The First Step: Love

Take a moment to step outside yourself, imaginatively. Look at yourself (I'd recommend literally looking at yourself in the mirror) from another's point of view.

The person that you see is in fact you, and yet not. Even if you don't agree with this thought, described most eloquently by C.S. Lewis, imagine that you are a soul within a body, and the body before you is something that has been assigned to you. It is your gift for a time, a garden of sorts, that is yours to care for and nourish. You must feed it, water it, clean it, and keep it from harm. Why? Because you love it.

So how is your garden doing? Producing fruit? Bearing flowers? Do you like what you see? How the body feels on you?

If you answered yes, then you have been dutifully tending your garden, and ought to be happy.

If not, why? Are you simply unable to maintain your garden or have you neglected it purposely?

There is only one or the other. Forgetfulness here is not allowed. I'll come back to that.


I used the metaphor of the garden because it is a spiritual and physical endeavour to maintain something that is seemingly out of your control. "Nature" controls the basic growth and processes of the garden, much like "human nature" controls your body. But there is also a choice involved, and power given to the human mind to contribute to nature and help it along. Nature makes the flowers grow, but you get to decide which flowers to plant, or remove. Savvy?

Just like weeding a garden or watering it during a hot season, we can also aid our own physical/emotional bodies apart from our "human nature." We can choose what foods we put into our bodies, how we exercise it, and how we think and react to happenings all around us. All is choice, of our very own. And it is an art. It is a science too. But most of all, it is an act of love.

I will attempt to address all three of those choices that occur on a daily basis.

Food:
This is the big one.--particularly in the United States where everything is saturated in preservatives and processed elements that many of us cannot pronounce let alone digest properly. A lot of folks nowadays are spoiled with fast, easy to get, disgusting food. Some excuses for ingesting said toxins is price, appetite, time, etc. But those excuses don't float. YOU complete the action of picking up items of nutritional value and placing them in your mouth. YOU chew the food and swallow it. YOU. There is no excuse. If you are on a budget, then spend what money you do have on something that won't kill you. Eat exactly what your body needs. It is fuel. Yes, it can be enjoyed, but it is first and foremost a means for your physical body to continue its functions so that you can go on with your life pursuing your passion--which many have turned into food itself. I would recommend, that if you have decided to live for food, to consider going into the culinary arts rather than making your career and life one of eating. Making food what you look forward to in life is like making sleep the main purpose of your life, or other bodily functions...

Exercise:
Exercise, in and of itself, should not exist. We ought to be exerting a certain amount of energy each day to maintain proper skeletal structure, fat content, muscle tone, and brain development, without having to set aside special time to . However, thanks to technology, we have made life "easier." I'm not a fan of "easier," because it is another word for "lazier." And your garden, if not exercised (metaphorically trimmed and pruned), will rot.
Don't misunderstand me; I am a huge proponent of science and technology. However, throughout the history of mankind, we have swung from extreme to extreme like a pendulum. We have neglected the advancement of our physical and mental forms on an everyday basis in order to alleviate stresses of everyday life. We are the Athens of the modern world.
Whereas, in the days of Sparta, physical ability was the foundation of society. If a task was easy, it was made more difficult in order to increase personal achievement.
Remember who won the Peloponnesian war? I'll let you look it up.
In future posts I will introduce very simple ways to counteract the negative affects of the technology that is allowing us to return to our infantile forms and is counteracting our development.

Thinking:
Reactions to events that occur in your life are entirely up to you. Some people say, "it's just in my nature," but really what that means is, "that's the way I've decided to be."
You control how you respond to a sign of affection, anger, despair, or humour. Letting yourself go "out of control" in the case of a temper or something of likeness, is merely the decision to allow oneself to get as angry as possible; most of the time for dramatic effect.
Don't let anyone tell you, "you are depressed," or "you are just happy all the time," or "you are reclusive," because you'll most likely end up agreeing with them and becoming that person. No one tells you who you are or what type of personality you have. Not psychology, nor a random quiz, nor the stars. If you wish to be happy, be happy.
I will elaborate on my own personal experience with this issue at a later time. This subject is a bit tricky and will take several posts to explain.

I apologise for the concise nature of each topic. Believe me, I will go back to each one on several occasions, but at the moment I ought to get back to other writings and chores. This is just a brief overview and all I am saying in a long-winded manner is:

Take care of yourself. You are worth caring for. If you don't take the time to love and care for yourself, why would anyone else? Look at the person in front of you in the mirror and love him or her, sincerely. That is the first step toward becoming who you want to be. Love.

A gardener takes care of a garden because it is a source of joy and love in the gardener's life.
Make yourself a source of joy and love, and you will become that to others as well.

Cheers and much love,
Inkling