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| Be Well - Vol II, # 1: Health Secret # 1 |
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Wellness Newsletter “Enjoy Vibrant Life and Health” Volume II, No 1 January 25, 2010 The goal of my new book, Ten Secrets of Exceptional Health, is to help readers be exceptionally well - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. If this goal resonates with you, please join me in this quest for exceptional health. It is worth every bit of energy you give to it. The “Ten Secrets” are a distillation of my personal experiences and studies through the years in my own quest for exceptional health. They evolved out of my medical and post-medical education, and my years of experience in both public health and family practice. There is nothing magical about these “Ten Secrets.” They provide a solid set of principles for building exceptional health, principles I tested as I applied them in my own life. When they are followed in a consistent balanced way, the results can seem almost magical. It’s important to be clear at this point. Exceptional health, long life, and happiness can never be guaranteed. Yet, they can be anticipated as reasonable results of following the “Ten Secrets of Exceptional Health.” While there are no guarantees, the scientific basis for expecting the “Ten Secrets” to produce exceptional health is solid. Being happy is related to the quest for exceptional health, but not its direct result. Ralph Waldo Trine wrote: “Happiness sought eludes; happiness given returns. The pursuit of happiness is never successful because happiness is always a by-product.” To apply this insight here, we can be happy to the extent that we are enabled to give happiness. The Ten Secrets of Exceptional Health will be available as a digital book in March. I will feature it on my new website, TenSecretsOfExceptionalHealth.com. Meantime, I’m condensing the ten secrets into ten Wellness articles. Following is the first secret. Health Secret # 1: Refresh Your Commitment to Health Daily Your goal is to be as healthy as possible for the rest of your life. To integrate this goal into your life fully, your mind must be committed to it at every level. Otherwise, you run the risk of having it fade away as soon as you meet any kind of adversity or diversion – and adversity or diversions happen to all of us. That is why the first secret to master is to get your mind deeply committed to your health. If you enroll your mind as your partner and keep it centered on your health goal, you will have a strong ally. Your mind is powerful if you know how to harness its strength. So, how do you do this? Devote at least five minutes every morning to give your mind positive guidance for the day. This need not take long. Yet, it’s the single most important thing you can do to build a healthy mind and body. Refreshing your commitment daily is the master key to achieving exceptional health. Your mind may object vigorously, telling you, “This is crazy. There is no way you can do this. There are dozens of more important things to do.” This is your first test. If you give in to the mind’s objections, you lose control. Like a wild horse, your mind will be difficult to train. The reality is that anyone can take five minutes a day for something worthwhile. Most people spend more time on trivialities or things such as television or computer games. So, find a quiet spot to sit where you won’t be disturbed. Your mind may throw another monkey wrench into your project now. Like a monkey, it begins to jump from one thought to another, and then another, and then another. This is your second test. How do you tame the monkey mind? The best way is to focus on your breath and to mentally repeat a simple affirmation as you follow your breath in and out. I suggest that you begin by using the affirmation, “I am Peace.” When you inhale, mentally think, “I am…” and as you exhale, add, “Peace.” This accomplishes two things. It gives your mind something to focus on as it begins to quiet down. Secondly, as you spend a few minutes quietly repeating this affirmation, you begin to feel peace within yourself. The surprising truth is that your affirmation is a self-fulfilling prophecy. There are other affirmations that are worth using regularly. Qualities of love, joy, and kindness can be substituted for the word peace in the affirmation above. You can say, “I am Love,” or “I am Joy,” or “I am Kindness,” for your affirmation of the day. These qualities have all been documented to enhance health. Later, you can add other life-affirming qualities, but these are good starters. You may object that it doesn’t feel right to repeat one of these affirmations because you don’t think it is true for you. If you are feeling upset, how can you authentically say, “I am Peace?” The answer is that you are capable of sensing the truth of this affirmation at some level. In mentally repeating it, you are simply reminding yourself of that inner potential. The more you do this, you more you help to actualize it. Another powerful affirmation you can use is, “I am Hope.” In addition to embedding this idea in your mind, you will be sending it to every cell in your body. Mental thoughts release circulating peptides that carry meaning to every cell, and every cell responds accordingly. That’s power! You may ask, “What if I’m not really hopeful?” Again, a potential for hope is alive at some inner level. Your affirmation begins to make it real for you. The more you use this affirmation, the more it becomes imbedded in your mind, and the stronger your momentum toward hope and better health will become. As you gain experience with this exercise and begin to realize its benefits, you may want to spend more time doing it. You may find it helpful to do it every morning and again every night before you go to bed. Repeating affirmations before you go to sleep is a powerful way to embed them deeply in your mind. Some people object to the concept of using positive affirmations, saying that it involves too much of a “feeling” approach, or that it does not have scientific merit. Others say that positive affirmations may feel good for some people, but they may be ineffective or painful for others who have terminal illness or other devastating circumstances in their lives. Actually, there is solid scientific support today for the value of positive affirmations and meditation. World famous scientists like Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Herbert Benson, Dr. Candace Pert, and others, have proven beyond a doubt that mental processes have major physiological effects on the body. Affirmations and meditation can indeed have a profoundly favorable impact on health. What about the use of positive affirmations in the case of someone who has late-stage cancer or other terminal illness? To cite a personal example, Nancy, my first wife, had tubo-ovarian cancer diagnosed when she was fifty-seven. At the time of her surgery, she had hundreds of small metastases scattered throughout her abdomen. They cleared with chemotherapy, and we had high hopes for a cure. In spite of that hope, she suffered recurrence of her cancer, and then had brain metastases that required life-saving brain surgery and radiation therapy. I retired from medical practice to be with her full-time. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. Nancy survived two more years. Her health was clearly declining, but those two years were precious. At the end, Nancy was fully aware that death was near, but she reached a level of acceptance and peace about it that was remarkable. I learned much from her. Perhaps the most important thing she taught me was that the qualities of love and peace are as crucial and meaningful in dying as they are in life. They transcend life and death. Are affirmations of peace, hope, and love worthwhile, even when there seems to be no hope? Yes! Regardless of circumstances, they help one cope in the healthiest way possible. Be Well! Ed Dodge, MD |