“Tough Choices” Blog #59
What is a hard choice I have put off, but I need to make? What is unhealthy in my life
that gets my attention now? How can I do the right thing, when its just too hard?
Every one of the questions above have to do with one thing, using my healthy mind.
For most of my life when I was younger, I took my own health for granted. I never really
thought about whether I felt good or bad or how I treated my own body. Everything in
my life depended on the mood I was in at the time, this dictated what I would do. As I
look back its amazing how I took the things I drank and the food I ate, for granted.
Cheeseburgers, French fries and coke - no big deal. Lots of wine to relax. Above all,
almost daily, chocolate and packaged candy were my constant. I was depressed a lot,
with tons of migraine headaches and mood swings. Funny, I had absolutely no clue why
this was. I was clueless in knowing good health habits. No one told me, “You are what
you EAT and drink”. Nervous almost all the time, there was nothing I could attribute this
too. There were all those nights of tossing and turning and not sleeping well because
I was always so anxious. I decided to do something about it and my health changed.
One day I was speaking at a Real Estate function and I was talking about how my
change in heart and my change in healthy life style led to tough choices in my life.
I had just finished my talk when a pretty young woman came up and wanted to talk with
me. She started telling me how she was excited about selling houses. Yet, her anxiety
and fear had been keeping her from doing this. Then her life changed. Her own bad
choices and unhealthy lifestyle had been with her for a long time. She went on to say
that she ate McDonalds and fast food constantly. She smoked and loved candy and at
least a half dozen bottles of soda pop every day. She told me that she had been all
worn out throughout her teen years and now barely into her twenties, she was tired of
feeling this way. So less than a month before she met me, she took all of the processed
fast foods out of her life. She substituted all junk food for fruit and nuts. And her choice of
drink? Almost always she drank purified water. Now a month later, her tough choices,
just like mine, had paid off. She was feeling healthy!
Remember, SUGAR compromises the Immune system, brings in sickness and bad health.
IF you must eat sweets, eat sweets AFTER good food is in your body.
So what is another tough choice that troubled me?
My anxiety and impulsive behavior, coupled with my fear of failure kept me from finding
the time for myself. When could I find time, quietly, purposefully, now for me? Finding
time for me had to be a specific appointment that went right into my phone. “30
minutes - Positive Peacetime” and or walking/exercize. It sounds almost laughable to
say its hard to carve out the time just for me. Yet, look at the world around us. Every part
of our day is filled with noise and business. People constantly coming and going and
every one has something going on!
ITS ONLY WHEN I STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN TO MY OWN HIGHER SELF…THAT I CONNECT.
A tough choice is two-fold:
First, I must have a “Change of Heart” (this happens with Discipline)
Second, I must “Forgive myself” for ALL I have done in the past to self & anyone.
We are all tempted in so very many ways. So now we have to look at the “QUALITY” of
our character. THIS tells us “how“ we deal with temptation. “What do I want to do with
the temptation at hand?” I promise you I have rationalized with my own mind hundreds
of times in so many ways. “One more drink because of this or that, one more day of
eating gross, disgusting food, one more day of putting up with someone else’s abuse
towards me”, and on it goes.
We are in this together. There is only one huge part that starts to separate us.
DISCIPLINE. Can you imagine how powerful you and I can become with this? HOW we
discipline our life is critical. Wow, then the doubt begins to disappear! When I discipline
myself, I not only stop doubting myself but my own higher self power comes into play
immediately, such a free feeling of goodness. The hardest thing to do is not to worry.
We worry about everything we can possibly think about because that is the way we
humans are made. Worry, bite my nails, worry, take a drink, worry eat some comfort
food especially late at night! An important tough choice is: DECIDE NOW to discipline
worry away BABY STEPS.
How to do this? Start like this, visualize something beautiful in your mind. It might be a
brilliant, peaceful, glorious sunset. A calm, serene lake at dusk, or the morning snow
untouched by human hands. There are so many peaceful pictures in our mind. A tough
choice is doing something different that we are not used to doing. Remember internally
to say “I CAN DO THIS TODAY BECAUSE DISCIPLINE IS GOOD FOR ME”.
Now I do a couple things completely different today. Have you ever watched at the
grocery store how every body’s grocery cart is usually different? WE are all different and
this is good. Can I buy some different, healthy foods for self today? We are unique, and
filled with choices, hundreds and thousands of choices daily. The tough choices we
somehow push into the back and ITS TIME TO BRING THEM FOREFRONT. We all have to
know where we are going, even if it is only for today!
I love the part out of “ Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland” when she comes face to face
with the Cheshire Cat. Here is a bit of their conversation. Alice says to the Cat, “would
you tell me please, which way I ought to walk from here?” The cat looks oddly at her and
speaks, “that depends a good deal on where you want to get to”. “I don’t much care
where” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk”, said the Cat.
A tough choice will appear for each of us every day. It’s all ok. Sometime it will be
easy to choose, other times it will be hard, an old habit to push to the way back.
At any point, I now say, the toughest choices I can deal with and pray on first. I find I am
stronger, more confident and less anxious when my day is “disciplined out” with good
healthy food, some form of exercise and above all prayer. Now I AM balanced.
Following is a great saying,
“I choose to live by choice, not by chance,
To be motivated, not manipulated,
to be useful, not used,
to make changes, not excuses,
to excel and not compete,
I choose self-esteem, over self -pity.
I choose to listen to my inner, higher voice,
I will Not listen to the random opinion of others.
Anonymous.
Can you make a tough choice today, and pray for Discipline?”
NOW LISTEN TO SONG FOR TODAY - CLICK PLAY BUTTON IN VIDEO BELOW