Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Being Healthy

When was the last time you really relished your health?  Let me guess, it was shortly after you lost it when you caught that nasty cold last spring?  Or something similar I bet.

We all have our ways of being mindful of our blessings, and I know I always resent it when people assume I forget to do so myself.  So instead of a message that goes "aren't you glad I reminded you" I'm going to give you a message that says "let me join you".

Let me join you tomorrow in a day of really relishing health.  

Your health.
Relish it.  Not because of what MIGHT happen, or even what WILL happen.  Not from fear.  Relish your health because you have it.  Simply because it's there... in whatever form it's there.

Start when you get out of bed in the morning and you feel your feet beneath you and your legs.  Your strong feet and your sturdy legs, right there where you left them and doing just as you bid them.  Then take a shower and really LOOK at your skin.  Feel your skin and just get all soapy and smooth and really enjoy how strong this envelope is that keeps all of your insides in.  Look at all the bits that maybe you hate, or that maybe are the wrong color or the wrong shape and think of how glad you are that at least all those hateful bits aren't trying to kill you with cancer.  Or heinous bacterial infections.

Dry off after your shower and wallow in the strength of your muscles.  Maybe they're not what they were, but I guarantee they're loads better than they will be.  Feel your pulse in your neck, in your chest, in your thumb, in the soles of your feet.  Flex your shoulders and stretch your back and feel how much it FEELS when you feel it.

Sing to yourself as the coffee/tea/babyformula gets made.  Hear your voice, cracky and cranky though it may be.  Hear the notes that only you can make: in the whole history of the entire universe your voice is yours alone.  What will you say in that moment?  If you're like me, it'll be a swear because you probably just stubbed your toe on something or dropped an egg on the floor.  But regardless of WHAT you say, relish the idea that you CAN say it.  

And you can understand it when you hear it.

Listen to the bus, or the metro, or the car as it trundles along and carries you to work.  Feel your hands grip your smartphone.  Smell the smells of your neighborhood going to work in the morning.  Let your bleary eyes droop closed at your desk as you log in to your workstation tomorrow morning, just for a moment, and savor that satisfying relaxation that your eyelids give you as they say "oh thank GAWD YES!"

Breathe deeply tomorrow.  With your mouth and your nose.  Feel your scalp and your hair and your knees and your fingernails and your moles and freckles and those scabs you can't seem to shake off from that bike accident a month ago.  

Wallow in the you-ness of tomorrow.  Savor your health tomorrow.  Join me.  As I will join you.  And together we'll add a little bit of happy to an otherwise dastardly and boring and frustrating day.  

Let me know how it goes.

No comments: