The best thing I ever did for my health and happiness

Well, ok, the BEST thing I ever did was marry Natalie, but a close second is today's topic.

Today, I'm not going to give a long intro, I'll not keep you waiting and just get right to it:  One of the best things I ever did for my health and happiness was to change my understanding about the way my body works.

Currently, when I look in the mirror, I love who I see because I have an increased understanding of who that is looking back at me.  I understand that this body is merely a shell of dirt, being maintained by an organizing intelligence.  My understanding changed when I realized the absolute truth - that this body renews and regenerates itself continually.  This body is set on automatic to heal and replace itself.  I realized that I am not the same person I was yesterday, last year, or last decade...I realized that my body is earth, it's animated earth.  It comes and goes, it's fleeting - and so is yours.  Take a look:

 

• The lining of the gut is entirely replaced every 5 days.
• Your external-most skin regenerates every 14 days.
• Your blood cells replenish themselves every 3-4 months.
• Your bones and muscles last about a decade.
• Your brain on the other hand lasts a while longer.

All of this put together allowed me to change my understanding of who and what I am.  I am not this body, but this body is a reflection of who I am and everything that's happened to me.  It reflects the environment I'm currently in and every environment that I've been in in the past.  It reflects the choices I am currently making and every choice I've made in the past.  The most important contributors to whether we are sick or well are what the body is fed in terms of nutrition, movement, and thoughts.  Another way of thinking of it is - this body is like my house, only better.  It's smart!  And keeps rebuilding itself constantly - day in, day out - without my thinking about it.

"What I did was change my understanding about the way my body works."  

If I place my body in a poor food environment (feed it poorly), it's like building a house out of rotted wood, if I feed it what it was designed to have, it builds itself very soundly.  This goes for choosing the McFilthy double bacon cheeseburger or the fresh, organic salad with organic, cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil dressing and pasture-raised chicken.  This goes for choosing to sit on the couch day after day or choosing to do squats and pushups. This goes for looking at myself and saying, "I wish [my nose, hair, body shape, etc.] were different," or saying, "I love myself and I'm grateful to have this body today, it's doing exactly what it was designed to do given the circumstances."

I could go on and on about all the choices people make all day long, the reality is that your body is absolutely amazing and it wants nothing more than to be healthy and happy.  Of course it does!  The major reason it's not doing this is the environment it is being placed in day after day.  Achieving a solution requires a shift in YOUR thinking, an increase in YOUR understanding that your body is doing (with few exceptions) exactly what it SHOULD be doing based on your choices about what environment you choose to put it in.

If you want to make better choices about what environment you are placing your body in, a wellness expert or coach is the best option to help you change that stinkin' thinkin' over to beneficial thoughts in line with the way your body really operates.  The reality is that the culture in America acts as if what you put into your body isn't important--that if you get sick, you can blame your genes/parents or some virus/bacteria or plain old bad luck.

The reality is that yes, accidents happen and there is an occasional genetic cause (<2% -- and we're lucky to have medicine for these conditions), but over the long haul, people are primarily sick or well based on the thoughts and beliefs that run through their heads all day long.  This constant stream of thoughts will directly control what you choose to eat and how you choose to move your body.

In order to have the best possible body and best possible life, you've got to get control of that steady stream of thoughts that controls every aspect of your life and is also responsible for your happiness.  The main problem is that most people have never evaluated those thoughts, why those thought are there, and how to improve them.  Wellness doctors are trained to help people improve their environment by making better choices and they offer classes on how to evaluate what's going on in that bean of yours.

Although great at stitching us back together again and helping with the occasional genetic defect (<2% of cases), the "Health" Care System in the US is not very good at helping us make better choices and getting us to place ourselves in environments that produce health.  They simply are not trained in getting us to change our understanding of how our body works and WHY it's behaving the way it is.  It's incredible that this is the very thing that will allow us the best possible health and happiness that we all deserve - naturally.

Here's to health and happiness based on choice not chance.

Reconnecting you to Choosing Happiness and Health, day after day based on New Understanding - Doctor Steve Perry, DC