A Time To Review...& Renew

Well, it's the beginning of a new year. What a great time to look back at the past year and consider...was it a success? Am I healthier, wiser, more functional, and more loving than a year ago? If the answer is yes...congratulations! If the answer is no, I have good news for you. So long as breath moves through us, we can still change the direction of our life.

Even the most conservative estimates regarding the growth of cells in the body report that most cells renew within at least two and a half years. That means that every two and a half years, we build an entirely new body! There is some debate on the regeneration of nerve cells in the body, but new evidence is pointing to the fact that they indeed also renew. If this is so, why do we keep building the same "bad knee", "painful back", "damaged shoulder", etc.?

I am of the opinion that the reason we continue to build as before is because our pattern has not changed. The saying "If you do what you've always done, you will get what you've always gotten", seems to apply. Occasionally a person will ask me, "Why is nothing changing with my (symptom)?" I will usually ask in return, "What are you doing differently?"

If we view the symptom as a signal from our bodies that something needs to change, our next step is to begin a self-inquiry as to what that "something" is. Personally, I have found that the "something" fits into one of three categories:

• mental/emotional
• chemical
• physical

In other words, it is either something I am:

• thinking or feeling
• eating, drinking, breathing or being exposed to
• doing or not doing physically.

Simply by viewing the symptoms as 'attention getters' of 'something needs to change' allows us the opportunity to step back, observe our life, and choose to make a change...or not. In this way, our body is providing a 'road map' to living a healthier, wiser, more functional and more loving life.