05/09/2021
What are the pillars of vibrant health, of wild wellness?
There are so many frameworks to choose from, they all have value. This is simply mine.
It starts with nourishing inputs: nutrient dense, low toxin foods, sunlight, contact with nature and the earth, trees, animals, natural bodies of water, fresh clean air, strong and mutual relationships, an environment that adds value.
Physical movement is the next pillar. It's how we move our bodies, the positions we spend time resting or working in, how often we move, the variety of movements and their degree of complexity, intensity. Movement does not only make strong muscles and fluid joints, it also helps pump blood and lymph, it massages organs, it transports oxygen and nutrients around the body and transports toxins out of the body.
Our image of ourselves is the next pillar. Do we see ourselves as worthy, capable? Do we believe we can be well simply by our own actions or do we believe wellness comes only from an outside intervention by an expert? If we believe we cannot change and have no control over our own health and wellbeing, then that will be true for us. What we believe about ourselves originates from the messages we heard in early childhood and profoundly affects the way we travel through life. That too can be changed, just as easily as diet and movement habits can.
Lastly we need to have an idea of our destination. If you are a sailing ship on the ocean, you can drift about wherever the wind takes you, or you can set a course and navigate there. Storms and winds may blow you off course, but if you know your course, you will still arrive. There can be no happy ending if we don't even have a conception of what that ending looks like. Visualising and acting to create the future life that we desire will make the present moment more meaningful and will make sure we arrive where we want to go, not where the wind blows us.
All these things are very abstract when I write them down, but they are composed of some very concrete, practicable actions which we can take every day. So we don't need to read books and study under masters and acquire qualifications.
We simply need to:
:) Eat things that were alive and came from nature, not a factory.
:) Learn to be in the sun safely for you.
:) Cultivate relationships based on trust and honesty.
:) Think of yourself and treat yourself with kindness, compassion and deep interest.
:) Visualise the world you want to live in and the part you want to play, and start acting towards creating that.
:) Keep away, where possible, from toxins such as pesticides, plastics, cleaning chemicals, cosmetics, heavy metals, excessive eletromagnetic fields, the attitdues of blaming and complaining, gluten, vegetable oils, breakfast cereals, non-stick frying pans, nail salons, hair dyes, mouldy homes and workplaces, plastic food containers, breast implants, mercury in your teeth, main roads, polluted cities. Avoid them, but WITHOUT FEAR AND PARANOIA. Avoid them with a casual "no thanks" not a horrifed "aaaaargh get that thing away from me!"
:) Get up and down from the ground every day, and hang from something every day - can be a doorframe, a tree branch, a pull-up bar, doesn't matter, just hang.
:) Where you see a fence, go over it or under it, nor around.
:) Where you see an obstacle, think of it as an opportunity and embrace the challenge.
:) Look up with awe at the night sky every evening before bed.
:) Gaze at the clouds, or the ocean, or a tree and daydream.
:) Love one another.
I spent my life thinking these things were complicated, and the more I learned, the more I realised they are the essence of simplicity.
