Dear Friend

“If you don’t make time for your wellness, you’ll be forced to make time for your illness.”

“There is no money in health and no money in death, all the money is in between.”
~ sources unknown

A friend of mine asked me the other day if I knew of a natural remedy for the lungs. For quite some time I’ve had similar questions on a regular basis for other parts of the body, and for various afflictions or processes of the body.

(I also see many similar questions in all the reading and researching I do.)

Obviously they know me (in-person life or on social media), and they have read or viewed my content and feel I may be able to help them, and most certainly I can! Importantly, I love helping fellow human beings to suffer less and enjoy more. That’s what life should be about. For all!

Such questions reflect a rapidly growing awareness that we can turn to herbs, superfoods, diet, and all manner of natural healing interventions to improve our health and wellbeing. More and more people want to get off their dependency on pills, doctors and hospitals.

Quite right!

While some pills sometimes do a job, consuming them regularly exposes us to the side effects which are printed on the information slip, and which, over time, really tax our liver, kidneys, blood and weaken our general immune function, not to mention how they sour the mood of our mind.

In a pill culture we are given good reason not to take responsibility for our own wellbeing, and we think not of making changes to our diet or lifestyle.

People are more and more coming to understand this now. Knowledge is spreading. So far so good.

However, all these similar questions that come my way, and the answers I give, have something in common, which has led me to making it the theme for this week’s Letter.

How to do wellness.

I’m realising there’s quite a big gap in people’s understanding of just what wellness is, and how we can achieve it for ourselves. This is not surprising as we shall see below (wellness was not even a word in my big dictionary, 2001 edition!!)

Wellness is not just about diet, and it is not just about the body.

And it can’t be done without doing work on ourselves, no chance.

It’s a truism that is wise to take heed of: illness is the consequence of not taking responsibility for our own health and life, wellness is the consequence of taking responsibility for our own health and life.

Take care of the whole, and the parts will fall into line

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

My answer to people’s questions is never just ‘bee pollen’, or ‘get some ashwaganda’, or ‘milk thistle is great for the liver’, all three of which are fantastic superfoods for us to be taking to boost our immune system; I cannot help but also offer the basic advice on how they can achieve an overall health for themselves.

In other words, okay, this will work for that right now, but you also, super importantly, need to address the underlying causes, and ‘this process’ is what you need to adopt.

But I sense (I could be wrong) this bit goes in one ear and out the other, they just zero in on the answer, the solution, the magic pill to get them better for their existing condition now. Reason I think this is by the follow-up questions.

It’s not surprising, we were conditioned as children to consult external authority, and ignore our own inner authority, which is effectively suppressed from us (until we consciously reclaim it). This is hugely disempowering, and we HAVE to proactively empower ourselves to overcome this handicap in life.

While these questions are a great first step we can take towards developing the skills and know-how we need to take care of our own health and wellbeing, and to get out of the medical system’s clutches, it’s only a great step if the next steps are taken.

Magic bullets, especially natural ones, are likely to do a good job for the present time.

But, to reiterate, what caused the problem?

Unless this is addressed, the problem is likely to come back. Then what? This is how chronic illness and disease manifest over time, from our continued refusal or unwillingness to take real, concrete action by making important changes to our diet, attitude and lifestyle.

And there’s really nothing more miserable than contracting a disease. Especially when we learn it was due to our own (ignorant) choices and decisions we had made over time.

So my sense is that people want a remedy for what is bothering them here and now, and are not so keen on doing any other work on their physical wellbeing.

And, perhaps worse, there’s still little thought about how the state of our mind massively influences the body’s level of illness or wellness.

If we go from a dependency on doctors for pills to fix our symptoms, to a dependency on herbalists (or any kind of natural healer), then we are missing the point of wellness, and we remain powerless in our own affairs. While natural herbs and superfoods and healthy foods will most certainly help us without side effects (and of course, some are suited for specific ailments or afflictions), we need to adopt a different kind of mindset, because:

wellness must be OUR responsibility; others can help, and that’s brilliant, but ultimately your body heals your body, your mind heals your mind, your mind heals your body, and only your mind can activate your soul.

In my own journey in pursuit of health and wellbeing as the default to my life, I have found that it’s a lifelong journey which quickly became a feature of my daily life, and so is the learning that enables us to pursue it. Here are three truisms I’ve found:

1. just as breathing, eating, drinking water and sleeping are an integral part of life, so too is learning and being proactive in creating a state of wellbeing for ourselves: we need to be lifelong learners on a lifelong pursuit of good health and mental wellbeing

2. wellbeing is in body, mind and soul; that is, wellness refers to the sum of emotional wellbeing, mental wellbeing and spiritual wellbeing, as well as physical wellbeing: all are parts of the overall whole that work synergistically and as one

3. and thirdly that the complete whole of who you are is comprised of two environments interacting interconnectedly: your own inner environment, which is mind + body + soul spirit, plus the external environment that you live in.

Can I summarise all the above into one sentence, that is the crux of what you have to do to live with health, harmony and happiness?

Yes.

Take steps to learn for yourself how—by acquiring the necessary skills, knowledge and intrinsic motivation—to live with physical health, psychological wellbeing and spiritual liberation, and realise that this is a LIFELONG JOURNEY, and therefore to make things as optimal and easy for you as you can, you should become a LIFELONG LEARNER.

Put lifelong learning into your mindset, your attitude, your daily life, and you will be so well rewarded that being a lifelong learner is not a chore, it’s an inspiration to you! And you will stop being a business model for the sickness industry.

My masterclass introduces you to how you can become a master of lifelong learning to empower yourself to take charge of your health, life and destiny, and to develop wonderful healthy strong relationships with all your fellow human beings, even those you disagree with!

(More on my masterclass at the end of the Letter, there’s been a delay!)

Wellness is a Lifestyle

Now, I want to just share with you a few bits and pieces from the chapter, From Illness to Wellness: A Lifestyle in my book. No sense in repeating my work, and I spent eight years writing and getting this book published - hah, I set out thinking it would be a year max…!!

(If you’d like to get yourself a copy or find out more information about my book, Menu For A Spiritual Revolution: Health Harmony & Happiness, then click here to learn more.)

So, see what you think…

First off, the opening bits to introduce the chapter

“If you want a bully to go away, stand up to him, challenge him, don’t run from him, don’t give into him (could be a her, but we’ll stick with him). Give him a buck and he’ll be back for ten, give him an inch and he’ll be back for a yard. If you run from him, he’ll find you, if you feed him, he’ll want more; but if you find courage to confront him, he goes somewhere else.

It works just the same way with illness and pain.

***

Be who you want to be, do what you want to do, say what you want to say. Just follow one rule: don’t harm others. Seeking peer approval, and worrying about their disapproval, promotes illness and blocks wellness. 

***

Wellness is a way of life: either you’re on it or you’re not. It’s your choice.

***

‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’

***

We humans have a tendency to only appreciate something when we’ve lost it. The spiritual revolutionary must eliminate this tendency! If you lose your health…”

***

A bit later on in the chapter I turned to the dictionary for definitions of illness and wellness. Being a language teacher I know how much information is held inside the meanings of words, but which we only truly grasp when we are in conscious learning mode.

Before you read on it will be interesting for you to just write down what you think the definitions are, and then see how close you are to the dictionary!

“Let’s look at some dictionary definitions of our two protagonists. I have emphasised some bits in italics, you might like to wonder why I’ve done this.

From my large Penguin dictionary, version 2001, is this definition for illness: ‘1 a disease, period of sickness, or other indisposition; 2 an unhealthy condition of the body or mind’. There is no entry for wellness.

By right-clicking on illness the software definition on my computer is: ‘1 a disease or period of sickness affecting the body or mind; 2 ailment, disease, complaint, disorder, malady, affliction, ill-health, poor health, virus, infection’. 

For wellness we get: ‘1 the state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal; 2 a healthcare system focused on wellness, not sickness’. 

Wellness, according to one of the biggest publishers in the book world, clearly only came into being some time in the 21st century! I think this is an important thing to investigate, because I think it reflects poorly on our times and on the collective direction that humanity is taking.

My view on this new word is simple: we humans have been creating an increasingly toxic world, and because we are intimately interlinked with the very world which we are poisoning, we are poisoning ourselves. We eat toxic foods, take toxic medicines; we live in a rat race where we try to outdo, rather than look out for, each other; and our mantra in life is ‘enough is never enough’. We’ve lost touch with our roots, and become disconnected from each other and from Mother Earth herself.

We are out of whack and lacking any kind of coherent harmony.

I put it down to the system and the corporate juggernaut it has spawned, which eats up everybody, including those who protect the system.

Our cultures and institutions have become toxic and injurious to our wellbeing in body and mind. The harsh reality now is that if we just follow the norm, live by the default mainstream ways, we will become unhappy, stressed, burnt out.

This is not conjecture, the evidence is all over the place.

Our societies need to create for all of us a humane and life-enhancing healthcare system ‘focused on wellness not illness’, as the definition says. What we have at the moment is simply not fit for purpose, and it serves mainly to generate gargantuan profits for the sickness industry out of our suffering. The system thrives on sickness; billions of well people will decimate our mainstream healthcare (sic) system. But society is only the sum of its individuals, so it’s individuals who need to step up to the plate. What each of us does, by our own actions, connects back into society. What you as one individual human being does, counts; and don’t let anybody persuade you otherwise. You are an important cog in the wheel, my friend!”

***

Okay, back out of book mode again.

It’s noteworthy that even while the dictionary tells us that illness refers to afflictions of the mind as well as the body, that the usual mainstream medical approach does not recognise the role our mind plays on causing us illness. Nor does the mainstream media, nor society.

It’s always worth repeating: many of our physical symptoms are the consequences of emotional angst or mental stress and unhappiness, and therefore even though herbs and superfoods and a good diet will do us wonders, without a change in mindset and attitude towards life we are not going to achieve the health and wellbeing that will revolutionise our enjoyment of life.

So the summary, again, is that wellness is a proactive pursuit (as per the dictionary) that we must consciously engage in now and forever.

The last bit I want to quote from the chapter brings you some serious practical ideas and tips to implement in your life. Wellness is an accumulated state of being and consciousness, many little things which alone seem to make no difference, all add up, especially over the weeks and months. Like I say, this not a part-time or one-off journey!

As you read both the busters and boosters, decide which one most resonates with you in each list, and immediately put it into your lifestyle.

And then do the same with the others, either all in one go, or step by step!

My Illness Busters and Wellness Boosters

My Illness Busters in no order of importance are:

• get corporate-made foods and drinks out of your diet, and whole foods into it

• drop peer fear (seeking peer approval, worrying about their disapproval)

• practise using the OAR tool every day to become a skilled operator of conscious living

• learn how the body works; learn to listen to your body, it has innate intelligence

• do morning stretches and breathing exercises, like a DIY yoga

• slow down

(NB The OAR tool I refer to is practising observing life, being aware of what you observe, and later on reflecting upon what you can learn from your observations.)

My Wellness Boosters are:

• eat lots of fruits and vegetables, get superfoods into your life

• get quality sleep (get to bed before 11)

• visit and embrace nature regularly: soul makes you whole

• cultivate an attitude of gratitude for your life

• live to enjoy today the best you can

• do things - hobbies, projects, sports, games, art, music, photography; just do stuff!

***

Weekly Task for Letter #14

For both the illness busters and the wellness boosters, add two or three more of your own. They can be ones you already employ in your life, or new ones triggered in you from reading my own lists.

Decide which ones you can implement straight away. Don’t try and bite off more than you can chew. Wellness is a lifetime journey, so you’ve got lots of time to build it into your life.

Start a new entry in your notebook: i) date it, and write a short description of how your body and your mind are typically feeling these days; ii) write down which boosters and busters you are actively going to start off with; iii) then come back to it in two weeks to see how you feel in body and mind, and to therefore see what progress you have made.

And for me, with wellness, progress is about a feeling and experiencing a general energy and spark in my whole being, a vitality of spirit, and clarity of mind.

Health Tip of the Week

Just as you go to bed each night, and when you wake up in the morning and before you actually get up, speak to the universe and thank it for your life and ask it to help guide you in your journey with wisdom.

Whenever you are a bit lost or a bit down, you can instead ask the universe for some answers at night time. I have found that I very often wake up with the answers! Sometimes it takes two or three days, but usually overnight.

What’s happening here is that we are consciously asking for something which our subconscious mind has blocked from us.

Word of the Week

It must be wellness.

Reread the dictionary definition, or find it yourself online. Really imbibe that it’s a proactive journey we have to undertake, and not sometimes, but all the time. If we fall off our ‘wellness wagon’ on any one day, then to feel guilty or to beat ourselves up is an attack on our wellness itself! So don’t do that, just climb back on board your wagon and carry on, using it as a lesson along the way. If you were water flowing in the stream, you simply came across a rock which slowed you down, but you then navigated your way around it.

Sentence of the Week

It’s one of mine, reflecting my love of rhymes, acronyms and initialisms to help me remember stuff and to keep on my wellness wagon.

Without your soul you are not whole.

There is no wellness without an activated soul. This is your ‘ageless self’, it is your human essence and it gives you inner authority allowing you to not succumb to peer fear (illness buster #2) and to live with courage, confidence, conviction and compassion.

Our harmful schooling suppresses our soul from us, disconnecting and disempowering us. This is precisely why wellness does not come by accident, and why we have to be proactive in making it our way of life.

And finally…

… news about my masterclass I wrote about last week.

Some technical hurdles have presented themselves to me in terms of website design and building specific pages, and so I have yet more software learning to do which I could not get done in time for this week’s Letter.

Next week!

However, one thing about the masterclass for now: all my upcoming masterclasses, learning courses and all learning materials that will be the foundation of my new education 'empire' for adults (an empire that builds good things, not a destroyer!) are all about training and inspiring adults and adolescents to embrace lifelong learning by discovering the joy of learning and becoming a master of it. 

Then wellness, as a necessarily lifelong journey, is automatically in your life as a lifelong learner.All the best

Philip