Sunday, February 7, 2010

NUMBER SIX

Or, as my daughter would say...NUMBA 6.



The next 5 essentials to feeling your best everyday may surprise you. The first 5 had to do with physical health....



Breathe deeply

Drink Water

Sleep Peacefully

Eat Nutritiously

Enjoy activity



MOST of those are no-brainers to those of us who have spent any time at all in an effort to change our life style and lose weight.



But.....



There is a topic that has been discussed here and there on some of your blogs - the fear of being thin and the resulting self sabotage. (An 'unhealthy' state of mind.)



Also, consider this.....does being thin and fit make you necessarily feel your best?



Will being thin make you feel good inside and out?



Are thin people happy and healthy people because they are thin?



Can you feel great BEFORE you are thin?



The answer to all these questions is, of course, that we are not just a body. We need to care for our bodies, yes, but we also need to care for our 'inner person'...... our emotional being..... our spirit.



In my humble opinion, our 'spirit man' suffers when we do not care for our bodies BUT our bodies also suffer when we do not care for our 'spirit man'. We are complex beings.



So, with that in mind, I continue with the list of 'Ten Essentials to Feeling Your Best Every Day."



#6 GIVE AND RECEIVE LOVE



"As you give and receive love, freely and generously, you will be blessed with meaningful, lifelong relationships and cherished memories that will bring joy in happy times, and strength and peace in difficult times"



Most of us have someone we love.....a spouse, significant other, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, aunt, friend, pet....



I challenge you, however, to think of love not as something you feel for someone, but as something you do and live.

You can live love all the time, giving love to every person you come in contact with because love is not just hugs and kisses and a special feeling. Yes, it encompasses those things, but it is so much bigger.


Love is actually more a verb than a noun.....it requires action.

You can live love by being patient and kind with each person you come in contact with.... including the jerk who cut you off in traffic. Even harder, we live love when we are patient and kind with our children and husbands no matter how 'jerky' they are.

We live love when we are unselfish.... when our focus is not on pleasing ourselves, but on serving others.

Read 1 Corinthians 13 for the classic and most concise description of Love.

Note that this 'essential' is not only about giving (or living) love, it is also about receiving love. Sometimes we have a hard time letting someone love us.....I'm no psychologist, but I know there could be hundreds of reasons to reject love - just as there are hundreds of reaons we withold love.

In order to really be healthy and happy, we must be able to live love and recieve love.

We can do this no matter what size our jeans are.

Without this essential, it won't matter how skinny you are - you will not be truly happy.

With it, our happiness is not dependant on the scale and let's face it......a person who is truly happy and full of love is one that others want to be around.

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

Love is all you need!
Well...maybe not all...but it's a lot of what you need. Even with weight loss, believe it or not.
weight loss

Margie M. said...

Love makes the world go 'round. Your post is good. Love is essential. Not sexual love (although that ain't bad either) but the love that comes from simply wanting to share your life with another person. It means so much to others when we share a hug, smile, word of encouragement. Just showing you really care. That sharing is good for us, too, and beneficial to our overall good health. I agree with you totally on this post

Margie M. writes at:
www.myhealthylivingthruweightcontrol.blogspot.com