For me, the Five Health Essentials have one advantage over all the fad diets and exercise programs: The fifth Health Essential.
Remember, in European Natural Medicine, there are five Health Essentials:
1. Water (note that I didn’t say: bottled)
2. Movement (note that I didn’t say: exercise)
3. Food (note that I didn’t say: superfoods)
4. Herbs (note that I didn’t say: vitamins)
5. Order.
Number five – order - is the one I want to talk about today. Number one to four are only the means; number five tells you that there are goals in life beyond living for the perfect diet or the perfectly sculpted body. We live to enjoy life to the fullest: to love, to learn, to share, to explore, to nurture, to care, to create.
Number five tells you that you are part of the natural order: You are born, and you will die. In between are your days and nights, which you can fill with garbage, or can fill with purpose and meaning.
Nothing in nature comes in round numbers (think 80-10-10! – one of the current fad diets) and nothing in nature comes in a square (think tofu!). Natural order makes you laugh and weep, sleep and wake, work and rest.
You know those over-exercised zealots – those narcissistic bores. Or those food faddists whose brains seem build from tofu with Swiss cheese holes. It is not about how you look or how many push-ups you can do (actually, being able to do one would be swell) – it is about leaving the world a better, happier, more just and more beautiful place for all its inhabitants.
Order – think what it could do for you. Read More
Blog: On Health. On Writing. On Life. On Everything.
Small Talk Shortcomings
February 10, 2011
A weird little study showed that if you do small talk you stand in your own way, foregoing happiness.
Small talk is the opposite of meaningful talk. Meaningful talk is when you talk about what is real and difficult, instead of glossing it all over. If you were brought up under the maxim that “it is not their business” and keep a stiff upper lip always, chances are that you are unhappy. Because we need to talk about what is dear to our hearts.
Interestingly, the moment you talk about your problems, you will find out that other people have their share of tribulations, too. Most people are not as happy as they pretend – Thoreau talked about the “quiet desperation” in peoples’ lives.
I grew up in a rather dysfunctional family. My mother used to cover up for my father’s shortcomings. Seeing my mother pick up my drunken father one day from the steps in front of our apartment building taught me how utterly fruitless her constant fibbing was: There he was lying dead-drunk for everybody to see. From then on, I always talked about what was real and bothering me – probably getting on many nerves.
Whenever I had a problem – no room to live, no job, boyfriend trouble, another divorce, whatever – I would grab the nearest bystander and talk it through. By and by, I got some good advice (some inane also, of course) and learned to sort out my life. I loved the people who answered in truth, even when the answer was not flattering to me. My friend Christina in Germany would start most of her sentences with: “ Really, Alexa, that’s absolute nonsense!” She still is my friend. One has to love the people who point out one's faults!
Not only made me talk feel more connected with people, it often led to finding the rent-apartment or job I needed – because other people started working on my problems once they knew them. It was a form of early networking (just don’t think that twittering is the same as really talking to real people about real issues!).
This study of 79 participants found that people who talked about substantial issues that were on their minds, were happier and had more social contacts. Our happiness, turns out, is closely related to our social interactions. No man is an island. “Substantive conversations create a feeling of belonging that leads to happiness,” the study concludes. Read More
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Smile Away?
June 13, 2010
Because a recent study has shown that people who smile fully (meaning: not faking it!), live longer. Another study showed that people who find a meaning and purpose in their life, succumb less to Alzheimer’s. I hope these are good studies, adjusted to social class, income, education and such because obviously it is easier to smile if life has been good to you.
But it does not take much to smile: If you have some measure of health in your life, and have friends and/or family, you are already blessed. Take a moment each day for gratitude. Say a prayer over each piece of meat or fish that you prepare in the kitchen: An animal died so we can eat. If you have a happiness issue, write a journal every night and jot down for what you can be full of thanks.
Every morning, say hello to yourself in the mirror before you leave the house – with a smile on your face. Read More