Quote of the day:

“One thing has become crystal clear: In order to activate our innate healing abilities, to overcome cancer or any condition, we have to shift our biochemistry from a state of struggle and survival to a state of harmony and wellness.”

—Isaac Eliaz, MD

Don’t you love this quote? We can shift our biochemistry. We can access harmony and wellness. How do we do that exactly? I always favor the pathways to health that involve our own inner initiative.

A more robust look at our inner life shows us how to move towards living in harmony.

We are always getting feedback from our bodies. Our sense of touch tells us what is happening at our body’s boundary. We get messages from our organs all the time also. Are you hungry? Are you tired? Do you need to empty your bladder?

We have a sense of harmony or well-being that lies behind these signals. Often we don’t give it a lot of attention when all is well but we sure notice it when there is a disturbance in it. You know that feeling when you know you are coming down with something? That’s a disturbance in the sense of well-being or life-sense.

Do you have an ‘ear’ for subtle disturbances in your well-being? Were you taught good self-care? Do you prioritize it? Can you appreciate harmony when the body’s needs are met — when you are well-fed and well-rested and well-exercised? Can you appreciate it even when they aren’t?

The harmony in our body is always there; it is who we are at our core. It just gets blocked when loud signals emanate from our organs. Today I write about growing your connection to your inner fountain of well-being.

If we give our body a routine so it knows what to expect and its needs are met we can access more feelings of well-being. I love working with the basics: hydration, sleep patterns, healthy diet, and a good routine. The reason I do is I have such respect for the life-sense.

Any addictive substance is an obstruction to the life sense because we have to tend to the parameters of the substance before we are free to connect.

Seen from another direction, addiction can be caused by inherent impaired access to well-being. Prevention can start with knowledge of the life sense and with techniques to assess it and the subsequent cultivation of connection to it long before substances become an option.

Moreover, a sense of well-being in oneself is the portal to accurately receiving input from the world around us and ultimately from the people in the world around us. We are better observers, better listeners, and ultimately better citizens of our communities when we can access our own well-being. 

Are we free to see one another? Are we free to sense the thought and individuality of who is in front of us?

As a culture are chasing a connection to harmony all the time without really studying what it is or where it comes from. Aren’t we falling prey to cheap substitutes? Aren’t overeating, overdrinking, and over-anything often, at their core, medicating an improper connection to our inner life sense?

Taking all this into consideration, eating well is seen in a new light. For example, did you know that trans fats make people angry? There is a body of evidence to support this. The standard American diet of processed foods causes a disturbance to our sense of well-being and makes us borderline anti-social!

You have a duty as a citizen to take loving steps every day to tend to your self-care.

Furthermore, a chronic disturbance in well-being, like with chronic pain or PTSD, does not mean we are without access to well-being. It means we cannot access it as easily. Harmony is there under the surface all the time in all of us. With a chronic disturbance, our effort and attention need to be extra engaged. It’s like a master class. You might have a superstar inside you looking for the challenge that confronts you!

I’ll leave you with this quote on the healthy relationship between the individual and community:

“A healthy social life is found only when, in the mirror of each soul, the whole community finds its reflection, and when, in the whole community the virtue of each one is living.”

—Rudolf Steiner

Here’s to a healthy community through new perspectives and personal shifts!