say? All right, then. Let’s go!
- Life is about relationships. You cannot sit on your couch, use your remote or even walk to the bathroom without being in relationship with at least something. Your body is in relationship with the couch for the two or three hours per day you spend on it watching TV, right? Your hand is in relationship with the remote it uses to change the channels, and your feet are in relationship with the floor as you venture your way from room to room. It’s with that awareness you’ll begin to have a healthier perspective about everything and everyone you come in contact with and the healthier and easier your days will be.
- Relationships are about communication. The health of your relationships depends on how effectively you communicate with everything around you. If you don’t know how to use the remote control, then you’re not going to be able to change the channel without having to get off the couch. Gasp!! When you take time to invest in the remote — learning how it works and what all it can do for you — you can then stay perfectly comfortable with that hiney of your firmly planted on the couch and change channels all day long without ever having to move anything but your thumb. Apply that same principle to everyone and everything else you’re in relationship with and just imagine how healthy and liberating your life will be!
- Speak your truth with love and respect. If there is only one rule in life you ever remember to apply, may it be this one. Speaking your truth by using your “I” statements to express what you’re seeing, hearing and feeling not only helps people understand your perspective, it also reduces the opportunity for misunderstandings and heightened defenses which can lead to breakdowns in relationships. “I” messages allow each person involved in the conversation their own space to be acknowledged and accepted for their own take on reality. No guessing, no wondering, no making up stories — just good old fashioned honest talk between two or more people (or even yourself) just trying to make it through the day the best they can.
- Let it go and question everything. In today’s society you’ve undoubtedly heard at one point or another how selfish it is to take care of you first and how you must put other people’s needs ahead of yours in order to be a “good person.” It’s that type of backward thinking that has led to the decline of people’s health nationwide. When you give all you have to other people and activities — whether it be your family, your job, overthinking, all of the above and etc. — you end up pulling from an empty reserve and everything starts shutting down.
Nurturing your needs and your life first is one of the healthiest ways of laying a solid foundation for your journey, as well as silently setting an example for the people around you to do the same. When you begin to question the things in your life that cause you stress and frustration and allowing yourself to explore your authenticity and passions — and expressing both — your life will never be the same. Your mental health will be restored, which in turn leads to the restoration of your physical, emotional and personal well-being.
Marianne Williamson says it best in her book “A Return to Love:”
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.
We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us;
It’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we’re liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.”
Just like when you learned to drive a car or any other new skill you desired to master, practice and patience were required. Be gentle with yourself and remember head knowledge doesn’t always equal practical or even heart knowledge. Before long, however, your new operating system will be downloaded and fully functioning, and you won’t even be able to recall what it was like to scratch your head and wonder how life could be different.
