The foundation of a healthy life, part 11: conclusion and an important end note

So far in this series on how to life a healthy life we’ve talked about nutrition, medicine, exercise and making sure your life suits you. Of course, this is not all it takes to heal yourself. If it were that easy, my practice had no right to exist. Often forgotten trauma underlies what is wrong. This can be physical and mental trauma. It can even not be your own trauma, but belong to the generation(s) before you. Intricate, right?

Sometimes trauma needs to be resolved before you can even start to imagine what your life should look like. Living your own life is therefore always a process, a path. But with this series you do have tools to help you begin changing. Start with nutrition. Continue the process with movement. You will see that you will get more energy. And energy is perhaps the most essential ingredient for change.

Change requires energy, a lot of energy

Many people don’t even have the energy to make changes. That is the main explanation why many people do really see we have to alter things in this world but do nothing about it. They’re in such bad shape that they lack the energy to even get started. Admittedly, I also have to encourage myself every now and then. It’s often so frustrating, that feeling like you’re pulling on a dead horse. However, that does not make it less necessary and reminding yourself every now and then helps.

Anyway. Baby steps. If you take enough of those, you will progress as well. I hope this series has given you the inspiration to choose YOU and take those baby steps. I’d like to mention one more important thing. Something that will help you very, very quickly. Go into nature. Sit down and… nothing really. Sit down.

You are part of something bigger

In my view, the most important thing is that you start to feel that you’re part of something bigger again. That it’s not all that hard because, no matter what has happened and maybe will happen in future, you are connected to all life around you. There is no better place to really get that than in nature. The more wild the piece of nature, the better, but if there is no other option the park around the corner is also fine. Find the quietest possible place.

Sit down. Clear your head and see what’s around you. See how those insects are busy with everything and that the earth is rotating. Do not try to explain anything rationally. See, hear and feel it. See also that bumblebee lying on its back and which the ants are already dismantling. That’s also part of it all. Existence is light and shadow, life and death. And that’s how it should be. Without death, nothing can live, nothing can grow. That is a universal truth, both literally and figuratively.

The only thing you can really influence is yourself

If you look closely, you can see, at a micro level, that everything is interlocking. That nothing that happens is personal, but the result of a complicated interplay of factors. It is the same at the macro level, but that level involves an interplay that is so extensive and intricate that we cannot oversee it.

People often feel that everything revolves around them, but it doesn’t. You doing something or doing nothing won’t cause the whole thing to collapse. It’s delusional to think that you can change everything to your liking by turning a tap here and pulling a lever there. We don’t have the ability to oversee everything at all, let alone manage it. But instead of this frightening you, it should encourage you. You can’t go wrong if you just listen to your gut.

What you can do is live in harmony with your natural environment as much as possible, embracing the light and the dark. In order to do that, you’ll have to go back to what you are in essence. In that respect, healing yourself is the key to everything and at the same time it can seem like you’re spinning around in a vicious circle. The good news is a small change is enough to break a vicious cycle. Baby steps. Start taking them.