I have had a few people recently meet me and think that I have always been this fit and this healthy and that it must be easy for me when it comes to making healthy lifestyle choices. Today it is easy to make these choices, because I feel the best health-wise and look the best I ever have. I have friends who have known me for 10-15 years who have said that I look younger now than I did back then. I definitely feel that way and I know it is a by-product of The Way of the Livingness.
Eating Junk, Smoking and Taking Drugs
From a teenager onwards I made some choices that I didn’t even realise were choices: I just made them because I thought it was normal, never once stopping to consider the effects these choices were having on my body.
Here are some of the things I would do:
- I would eat whatever I wanted – take-away food, chips or fries, deep-fried foods and packaged, processed foods. I used to drink a can or two of Coke or Diet Coke a day.
- I was so into cheese that I could eat a 1kg block of it by myself in less than a week.
- Smoking at least a packet of cigarettes a day – sometimes two – was normal. I grew up in the Caribbean where there were no laws for underage smoking and it only cost $2 a packet, so money never stopped me from being a chimney. I also smoked a lot of marijuana as well – that too was cheap and socially acceptable.
- I would drink alcohol to the point where it would make me sick and even though my body reacted every time, I would just do it again. On the island where I lived it was duty and tax free so alcohol was often cheaper than a can of Coke or a juice.
- I would drink coffee, tea and other caffeinated drinks as well as eat a lot of sugary products as I was always feeling tired.
These lifestyle choices were affecting my moods, my energy levels and my whole life but I did not put the pieces of the puzzle together. I just thought it was a normal way to live. I didn’t know that there was another way. How did things change?
What Steps did I Take to Get to Where I am Today?
First of all I became aware that there was another way. I met some amazing people who are true role models and showed me The Way of the Livingness – being connected with yourself; taking responsibility, knowing that everything you do affects everyone around you. It has been presented recently by Serge Benhayon of Universal Medicine and is super simple.
In this Way, there are no rules or guidelines, so to speak, so you can’t fail or not ‘pass GO’. This ‘no-rules’ approach was what I embraced first as I have always been a bit rebellious and have never liked being constricted by rules and regulations.
The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.
At first it was rather challenging taking responsibility for all the old choices I had made, but there was no point in beating myself up for doing things I hadn’t even been aware I was doing, let alone for being unaware of the damage I’d been causing in my own body.
- I didn’t go cold turkey and give everything up, wave the magic wand and ‘voila!’
- I took baby steps, making small changes slowly, without ever having to give it all up at once, and
- There wasn’t, and still isn’t, a goal as such – it was more like each day I just made choices that felt right for me.
I’m not perfect, I used to have an occasional hot chip if my daughter had some. But the thing is, my body speaks very loudly and clearly to me these days and I listen. I never felt great after eating the chips – I just enjoyed the part of putting them in my mouth. Nowadays I choose not to eat them, as I no longer want to ignore what my body will tell me later. And this is how I am refining my foods, with awareness and looking into the reason why I want to eat certain foods.
I didn’t give everything up and now live a boring life. It’s quite the opposite. I let go of a lot of the things that were not healthy for me, and now I live a vibrant, energy-filled life. I enjoy my days and dance and sing like I never ever did before. In the past I would only dance if I was wasted: now I dance and sing and have so much fun.
I have deep gratitude for Serge Benhayon and his family for showing me The Way of the Livingness and supporting me with so much love over the last 5 years. It has been awesome making healthy lifestyle choices and getting to feel younger as I grow older!
By RB, NSW
1,182 Comments
As much as one can try to discount or ignore it, you cannot honestly deny the vibrancy and lightness of being that naturally beams from the bodies from the students of The Way of The Livingness. Especially observe those that are ill, terminal or otherwise, and beyond their physical aliment or disease there is a glow that cannot be dulled, a definite sparkle in the eyes and quality of stillness that reflects the wisdom of the Soul. And then those who are not ill, that naturally live with an energy and vibrancy that is not commonly lived. There is much to be studied here of understanding illness and disease and how we can live with true vitality and well-being, heal and return to the natural vivaciousness of our Soulful way of being.
Our true vitality has no yo-yo effect and when we have vitality as a Livingness then that is constantly felt as the Way that we can evolve and thus when we are out of sorts it stands out like sore thumb, which can be traced back allowing us to heal the ill energy causing us to feel lesser than our true state of normal.
Yes, recognize that in full RB. Today I look and feel more vital then 10/15 years ago. It was never my focus but a mere by product of The way of the Livingness, as presented by Universal Medicine. In the past I had moments of happiness, and got my self stimulated in between to cover up feeling not so good, and now I feel amazing most of the time, with some moments that I feel miserable, which I allow myself to feel to learn what my body is saying to me. And the latter moments getting less and less as the joy and love in my body is building and building.
“I enjoy my days and dance and sing like I never ever did before. In the past I would only dance if I was wasted: now I dance and sing and have so much fun.” I can relate to this RB. There was a time when I only felt confident enough to dance when I was drunk, holding a cigarette in my hand made me feel confident, and singing in front of others simply wasnt an option. How times have changed. I now love to dance and sing simply because of the sheer joy of singing and moving my body in a way that is a true expression and celebration of me and because how I can feel others being inspired, giving them permission to do the same.
When we do stop to consider the effects of our choices we begin to open up our awareness to deeply feel the true impact our choices have on our whole body, realising that we have a choice to choose not to eat what is so clearly harmful and empower ourselves to take more care of our body. Paying attention to the detail builds a loving momentum that our body naturally responds to.
Hear hear this is exactly the process, well for me it was too. The first stages of thinking you are missing out on something and having to give up something as opposed to getting to a place where you don’t like what ever it is doing to your body and letting go of it to have a more vital and joyful body is why it makes so much sense to make these choices.
The way you lived, as you describe, is for many many people the normal, because they think that it is the normal and they don’t know another way to choose. How is it possible that way, which is a way that has been known for thousands of years, is so shielded from humanity?
Life can never ever be boring when you are in touch with yourself and you know who you are.
When one knows who they are the magic of life abounds them.
As with anything, if we take baby steps to implement changes, the impact is lasting and it is much easier to keep up a committment to keep moving forward.
What I considered to be a healthy choice a few years ago, has changed to what I consider to be healthy for me today. When we are willing to deepen our level of self care, there is no end to the changes we can make that will continue to support us as our bodies become clearer and more perceptive.
Could it be that in consuming certain foods or quantities of food, we are trying to achieve an outcome of feeling heavy, dense, dull, unaware of what’s happening outside of our stomach or another effect? Do we always use food for the ‘food’ aspect or sometimes for the after effect?
With loving refection and awareness we can look at the reasons why we may want to eat certain foods, when we look deeper we see it always about choices we made which are either about Love or not.
Those beautiful baby steps ensure that what is altered is more sustainable.This is the beauty of responding to the body and what is required. I also have people think that I have always been healthy, but this is also far from the truth, I have lived in a very disregarding and unsupportive way for my body. I continue to develop and refine how I support my body through baby steps, steady consistent honesty about how my body feels.
Making loving food choices and making evolutionary life choices is a magic combination for evolution. It’s saying yes to who we are.
What I am coming to understand is that it takes a lot of commitment to live in the way described here – eating junk, smoking, drinking – then waking up with a hangover to pull ourselves out of it and do it all again. We put our body under a lot of pressure and strain to push through all this. But what we don’t want to see is that making healthier and more supportive choices is actually easier and takes less energy – because our body welcomes this.
I love it when it comes up nationally in discussion like with an exercise physiologist, or to a stewardess on a plane on what I actually do eat… It just is such a revelation for people so understanding that it is possible to eat in such a different way
Spot on – there’s nothing boring about exploring what really works in life and what doesn’t and knowing that we have the ability to constantly review our standards and our way of living everyday.
Beautiful. For indeed, there is nothing boring when you connect with your Soul. From here only greater plans and communication and movement exists.
The steps taken by the writer are so simple and gentle. I also found that not having a health or weight goal but focussing on listening to my body (for the first time since I was a child) made changes so natural. I also allowed the changes to occur as I became aware of them, rather than trying to fit a diet or exercise regime.
Life can never be boring when we choose true responsibility Life becomes more magical and more real and exquisite when we make choices to truly support.
Life is very intense nowadays and people are all too easily seeking food to try and quell the intensities they are feeling, Food choices then become erratic and not so wise. What I have realised is that when I have a huge craving for food, if i put some space between the craving and me, then the craving no longer has power over me. To do that I stop, recognise the craving and simply breathe gently, being aware of my body, feeling what is going on. It’s worked really well for me and supported my food choices.
It is the everyday little things and rituals that can truly support us throughout the day, as they build the foundation we are standing on.
Thank you for your reminder of how simple and practical The Way of the Livingness is. It is about the foundation we lay for ourselves and supporting ourselves to walk that foundation every day. I love the fact that it takes us from a victim to an active participant in our lives and how we react or respond to what goes on around us.
That coca cola is cheaper than water I have always found incredibly saddening. How can a drink that is in no way any good for us be so easily available, while water that requires no extra manufacturing and is in effect the only drink our bodies need is made, one can say, a high priced commodity. It shows that in business it is the greed of the people that rule but never the care of another.
Taking things slowly and feeling our way, generally honouring our body as best we can, slowly everything changes of its own accord. We find ourselves more lovable and more truly understanding and loving with others.
I have this too, people not being able to imagine that I was once chronically ill, overweight and in poor condition. On top of that people assume my way of life is very hard and I have very little to enjoy. I can understand where they are coming from, I once would have felt the same in their position. If we look at from a point of view that is needing things outside of us to make us feel good, leading a healthy lifestyle may seem challenging. But if you slowly make amendments based on building self love and how you feel in your body, things that do not go well with you will naturally drop away.
Isn’t it beautiful that we are now able to inspire others and share our stories and how we are not special or anything but we have been able to turn our lives around.
Things do drop away effortlessly when we let go of the expectations of what this will be or what it will look like. Bringing the simplicity back to life is the key.
Yes, totally agree that things drop away without any trying whatsoever, when our body doesn’t need them any more. It starts by the smallest and simplest of choices, to just be aware of how we feel and be honest about that, and builds from there.
When we choose to make food choices that are loving and we feel the impact on how we are offering more vitality and connection to others there is no chocolate bar or ice cream that can come a close second!