When my grandmother died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 58, I began thinking about the causes of "dis-ease" in our society. She had lived a life full of trauma and repressed emotions. Her environment was rank with hurt, fear, anger, and silence. I came to know a similar environment as the stress and coping mechanisms trickled their way down to my generation. Watching my grandmother's illness progress while putting two and two together, I decided I didn't want to follow in her footsteps and vowed to choose health in my life at every possible turn. Not always the easiest thing to do, and those coping mechanisms from childhood rear their ugly heads way more often than I'd like, but I try to look at difficult situations with honesty and compassion in order to plant seeds of awareness for making healthier decisions in the future.
Mate's ending words of wisdom? "Take responsibility for how you live, the food you ingest, your emotional balance, your spiritual development, the integrity of your relationships."
And most importantly, he tells us that "We need to be very honest with ourselves, very compassionate, but very thorough in considering how our childhood programming still runs our lives, to our detriment."
Love & Awareness.
"We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness." -Thich Nhat Hanh
More beautifully put than I could ever say. May your decision to "choose health" bear much good fruit in your life. Thank you for that contribution. Love & Awareness to you.
Like you, I'm a big fan of [Thich Nhat Hanh]. I've been interested in Buddhist philosophy (it's not a religion) ever since I rejected my family's Catholic 'heritage'. I think if more people practiced the simple art of 'mindfulness', the resulting personal harmony would eventually morph into harmony with our fellow human-beings, and we would all [...awaken from our illusion of separateness."].
Ooooh, you're feelin' it now! Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings have done so much for me. I can't even begin to explain it. I'm teaching my daughter mindfulness practices. It's awesome. By the way, Thich Nhat Hanh is not well, physically. Send him good thoughts and feelings. He needs them. I'll add this to the side-bar also: http://plumvillage.org/news/an-update-on-thays-health-8th-january-2016/
Wow. Amazing article. Life changer, for sure.
ReplyDeleteWhen my grandmother died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 58, I began thinking about the causes of "dis-ease" in our society. She had lived a life full of trauma and repressed emotions. Her environment was rank with hurt, fear, anger, and silence. I came to know a similar environment as the stress and coping mechanisms trickled their way down to my generation. Watching my grandmother's illness progress while putting two and two together, I decided I didn't want to follow in her footsteps and vowed to choose health in my life at every possible turn. Not always the easiest thing to do, and those coping mechanisms from childhood rear their ugly heads way more often than I'd like, but I try to look at difficult situations with honesty and compassion in order to plant seeds of awareness for making healthier decisions in the future.
Mate's ending words of wisdom? "Take responsibility for how you live, the food you ingest, your emotional balance, your spiritual development, the integrity of your relationships."
And most importantly, he tells us that "We need to be very honest with ourselves, very compassionate, but very thorough in considering how our childhood programming still runs our lives, to our detriment."
Love & Awareness.
"We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness."
-Thich Nhat Hanh
More beautifully put than I could ever say. May your decision to "choose health" bear much good fruit in your life. Thank you for that contribution.
ReplyDeleteLove & Awareness to you.
Like you, I'm a big fan of [Thich Nhat Hanh]. I've been interested in Buddhist philosophy (it's not a religion) ever since I rejected my family's Catholic 'heritage'. I think if more people practiced the simple art of 'mindfulness', the resulting personal harmony would eventually morph into harmony with our fellow human-beings, and we would all [...awaken from our illusion of separateness."].
ReplyDeleteOoooh, you're feelin' it now! Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings have done so much for me. I can't even begin to explain it. I'm teaching my daughter mindfulness practices. It's awesome.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Thich Nhat Hanh is not well, physically. Send him good thoughts and feelings. He needs them.
I'll add this to the side-bar also:
http://plumvillage.org/news/an-update-on-thays-health-8th-january-2016/