Feeling a bit down? Got some ailment or illness? There’s so much advice available from so many places these days that it can be a bit daunting. It’s not possible to follow all the advice and some of it is contradictory. Also, there’s more and more evidence showing that the mind plays a huge role in our wellbeing. There’s the book Mind Over Medicine : scientific proof you can heal yourself and there’s a video, Beneficial Stress? Is that possible?, where research shows that stress that is normally harmful isn’t harmful at all IF the subject doesn’t believe it’s harmful to them. This was part of the reason why I wrote the post How powerful is belief?
What’s the best thing to do?
Going back to the fact that we’re feeling down or sick, what’s the best thing we can do? Well, here’s one suggestion;
- Find a quiet place and just sit comfortably
- Remove distractions and just try and calm down as much as possible
- A good way to achieve this is just to concentrate on your breathing – in and out, in and out – comfortable normal breathing
- If thoughts come into your mind, just allow them to be and then leave calmly
- Once you’ve reached relative calm (this might not be so easy) just ask yourself gently the following question;
- What’s the best thing I can truly do for myself right now? This minute, this hour, this day, this week…
- Ask the universe to help guide you if that helps
- And then just calmly wait and be aware of thoughts that come up
Once a thought has arisen that really feels right to you, then there’s a very good chance that actually is the best thing that you could possibly do to help yourself. It doesn’t matter what it is, or if somebody somewhere says that’s not something that’s good for you, if your body truly believes it’s the best thing for you, then it almost surely is. It could be sleeping, going for a walk, consuming a certain type of food, going and lying in the sun, getting away for a while, getting a massage, spending time with your partner, meeting up with friends, going to the gym, seeking out a certain health practitioner, who knows.
I think the only thing you need to be careful with here is allowing your ego or negative self bring up the suggestions. Such suggestions could be damaging, but these should be easy to spot. With a bit of practice, you’ll know when your kind-self has made a suggestion that really feels right to you.
Once you’ve found the best thing that feels right to you, just be kind to yourself and do it. Do it with a real sense of self-care and self-love. This isn’t being selfish, it’s actually the best thing you can do that will eventually help everyone else. A happy and healthy you will be more able to positively contribute to the world.
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