In my early twenties I figured out
the way
to good
diet,
experimenting across the spectrum from anything-eater to
vegetarian to fruitarian (though I admired so-called
breath-arians, I didn't venture down their path) to vegan,
and
full-circle
back to what I now call "discerning omnivore". Later I
got
clear
about the value of exercise. Exercise doesn't come
naturally
to me - yet it's an essential. I'm not, by
nature,
a gym rat. I don't enjoy going to the gym. It's not my favorite
thing to do. But as one sage counsels, "There's only one thing
worse than going to the gym, and that's not going to
the gym.". Now I'm in the gym daily.
Still later, concerned by the onset of age-related issues, I
included taking carefully chosen vitamins and supplements with my
physical regimen. Now, by any stretch of the
imagination,
I enjoy good
health.
But it was only when I added
forgiving
(that's correct:
forgiving)
to my program, that my body
began
maintaining constant metabolic heat, and giving out
radiant
health.
We store the
sadness
of disconnecting from people we
love
ie the break after being in
relationships,
in the solar plexus ie the region of the third chakra
(if you will) known as "Manipura" (don't take my
word
for it: look for yourself and see if it's
true).
There it sits, taking up residence near where for all
intents
and purposes, the stomach ie the food processing factory is sited.
They're frightful co-habitants: sensations we'd rather not have,
with their
next-door
neighbor the stomach, which tells us when and what to eat. Without
any of those unwanted sensations, we'd stop eating once we'd eaten
enough to nourish our bodies. But with those unwanted
sensations, we overeat (or simply go unconscious to
what we eat) in a
futile
attempt to suppress those unwanted sensations. That never
works
(the unwanted sensations persist regardless). It also abandons our
bodies to suffer the effects of our overindulgence. We pay a steep
price for those incomplete suppressed experiences stored near the
stomach. That price is chronic
ill-health.
|