Tiny Buddha

Tag: healthy

  • Why Be Healthy in the Present When the Future’s Uncertain?

    Why Be Healthy in the Present When the Future’s Uncertain?

    Running

    “The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment.” ~Pema Chodron

    The idea of an open future can be thrilling. What lies before us often feels as though it’s just waiting to be written by a mix of our personal willpower and luck.

    Lately, however, the reality of uncertainty has been frightening me. The lack of anything certain to grab onto has destabilized me in a way it never has before.

    You see, as we move around the calendar year, the day darkening quickly and the temperatures dropping, I am circling back to what was a season of tremendous loss for me last year.

    In a matter of months, I lost four people who were important to me, three of them so suddenly that there was no opportunity to plan, to re-focus my vision of the future without them and grasp onto it.

    These losses, one by one, transformed the meaning of uncertainty from thrilling possibility to a cold, frightening truth.

    For a long while, my only response to this new understanding of uncertainty was fear. I was paralyzed with fear.

    I inevitably started questioning the point of investing in such an ephemeral future:

    Why plug along with my professional life in that goal-oriented, forward-thinking style of mine? Why save money or, conversely, why buy anything?

    And, of extreme importance to a health-conscious person like me, why make so many investments in my health? Why plug along on an exercise machine or chug bottles of expensive green juice or eat raw or sweat or stretch or spend the better portion of my salary on kale and sprouted bread?

    Weren’t these activities just my efforts at grasping, at giving myself the illusion of control over an uncontrollable world?

    By awakening to uncertainty in such a jarring way, I was living both in fear and with a newfound interest in fatalistic indulgence:

    Coffee after dinner? Sure!

    Chips and salsa and ice cream for lunch? You only live once—why not!

    Push-ups? What’s the point if it could end tomorrow. (more…)

  • 5 Powerful Things to Do for Yourself When You’re Sick

    5 Powerful Things to Do for Yourself When You’re Sick

    “Your body is precious. It is our vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care.” ~Buddha

    Getting sick is rarely, if ever fun for anyone, but we all get sick. You can cheat on your taxes, but you can’t cheat on sickness.

    When we get sick, we all have a choice of how to work with illness. We can choose to be miserable or we can choose to learn about ourselves and grow from the experience. Since I have had such a hard time with the latter, I’ve investigated 5 ways to practice with illness.

    1. Reflect on the benefit of health.

    Often illness brings into focus what we wish we could be doing when we feel healthy.

    Once, back when I was a pack-a-day smoker, I got food poisoning, and I remember the smell or thought of cigarettes made me feel so much worse. At that time I vowed not to smoke anymore. I felt the frailty of my body and I didn’t want to live a life that hurt my body. I saw how much I needed my body, how bad it felt to not be able to rely on it.

    Unfortunately as soon as I felt better I forgot what I knew when I was really sick. Being sick gives us the chance to reflect on the value of health and what you want to do with your life energy when you do feel better. People who are in hospitals only have time to sit around and watch TV; is that what you want to do with your free time?

    We only have so many hours and days of health. How can we use each hour of our lives to benefit the people we love the most? (more…)

  • How to Create Emotional Freedom by Setting Healthy Boundaries

    How to Create Emotional Freedom by Setting Healthy Boundaries

    “I’ve discovered that you can’t change people. They can change themselves.” ~Jim Rohn

     “As much I want you to be happy, I’m realizing that I can’t be responsible for your happiness.”

    I had never spoken truer words in my life. Even as the tears flowed down my cheeks, I felt a profound sense of freedom and lightness.

    My mother suffers from major depressive disorder. For much of my life I truly believed that there was something I could do to bring her out of it. I tried to be the perfect daughter. I minimized my own emotional presence. I did everything I could to make her smile.

    Yet nothing I did seemed to make any difference in her mood.

    Though I couldn’t articulate it as a child, I felt I was to blame. I hadn’t been entertaining, engaging, or good enough to keep her from feeling sad.

    I internalized my mother’s moods until I was no longer able to tell the difference between what she was feeling and my own emotions.

    I didn’t give myself permission to express any of the emotions I perceived to be negative, such as anger, sadness, guilt, or shame. It seemed my mother had sole ownership of these, so I suppressed them within myself.

    As I got older, I began to interact in much the same way with romantic partners, friends, and others I encountered. Like a chameleon, I took on the emotions of other people and was greatly affected by their moods.

    Most of my relationships were unhealthy and unsatisfying, involving varying levels of codependency.

    I felt trapped within myself. I grew tired of pretending. I craved emotional freedom.

    Then my therapist said something that completely changed me: “It is okay to feel angry, sad, disappointed, or frustrated”

    For me, this was a revolutionary idea, and extremely empowering. I didn’t think it was acceptable to be anything other than happy and “perfect.” Once I gave myself permission to feel these things, I noticed that these emotional experiences did not consume me as much as they once did.

    I felt liberated. (more…)

  • Being Fit Without Letting Food and Exercise Control You

    Being Fit Without Letting Food and Exercise Control You

    “Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.” ~Unknown

    Most people associate fitness with nothing but positive connotations.

    Exercising is the alleged solution to obesity and stress.

    Eating fresh, local, healthy foods is the age old secret to a long and disease-free life.

    But what most people don’t realize is that striving to live a healthy lifestyle can carry some seriously negative consequences if you don’t approach it wisely.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for eating right and exercising, but the moment your life begins to revolve around your fitness, then you’ve already lost.

    Sacrificing Your Life to be Healthy

    In my early attempts to build a healthy and fit body that I could be proud of, I ruined my life.

    My entire life would be structured around my workouts. My meals were planned at exact intervals.

    And if I missed any of my workouts or if my meals weren’t up to my standards, I would consider myself a failure and would get incredibly upset.

    Back then I took an “all-or-nothing” approach to health and fitness. If I had one “bad” day of eating, then the entire week would be considered a waste.

    It was bad.

    My perfectionist approach to fitness began drawing attention.

    I would go to parties and eat nothing but raw veggies and water. People would question me, stare at me for why I was being so phobic about food.  My own parents began getting frustrated with me because I would only eat certain foods.

    My so-called dedication to fitness turned into an obsession, one that overtook my life.

    All that exercising and healthy eating was meant to complement my life, not become it. (more…)

  • Forming A Healthy Habit Starts from Within

    Forming A Healthy Habit Starts from Within

    “The outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to reflect their inner beliefs.” ~James Allen

    I recently participated in a 21-day online fitness support group. I needed some external motivation to help re-establish a daily habit of fitness activity. My lazy butt was so reluctant to start this! Nevertheless, by the last day of the challenge, I was enthusiastically back into the habit.

    We all know it takes three weeks of daily repetition to form a habit, so my success may not surprise you. What surprised me was why I ultimately met my goal.

    It turned out that nothing about my success was about the physical aspects of daily exercise!

    When I retired a few years ago, somehow that translated into retiring from regular fitness activity. Retirement meant I could rejoice in not having to do anything. No expectations. No shoulds. Just do what I want to do, every minute of every day.

    We’re constantly told we “should” exercise—30 minutes daily, or 3x/week, or 10,000 steps a day, or blahblahblah.

    Yes, but I also have a lifetime resolution to eliminate “shoulds.” My attitude toward exercise had become resistance-based because of all the “should” advice. I’d given myself permission to avoid it. Hey, I’m in charge of my own body, right?

    But now, a few years later, my body has begun to show the deterioration symptoms of being ruled by my retired, lazy butt. I needed to put a stop to that. I decided I “should” exercise.

    Gradually, this 21-day fitness commitment reminded me that my lazy butt is a mental state, not a state of butt!

    First, I realized how easily I’ve been letting anything—whatever—thwart my exercise plans. Any excuse was a good one. Grocery shopping to do? Well then, I certainly can’t fit in that aqua-fit class! Rain? Yay, I don’t have to go for that walk! (more…)

  • Food is My Friend: 6 Tips for Mindful Eating

    “Your body is precious. It is our vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care.” ~Buddha

    Thank you for this food we are about to eat.

    Many of us grew up with families who began each meal with a blessing. These prayers followed people from generation to generation like an affectionate family member showing up when everyone sat down at the dinner table.

    These days, this honoring ritual is largely absent as we pick up food in a bag at a drive-through window, eat from cartons taken directly from the refrigerator without bothering to put the food on a plate or sit down, and spend meal times separated from family members.

    When did our connection to the food we eat become so distant and problematic? Many people have a love/hate relationship with food; they disparage particular foods even when they crave them. They say, “I want you—go away!” Doesn’t that seem a bit neurotic? What a mixed message!

    A mistreated person often acts out in ways that can cause trouble. I think of food as doing the same thing. It tugs at you when you have other things to do and makes demands that you pay attention to it when you would much rather think of something else.

    A perfect example of this is when you are positive you don’t want to eat the ice cream that is in the freezer. The entire time you are thinking this, you get a spoon, get the ice cream and finish all of it!

    I created the following exercises to remind myself to maintain a healthy and respectful relationship with the food I eat. As a result, I’ve lost weight and I choose healthier foods. Give it a try and see if it helps you, too. (more…)