We are right in the midst of flu and cold season and many people are feeling it. My wife was away for a week and I had both girls to myself. I had a few Michael Keaton moments out of “Mr. Mom.” I nursed ear infections, sinus congestion, and long nights of crying…and I haven’t even told you about my daughters yet! I am healing and so are they; everyone is feeling better. If you are like me, health can be something we take for granted, especially when feeling good and entrenched in our busy lives. We are exposed to germs, bacteria, and viruses constantly. They are everywhere, and there is no getting around them no matter how much hand sanitizer you use. But that doesn’t mean they need to make us ill. How you ask?
Let’s talk about what protects us from catching these sneaky little invaders and how we can raise our energy to become a non-permeable temple of health.
I want you to see this from a larger perspective. Spiritually speaking, there is always a reason for things and there is always purpose, so even being “ill” could be a necessary purging of old energy that you’ve been hanging onto. It could actually be that you’re upgrading your software so-to-speak and your old operating system is out of date, releasing certain energies, programs, toxins, etc. so that you can move into a new Self. Even though this process may need to take place, the more awareness and consciousness you bring to it, the more understanding you will have as to why this is manifesting in this particular way and reap the benefits from it.
Is your health suffering? Here are some tips to help you become aware of where it may be suffering, and how to give yourself the best shot for maximum health.
1. Raise the energy of STRESS
Of course stress made the #1 spot! You already know this. You hear it everywhere you go. It is written in mainstream magazines and mentioned as a weekly usual suspect on many health and wellness blogs. It comes up each and every day in my life coaching. Don’t take this lightly. Stress depletes your resistance. Again, spiritually speaking, it lowers your energy.
Imagine this process like boiling water. If you keep your energy elevated by meditating, connecting to yourself and your needs, really living life and being present for it, your energy is high and can be imagined like boiling water. When water boils, it kills all bacteria and germs. You have less of a chance of becoming sick if your energy is running high, clean, and clear. When you feel anxious, out of time, or stressed internally throughout your day, this is an indicator that your energy needs raising.
2. Take some deep breaths
Do a meditation. Say your favorite mantra. Go within yourself however you can to connect to a deeper part of you. See the stress as nothing more than an indication of where you get to practice the conscious process of raising your energy. Stress doesn’t have to be the enemy if you can allow it to be that flashing light that says, “What can you do differently to react to this in a different way?” “Here is the perfect place to change your energy.” Using stress in this way to indicate where you can shift your energy can impact more than just your health, it can change your whole outlook as well as bring deeper levels of satisfaction, fulfillment, joy, and inner peace.
3. Treat yourself well
This should go without saying, but we don’t do it and if we happen to do it, we don’t do enough of it. This would be a good one to write on the blackboard 100 times until you get it. Treat yourself well. What does this entail? For starters, stop abusing yourself. What do I mean? I mean the crap you tell yourself in your head that keeps you chained to your thoughts that tells you that you can’t do something, you aren’t enough of something, or that you aren’t meant to be who you know in your heart you can be because of your limitations*.
4. Embrace your emotions
I hear Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman saying, “Slippery little suckers, aren’t they?!” Yes, they are. Emotions are natural and human. We all have them so ignoring them only backs up the highway causing more and more traffic until it feels like you are moving through molasses. We need to listen to our emotions enough that we are not ignoring them, giving them a platform to speak and be heard so we then have the conscious ability to move through them. When they are not heard, they get jammed up and we can become the effect of them. You all know what I am talking about and how that can wreak havoc in your life. They also play a huge part in keeping therapists and life coaches in business! Create a space for your emotions and listen to them as you, the conscious self. When you’re the conscious self, you’re not the emotion so you do not have to become that emotion and get stuck there.
5. Uplift stress
Be kind to yourself. Deal with your emotions. Do things that nurture your whole person – mind, body, and spirit. These three are the sacred triad, so don’t sacrifice one for the other. Give to yourself by doing small things that make you happy. That could be things such as taking a walk, talking with a friend, or having a cup of coffee or tea and relaxing for five minutes instead of rushing. Take opportunities throughout the day to realize that life is precious. We never know how many breathes we will have, so make each one count.
Health doesn’t end with you, it starts with you.
Health is the state of our soul. Our soul is healthy so we can call on this state of being by remembering our divine nature and tapping into it. You are that master of your own domain, so it’s up to you how you choose to keep your energy. By allowing stress to simply be the messenger that something needs to shift, you can simultaneously practice treating yourself well by finding out what you need and give that to yourself. Why wait until you are in bed, moaning “Gee, I knew I should have slowed down a little bit. I’m going to rest more and feed myself healthier food. Maybe I won’t drink so much, or I’ll go on more walks.”
Health is all about perspective. Instead of chasing it, embody it by living the various areas of your life as if they were irrefutable examples of what you would think would be your ideal healthy ways of being. After all, it’s only your health right? Isn’t there a saying – if you don’t have your health, you don’t have…. ?
* Limitations are another favorite subject of mine, so much so I wrote a book about it! It’s called Unlimiting You: Step Out of Your Past and Into Your Purpose. It’s like this article on steroids! Click here to get notified when it is released!
