Every moment is important

 

 

 

Over the years I have heard,  actually from the time I was quite young through high school, that life is way too short. I guess I compartmentalized this saying with all the other cliches and phrases brought to my attention throughout my entire childhood, until I needed them I guess, or when had the ability to seriously comprehend them. Personally, growing up I tended to spend more time with people that were much older than I was, and I think I am a more informed adult for it, because I tried to listen and learn from others success and mistakes.

Today I think we all tend to deal, live and prosper in the moment, or only in the past. We have learned to live for life's quick gratifications, and we have learned to dwell in the past for those great stories and experiences, or even the bad experiences or memories that we are unable to let go of and move away from. I think that living in the moment, as well as dwelling in the past can cause us to slide through life with blinders on, and I feel it is a major reason we miss a lot of other great experiences. I understand the overwhelming stresses we face daily, of course I have them as well, but letting them run and control your life is unhealthy. I also know that trying to live from experience to experience has caused me to miss a lot, and some of the good things were right under my nose and I stupidly let them zoom right by.

My Grand mother said something very memorable to me one time, and I will always remember it. She said life is just a series of seconds, moments and minutes, and that I should try to hold onto and enjoy as many of them as possible. One  day, later in my life I recalled the day she said this to me and I remembered the information she passed onto me. Since then, it has allowed me to have so many wonderful, and  memorable moments that were right there in front of me all along, that now I was able to enjoy.  The alternative is to put all of our eggs in one basket, and sit around waiting for that  time when our so called ship will come in day finally happens. If it does, make that day the cherry on top of an incredible sundae day, rather than waiting that one moment to be the actual sundae! Do this by enjoying every day up till that day happens.

 

My moral to all of this is to enjoy everything. Learn from all of your experiences, good and bad. Make sure you are learning from everything you experience, and taking knowledge from everything you do. In a short period of time you may just be able to discover how to have more of the great experiences and less of the bad ones, although all of them come with lessons to be learned.\

 

Celebrate life every day, and make amazing memories every day... all day long!

Take a few minutes for yourself every day..

Teaching, doing lectures and radio shows for over 3 decades has taught me many things. One of those things is that we humans are a tough group to get organized, and all of us are motivated to make changes in completely different ways. Some of us at the first sign of weakening health will change our routine entirely, and never look back. Some of us will wait for Mother nature to fix the problems, thinking our bodies are meant to do it on it's own. And then there are the many of us that even with  life threatening episode, or being put on medication and told the situation is dire will still hold onto  the idea that things will get better.

I am not sure if it is because by dealing with a health problem we are accepting that there is one, while somewhat ignoring it, praying for a change or just sweeping it under the carpet allows us to feel it does not exist. I cannot tell you how many hospital beds I have sat on having conversations with people that wished they had been more attentive, and had given their health the importance of focus it deserved.  Of course there are people who have lost their battles even doing everything correct, but I can pretty well guarantee there are many more people who lost the fight leaving us with a lot of coulda, shoulda. wouldas!!

Maybe if we all gave life, diet, exercise, attitude and healthy living a little more attention along the way we could have a better chance of giving it the good fight when needed. I have heard many times if I had only been better to myself, or if I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself. Personally my favorite is, if I lose the body where will I live.

A moral to this, maybe it just comes down to being a little better to your self along the life journey, and not waiting to give yourself focus only when a problem, or health emergency rears it's ugly head. And the deep belief in your mind and heart that we deserve to be healthy, happy and have an amazing quality of life. We have the where all to do this, we just need to give our health the same focus we give to the other things we do every day, you know the things that are not life saving.

Quick relief does not mean getting to the source..

Why is it that we gravitate to quick health symptom fixes today more than any other time in history? I think it is , at least partly that we have either forgotten that getting to the source of a health problem is the ideal solution, or we just do not care  what the real reason we ended up in this situation. Today almost all advertising is aimed at the "quick fix" and fast change solutions, and after hearing it all the time it is easy to start thinking that way, and expect it to be so.

If you have visited your drug store self care aisles lately you will see a field of snappy colorful packages that are worded in a way to catch your eye, and to have you pick up their product over any other. I get it,  we all  get annoyed with symptoms  from out of balance health conditions, so much that desperation sometimes takes over.

From colds and flu, to allergies,upset stomachs, constipation and diarrhea, I get it, the frustration that accompanies these annoying symptoms can be mentally stressing. I myself have used the quick fixes in the past, especially when an event, or work situation required me to be at my best. But I also know that even if I did choose to resort to a quick fix, I kept in mind that getting to the source of the health problem needs to be focused on as well. Band aid quick fixes are extremely common today, and some of us are actually convinced that we have corrected the problem when the symptom goes away, even temporarily. The hard part to comprehend is that when you cover up an annoying symptom you are actually just putting the actual health problem on the back burner as you get into a comfortable situation for the day.

Nobody wants to be sick, or wants to suffer with any bad symptoms, and with us being in a nation that sweeps our problems under the carpet because we do not want to"deal" with them, eventually the small problems manifest into major out of control problems that are even harder to deal with.

So how do we approach these health situations and deal with the annoying problems? Plus, how do we get to the cause of what is causing the annoyance and out of control symptoms? I think it comes down to allowing your body to do the job it was meant to do. Our bodies have the ability to fix, mend, balance, rejuvenate, rehydrate, repair and put us in a defensive mode, but it needs the correct tools to do the job. This is what we can do to provide the right tools for every job the body needs to complete. Getting back to the basics most of we taught when we were younger is essential. A great diet with balanced healthy foods, a great nights rest, exercise to provide strength, movement and hormonal balance, a positive attitude for a healthier brain, and supplements to fill the gaps created even by a great diet. This is the best, and most effective way to aim our bodies in the right direction. This may take longer, but when your focus is on the source and cause, rather than the now situation, you ultimately have a better chance of finally getting the results you have always wanted.

CHANGE........

The word change is most likely one of the most confusing words many of us come in contact with, and although the word itself can mean the process of leading us to a positive experience, we many times see only a negative outcome, another failure or difficult process. I think we have all become so entrenched in our lives that quick and easy resolutions, multi symptom relief products and daily living in an auto pilot mode has become both comfortable, and the norm.

With everything moving smoothly, and without thought, even though it may be uncomfortable, unhealthy or just bad for your quality of life, we are able to glide through each and every day without thinking of having to consider change. Through my thirty five year career I think I can count on one hand the number of people that were excited about the prospect of making a change in their life, but I can comfortably count thousands of people that were happy when the process had settled in, and the changes began to be comfortable, and as they saw and felt the difference the dreaded changes had made.

Change is something that we can have control over in many aspects of our lives, especially when it relates to the things we personally do every day. The foods we consume, the way we handle and deal with our stress, our outlook on life, our vices, activity levels, and even how we organize our daily routine. I am often reminded that there are many things in our life we cannot control, and I agree completely, but my answer is always to just change the variables that we can change. Obviously watching any news program today you will be inundated with world happenings that although heartbreaking in every aspect of the word, we sadly cannot change much of what we see and feel, but the things allowable for us to change can be life changing for each of us individually, which can lead to large scale changes.

If we were to look at the idea of changing our diets to only healthy foods, exercising daily,obviously whatever your body will allow you to do could have a domino effect never seen or thought of.  If all of us stopped eating processed foods, ate healthy and organic foods, switched to an anti inflammatory diet, lived in the moment with a positive attitude and regained our zest for life and living this country would escalate to the most healthy country in the world. It would allow us to back away from unnecessary medications, over the counter quick fixes, and reduce such a large part of the medical attention we need that there would have to be a complete revamping of the health care system. Most, if not all of the major health problems today are self induced from the lifestyles we presently live, and the vices and choices we make each day, as well as the health problems created by our own forks and spoons. Changing this American daily protocol from top to bottom with individual changes would be the most positive epidemic we have ever seen.

The problem is that each of us either in public, or secretly in private want a different state of living than we presently have. We all want to be healthier, in better shape, to be happier and to have a more positive life, but we treat it as a wish rather that a goal or quest, History reminds us of our weak past attempts that usually ended up in utter failure because we knew the word change was looming over head.

My dream has , and always will be for all of us to give ourselves more credit and have us stick to these attempts for at least 30 days, at that point enough of a noticeable change will have occurred to keep us on track. There is  nothing better than the face of a person who has finally achieved a long attempted goal, and this time success had prevailed. This kind of change is priceless and amazing to see and experience.

Somewhere, and sometime we will all remind ourselves that we deserve to be happy, healthy and incredible, no matter how many attempts it may take. My Grandmother always said to never settle for anything but reaching for the stars, I think I finally get it...