Healthy Food Chart

This morning I beat the alarm clock up. Something that isn’t a typical task when my alarm goes off at 4:30 am every weekday morning. 3:58 came and went and I was ready to go. So meditate, set my intention for the day, walk through important tasks to be done in my mental to-do list, then up and at them.

As I engaged in my morning ritual of sitting at the computer with my lemon water and coffee, checking emails and allowing myself “process and wake up time”, I ran across a couple of quotes that resonated strongly. My focus today, and seemingly for the past several months, as been on belief. Belief in oneself, belief in others, what we believe, and how it effects us and our relationships. The importance of what you believe as an individual is not only defining to how you think and engage in relationship with yourself, but how you engage with others. It’s your energetic, karmic and literal calling card.

Case in point, last night after a long 14 hour day at work, I decided to engage in loving action towards myself. Instead of heading straight home and collapsing on the couch, I went to the gym. Some people might ask, “how is that loving?”. For me it’s simple. My body and I have come to an understanding with each other that’s been a long and winding road. My head now understands that my body needs physical excercise to release the stress components and toxins of the day. I had the energy and knew that I wouldn’t be engaging in anything creative when I got home because of the length of the day–so let’s keep it simple. One mile in the pool. Nothing crazy, nothing too strenuous. 32 laps.

The pool in and of itself, has always been calming to me. Being a Cancer/Leo cusp, it seems logical that I have a draw to water. I lived in the water when I was a kid. Swimming lessons, swim teams, during the summer we’d spend 10 am to 5 pm in the pool. Of course, I pay for that now with melanoma and constant skin checks. The sun isn’t my friend in that respect. There’s a zone you get in though, whether you’re in the pool, on the tred mill, working circuits, dancing, doing yoga, creating something, whatever it might be; it’s where you leave your mind and are fully engaged on a different plane. For me, now physical activity is part of my spiritual practice with myself. It’s an essential component to the mind, body, spirit combination. Believe me, I tried for years to avoid the body part; but like everything in life, there must be balance to be healthy.

But, back to belief and the power of it. The constant mental battle for me and the beloved gym (I say that somewhat sarcastically), is the diatribe between my believing self and my non-believing self. My non-believing, self defeatest self can be relentless with phrases, to myself of course, that annihilate my self esteem. It takes the strength of belief, to talk over those phrases. As I continue to look at the power of belief, I’m forced to look at how the belief in oneself effects who you draw into your life and how you perceive not only yourself, but others and how those perceptions and beliefs effect all of your relationships.