Health Matters: Finding the Good Dentist

This past full month (and ongoing), I have been revisiting a lower rung of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: dental issues! It is difficult to blog about events while in the midst of them, but since I haven’t been blogging since the troubles began, I can at least briefly review how dentistry has been a significant theme in my own MyStory. 

When I was four, I fell from a booster seat at the family’s dining room table and knocked out my four front teeth. They did not grow back in until I was nine, and in those days bridges were not yet used, so when those adult teeth did come in, they were gnarled.  In my early teens my parents took me for braces; they extracted five teeth because of how jumbled the teeth were and how small my mouth is. The braces experience was a tough one for me. I threw tantrums trying to refuse to go; the pain from tightening the braces was hard to bear. When the braces were finally removed, I honestly tossed the retainer after a few months because I just wanted to be done with it all. So, now as an adult my teeth still have some positioning issues, and I have had a lot of dental work throughout my life.  I had some very good dentists in Colorado the year or two before retiring in 2018, and they took care of refilling most earlier fillings, plus I needed a crown and an implant.

But recently my dental issues have been flaring again. After a dentist used props to hold my jaws open to replace two metal upper teeth fillings, I ended up with pain radiating throughout my mouth for the next three weeks; plus I realized the lower premolar implant tooth was loose, further contributing to the nerve pain. My new dentists here put off a revisit and I no longer felt trusting of their care. Then my dear sister who has had similar issues referred me to her dentist; from here on I will call him the Good Dentist.  I have long been concerned about the dental problems that could come with aging, and I feel grateful that my sister and Divine providence have led me to the Good Dentist’s  care.

But this has not been fun yet. Two days ago he removed the too shallow implant which had worn down all the surrounding bone and the gum was infected. Then he packed new bone matter into the opening and sutured gum around that. Youch, yes. And around 3 months from now he wants to replace the implant with a better, deeper one.

Meanwhile through all of this I have needed to be on pain meds, which have their own risks that I have been testing for. I hope to be done with all but Tylenol by tomorrow, plus must finish the second round of antibiotics.

Yuck, right? Now you know where I have been this past month.

So, to try to extract (bad pun) some MyStory meaningful lessons or messages from this lifelong theme, let me see:  Dentistry has revealed various aspects of human character through the years, both of myself and of dentists and their assistants. I have learned the best of these professionals are not only well trained; they are caring and gentle in their treatments. They are good listeners and good communicators. Others tend to be more focused on the matters at hand—the teeth condition—rather than the whole person or the therapeutic relationship. I think this pertains to issues of control for me: I do not want to submit to a less than caring doctor.

Now the Good Dentist, whom I feel guided to along with his good assistants, has already earned my trust and cooperation. Though yes, I am coping with a painful recovery process from the extraction surgery this week, I feel his care and am grateful for his truly visionary considerations of how best to proceed. After one of the early visits while I was still in lots of pain, he put his hand on my head and said:

“I am sending you good energy; we will make you all better.”

images are from pixabay.com

So I am left with gratitude and acceptance, glad to have found a path forward with my dental issues that is likely to be as positive as possible.

How about you? How have health matters Mattered in your own MyStory adventure?

Life is Good! Really, It Is!

We live in turbulent political times. Yet, life is Good. Regardless of material or social conditions, political opinions, or racial/ ethnic and religious divides, I affirm that all is well! This is more than a naïve, Pollyannish outcry from denial or vain hope. It is an appeal to Higher Grounds, higher consciousness.

Duality implies a Trinity, which includes the neutral, unifying Center. If we could but just lift our awareness above the fray, we must be in that Center in order to view a situation. That seems to be the optimal place to be of any true service to the whole.

Humor helps, being able to laugh at our own biased viewpoint and the “other’s” as well. Of course, some humor is targeted and mean, but humor can also relieve tension to allow a higher perspective.

So how about this for a mantra: Life is Good! Regardless of the weather or the stances people take in social media or on the news, Life IS Good!

Images are from pixabay.com

It is good to be alive, for those of us who are. Having recently “lost” two great friends to cancer, I realize how little any petty argument will matter once we fly free of the mortal coil into the great Beyond.

Dialogue with the Healer

                 

The role of the Healer is a universal cultural figure, and the relationship between Healer-Patient is likewise universal, though it patterns distinctively in specific cultures.  The Western “doctor” with the white coat and stethoscope presents the Healer in a powerful if sterile position, while the dynamic Shaman found in many societies in various forms presents the Healer as a Mediator between the energies of this world and the forces and Spirit beyond the surface reality.

What is YOUR Healer like? This is that archetypal part of your Self that exists within your psyche as a Healing persona. When does h/she step up for you in your life? Do you allow your Healer a vital role in your life or do you suppress your own Healer nature? How can you strengthen this modality of your Self? Perhaps you express your Healer nature more in relation to others than for yourself? Bur s/he is here for You, too!

When we go to visit a doctor or other healing agency we may project our own Healer archetype onto that person, and on the other hand we develop our Inner Healer based on role models we have observed over time. Perhaps we tend to select healers who best mirror our own Healer persona, especially when we like our doctor a lot.

Recently I have had an outer dialogue with a very capable Healer, and I am responding by heeding her advice because I recognize that this advice resonates inwardly and allows my Healer to respond, “finally” (She says!).

If only I had LISTENED more about diet and good nutrition in my younger years, I thought, after receiving the Healer’s advice. So, my advice here for myself as well as others is to call upon your inner Healer and LISTEN to what h/she has to share with you, because h/she wants to help!

To tune into your Healer persona archetype, pay attention when you feel a caring impulse to help another, and draw upon that positive, gentle energy to help yourself too. Last night, for example, my cat Loki needed some loving care because he had overgroomed and scratched himself under the eye. So I trimmed his nails and put some ointment on the wound. Then my dog Sophie got an overgrown nail of her own caught in her long hair, so this morning I trimmed her nails and also groomed her undercoat to thin that. I could feel how my Healer was moved to action, and my pets seemed to recognize this special energy so they allowed me to do what I needed to do for their benefit.

images are from pixabay.com

Have a conversation with a Healer! Whether an outer doctor or other healer, or WITHIN. You can dialogue inwardly with your own Inner healer through active imagination and journaling. This is a very natural and simple process of simply “tuning in”, allowing a dialogue to occur, and Listening.

Just to model the technique, then:

L: Calling Judy!

H: Thank you for hearing that I wanted you to call me that. Nurse Judy, I will be, if you like.

L: OK, Nurse Judy, what would you like to tell me?

H: Now that you are asking, finally!, be very careful with your new diet. Do not allow yourself to overdo even the ‘good’ carbs. The fruit in yogurt, for example, is a No. Listen to myself as you might ‘muscle test’. FEEL your way through to a better health Horizon.

L: I know I need you to be a potent energy in my life from now forward.

H: Yes, dear, it’s about time. But I am with you so please let me be here for you in greater conscious awareness. As the outer Healer advised you recently: “Put yourself first!”

I invite YOUR Comments and Stores!

 

Walking the Labyrinth: A Healing Journey

Lately I have been taken to Walk the Labyrinth, often. I find it to be a superb physical template for the spiritual journey of supplication and immersion that can lead to greater Clarity and Wholeness.

Wholeness is one of the key motifs of the labyrinth path. It is thus a healing journey, a winding, twisting, road that leads one into the Center for a period of contemplative repose, then back out to bring one’s awareness from the inner guidance there received back to one’s daily life.

When I walk a labyrinth I experience an unwinding and a rewinding of newly harvested potentials.  On the way in, I am winnowing through the concerns of the present, sorting to extract the essential core of the questions or situations I wish to draw attention to spiritually. I am preparing the ground, planting the seeds for deep contemplation at the Center. I am also opening myself to the Presence of Spirit in my own way.

Having arrived at the Center, I feel fully exposed to Spirit and the Divine. I surrender my cares and am the supplicant, asking for inner guidance or resolve, but mainly seeking clarity about the situation being reflected upon. How shall I manage or approach the situation? How can I improve my relationship with all of life inwardly and outwardly in relation to this? I become silent, I go within and actively contemplate, in a state of utter repose and surrender.

When I feel ready to leave the Center, I re-emerge from the inner focus. I gather my insights, look to see if there is any one idea I am bringing back from the contemplation that can help me to advance with the situation I have been focusing upon. Sometimes there is a new sense of alignment with Spirit in relation to this situation, other times I just feel more integrated, supported, and ready to return to my daily life knowing I will know what to do when the situation calls for action or further reflection.

Walking out from the labyrinth I am “stepping down” with the awareness received, bringing the clarity or sense of love and resolve within me, carrying this like a newborn babe.

After walking the labyrinth three times over the past week and a half, yesterday I was walking in a shopping mall, partly for a necessary purpose and partly just to walk for exercise. I realized I could still walk a labyrinth there; anywhere you go if you go mindfully and with deep intention to focus your attention in a grounded, holistic way, you are essentially walking Your labyrinth, your path of life, winding and unwinding, attaining a Center and opening, surrendering, accepting with gratitude the vision or lesson received, and bringing that back into your outer, daily life.

images are from pixabay.com

I welcome your comments and stories!

The Beatles On LOVE

I’ve been to the Cirque du Soleil Beatles LOVE show in Las Vegas. As a Beatles fan from the beginning here in the states–I was about 12 years old when they made their first visit to the US–, I loved this show!

The Cirque du Soleil Beatles LOVE show tells the story of the Fab Four’s journey in the context of world history and as a phenomenal energy that transformed the world, not just the world of music but their lyrics and BEAT expressed the values and ideals of a transformative generation.

When I was a teenager, I was grounded once by my father for defending the Beatles’ music as being “all about love.” “So, what do YOU know about love?” asked my conservative minded father. Actually that question of his has stuck with me always. What DO I really know about love?

But love is not necessarily something one needs to know about, right? We FEEL our way through life via love. I now believe love to be the very essence and the progressive, healing substance of life Itself. When life goes forward (is not static or in decline) it is love that propels that advancement of purpose, awareness, or of love itself as its own blessing.

So how can you use love, or your current version of archetypal LOVER energies, to “Live Your Dream, Now,” which is this month’s theme here at Better Endings? Let’s turn this over to the Fab Four for insights.

• Love is all you need:

There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It’s easy

There’s nothing you can make that can’t be made
No one you can save that can’t be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn to be you in time

It’s easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
Beatles – All You Need Is Love Lyrics | MetroLyrics http://www.metrolyrics.com/all-you-need-is-love-lyrics-beatles.html

• Let It Be

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

Read more: Beatles – Let It Be Lyrics | MetroLyrics

• It’s a long and winding road that leads us HOME:

Many times I’ve been alone
And many times I’ve cried
Any way you’ll never know
The many ways I’ve tried

But still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Don’t leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/beatles/the+long+and+winding+road_10026544.html

   And in the End…

The love you take

Is equal to the love

You make.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-end-lyrics-beatles.html

All images from pixabay.com

Sing Hu, a Healing Song of Divine Love

This past two weeks I have been sharing well-known prayer poems as words from the HEALER archetype energy…whether you think of that as your own inner archetypal Healer part of Self, or Spirit Itself, or the centering Order of the Universe, or God as the Creator and Healer, or a spiritual Teacher or Master who brings Healing to your Heart.  Spirituality in any form brings healing energies and allows us also to be a Vehicle of divine or impersonal, detached love which can be a healing balm for others who are open to receive that love.

I will share two more prayer poems today and Sunday (or Tuesday) to wind up this month of alchemical pairings of the HEALER Archetype with the Life Metaphor Life Is (or, can be!)…Better Endings.

Eckankar Worship Service

Sunday, Jul 8, 2012, 11:00 AM

Marin Eckankar Center
840 B Street San Rafael, CA

1 Members Went

Join us for an ECK Worship Service to share your spiritual insights and experiences with others like you. Discover spiritual tools to meet life’s challenges. Awaken to the divine guidance always within you. Open your heart to give and receive more divine love. Experience how the Light and Sound of God can help you lead a happier life.  The theme fo…

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Sing Hu, an ancient, sacred Name for the Creator

For myself, I take quite seriously Ghandi’s words shared in Tuesday’s post about the value of ALL religions or spirituality and including secular philosophical systems of belief or faith that are each of unfathomable significance and truth to the practicing Believer. My own spiritual practice for over forty years (would you have asked) is that of Eckankar, a modern-day religion with ancient roots, sometimes known as the Religion of the Light and Sound of God.

In Eckankar, we recognize and sing religiously as a love song to God an age-old prayer poem; it is a mantra that we may practice daily, even 24/7 in the background of our thoughts or consciousness. This ancient Word, sung simply on the outgoing breath as the one syllable HU (or, Huuuuuuuuuuuu), is found in many faith traditions. It is found in Allah+HU+Jah(weh) (Allelujah!) in declaration of names of the Divine, and it meant God or the Breath of God in ancient Egypt. It is in the Hawaiian Kahuna (a healing energy or Healer persona), and Hututu is the leader of all of the pantheon of Hopi Spirit-bearing kachinas.

The most popular poet of our modern age is Jalal-ad-DIN-Rumi, whose spiritual Teacher/ Master was Shams, or Shamus-i-Tabriz. Rumi (1207-1273 AD) wrote his “ecstatic” (from Gk. ekstasis: ‘standing apart from the body’) poetry in the mid 13^th Century in a region of what is now northwestern Turkey. Below allow me to share some of Rumi’s poems that include reference to this love song to God or Name of God or the Breath of the Creator: HU.

The HU in Rumi’s Poetry

In sufi circles they say, “There’s prayer, and a step up from that is meditation, and a step up from that is sohbet, or conversation.”
Who is talking to HU! (The pronoun for divine presence.) Lover to beloved, teacher to disciple. The Friendship of Rumi and Shams
became a continuous conversation, in silence and words, presence talking to absence, existence to non-existence, periphery to center.
Rumi’s poetry may be heard as eavesdropping on that exchange.”

Coleman Barks, May 2, 1994
Say I am You – RUMI

Mathnawi, Book VI, 4038-4044http://www.sourcetext.com/hupage/Rumi/rumi0.html

 

[Open Secret – Versions of Rumi
by John Moyne and Coleman Barks]

This is what the Friend can do
when one is in such love. Sensual people use the holy names
often, but they don’t work for them.
The miracle Jesus did by being the name of God,
Zuleika felt in the name of Joseph.

When one is united to the core of another, to speak of that
is to breathe the name HU, empty of self and filled
with love. As the saying goes, The pot drips what is in it.
The saffron spice of connecting, laughter.
The onion-smell of separation, crying.
Others have many things and people they love.
This is not the way of Friend and friend.

 

[One-Handed Basket Weaving – RUMI
by Coleman Barks]

Muhammed is said to have said,
“Whoever belongs to God, God belongs to.”

Our weak, uneven breathings,
these dissolving personalities,
were breathed out by the eternal
Huuuuuuuu, that never changes! 
A drop of water constantly fears
that it may evaporate into the air,
or be absorbed by the ground.

It doesn’t want to be used up
in those ways, but when it lets go
and falls into the ocean it came from,
it finds protection from the other deaths.

Its droplet form is gone,
but its watery essence has become
vast and inviolable.

Listen to me, friends, because you
are a drop, and you can honor yourselves
in this way. What could be luckier

than to have the ocean come
to court the drop?

For God’s sake, don’t postpone your yes!
Give up and become the giver.

******   ******

Anyone can sing HU, either aloud or silently. It does not belong to any one religion or spiritual Way. Simply open your heart to love and allow this ancient, creative and healing current, this primal Word, to flow gently through you. It can help to lift your consciousness to link with your highest nature or with the quiet voice of Life—or love—Itself!

Healing Words of Ghandi on Interfaith Unity

 

 (From  http://www.adathjeshurun.org/interfaith-families-negotiating-the-winter-holidays/)

Mahatma Ghandi famously once replied when asked if he was a Hindu:

“Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew.” 
(http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Hinduism/2009/07/Gandhi-Quotes.aspx#MI4RfZYYqfbkyX3B.99)

Here are some more of M. Ghandi’s statements about the inherent unity of religion qua spirituality, from (http://www.mkgandhi.org/religionmk.htm) :

I believe in the fundamental Truth of all great religions of the world. And I believe that if only we could, all of us, read the scriptures of the different Faiths from the stand-point of the followers of those faiths, we should find that they were at the bottom, all one and were all helpful to one another.

Belief in one God is the cornerstone of all religions. But I do not foresee a time when there would be only one religion on earth in practice. In theory, since there is one God, there can be only one religion.

The one religion is beyond all speech. Imperfect men put it into such language as they can command, and their words are interpreted by other men equally imperfect. Hence the necessity for tolerance, which does not mean indifference towards one’s own Faith, but a more intelligent and pure love for it.

Living faith in his God means acceptance of the brotherhood of mankind. It also means equal respect for all religions. It would be height of intolerance…to believe that your religion is superior to other religions and that you would be justified in wanting others to change over to your faith.

All worship the same Spirit but as all forms do not agree with all, all names do not appeal to all. Each chooses the name according to his associations and He being the Indweller, All-powerful and Omniscient, knows our innermost feelings and responds to us according to our hearts.

Faith in any form can bring healings of the Heart and Better Endings to those who believe.  

Be the Healing You Seek

As you—all of us—embody the HEALER Archetype Ally within you, you also may be a healing influence for others.

Allow your Healer to be available not only to you but also through you!

This sort of healing influence that you might naturally bring to a relationship or situation is more often than not indirect and non-directed.  I am not endorsing “laying on of hands” or anything of that nature, as these forms of “healing” can actually be quite invasive or controlling, and I do not support that. Yet being a vehicle of unconditional love or impartial positivity is natural and often may be a helpful agency in itself, even if it is only to lend a shoulder to cry on or in your caring to provide a helpful hand.

Being a calm, centered, patient and positive presence in any situation or circumstance can lead to healing effects on yourself as well as bringing peace or balance to conditions around you. Non-directive prayers of surrendering a situation to Higher Wisdom or the use of centering and uplifting mantra chanting or mindfulness meditations can help you to achieve and maintain the balance you wish to achieve.

I remember a prayer I learned when I was exploring the Baha’i faith many decades ago. I am not sure if this may be from Rumi originally (though it is perhaps more likely from Bahau’allah as it is a Baha’i prayer); its reference to a hollow reed instrument has always reminded me of Rumi’s Song of the Reed. Recently I have found this prayer coming back to my heart awareness, and I am finding there is a reason for that within my life.

I provide a version here from my memory which is very near to a version you can read at www.bahaiquotes.com  :

Oh Lord, make of me a Hollow Reed

Through which the pith of Self hath been blown,

That I may become a clear channel,

Through which Thy Love may flow to others.

Heal Thy SELF

This month I am encouraging you to connect with and to explore your own HEALER Archetype Ally. You know you have one! It is a part of your Self that serves the Whole as a Healer will, watching over your health and prompting choices that result in wellness and growth rather than any self-destructive behaviors or attitudes.

Your HEALER is internal, not external.

Listen to your inner HEALER. He or she is your Ally who is whispering sweet somethings into your ear. What might some of these inner promptings be?

Take that vacation; you have well deserved it!

Let’s watch this program or read this book about brain health, heart health (etc.).

Act on what you are hearing about Co-Q10, magnesium, (etc.)

Here’s a personal example I can share. About a year ago I changed two behaviors relating to my health. I had recently turned 60. First, I woke one morning with just the words “9 years” planted in my awareness. I knew instinctively this meant I could potentially save nine years of my life if I would stop drinking soda. I stopped that day.

A few months later, after having heard several weeks  earlier that the second of two aunts on my mother’s side had been dealing with brain tumors, as I went to sleep I heard “brain tumor,” which was a bit of a shock. All night I seem to have been dreaming about that. Then as I awoke, again in that fertile awareness between sleeping and waking, I heard and saw printed in my ‘mind’s eye’: LYSINE – L. I had never even heard consciously about this amino acid before. I did some research to  find only that it is helpful as a supplement to help with collagen. I have taken it ever since. Most interesting is that this past summer while I was able to visit with my Aunt Karis, who had a tumor affecting her optical nerve successfully removed by surgery, she told me her and my other aunt’s tumors were not cancerous but benign.  Lysine then made sense more than before!

I am always grateful for the inner guidance I  receive, and I thank my inner Healer for helping me remain open and receptive to information from the Higher dimensions and unconscious domains that help me to accept higher wisdom.

Time Heals All Wounds

Is Time really a Healer? What wisdom does this age-old adage impart?  Time heals by allowing you to readjust or to establish a new set of conditions that have changed in some manner after an event that might have felt wounding: harmful or grievous or disastrous even, “back then” when the change first occurred.

Time brings us around some major bend in our Life Path that ultimately can result in “better endings.”

But, how? I am reminded of Garth Brooks’ song lyrics to “Unanswered Prayers” :
“Unanswered Prayers”

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/garthbrooks/

unansweredprayers.html

Just the other night at a hometown football game

My wife and I ran into my old high school flame

And as I introduced them the past came back to me

And I couldn’t help but think of the way things used to be

She was the one that I’d wanted for all times

And each night I’d spend prayin’ that God would make her mine

And if he’d only grant me this wish I wished back then

I’d never ask for anything again

Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers

Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs

That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care

Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

She wasn’t quite the angel that I remembered in my dreams

And I could tell that time had changed me

In her eyes too it seemed

We tried to talk about the old days

There wasn’t much we could recall

I guess the Lord knows what he’s doin’ after all

And as she walked away and I looked at my wife

And then and there I thanked the good Lord

For the gifts in my life

Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers

Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs

That just because he may not answer doesn’t mean he don’t care

Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered

Some of God’s greatest gifts are all too often unanswered…

Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

So… thank heaven for some of our unanswered prayers, or for any condition in our life that changes unexpectedly, often undesirably.  Change can lead us down unanticipated pathways that can produce surprising benefits ‘down the road,’ and so often we cannot tell from here and now where that unexpected change could lead to!

For example, we might lose a job we have been feeling stuck in for some time but would not have sought to change but for being laid off or “moved along.” Yet this sudden change might prompt us to move to a new location where eventually we might meet the love of our life or develop talents we had been neglecting.

Spirit or the “universe” may ‘know’ better than we do with our minds what path is our true destination. So listen closely to your heart when change comes calling; perhaps it is calling you Home!

Life is Better Endings with the Healer as Your Ally

What, to you, is a “better ending”? Whether we apply this notion to a preferred fictional ending in novels or films or to outcomes in our own life conditions, a better ending is in some fashion more satisfying or ultimately more fulfilling for all concerned, even if it is not necessarily happier than some other conclusion or set of conditions.

This month we will focus around the metaphor of life as better endings, pairing this with the collective and personal archetype of the HEALER.

Certainly a Healer might facilitate or impart a better ending, whether by effecting a cure or healing of an illness or in some other manner improving upon a set of deleterious or less than ideal circumstances. I like the notion of my personal archetypal HEALER Ally–a part of my greater Self–having the capacity, the agency, to bring about better endings in my life. I can look to this part of mySelf–and you to yours–for healing a broken heart or to seek a solution that improves upon an out of balance situation.

So I invite you this month to get more in touch with your own inner HEALER and to contemplate the meaning of potential Better Endings in your life. Always feel free to share your insights or stories (which I would publish here). 

To Your Total Health!

I encourage your stories and insights about Health and Healing Better Endings this week. What are some of your best health & healing tips? I have already spotted a couple of blogs to share some re-posts from this week, as several of you have blogs or websites in this area and have greater knowledge and experience than I do in this domain.

We can define Health as whatever your current Body-Emotion-Mind-Spirit condition just IS; from this perspective we all “have” our Health, so what matters in terms of Better Endings is what we do with or about our current state of Total Health, which we can define as our degree of Body-Emotion-Mind-Spirit “wellness”. Wellness is a subjective matter, and someone might have a physical illness requiring medical care, yet they might practice mental, emotional or spiritual activities which raise their level of general wellness to a high degree.

You might start reflecting  on your Total Health by filling in percentages or maybe adjectives (or pictures) for each of the quadrants in the Medicine Wheel image below. For example, you might rate your sense of wellness for each quadrant.

When I do this reflection, I see what areas could use a boost. “Body” comes out weakest in my personal wellness scale right now, because I have not been getting enough physical exercise. Of course, all of these aspects of our Total Health system are interdependent. That means a less than well condition in any one of these quadrants of the Medicine Wheel might affect the others. However, this also means you can ‘borrow’ or apply strengths from a “more well” aspect to help you to improve the other aspects of your Total Health. So, for instance, last week I started feeling like I might be losing a battle with my immunity to cold germs I am often exposed to where I work. So I did a spiritual contemplation which resulted in my choosing to go to the gym (after 2 months without going) and I added more fresh veggies and certain vitamins. So far, I have withstood breaking out with a cold, but more than that, I have been contemplating more deeply, too.

All components of your Body-Emotion-Mind-Spirit Total Health are interconnected. Each aspect is an important source of Life Energy, experience, and expression.

Salute a te!