Do things that heal you, not kill you.  Someone on my team was talking about this the other day and I know it seems pretty basic or common sense, but when you really think about it, we rarely adhere to this.  We do harmful things every day that we consider socially acceptable.  People smoke, they drink alcohol, they abuse drugs/pharmaceuticals, they overeat, they eat crap we call food, they don’t move their bodies, they argue a point instead of live it, they separate/isolate and stay stuck in their heads with no connection to self or source, they binge watch TV, they don’t align with what they know they want to do, they think negative thoughts, they stay in toxic situations, they live without believing in themselves, they never take the first step….the list goes on and on.  Two things: 1. I don’t profess to be perfect and I have been and still am doing some of these things and 2. I’m not judging anyone dealing with issues pertaining to any of this—we are human and have a lot of indoctrination to undo.

What really got me thinking about these things that kill is how we consider so much of it acceptable or normal while we look at things that heal us as abnormal, uncomfortable, or out there.  The bottom line is people cope with life in various ways and what has become acceptable, while evolved over time, hasn’t strayed far from dangerous in a long time.  I think it’s because there has been sort of an imagined elitism or separation between people who take care of themselves and those who don’t—I’m guilty of believing that.  And there are cases where it isn’t imagined; I used to go to gyms to work out (I joined several different ones) and it was a nightmare going to some of them.  What was supposed to be a safe space to find health was a popularity contest.  The truth is, like all of life, it’s just a difference in mind set.  We have a finite amount of time here and we are able to choose how we spend it, but we are rarely taught to look at the quality of what we do.

There comes a point in everyone’s lives where we understand that we are responsible for where we are and where we are going.  When we have goals, especially purposeful goals, we need to evaluate our time differently.  Most people are uncomfortable to look at what they do and see how they get in their own way.  They struggle or are afraid to see that most of the time they are the ones blocking themselves.  I think it’s because whenever we start looking at where we are, we somehow start to feel guilty and look for ways to assign blame instead of taking it for what it is and simply learning to pivot.  Taking ownership of our decisions and evaluating the results of our actions means asking ourselves how we can better align with where we are going and what actions will get us where we want to go.  Healing is a broad topic and it can mean a lot of things to each of us.  Getting honest about what hurts us and what we are choosing to tolerate is the first step.  Look at our lives with love and grace and start loving ourselves first and that changes how we look at life—we do more of what serves us to serve others and that in itself is healing.