The best piece of advice that I have ever been given in my life is to have a dream and to do one thing towards it, no matter how small, every day. It’s very clever because having a dream gives you the impetus to strive for things. It means that you will work hard to have the health and well being to see it through. Doing something towards the dream each day helps to keep it at the front of your mind, as well as inching you closer and closer to its fulfillment.
Some people find it easy to have dreams, but others have been worn down by years of ill health and low vital energy so having a dream seems just ‘pie in the sky’. I find that many of my patients find their way to my clinic after years of ill health and unsatisfactory treatment through other channels. Their ability to dream is suspended for the time being and they need help just getting through each day.
Here is where health goals come in. The wonderful thing about herbal medicine is that it is holistic – treating the whole person. It’s not just about prescribing a herb for a particular ailment and expecting people to become miraculously well. I regularly work with my patients to set achievable health goals and support them in achieving the first steps towards restoring their vital energy. The dreams come later…
Health goal setting is very important as it gives us direction and motivation. Without goals we don’t know how far we’ve come, whether we have achieved anything and we are denied the opportunity to reward ourselves for our achievements. Having a goal can make the difference between being bothered to make positive changes and just drifting along as ‘normal’. Even if you are pretty ‘well’ most of the time, having a health goal can encourage you to optimise your health and fitness beyond what you ever thought was possible.
Yes… in case you were wondering I do walk the talk. I spent many hours last year upping my fitness game in order to prepare for a second dan martial arts grading in Shorinji Kempo. I have to admit that without that goal I probably would not have had the impetus to do that!
This is the time of year that people like to make resolutions to be healthier, lose weight, get fitter, ditch bad habits and create new positive ones. I think that it can be a very good thing for people to use this time of year to focus on making positive changes. The trouble is that New Year’s resolutions all too often fizzle out by the time January is over. There’s a reason for this..
We all have a subconscious image of ourselves and no matter how negative that image is, we can find it difficult to move away from that self image and find it a bit uncomfortable at first when things begin to change. That’s right – our subconscious view of ourselves perpetuates our state of health.
Commonly held subconscious images are ‘I’m fat’, ‘I’m unfit’, ‘I hate exercising’, ‘I’m always ill’. If you have a strongly ingrained subconscious image which tells you that you are always ill or that you will never be fit then there is a lot of inertia which will stop you making positive lifestyle changes. If you don’t see yourself as someone who exercises, then it is hard for you to do that. If your subconscious image is of someone who doesn’t eat healthy foods then it is hard for you to consistently change your eating habits for the better. You may do it for a bit, but it is all too easy for you to slip back into the old ways of doing things because it fits better with your self image.
So you need to change your self image and to do this you need to use positive affirmations. Daily! Say to yourself I am someone who enjoys optimum health, I am someone who likes to keep fit, I am someone who chooses to eat healthy food. Say this to yourself every day. Even better write it down every day in a diary or a journal. You should also spend some time every day visualising yourself as the new more positive self image. You need to do this daily for at least four weeks in order to start making changes to your subconscious self image. You may feel a bit uncomfortable doing this at first but that is just your outdated self image trying to sabotage you. Don’t let it! Make this year the year that you make some lasting positive health changes. You won’t regret it!
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