Happy Endings- The Path to Wellness in the Midst of Confusion

Over the past few years I’ve been dealt some devastating blows to my health all while helping others find their own wellness utopia. I have also witnessed many miracles, including my own, that I wholeheartedly believe stemmed from a deep knowing that such a thing was even possible. Hippocrates, the Father of Modern Medicine (allegedly) said “Natural forces within us are the healers of disease.” If that is true then it’s possible, theoretically speaking, to change course and steer ourselves away from the darkness of illness and disease, towards the light of health. Lord knows there are enough supplements and superfoods to get us there and more than enough diets from DASH to FODMAP, Keto to vegan to keep us confused enough that we probably couldn’t recognize what healthy looks like. With all the available resources, it troubles me that so many of us still feel stuck. In addition to what you eat or don’t eat and which Hi-Lo intensity workout you do or don’t do, I propose an additional piece of the health puzzle perhaps you haven’t considered. It involves your heart, your mind, and your mouth.

Think Yourself Healthy.

The ultimate quality of your life is determined by the words you speak and the ones you think. It’s true, our words and thoughts create the world around us. I believe the most powerful weapon we have against the progression and persistence of disease is our minds. There, I said it. If you get nothing else, it was worth the 5 seconds it took for you to read that. What I mean is you don’t have to claim every diagnosis. Cancer spreads literally and figuratively if you feed it. Now that does not mean you should put off getting life-saving treatments and I am in no way suggesting that you do. But we know the happier people are usually the healthier people, so it stands to reason that creating your own dooms day scenario probably will not inspire your immune system to go on the attack. My message is this- get your mind and your body in sync to fight whatever it is you have been gifted and begin to visualize the outcome you would most like to become your reality. It certainly couldn’t hurt.

Not If…When…

We invite negative junk into our lives on a consistent basis without, in my opinion, ever really understanding the level of influence we have over our own situations. We literally speak stuff into existence. Every word we speak and every thought we choose to believe has the potential to heal us or harm us. Each one is a container of tremendous power. When I hear people say, “I’ll never lose weight” or “I’ll never be able to do that”, I wonder if they know they have just set in stone a reality that doesn’t have to be. When my colleague’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, her mammogram showed a tumor which was quite large. Three months later the tumor was undetectable and a year later she is officially cancer-free! What is still so interesting to me is her mother never called the tumor cancer. She didn’t reference cancer at all. She called it a “mass” as if it was a minor nuisance rather than a life-threatening illness. I believe by not calling it cancer, yet still undergoing treatment, she took away some of its aggression. It begins in the mind and comes out of the mouth but it’s not just what we say, it’s the intention behind what we say. Being vague and unsure about what we want does us no favors. Say what you mean and believe what you say! Don’t say “if…”, learn to say “when…”.

The Power of Forgiveness.

Earlier this year I vowed to forgive everyone- friends, family, former friends, dead family, old bosses, ex-lovers, complete strangers, bad drivers, slow people and the list continued. I made up my mind to forgive everything and everyone including myself for all (our) perceived transgressions. It was my attempt to come to terms with what cannot be changed. What happened as a result of my little forgiveness project is I lost weight, my blood pressure decreased, and I started sleeping better. I was able to finally let go of what was, in so many ways keeping me sick or, so I hoped. You see, the act of forgiving is…well…active. It’s easy to say you forgive people if you will never see them again. But the moment they cross your path you may soon realize that even though you thought you “let go”, you didn’t “forgive” and letting go of something that you haven’t forgiven is only an invitation for it to come back to you. All the emotions, old hurts, misunderstandings, will all be there if you don’t actively forgive. To make things worse, if the people you have chosen to forgive are still part of your life in some way and have not changed, they will (as sure as the sun rises and sets) do something that will warrant more forgiveness. Therefore, we must practice forgiveness daily. While attending the “Happiness Retreat” at The Art of Living Retreat Center I learned a powerful truth- “Forgiving others is accepting they did the best they could do at that time”. Forgiveness doesn’t mean you have to forget and it doesn’t mean it’s not going to hurt but it will hurt less and eventually it will stop hurting. On the other hand, if you don’t forgive, you will never get to that place. So, stop inviting things you don’t want (including illness) back into your life. Learn to forgive then choose to let go. It’s a much healthier way to live.

© 2019 by Tasha D. Manigo-Bizzell