A Time and a Season... Part 2

---

"Healing is holy; it's wholeness. It's a return to the remembrance of who we really are."

Deepak Chopra

For two decades I was a part of a church community. We used our collective energy for good works, community building, individual and corporate healing.

What truly transformed me was when Spirit told me to sit in nature and listen. That was a decade ago. I’m still listening. Even more now as I see that the world has become louder, busier, and lonelier.

After conscious observation of nature-- it’s rhythms and cycles--I stopped ignoring nature and began to integrate nature's medicine into my life.

Becoming aware and observant to life around you is key. It’s easy to sleepwalk, or go through life with blinders on. The recent deaths of 3 men in my life brought home that I have as long on earth as my body gives me. How long my body gives me is certainly determined by God, yet I do have a hand in it.

This week I had a health scare. I must say, I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, so I scare easy. It turned out to be a false alarm but it gave me the jumpstart I needed to recommit myself to caring for my whole self. The truth is, whether we consistently care for our bodies or not, we will reap what we sow.

I had a friend, a Black man just shy of 40, who transitioned after a short illness. A few weeks before passing he asked to address our church community. One of the statements he made that resonated deeply for me was this: "If I’d been caring for my body in health, the way I am in sickness, things may have turned out very different."

Caring for our bodies is simple, but it requires time and devotion. The reality is doing one or more of the following over 4 seasons, 365 days will transform your life:

• Drink more water daily. How much? More than you're probably drinking now. Shoot for 32 oz but 8 oz is better than zero.

• Eat nutrient rich, unprocessed foods; mostly plants. Prioritize home cooking.

• Spend more time in the sun and nature in general.

• Move your body daily. Start with 15 minutes and increase gradually.

• Bring order into your life via planning and decluttering your space.

• Adopt a spiritual discipline

• Have fun!

There's more, but even if you chose just one of these things, you win.

Years ago I attended school to become a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. During a lecture I heard the above Deepak Chopra quote about wholeness. It shifted and clarified everything for me because it bought my two worlds together--healing and holiness.

Seeing self-care as a life-long spiritual practice, a return to the remembrance of how God created me, stops it from becoming a chore; it becomes an act of devotion. Devotion is not just a thought but the act of dedication to a cause, enterprise, or activity

Jane Fonda said, "It took me a long, long time to realize, we are not meant to be perfect; we are meant to be whole.”

I am resting, re-imagining and re-creating the next chapter of my life. I want to enter it healthy--mind, body and soul. How about you? It's time.

---

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

[Book of Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8]

---

On a scale of 1-10, 1 being negligent and 10 being outstanding, over the past 12 months, how proactive are you as it concerns your health?

• Poll_Editor_Answer_Placeholder