Think about it, what if you had a partner you lived with. Things were going fine for a while – no problems. Then suddenly they decide not to talk to you. Oh but you love them. I mean really love them. So you let some time go by. Three months goes by, your concerned but you don’t want to crowd. More time goes by. Six months later they decide to communicate with you. They say to you “ok we can talk…. but only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – from 7 to 8:30pm”, because that’s all the time their schedule will allow, and then they say, “When we talk… we can only talk about what I want to talk about”. What kind of relationship would that be? Would it be harmonious, comfortable, at ease?

Or what if you and your partner live together and you come home to find they have done something that you don’t like?

You’d probably say, ” Honey, I don’t like when you do that.”

And they reply, “Oh, I’m sorry – OK”

But the next day you come home, they’ve done it again.

So you say, ” honey, I don’t like when you do that – so please do something else. ”

And they say, “Oh yeah – OK”

But the next day you come home, you find they’ve done it again. You a say “hey, I don’t like it when you do that so please don’t do it”!

But the next day you come home you find they’ve done it again.

What kind of home would that be?

Would it be harmonious, comfortable, at ease?

There’s a belief that terminal dis-ease is the essence trying to leave an uncomfortable house.

When taking a step back and looking at health and wellness there are basic understandings of natural harmony that our society absolutely fails at instilling into our psyche.

I recall when I visited Switzerland some years ago, my friend, and host during this excursion, worked as a Shiatsu therapist in a local HMO (a.k.a. Health Maintenance Organization). I was fascinated to understand their concept of an HMO. Apparently it was a requisite for its members to have at least one body therapy session per week, whether that be Cranio-sacral, Massage, Reiki, etc. It didn’t matter – it was a requisite to look after your body – to take responsibility. I thought about how natural that is – how correct. Then I look around our modern society today and see how medication and surgery are normalized – the quick fix. It’s easier to not take responsibility, after-all, in our civilized world, who has the time?

I read somewhere that the way classical Chinese medicine was practiced in “the old days” was such that a patient would visit the doctor and receive whatever treatment was necessary (i.e. acupuncture, tui na, qi gong etc.), they were given their herbs and their exercise – homework so to speak. So long as they did their part and remained healthy, they visited the doctor as instructed and paid him promptly. However, if they became ill, the doctor would be required to make a house call at no charge.

There’s a saying that the body is like an insolent child and the mind is its parent. Bottom line – no one knows exactly where it hurts or exactly how much pressure to apply better than you do. No we didn’t come with an owner’s manual but we do have a lifetime warranty for recuperation. Our mission is to discover our exercises and put our selves in the place where we can allow our recuperative energies to flow.

We encounter so much within our lifetime: television, radio, news, sports, rhetoric, information, people, ideas, and inspirations. What inspires us, the information we gather and the people we allow into our realm, in relation to how much we are exposed to, are quite minimal when you think about it. The choices we make, sometimes consciously — sometimes not, in the end, all have their significance within our perspectives of our true self — our destiny so to speak. In that respect each experience, each person, each inspiration acted upon, defines our realities and our expectations. They are an acknowledgment of self — a confirmation of existence, necessary in defining and being in harmony with our universe. Each day we are granted, we must arise and accept our realities as they are. All we can ever hope to influence is now — today. With discipline and directed efforts we carve, shape, mold and define our expressions of self. Without those directed efforts, our existence could be equated to that of a weed growing in an open field, whose existence is just as organic and as valid as that of a rose. But then, it’s not a rose.

At some point in everyone’s existence the universe asks the question:
“Who is going to take responsibility for your wellness?”

Most people turn to the world outside themselves for answers, happiness and even knowledge. Its unfortunate that we are living in a time where the average person doesn’t even know where their organs are let alone how they work. So when the universe does ask the almighty question, one is so unprepared and overwhelmed that they have no choice but to turn responsibility over to a “higher authority.”

Cultivating “body wisdom” encourages self-reliance, which demands at the very least, the recognition that all you need to know lies within your self. Unlike simple understanding, which is one dimensional, where the intellect is engaged in order to comprehend yoga, martial arts, Pilates, step class or other practices, realization is three-dimensional. It is the simultaneous comprehension of the body as a whole entity – externally, energetically and internally.

Healing and cultivating a conscious deliberate life lies not in what is known and understood, rather its what is constantly practiced.

What I think, is my mind – What I feel, is my heart – What I do, is my life.