 “Look to your health; value it next to a good conscience; for health is the second blessing we mortals are capable of; a blessing that money can’t buy.” - Izaak Walton Most of us would consider good health as simply an absence of disease or sickness, but it goes much deeper than that. Abundant health affects more than just your body. Without good physical health, the rest of you is affected as well. Your mind, your spirit, your emotional health, everything about you, everything that makes you “you” comes under the gun. Illness causes your body to ache, or grow feverish. It diminishes your strength and vitality. But it can also cause you to feel depressed, fearful, and hopeless. The longer an illness lasts, the more damage it does to every single part of your body and mind. An illness that lasts for more than just a few days, can seriously affect your entire life. This might yet be another fear you could have in your life – the fear of acquiring illnesses that last for long periods of time. What would you do if you have to spend weeks or even months in the hospital? Here again, as with all other areas of abundance we’ve discussed, you must focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. All that you’ve learned about abundance can be applied here as well. So, let’s start over. You wake up in the morning filled with abundant health. Maybe you haven’t felt this good in years. But this morning, you feel especially wonderful, because you’ve been learning about having a more abundant life. You’ve discovered how to draw abundance to your life like a magnet. You’re completely focused on exactly what you want in all areas of your life. Your financial life is on the mend; you feel happy, contented, and totally fulfilled. Even your relationships are blossoming. With things on a more even keel, you’re sleeping like a baby these days, and awakening with zip and vitality, ready for anything your day throws at you. Let’s take the opposite case. Maybe you had been experiencing some health problems. Your doctor told you stress was causing a possible stomach ulcer, not to mention those headaches every day due to tension at the office and at home. You just kept telling yourself that stress happens, that it happens to everyone, and that it’s just part of life. Why should you be any different? And you handled it as well as the next person. Except you didn’t handle it well. You were developing ulcer, killer headaches, and insomnia; and you were getting more irritable by the day. Everyone around you noticed it and was affected by it too. Then you learned about abundant living and how it could benefit you. You learned how to make all areas of your life work together in harmony, just by letting the abundance come to you naturally. You realized that you had literally been chasing that abundance away by your thoughts, your emotions, and your actions, or lack thereof. When you begin to allow the abundance that’s all around you to flow into your life, it starts a chain reaction. You focus on what you want and need, and it comes to you quickly. This causes you to relax just a little bit; a little of that tension leaves your mind and body. You begin to breathe easier, which allows more abundance to flow towards you. Things in your life start to ease up and even out. You have a need, so you focus on that need, allowing the abundance to flow even faster. There’s no need to worry about things. You’ve learned that it’s your thoughts and emotions that create your world. And it’s begun to happen, on a daily basis. You see the changes with your own eyes, and all because you made it happen. So, now that you know how worry, tension, and stress can affect your body and mind, you’ve decided to start taking better care of your health. And you’ve heard all the fitness gurus, doctors, nutritionists, and everybody else telling you what you need to do to ensure your continued good health. What do you do next? Who do you listen to? Start by getting a simple physical examination, to make sure you don’t have health issues that need to be addressed - perhaps something you’re unaware of that’s going on in your body. Listen to your health care provider, but also listen to your body. Pay attention to its needs. Are you eating everything in sight, then popping antacid tablets like candy? Maybe your stomach is trying to tell you it needs a different lifestyle. Eat good, solid foods, like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Eat lesser quantities, but more often. Like constant stress, improper nutrition can be the cause of less than optimum health. Drink lots of water to keep your body properly hydrated. Stay away from alcohol and sodas. Stop smoking and get some daily exercise. You’ve heard all this before, but told yourself you just didn’t have time to exercise. You’re such a busy person. Besides, you really, really hate to exercise. And cooking was too much trouble, it was so much easier to run by the nearest fast food restaurant. Meals were crammed in between meetings or social events. “No big deal,” you told yourself, until you started feeling so fatigued, so bloated, so out of sorts, so run down, and just generally awful every day. Once again, you were focused on what you didn’t really want, instead of what you did want, which was abundant good health. Thomas Jefferson told us that, “Health, learning, and virtue will ensure your happiness; they will give you a quiet conscience, private esteem, and public honor.” As for the exercise, a few minutes a day aren’t that hard to schedule. Give up watching half hour of news; instead, go outside and take a walk. You don’t have to join a gym, buy thousands of dollars worth of equipment, or invest in videos or DVDs of fitness programs. Walking is something just about anybody can work in to the day. It’s low impact, so there’s a very low risk of injury in just walking. Walk in the park or just around the block. What’s important is that you get active at least a few minutes a day. As you become more fit, you might feel compelled to add more activity. Try tennis or bowling; it’s even more fun to exercise with a friend. What seems to stymie most of us is that one physical health problem seems to set off another, and another, in a domino effect. You’re stressed at work and/or at home, working hard, not eating properly, which then affects your sleep patterns. Now you’re experiencing insomnia and possibly even other sleep disorders. So, now you’re exhausted from loss of sleep, and still working hard. Your nutrition has gone down the drain as well, causing constant fatigue. You can also feel your irritation growing day by day. Everything makes you angry; nothing is going right. The stress and tension continue to build up. The stress makes your stomach hurt. Your head pounds every day and you’re in great danger of blowing your top. Stop right there. Take a deep breath and remember the abundance training we’ve been talking about. Remind yourself that your thoughts and emotions create your world. Is this the world you want to live in? Of course not! It would be impossible to completely remove all stress and tension from your world overnight. It simply can’t be done, much as we’d all like that. But by focusing on what’s important, you can pull yourself back to the state of mind you need to allow that abundance to flow towards you once again. “Good health and good sense are two of life’s greatest blessings,” said Publius Syrus. Your good sense tells you that you must bring yourself back to the flow before the stress and tension can cause more serious health problems. And don’t be fooled, extreme stress over long periods of time can and will adversely affect your health. Become proactive right now. Before another moment goes by, make up your mind to do something to protect your overall health. Let the natural flow of abundance reach you. Locate and dispense with whatever is causing the flow to be blocked. Whether it’s financial, emotional, mental or physical, discover what’s keeping that flow from reaching you. Then take action. Thomas Jefferson said, “Exercise and application produces order in our affairs, health of body, cheerfulness of mind, and these make us precious to our friends.” “Health is my expected heaven.” - John Keats |
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