People ask me what are two things I can do as a layperson to improve my health. I first tell them of my philosophy that nutrition and movement are the two lifestyle factors that must be addressed. First nutrition. When properly nourished it creates movement from the attitude of joy, cooperation, love, and empathy. We feel a sense of naturalness and flow and our love for life becomes our experience of life. When malnourished we move in life from the attitude of competitiveness, obligation, resentments, complaining and have to's and should's or shouldn't. This is the difference between living from the Tree of Life or the Source of Love and living from the Tree of Knowledge or the Mind of right vs. wrong and good vs. bad. Thus it is very important and wise to daily nourish yourself first before participating in the world. The most potent Nutrition is Silence and is referred to as the Queen of Nutrition. The ideal exercise or movement is stillness and is the King of Movement. Both are a paradox because for many being in silence is quite noisy and being still is very busy with great urgency to move out of the stillness. The power of these two gems lies in their simplicity and they are the ultimate Spiritual nutrition for practical people. How one goes about attaining silence and stillness is a matter of choice. Meditation, conscious breathwork, body work; especially cranial sacral therapy, acupuncture, Qigong, are all examples of tools with the intent to bring you to the silence and stillness inside of you. The longer you spend in the place the greater the healing.
A practical example of how to obtain this on your own I learned from nature. Just go outside into nature alone. Find and create a comfortable space to lie down on the earth. In the summertime or warmer weather it is best to do this naked to allow you entire being to be nourished. Otherwise make yourself comfortable. Stay in this space until you do not want to leave. You will notice in a short amount of time that the desire to leave will surface. Don't leave. Nature's medicine is at work. Remain in your space until you do not want to leave no matter how long it takes. Just sit through the urgency's and the mental rationalizations that will arise to get you to avoid healing. Back in 2004 while living in Atlanta Georgia. I would go to Piedmont Park and sit on a swing until I didn't want to leave. This would literally take hours but I held my spiritual will to allow nature to nourish me. I would then find a space on the park under trees and lie on the earth with just a pair of shorts on and allow the ants and creapy crawlers climb all of me. After several hours I would feel energy leaving my spine and being drawn into the ground. A 'grounding' affect occured which felt like I was magnetically attached to the ground. The relaxation, internal silence and stillness was wonderful yet it often took 6-8 hours to achieve. Once I recognized that I was completely at peace with being, it was a sign that I could leave anytime and that nature has provided her loving bosom for me to feed on. The great news is that silence and stillness are free to anyone and everyone! The real secret is to stay awake and not fall asleep. This is to train or condition yourself to be consciously relaxed. If you fall asleep you are uncosciously relaxed which has its place but conscious relaxation is living the consicous life.
As always, keep your body tuned up and your soul tuned in first by loving yourself.
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