I know it’s redundant to talk about gratitude during Thanksgiving week, but I hope you’ll take a few minutes to start practicing daily gratitude for your amazing body and your good health!

 

 
     Hi there, it’s Elaine Gardner, the founder of DesignYourHealthyLife.com. After struggling with significant health challenges for more than two decades of my life, I made a commitment to get well no matter what. And that led me into the world of holistic health. I have accomplished so much with my health and now enjoy a level of health I never, ever would have thought possible.

     I have a special connection to and gratitude for my health because of what I suffered from, and how much improvement I’ve been able to make. And I realize that it’s very cliché to talk about gratitude during Thanksgiving, and redundant because everybody’s talking about it, but I like to share with you what’s on my mind and things that I think can help you. That’s my passion, and my intention is always to be in service and to help people be inspired to want really excellent health, and to provide knowledge and tools in order for you to get to that level of health and enjoy what I’ve been able to experience.

     So I’ve been thinking about how a lot of people are very good at gratitude with certain things – materialistic things, jobs, family, friends and loved ones – but I do believe that it is the exception for most people to be connected to and grateful for their bodies, their bodily functions, and their health on a day to day basis. We tend to not think about our health until we actually lose it and we’re having a health challenge, and then we’re really grateful for the times we do feel well.

     But what about if we shifted that paradigm and showed a little bit of gratitude every day for our incredible bodies, and what they do for us every day? Your health affects everything else in your life. When you’ve had some type of an injury and you don’t have the same ability to move, you’re very keenly aware of how wonderful it is to have full function every day. To be able to get out of bed and again, things we take for granted, walk to the bathroom, make food, do your job, you don’t think about all of those things. Your body is constantly moving for you and you don’t have to put any effort into that, or any thought, it does it for you.

     All of your bodily functions are the same way. Your body digests, and detoxifies, and thousands of chemical reactions are happening at any given moment. And all of that stuff that’s going on inside you on automatic, is stuff that we don’t think about because it’s happening without our conscious processing, and therefore we don’t think about it until we lose that function.

     So I’d like to invite you today and every day to maybe develop just a quick habit. And so right now, just take a deep breath, quiet yourself a little bit, and start to think about the incredible miracle that your body is and what it provides for you every day without you having to think about it. And think about the fact that when you wake up in the morning and you start to move your body, it’s going to move for you. You’re not stuck there. You don’t have to have someone help you get out of bed. And you start to think about the day, and you can be positive and get out in the world in a big way, and experience life and share your gifts with the world, and enjoy incredible experiences and joy and fulfillment. All of these things depend on your body’s movement and function and mood. It’s just so incredible what your body does for you each and every second of every day.

     So again, I invite you to try to develop a practice and even just do that now. Thank your body, and acknowledge what it’s doing for you. And second to that, to think about how you take care of your body. I understand that everybody has a basic level of understanding that our bodies don’t function when we don’t give them essentials like water and food. But I think very few people actually put enough emphasis on what it takes to care for their bodies properly to experience true health so that you can have longevity too.

     The amazing thing about taking care of your body on a day to day basis is that, not only do you feel better and get to experience a healthier life, but you also set yourself up for decreasing your chances of facing so many of the potential health hazards that people are facing today. From mood challenges and mobility problems to diseases like cancer and heart disease. Many people are aware that things like heart disease can be prevented with a healthy lifestyle, but we tend not to think about our lifestyle choices related to disease in general.

     You really can change your ability to overcome those things, or significantly decrease your odds of facing something like that, when you’re really taking care of your body well. And everyone’s going to face a health challenge at some point in their life, but when you’re healthy and strong going into it, you recover so much more quickly. So for instance, if I went out and accidentally broke my leg, I know that I’m going to heal a lot faster than a lot of people because my body is really strong and healthy. It has the nutrients it needs and I’m going to provide the rest it needs, and it’s going to heal better, faster, more comfortably, and more completely. And of course I have lots of tools that I would utilize in the case of an injury as well.

     So lots and lots of things that you can do to take care of your body, but the first step is just to be grateful for it every day and understand the incredible miracle that your body is. Put some thought and effort into being grateful as often as you can. I hope that serves you well! Until next time… talk to you soon.