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
I feel that we are influenced by our friends and family from young so that we as you say RB we make choices without realising we are making them we just go with what everyone else is doing.
How many of us when young stop to consider that the food and drinks we put into our bodies when young can in later life have such a huge detrimental impact on us.
“… there wasn’t laziness there, simply not enough appreciation of self and that fact that she was totally worth the effort to love herself in this way.” Thanks Michelle for your comment, I appreciated reading this today, exactly the words needed to support me with my own exercise program, thank you.
Listening to my body has made choosing what’s truly supportive for me much easier. I used to focus on health quite strongly and it was information from outside of me. Some of it worked but other things, like certain ‘superfoods’ for example were not right for me but I persisted because they were ‘healthy’, but some things things were giving me symptoms and were not right for me at all. I’m still learning each day as what my body needs can change depending on my health and different things like the season and what my body is experiencing in day to day living. What I really enjoy about body awareness is the simplicity and clarity, and naturally it works very well to support the body by taking direction from it.
Thank you Rosie, as you have shared nothing is given up, but listening to the body and what serves it with the nutrition for keeping our body fit and healthy to be of service definitely eliminates a lot of choices that I dreamed healthy in the past.
Our super markets are filled with substances that abuse us and it is up to each of us to find what works and the time that it takes to eliminate foods that no longer serve our bodies as it is our choice as you have shared Rosie.
It is a step by step process, I never cut everything out all at once either. Listening to my body again and again to refine how I live is a process I don’t feel I will ever reach the end of. I know there’s more vitality to be lived even today.
There is so much that can be said for eating and living healthy, put it this way my mental health is so much more stronger and on it when I eat to nourish myself rather than to bludgeon myself.
Its amazing what can be achieved when we make positive life style choices, like you I have family, friends and colleagues that have known me for years and they say the same thing I look younger now than I ever did in my twenties and 30’s. This has been confirmed by the medical profession when having a recent health check. They said what ever it is I’m doing to keep going that they wished all their patients took as much self care as I did because then their work load would be less burdensome.
Mary it shows the daily effect we all have on our health based on our self care.
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.” This is true religion right here in this statement.
This article makes huge sense to me, for all our choices have an impact on how we live.
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.” The freedom of choice to be aware of how we feel.
Similar to you Rosie I did a lot of not so Loving things to my body through drugs and alcohol abuse but I did go cold turkey on the lot some 26 plus years ago and my body went through what we could call the dry horrors for 6 weeks. Fast forward to 2004 when I first met Serge Benhayon and even tough I had stopped all that abuse years before, the underlying pattern had not been healed. Approximately 6 years ago the eminence of marijuana left my body wit the most garishly taste of the smoke. So energetic healing when done by a True Esoteric practitioner will work energetic miracles when we are ready to heal because of our Loving choices.
What I find concerning about the general approach to our health today is that we tend to not consider past this moment, so we could eat something, or drink something or smoke something because we like the sensation of it but the effect could last for days if not have a much longer lasting effect. It’s a bit like we are blind to or ignore the long term consequences that could have a serious impact on our health.
Love what you’ve shown here – that changing our lifestyle and making healthier choices doesn’t have to be an arduous struggle to lead a monastic existence, but is actually a super joyful and fun process, where the body leads the way. It’s like when we bring more awareness to our body we realise how loudly it is actually speaking to us, all of the time – and from there, things that don’t support the body to live in a vital way start to feel like hindrances that we naturally want to leave behind.
There is this misconception that when we give things up that we must be suffering or miserable but actually it is the other way around because the body rejoices at our choices.
To have the understanding that the changes I am making is affecting everyone around me is supporting me enormously to observe and accept the reactions from others. I simply cannot deny the changes that are taking place and this is all because of the choices I am making to deepen the relationship to self.
“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 notice this too and that I meet sometimes people that are the same age as me but they look and feel much older. What I see in the bodies is often this burden of the choices people make, our choices to age our body unnaturally when they are against it instead of supporting it.
Our lifestyle, the everyday choices we make, all have a huge impact on our health, many people are unfortunately still unaware of this fact, ‘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.’
It’s very common to associate a healthy life with something boring, but I agree with you RB, there’s lot of fun when we simply choose to take care of ourselves. As care is love and love is joy, the better we feel, the more we can enjoy our joyful body. Simple.
I echo your gratitude and thanks for Serge Benhayon and what he brings for myself and all of humanity, boy oh boy does the world need love and truth in our world today.
As I was feeling what was happening to my body I went cold turkey as the saying goes and my body literally shook for six (6) weeks and that was over twenty five (25) years ago just before I turned forty (40). Around ten (10) years ago as I was going through a deep energetic healing and I could smell and taste the marijuana coming out of my body. This begs the question when does True Healing actually occur?
At brith we know how to care, in the way we breathe, in the way we start moving our small little bodies. But what happend thereafter? Did we loose our connection to how to care for ourselves? And if so, why? This is for us to explore.
It’s great to see how many people have been inspired to make healthy lifestyle choices based on how their body feels and not simply to follow a diet.
Love the straight forward common sense of your sharings, baby steps and making the choices – no rocket science PhD needed. Just to want to feel good in your body more than the desire of the tongue and the desire of the spirit to numb thyself!
It is amazing how certain foods will suddenly ‘drop out’ of our diet without realising it once we start making different choices in our lives. This has happened so many times for me over the last few years, and I will find that one day I realise I havent had something or even craved it for sometime.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
I can so relate to this dropping away of things that no longer work or feel right as I make different choices about the way I live. And what is so great about it is that there is no trying or stress involved. Its simply that as I deepen my connection with myself so that I literally feel more it becomes very clear that certain things no longer have a place in my life because I no longer ‘need’ them.
It is great to check why we want certain foods, why we feel like watching a movie, why we feel like shopping online, why why why…. rather than just do things with our blinkers on or automatic pilot, we can learn a lot and change old patterns when we are aware and ask why.
Changing how we eat and what we eat takes times and can only succeed if we are being guided by our body and not other people’s viewpoints.
Absolutely, and for me, it has always been a bit of this here and there, then stop, then try again and then I know or I still keep trying even though I can feel the effects…. but I just have to work it out in my own time and not compare to what my friends are doing.
Baby steps are really important – I have found that when I go all out and try to change everything at once, I burn out and slip back into old patterns. A gradual change as I feel each area needs to, builds a more solid foundation and slips are smaller and more manageable
I agree, I have tried lots of different ways and you know what, each time and each way can be different for each person and that is okay… and there is no need for perfection, comparison or competition. Just you and your experience is what matters.
I used to be one of those people who thought that I could only have fun if I had a drink in my hand. Fun and alcohol seem to be so commonly linked. But having stopped drinking over 10 years ago now, I have more fun than I have ever had simply because I have come to know myself through making simple loving choices that support me and my body, and I no longer need something else to to give me a false confidence.
My daughter said to me the other night, don’t you miss going out and just partying like you used to? I said No way, I don’t miss it at all, in fact you couldn’t pay me to do that again. I feel so much better without the booze, late nights and all the drama that went with it all and like you, I feel my life is way more fun these days.
You are an inspiration- in not just letting go of those patterns but in also opening up to the amount of love you have in your life and for allowing all that you are to be expressed out with no reservation- this I find very refreshing and super inspiring.
Thank you, it is lovely to get the feedback as it just confirms what I have been feeling. It feels so good when we drop the guard, the protection and just be, and what I love is seeing the ripple effect it has on those around me.
Makes me realise how normal and socially acceptable abuse is. It is crazy how being truly healthy today is actually against what is socially normal and acceptable.
Yes, being healthy makes you a health freak, yet over eating, drinking till you vomit and pushing your body to stay awake way past its natural need to sleep is okay and quite normal? Doesn’t make sense to me.
Your blog RB is testament to the fact that it is never to late to change our lives around and a confirmation of the fact how quickly our physiology responds when we start being more loving with ourselves by giving up the drink drugs and eating more healthy, our bodies are simply rejoicing when we stop feeding it such rubbish and are often super quick to respond.
Its true, the body responds real fast and loves you for even the smallest adjustment that you make. The body is fascinating when we take the time to listen and watch is responses.
“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.” How refreshing this is to read RB. When we make a choice and commitment to reconnect to the innocence of who we are, it is absolutley possible to have as much fun as this without the need for any form of stimulation.
When we are you young, you just are and don’t worry and then we adapt, and mould ourselves to fit in and eventually we lose who we are. Its great to come back to the innocence of who we are and just live and let that out.
” I let go of a lot of the things that were not healthy for me, and now I live a vibrant, energy-filled life. ”
This is very important and I found knowing the truth behind the unhealthy life style makes healthy choices easier.
Yes I agree, having worked as a herbalist and heard all the stories over the years of digestive issues and haemorrhoids and constipation it has really shown me how much we as a society do not only over eat but also eat things that were never meant to be eaten.
I love the fact that making healthy choices does not mean we are suffering or depriving ourselves, in fact quite the opposite. If we listen to the body, it tells us when to refine what we are eating and how much it wants, and what has become clear to me is that the body does not need all the food we shove into our mouths.
I am still experimenting with that one, and some times over eat and feel so sick and I can do this now with the most healthiest food options. So what I am finding is its not just what we eat but the amount and when we eat it.
Binging on things that are supposedly be healthy and also the healthy foods has had a similar effect to those foods we know do not serve our body.
I agree Greg, just cause it is in the healthy isle of the supermarket, does not mean it is necessarily good for you, in fact a lot of the so called health foods are packed full of sugar or corn meal which really is not worth consuming at all.
Going cold turkey some 25 years ago was the way I stopped all of the drugs and alcohol that you have shared you used Rosie. The thing was even after giving up the replacements came in, which have now all been eliminated slowly and this is thanks to what has been presented by Universal Medicine.
I grew up with my friends drinking multiple pints of beer and many doing drugs of some nature. I considered myself healthy because I stopped going down that path. But what I have recently come to see is the greatest true ‘health kick’ you could ever go on is to open your heart and let love in. This is greater for your being than any diet or regime. The exercise of expressing love is one we should practice as much as we can. Thank you RB for reminding this man.
Yes, expressing love and letting love in is the best feeling, who needs drugs or alcohol when you can feel love instead.
RB those lifestyle choices, the ones where we take care of ourselves even when we may be feeling to reach for something that stops us feeling what is going on are the key choices that transform how we actually feel about life.
Absolutely, if I eat too much of certain foods its like I put a rose coloured pair of shades on and I see things really differently.
People feel so often, that to let go of things that they do, what they have done to keep themselves entertained, awake, generally in life so to speak, that life will be boring, as you say. The thing is it is exactly the opposite as we let go of the props and the shields, we can start to be who we truly are and that is extraordinary.
Extra – ordinary, much more than ordinary and boring that is for sure!
This blog made me consider just how complicated we have made being healthy and fit. There are so many crazy diets, exercise gadgets and machines, yoga gurus, diet pills, etc. on the market and in the end, all one has to do is listen intently to what their body is telling them to eat, how to exercise gently, and be the love that they naturally are. Everything else works itself out.
Yes there is a lot of money to be made in this industry of health and fitness and yet it really doesn’t cost much when you take care of yourself and how you eat. You don’t need all the crazy diets, exercise gadgets and machines, yoga gurus, diet pills, etc, you can throw them out and just keep it simple and it starts with the relationship you have with you.
I like how this article brings our attention to how we live, not rules and regulations on what we should or should not eat. That instead our food choices are guided from our living way.
I have never done well with rules, they just make me want to rebel! But when things make sense and you can see the difference then its easy to make the changes.
It is so true for many of us that we go along with society, believing that it is normal to override our bodies and disregard how we feel as a result of the choices we are making. One of the most empowering things I have discovered through the presentations of Universal Medicine is that the quality of life we live is a culmination of every choice we make, and that only we are responsible for the quality of our choices. And so, it is inspiring to know that when things don’t feel so great, we have the opportunity to make the necessary adjustments to deepen our connection to the greatness we are born to live.
It is true that we have the opportunity to make the adjustments, and I didn’t know this until I came along to the Universal Medicine presentations. Up until then, I just thought it was all just happening to me and I had no part in it. How wrong was I!
The Way of the Livingness offers a path of life that starts from an understanding we are already whole, and from there the behaviours we live that don’t honour that drop away in their own time.
“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.” Whenever we want to change anything in our lives, taking baby steps is surely the way to go. In my experience, by launching into anything with all guns blazing with a view to radically changing it, has never worked and only goes to create disharmony, tension and resentment between those that are involved and beyond.
Yes, the all guns blazing usually backfires! But… when you do one step at a time, then that is when changes really happen.
We live in such an information heavy world, there are millions of webpages on what to eat to be healthy, how to exercise, recipes to indulge or to lose weight, there are superfoods, fermented drinks, and many different health foods and junk foods to try. There are even more experts than ever on health, nutrition, diet and exercise but it all becomes very simple when you listen to your body – the ultimate expert!
And there are lots of people that are claimed experts, but they may have only learnt certain perspectives on health yet as you say, no one else has lived in my body for as long as I have. I am the expert of this one.
“It has been awesome making healthy lifestyle choices and getting to feel younger as I grow older!”
This is so wonderful thank you for sharing.
Congratulations John, I can just imagine the shock on your friends face!
” 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. ” For me its the same , I have even met a past friend recently and who did not recognise me , until I introduced myself. It was only 6 years since I last met him .
It’s the epitome of having a great attitude knowing, it was not you wholeheartedly making the choice to abuse your body. Only through awareness have I been able to feel what feels right. So the attitude to deepen your awareness is the The Way – The Way of The Livingness.
Yes, with no awareness you can get away with a lot… but only for a while.. it soon catches up with you…its quite obvious with people’s health. Their bodies are showing all the choices they have made.
“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.” Isnt this interesting, that we so often dont consider what we do as being a choice, but that it is just something that we do? It was the same for me for so much of my life, and sometimes to be honest it still is. But of course whatever we do there has to be a choice first. Being aware of that is the first step towards making a true change.
True, even as an adult we do things that we don’t realise we are actually choosing to do.
Since becoming a student of The Way of The Livingness, like you RB, my life has changed in so many wonderful ways. I often get a sense that those around me consider my life to be boring as what I eat and how I care for myself is not what they choose for themselves. But quite the contrary, my life is the least boring it has ever been and I feel more alive than I have ever felt; now that to me speaks volumes for The Way I now choose to live.
It really doesn’t matter what another thinks or chooses because we are the ones that have to live and feel what it is like in our body and only we can make the changes if any are needed.
I think what you have shared is key, about not beating yourself up for your old choices but just allowing yourself to be and accepting your choices and bringing understanding to yourself.
Yes, understanding, giving myself the time and space to process and not any pictures of how it should look.
Lack of purpose for me leads me to a downward spiral where I end up doing lots of things that are actually quite abusing to my body. When I have purpose, I take care of me and know what needs to be done. Its actually super simple and when I am connected to this, I too have more energy than ever before. It is like the energy is there, provided to me from the foods I eat and the way I live to support the purpose.
I too have taken baby steps in changing my diet and making healthier choices in all aspects of my life. Far from boring, I am living with greater vitality, greater connection to myself and greater connection to others. It’s well worth making the change for.
The one thing that I really love these days, as a result of all of my choices and living healthier is I can look in the mirror and I love what I see. That is awesome, the old self talk of your thighs are too big or this or that isn’t there anymore as I like my reflection.
Another thing that I appreciate too is that I am more aware. Without the dulling and numbing to my senses from certain foods or drink, I can feel and and am more sensitive to what is going on around me. This did freak me out a bit at first but I love it as I can sense so much now.
There is nothing boring about being able to sense things and be aware. There is so much going on around us all of the time, it is far from boring.
I think you make a great point, that there isn’t a goal, it is just about as much as you can, choosing to make the loving choice in each moment.
A goal is a picture and can be limiting so best to not have any pictures or goals and just allow and be open to what can unfold.
It is hardly boring if you are open to feeling everything! And when you do let go of all your ‘numbing agent’s you do get to feel a lot. Besides I have a saying I used to say to my kids when they were young and they were complaining about being bored and that was. . . “only the boring get bored.” Life is boring when you are ‘out of it ‘all the time. It is a whole different game when you are fully ‘tuned in’.
There is nothing boring about being able to sense things and be aware. There is so much going on around us all of the time, it is far from boring.
I think there’s stigma that leading a heathy vital life is boring – for example, eating healthily and choosing not to drink or smoke or party – but what I’ve experienced is that every day is magnificent when you replace the stimulations and indulgences in life with choices that support and nurture your body – there’s nothing boring about feeling amazing.
Unfortunately, there are many of my friends who actually don’t know what feeling amazing is actually like as they have not experienced it yet… but when they do…. they finally understand what I have been talking about.
Very true Meg. If you tell someone you don’t drink or eat what they would classify as a ‘healthy diet’ it’s like, ‘Are you okay?’, like you’ve just told them you’ve been in a tragic accident and may lose a limb!
What I find amazing is that it is normal and not even looked at if you eat junk and lots of it and you are obese, yet if you eat healthy, you are classed as a health freak?
‘The Way of the Livingness – being connected with yourself; taking responsibility, knowing that everything you do affects everyone around you.’ It is from this foundation, the connection with knowing we are from the divine and can live accordingly that we naturally can make the choice to look after our body, the vehicle through which we are able to express all that we are.
I loved reading this RB, thanks for sharing. I’ve found that the most natural way to change is through experimentation – what does this actually feel like in my body? I made changes to my diet that felt relatively easy, but it’s the other behaviours that are far more ingrained that I’ve found hardest to let go of, even though I know they don’t make me feel good! Rushing, trying to fit everything in and be superwoman.. doing too much, too fast.. we know these things make us ill, and it’s not until we’re prepared to look at why we act in a certain way, and connect to how this makes our body feel, that we actually start to want to drop the unhelpful behaviours – because we feel like we want to, and not because we’re telling ourselves that we must (which in my experience, never works).
Good point, when we feel it, and understand it… then it is a lot easier to make a change. We can read all the reasons and get all the know how’s, but we have to get a real sense of it in our bodies to inspire us to make the change.
That’s the trick, it’s like every choice we make accumulates but often we don’t see their immediate effect so wrongly assume it is not causing any damage.
And what I am learning now is, it is all about our movements. Each and every movement has an effect… so we really need to be more in our bodies and how we are moving them…. all of the time.
There is this mis-conception that if you give up these things that life is going to be boring, as if all the rich foods in the world make our life worth living, but the reality is as this blog has stated, we start to feel more alive than when we consumed and indulged in these things that are unhealthy for us, and clearly not suited to the body.
Yes, the indulgent foods are nothing to compare with how great you can feel without it!
What is interesting thought Doug, is cancer or another disease or stop moment will come along and some will wake up and make changes, yet some blame the disease or this or that and carry on eating and consuming things that harm them as it is their only comfort or reward.
Yes, it does impact, even the little things…. and it also inspires another to make those choices too.. we cannot underestimate even the slightest change or choice to be more responsible.
Intelligence, no not at all. We need to be more body intelligent and build the relationship with our bodies so that we know and understand all that it is communicating with us all of the time.
Becoming honest and feeling the choices that I used to make were harming me at the time was hard to see. Thanks to Universal Medicine and the Ageless Wisdom teachings as taught by Serge Benhayon I have come to understand how very far away I was from living a life that nurtured and celebrated the delicate, sweet and precious being that I am. I am eternally gratefully to the choices that I have made and the support that I have given along the way.
Its hard to see our choices at times, as it is hard to accept that we have been living a lie and not been true to ourselves…. but we are not the only ones and we cannot change what we have done, but we can change what we do and the choices we make from now forward.
Yes, that is taking responsibility for our own lives and not seeing ourselves as a rudderless ship that is at the mercy of the seas and weather patterns around us.
It is all about refining our foods, the moment we choose to not only enjoy the taste and sensations in our mouth but to listen to the message the rest of our body is giving we are becoming aware that there is no such thing as a fixed diet, when we develop ourselves our food choices changes too.
Feeling tired, constipated, racy, thirsty, are just a few ways that my body responds when I eat certain foods. I am always learning and testing what gives me what results.
Taking baby steps is definitely the key to a long lasting and sustainable relationship with ourselves and the care that we give to ourselves and to eachother. Beautiful blog, thankyou RB.
For some time now I’ve been super judgmental towards myself for having a radio in my head constantly playing. I’ve moaned about it and anguished over it’s presence, played victim to it, asked for support and understanding and yet returned to the same old track of bashing. Today a light bulb went on and further confirmed by this blog – Have I actually allowed myself to feel what happens when the radio is playing? And “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.” Really made sense in this regard. I’ve never stopped a negative behaviour without feeling it’s affects in my body first and The Way of The Livingness supports us to feel whats going on from our choices.
Awareness and understanding are important, and self bashing doesn’t support or change a thing!
I too do not remember changing a pattern of behaviour just from willing myself not to do it – there has always been a pull to keep doing it. There needs to be a realisation of what it feels like in my body and then a relationship built with my body so that when the situation arises again when I would go into that behaviour, it is my body that says no, or doesn’t even consider the old behaviour as an option.
The Way of The Livingness is not an ardorous task or something to be seen as a burden but as a true opportunity to live free of the shackles of the limiting beliefs and ideals of the world and experience the true joy of movement in connection with our soul.
Yes I love that Francisco, no shackles and no hard work. The Way of The Livingness is simple and brings Freedom and Joy like no other way. Still learning to live and express in that joy as seriously, I have never known it like I do now so its still new to me.
I love to read of people making health lifestyle changes, it confirms to me that capacity we all have to change from behaviours that leave us less well. And that in terms of wellbeing there is no point to reach but just an ever deepening of the level of care and love we can build for and in our bodies.
That’s right, no goal or top of the mountain to reach … just getting to feel healthy and vital and enjoying that feeling.
The Way of the Livingness is truly the simple source from which to understand where we have often thought we were on the right track yet deep down inside knew we weren’t.
How the body rejoices when we make healthy lifestyle choices.
Once we reconnect to The Way of The Livingness, we understand that it is something that has already been lived but long forgotten and it is through our connection and honouring of our bodies that once again we reignate the all knowing within us all.
Very true Francisco, there is nothing new, it is actually very familiar because like you say, it has already been lived but has just been forgotten. For me I have this very strong sense of knowing, and there is no questioning it for me as in my body, I know I have lived this before.
Its interesting how we think drinking alcohol gives us a good and fun life, when its actually the opposite. It robs us of our wellbeing, our vitality and energy.
And fact is, it robs us of a lot of hard earnt money. It is crazy the price people pay to to buy this poison.
‘It has been awesome making healthy lifestyle choices and getting to feel younger as I grow older!’ I totally agree RB although I have had a few times where I have slowed down and even felt like I was going backwards there has always been a growing awareness which I have either used wisely or not. I do not feel anywhere near my 60 plus years and as I become more aware of the way I move on a consistent basis the more I feel I am consolidating this evolutionary way that is The Way of The Livingness.
I know many 60 and even 70 year olds who do not look or move like they are that age and it is an inspiration to me. It is great to see that you don’t have stop doing things, retire and give up on life as you age!
When we wake up so to speak and we are more aware of the signals and the communication from our bodies, we become quite powerful as we are no longer numb and unknowing. With this new level of awareness, it makes it easier to make loving choices that support us.
Many people think that eating only what supports you is weird and boring which I understand, as I would have thought this years ago. Once I could not imagine a meal without salt, now I cannot eat anything that is salted as I cannot stand the taste nor the effect it has on my body, same with sugar. It is only once you give up certain foods you realize the negative effect they were having on your body and that you do not miss them at all.
I am the same Mary-Louise, I had to put salt on everything and now if I eat out, I find myself so thirsty afterwards because the amount of salt and the taste is so intense.
When you employ self-care as a part of your life, those small baby steps you speak of to eliminate the behaviours that aren’t caring can bring a great change, even though they are small.
I feel that the baby steps are the most important… the big obvious ones you notice, but it is the little ones that don’t get seen or are not appreciated that all add up and really equal change.
“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.” This is such a different way of living life isn’t it. We’re so goal-oriented that it can be hard to drop the habit initially, but once dropped, we get to feel how life is not about getting anywhere, it’s about learning to stay put and be connected to ourselves so we live it in full. Funny though, in writing this I can feel how much I want to make that a goal too! So old habits can rear up again so we have to remain vigilant and not get comfortable in anything.
Goals, doing better than, there are so many pictures that we have that a lot of the time we aren’t even aware of. It is great though when we talk about them and realise as I just did from reading your comment. There is nowhere to get to, we just need to re-connect with ourselves first and foremost as I feel that is where we stray from the most.
I have got to a point where it really is not worth beating myself up for making choices that were unloving. Those choices are in the past and the greatest love in that moment I can give to myself is to let them go and bring myself back to being present.
The Way of The Livingness brings vitality, purpose, a deepening connection to other people and an understanding of true love and why I am here – What’s not to like?
I was into for a long time what I would call healthy eating being a vegetarian. There were foods that I knew did not agree with me and those I avoided. I realised when I came to Universal Medicine that there was a missing ingredient in my so called healthy diet, and that was self love, and tender care which came gradually by connecting to that inner part of me, so now I choose foods that nurture my love and bring nourishment to my body so that I can live more of that love.
Oh I love how you bring this up Jill as it makes me realise that my choice to be vegetarian for so long came from control and not an ounce of love. It came from ideals and beliefs but not from connecting to my body and feeling what it needed to support it. Thanks, we can all learn so much from each other when we share! Love it.
Having embraced a way of listening to my own body and being, and learning to honour the signals it gives me, I resonate very strongly with what you’ve shared here RB: “I didn’t give everything up and now live a boring life. It’s quite the opposite.”
The opposite indeed! I also feel more youthful, ready to meet life and a consistency of Joy as I’m getting older – life is more rich and full, and my body capable of so much more in the course of a day, than I’ve ever been. I don’t see this as the general ‘norm’ for women in their late 40’s, so there you go…
We are all so deeply worthy of such care and learning to love ourselves in practical terms in our everyday life. The proof is in the pudding, that we needn’t punish ourselves through ill habits and behaviours, and also, that the root of our ill behaviours can be addressed, if we are but willing to embrace our own healing.
The proof is in you and in me and many others. When I look at you, you inspire me, you shine, you radiate and you don’t look the picture of many women in their late 40’s who are exhausted and worn out. Thanks for embracing your healing so others like myself can be inspired.
To me it is important to remember that when we reintroduce to the Way of The Livingness into our lives, that all that we have build up to that point has to be reevaluated and that our first steps in this way of living will be baby steps, just as when we are introduced in learning to walk for the first time of our life.
Re-evalution is key, and so is baby steps but really, we know all of this, and we just need to be reminded and it comes naturally to us if we don’t fight it.
A beautiful sharing RB, thank you; what you have expressed here is gorgeous, keep on choosing to dance;
“I live a vibrant, energy-filled life. I enjoy my days and dance and sing like I never ever did before”.
It has been the same with me in the way that people look at me and label me a ‘healthy’ person and presume that it must be normal and easy for me. Yes it is normal for me because I have lived that way for a long time, but it is not always easy, and it is simply a choice to not put junk into my body. Simple. Anyone can choose the same. And no it’s not boring. It’s quite the opposite. What is boring about feeling alive and vital? I don’t need drugs to give me that illusion.
No its not easy. I find it really hard to resist having chippies, or chocolate cake or any cake actually if my daughter is cooking it and the delicious smell is wafting through the house. Some times I eat it and then feel pretty yuk after and sometimes I don’t and I feel great. Its just a choice I have to make… over and over again.
Hi RB, enjoying the essence of life within a body that is deeply held and loved is amazing. Some have said to me that it’s always been easy for me and that I have always been this way but that is not the case. The Way of the Livingness has supported me to re-connect to who I truly am and it is this that others are feeling when around me and it is something anyone can choose – it is all about making self loving choices.
With respect I am still amazed at how I, or we look at food. It is important obviously but not the driver of life but more the support of it. We seem to allow food to take the lead and have so so many categories of food that like most things it becomes complex, confusing and often contradictory. I always found support and clarity in breaking things down simply and lived a life of always feeling free when life is simple. So there isn’t a list of good or bad things to eat, a table or chart of yes and no foods, a dictation of what to eat and what not to eat, there is me and how things truly feel and it’s that simple. I can’t tell you what I use to eat and now don’t eat because if you follow that then that’s not supporting either of us. It’s more you taking responsibility more and more with what you are truly feeling about things in life, not just food. The more I keep or take a deeper connection to what has and is already being said inside me somethings stay with me and other fall away. Not because someone said so or because I can say I gave this up but because it simply no longer felt the greatness I feel. The feeling I have and the feeling of what ever I was stepping to next didn’t match up and so I choose I different step based on this, all from feeling.
Part of my choice in eating more supportive food has come from me discovering the relationship I have with myself and how I used food to not feel – or as a reward or an escape. At this point I looked at food as my comfort and I didn’t want to see that if every other part of me was wanting to nurture my body, then I could not use food as the get out card. I had to be equal everywhere. So I am really enjoying exploring eating foods that are much more loving and seeing how my body feels so much lighter.
It is great when you stop eating junk and start cooking and realise that there are so many amazing things to cook and oh so yummy when you make the time to experiment and also just care for yourself and what you put into your body.
People often say to me “don’t you get bored by your healthy diet” Never… everything I eat feels so supportive of my body and lifestyle that I would never feel to eat anything that is just for the sake of a taste sensation….. well that is not entirely true, I do slip up at times. The other day I was eating throat soothers like a lolly! I am such a great cook that I can make spinach, salad fish and lamb in a variety of yummy ways that never bore me.
One of the biggest issues that I found I had to deal with myself as I grew out of my teenage years was the issue of cannabis being natural and therefore healthy. Now this sounds crazy but the number of adults and people around me that would argue there was nothing wrong with cannabis and that it was better for you than smoking was unreal. Quite amazing really! Today my response would be that comparing two things that kill and destroy lives and arguing one is better than the other is completely pointless and why not start looking at what provides an enriching life for all? Also no one ever talked about what led us to take the drugs or smoke, it was all about justifying why we did it. Today I understand true healing to be not about stopping the activity but healing the route of why we turned to that activity, then we have truly healthy lifestyle choices that come from the body for the body.
I love your comment. Yes rather than justify, look at why you want it in the first place. I know for me… I wanted to it numb the sadness and anger that I had. If I was numb, I didn’t have to feel, and I didn’t have to be responsible.
There is a strong belief that being ‘healthy’ and ‘eating healthy’ is easy for some, yet difficult for others. As you have exposed RB, when it comes to diet, true choices can be made by anyone, at any time they are willing to do so.
Consistency and a willingness to change old patterns is all that it takes. Oh and being present so that you are with yourself when you do things, so you don’t just do things and then think about them after and wonder how you did it. Automatic pilot doesn’t work.
I was much the same as you RB, having no regard or responsibility for what I was doing to myself, and like you also I cut things out gradually and I still have a long way to go but if it wasn’t for this new way of living where I actually feel what I am doing to myself I would have probably been dead already or like many of my old mates, on blood pressure pills and heart pills and this pill and that pill when non would be needed if we all could just learn from what our bodies like and don’t like.
I bet Kevin, I know of someone else who was in and out of hospital and very unwell and since he started coming to The Way of The Livingness presentations and courses offered by Universal Medicine, he has turned his life around. There is no talk of wills, death and what to do now. He looks younger and super fit and healthy now.
When we start to value ourselves and realise just how precious we are, it’s quite simple to move away from the abusive ways we once lived. The focus need not be on giving things up but moving towards a more loving relationship with ourselves.
It has only been in the last year or so that I started to realise that I am precious and the more I value myself and the more I take care and love myself, the more I have to offer to others….and as you say, we are not giving up anything, but life is so much fuller.
Isn’t this the key, listen to how you feel and then follow this lead. I use to apply the go without and then reward style of living. So I would go without certain things I deemed unhealthy and only allow myself to have them either at the end of the week, after a big week, because I deserved it, because I felt a certain way etc. The list pretty much went on and this created so many times I could have really anything I wanted. It was all based on a perception of what was healthy and unhealthy but there was no set guidelines and in fact the goal posts were forever moving but I didn’t seem to notice.
Nowadays it is much much simpler, I check in with my body consistently and from there make my choices. Before it was very much a choice at different times on a range of food groups that moved around all the time and honestly from where I see now didn’t make sense. Certain foods give me heart burn, make me tired, make me feel a racy feeling, give me a mild headache, bloat me, make my nose run , wipe me out etc. I just take note or become aware of this more and more and from there choose not to eat whatever it was so I don’t feel that way after. It doesn’t mean you don’t think you want to eat them again it’s just you relate to how you feel after and it makes it not worth it.
That reward system is one that many get caught up in…. and I still can get caught in it myself.. or I can have it because it’s the weekend??!!! Crazy, why would I want to harm myself because it is a different day of the week.
It is beautiful that we do have a choice to make healthy life style choices. It is when we know and understand what and how we have been living we can make a change and choose differently. Thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine willing to share and present; they have supported many others to make more loving choices for themselves.
Yes Amita – I used to be plagued and overwhelmed with making choices. I actually wanted someone else to choose for me. But I was missing out on how empowering choices can be, as we can be and are the masters of our lives and how we live. The beauty of knowing we have a choice is very valuable.
I can so relate to wanting someone else to make the choice, to be responsible so that I didn’t have to… but in that, we really miss out!
“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.” Wow! It is great to know these places exist in the world because living in the ‘western modern part’ of the world it is easy to ignore what is truly going on in the world. As well as what consequences this has on what people think is a normal way to live.
When we are open to see things outside of ourselves, our families and our town and see things how they are in other people’s lives, no matter where they are, be it the Caribbean, Iran or China we can have more understanding because at the end of the day, it is not about us, but about all of us and we are all affected and connected.
You have hit the nail on the head when you talk about the attitude of this life being boring… This is indeed the fear of so many people, so it is essential that these articles continue to be published and read to inspire people of the possibility of another life.
I had to laugh reading your comment Chris as I realised that now when I think back to my past way of living, that really was boring. Yes there was excitement and parties and all but really it was all just the same old same old each weekend where as living this clean and vital lifestyle, there is no boring to it as no two days are ever the same when there is growth and evolution.
Great point, I found too that living responsible and healthy is not boring at all and that living the ‘free life’ as so many others can see the party lifestyle, is actually more boring than living taking good care of yourself.
“What if” is a great question to ask. It opens up our awareness and allows us to be open to another way.
Every single choice we make that is true and supportive of us and our body should be celebrated to the max! In our celebration of such moments, we solidify our foundation to then move on to continue to make more choices that support us further, and in such a way we grow, stepping from one foundation to the next. Once our foundation is solid, then even if we make mistakes, we can at least fall back on our foundation to begin again. Awesome sharing RB – thank you for showing that such changes can be done and it can be simple albeit not always easy if we have had some ingrained habits, but with gradual work, little by little it can be changed and our life better for it!
Thanks. Yes step by step with no perfection needed!
Our bodies do speak loud and clear whether and when this happens I am learning to listen and not hold back and the more I do the more confirming it gets. It is getting to the point where it doesn’t matter who it is or what the situation is if I feel the impulse from my body to say something then I will say it… a turnaround from how I used to be.
The more we let go of the distractions and go to behaviours we have used to numb ourselves the more we can embrace the essence of who we truly are and it is only then, that we realise that there is so much to enjoy and celebrate in the simple things of life.
Very true! the true gifts are found in simplicity not complexity.
Is a regular comment I receive, that I’m one of the lucky ones that doesn’t put on weight, but when I tell them I was two sizes bigger the questions start… I don’t usually even discuss food, I share why I chose to live everyday like I do, which resulted in my body returning to its natural weight, the food is only part of the choices.
I totally get what you are saying Merrilee, the two go together. For me, how I live determines what I want to eat… and if I find myself craving certain foods I know I may have been living in a way or reacting to life and in that instant it is really great to stop and ask myself. What is going on? In our busy schedules, I realise now how important it is that I also take time for me. That I am just as important as the whole and without taking the care of me, I am of no use to anyone else anyway.
I am finding our relationship with food has very much to do with our relationship with ourselves, with life and hence the hurts we carry from past experiences that we have not healed or let go of. It makes sense that if we are not feeling so good in ourselves we choose foods accordingly that confirm that feeling back.
I appreciate the baby steps you mention when it comes to making long-lasting and profound lifestyle changes; there are no magic wands for sure, it is all about steadiness, consistency and loving discipline.
We can either make it complicated.. which we often do, or keep it super simple and just do one step at a time and even if we take a step that doesn’t feel great, we learn from it and get on with it. Consistency does make it much easier though, as our bodies get used to the new movements, rather than the old patterns of behaviour.
Your comment on the 1kg block of cheese made me laugh. I remember that running out of cheese was always my gauge as to when I needed to do the shopping. If we were out of cheese it was time to go to the supermarket. We are not creatures of habit and we are capable of great change.
Exactly Nikki, we are capable of great change and things way past our (at times) constricted thoughts. I look back now and it is almost like it was a past life yet it was in this life that I was so addicted to cheese, coffee and the list can go on.
if one of the main comments that a group of people receive is that they look younger, healthier, and feel better than they did 20 years ago, surely this must be food for thought for anyone knowing these people… It simply makes sense
I often think this and share what I know and have experienced with others because it is simple and if I can do it, then so can anyone and I have seen the evidence before my eyes. It has been great to witness so many make awesome changes to their life and health.
It’s amazing how quickly the body responds to true and loving choices. With the high rates of chronic illness and disease today, including obesity, I wonder how different the world would be if all had access to The Way of the Livingness?
Everything I have healed and learnt has come from me being willing to be raw and not try and be ‘right…”So the question remains, how wrong are we willing to be, to get the answers we seek?” Whenever I try to be right I am blinkered and have narrow vision and do not feel the larger picture….healing what is not us (our hurts) and learning what is us (love) comes through honesty and the willingness not to be right.
There is so much available to us when we are able to be wrong and see our flaws and be honest about the choices we have made. It is okay, so many of us have done it, made really unloving choices in our past but if we can just accept that and be aware of the choices we are making now, we can change anything.
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.” beautiful to re-read your blog RB. The Way of the Livingness has enabled me to transform my life too.
“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 had to allow myself to just make different choices, as somethings if I got caught in beating myself, I just felt awful and ended up more tired and angry with myself. Giving that space and knowing we have a choice is a great way to come back to self.
This is great, it is in taking the responsibility that we live our own life. Without blame for others for the problems we face, but with an open view knowing we are here to learn. And feel the joy in our bodies again.
As you have pointed out RB responsibility is the key and something we must never shy away from, for the choice is always ours;
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them”.
I loved reading your story RB and I am especially impressed by the way you don’t feel like you need to reach a goal to be ‘healthy’. I get the idea that health is actually a way of being with ourselves before it becomes a lifestyle choice.
Isn’t it strange that we equate living healthily with being boring? Great reading the truth that being light, vital and abundantly well is anything but boring. I totally agree that from this natural health and wellbeing, those foods or behaviours we once may have needed for stimulation, can be felt for what they truly are – dulling and desensitising.
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.” I so agree. Responsibility is something many of us shy away from – yet accepting it in the choices we make makes a huge difference to life.
Great turnaround of how you live RB, and I love that you now ‘ dance and sing and have so much fun’ anytime you feel to, as opposed to only when you were wasted.
It will be a great day when we all consider the consequences of our lifestyle choices and the effects they have on ourselves and others and that treating our precious bodies with disregard will no longer be considered a normal thing to do.
And it is important to see that when we make a choice to disregard our precious bodies, which I am still guilty of at times… we are showing everyone around us that this is okay. We are all role models all the time, reflecting and inspiring to those around us… but what exactly are we reflecting?
‘The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.’ And it made me see I have a choice, always!
Appreciating myself and the changes I have made is now a regular part of my life, I find this helps me to keep moving forward and not slip back into old ways of being.
It is interesting that we consider being healthy and vital with abundant energy naturally, we are ‘missing out’ or that there must be rules that must be adhered to. Yet the fact is that living in a way that is governed by what society tell us, or by what is considered ‘normal’ is a collective rule that we follow to fit in to regardless of if it makes us feel unwell or the effects this has on our bodies. The Way of The Livingness presents the opportunity to explore another way that actually frees us from rules whereby we are guided by our connection to ourselves, our truth within and a far greater intelligence that comes from our bodies.
It is interesting how living this vibrant life can be portrayed as being boring or not much fun. Do we take into account the joy that is felt in the body that was often replaced with numbing substances so that we could pretend we were having a great time. Thank you for this great blog to show that boring is brilliant and there is another way.
Yes, having a role model or several really does support because you can see the way lived in action, you can see it with your own eyes and then it is easy to be inspired. Not something that you just read about.
The big question that most people have is –how do they change unwanted behaviour and you have provided an answer here when you said: “first of all I became aware that there was another way.” This is essential because if we do not know that there is another way then there is little chance of ever making changes. I would also say that people need role models so that they can see that there are people living another way and that it works.
The Way of The Livingness has allowed me to be honest about my relationship with food and to make choices that are more supportive for my body and not the indulgences of the mind.
When the way we feel in between eating and drinking is far greater than any substance we can eat/drink, there is nothing we will want to do to compromise our body,.
We’re no longer able to get away with abusing the body with food. If you look at the state of the world – the obesity and sickness from food (ie. addictions to alcohol and sugar, reliant on caffeine, over eating) then we can say that no one is immune to it. Sure we might have a day or 5 where we eat bad food, and think nothing of it – but this all adds up. The amount o chemicals in food these days is not what it was before – and now more than ever we have a responsibility to not eat for pleasure but for nourishment. The health care systems are in overdrive caring for people who make ill choices when it comes to food. Enough is enough, the message is clear – just listen to your body.
Thanks for sharing this. As soon as I read it I could feel how hard I was being on myself and then how I expected this of others and how imposing that is. In realising this, I can also see how I have been working on this, and I am appreciating how the more I have let go of this control of myself I have given more space to those around me.
I used to be so hard on myself that beating myself up had become a normal way of being and not only was I abusing myself but also I was placing such a high expectation on others around me that it was affecting them too. Learning to appreciate every loving choice I make and especially a deeper level of awareness which is not always comfortable, has been life changing. Appreciating myself which is work in progress makes such a difference to how I feel about myself and my wellbeing.
Its interesting – when I was younger my body was so accommodating… I could abuse it in so many different way, and I remember thinking at the time that I would push it to its limits (which I did, whether that was with sports, alcohol, drugs, fast food, sleep deprivation etc.). Now, older and wiser, I listen to my body (which has become more sensitive and speaks louder), and in living by that measure so many of the healthy choices are easy to make.
RB when I was reading your blog just now I could so tangibly feel the changes you have made and the lightness of being that is waiting for all of us when we take responsibility for the potential we hold within. Beautiful
And our potential is not ever an end result, some hilltop you arrive at and that is it for it is forever changing and limitless. We are the only ones that can limit it ourselves. My life and how it has been unfolding is way more amazing than I could have imagined even just a few years ago.
I love ‘The Way Of The Livingness’ for all it brings. It brings the all to life and holds each part as a living and whole part. So often for me and I still in moments divide the world up into parts and try and deal with ‘that’ part. It has never worked and left me at the mercy of things. Since I have lived in a way that holds everything with an equal importance and dedication then everything has changed, the way I look at life, my relationships with myself and people, my work all remarkable different and most significant is the change in me. If divide things into parts then this is already a recipe for disaster.
It is a great lesson to learn that nothing is ever on its own or separate. When I approach life and how each and every part is connected to other parts and every part is just as important as another part, things really change and as you say Ray, when we divide things or separate them, it is a recipe for disaster.
The Way of The Livingness is making your own choices and being responsible for yourself so there is nothing to rebel against. As a student of The Way of The Livingness my life is much richer and much simpler; I know who I am.
‘I’m not perfect, I used to have an occasional hot chip if my daughter had some.’ Oh dear RB you have really set me off! I am so great with food, and yet this week when my daughter and husband and my granddaughter were here, in a restaurant I dipped into the hot chip bowl. I never order them but still cannot resist a few if they are sitting in front of me. I could certainly feel the dampening effects of it afterwards.
I like this very simple example of the hot chips. When I was younger I was crashing around so many different things that I would never have noticed the effect of one thing amongst so many other forms of abuse (was it the hangover, the smoking, what I was eating, the lack of sleep when I was up partying..). Now things are a lot more stable, and I can witness my sensitivity… especially to sugar. Yes I reach for those hot chips or sweet things from time to time, but it’s easy to feel the consequences and the fact they don’t do me any favours. It’s that which keeps reminding me of what are the healthy choices and what is not.
“It has been awesome making healthy lifestyle choices and getting to feel younger as I grow older!” This should be written on billboards across the world. It is quite normal to take good care of our bodies but we have made it a task, a must do, a nuisance.
Some great reminders here for me, especially “there was no point in beating myself up for doing things I hadn’t even been aware I was doing…” I haven’t been seeing issues coming up as opportunities recently, but have instead been hard on myself and upset because of my own expectations. Very gentle reminder from you Rosie to be loving and supportive to myself, and accept myself and where I am at. .
The expectations and pictures that we have on ourselves can be so crippling! I know I wouldn’t be so hard on anyone else, yet I can at times rip myself to pieces…. but I am heaps better with it, but it still happens now and then.
Being hard on myself was becoming a thing of the past until recently when I could feel myself slip into this behaviour. It came in because of an expectation I had placed and wanted from another and when I didn’t get the outcome I was hoping for I felt disappointed and ended up being hard on myself. Although I clocked it and was able to let it go I feel I did not get to the root cause as to why I let it in, in the first place; something to go deeper with and ponder on.
“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.” Thats the point! So often people think that I have a boring life just because I do not eat everything, specially sugar-things like ice-cream and cake. But I did not waive of any of that and suffer under this choice every day. I changed my life, asked myself why do I need this sweets? And I did take responsibility about my feelings, choices and effects. And this I do not experience as a burden. I’ve got a life full of joy, connection and sense – no ice-cream can match this. If I get a craving here and there I just have to ask myself what it is that I do not like to feel and then: appreciate myself and my feelings again. When I connect to me deeply, I feel my fullness – no needs for food or what ever.
“From a teenager onwards I made some choices that I didn’t even realize were choices: I just made them because I thought it was normal”. I would say that this is the same for most of humanity that is that we like to think that we are not making choices when we actually are. There is a great tendency to blame circumstances, our parents, anyone and anything for our choices rather than face up to the actual reality that with every breath we are making choices. It took me quite some time to get the fact that I can choose something different with every breath and that I do not need to be a victim of circumstances. This is truly liberating.
It is deeply empowering to know that once you become aware that there is another way to live, that choosing to commit to and take responsibility of what you choose after that is up to you. No rules, just choosing love as the foundation… from there, life cannot but transform to reflect your choices.
“And this is how I am refining my foods, with awareness and looking into the reason why I want to eat certain foods” This is great what you share as I am finding I am constantly refining food, as my body changes my choices change and foods I used to love eating, don’t actually have a hold on me anymore. But there are some foods that keep creeping back so having to look at whats causing that, what is my body feeling and allowing for this take place.
It is funny how we have this conciousnesses that if we give up alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, dairy etc life will become boring!!!!! It is the complete opposite and also exposes how life cannot be that great if we think alcohol, chocolate and smoking etc make it fun!! It just shows we have a very limited knowing or understanding about life and what fun is. For me personally Universal Medicine have been really inspiring opening the doors to truth and life allowing me to feel a lot more, including how ultimately making life more loving comes down to me and the choices I make.
Living the Way of the Livingness definitely redefines ‘boring’ – no such thing.
It is lovely to make the choices my body loves. It is lovely to feel well after eating and to have the energy to do the things I choose to to. There is nothing boring about feeling vibrant and having energy and anyone who says otherwise comes from jealousy and a deep discomfort about their own choices.
One of the biggest cons out there is that living true to what our bodies need is boring … it is anything but, and we need more and more articles to debunk this insidious myth.
The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices… This is such a pivotal statement… We are so used to thinking that we have a choice, we are driven by unconscious needs, desires, and beliefs… So having the freedom with wisdom and understanding, to actually make our own choices is profound.
Yes Chris, and when we are so caught up in ideals and beliefs, that things need to or should be this way or that way to fit in or be sociably accepted or not, then we are not free, in fact we are caught in a sticky web, a consciousness that most of the time we are not even aware we are caught in. Being free of the consciousness, working on healing old patterns of behaviours and making my own choices is a beautiful thing.
So true, and very liberating too to not have to conform anymore but live with awareness and conscious presence in all we do, and then the choices we make become much more loving and supportive.
This is what is so refreshing about Serge Benhayon and Universal medicine. There are no rules, expectations or dictates, simply an offering of facts about the consequences of eating certain foods and drinking alcohol, the choice with what you do with that information is then up to you entirely. What makes this approach so different and so valuable is that it give sthe individual the opportunity to feel for themselves the consequences of consuming food or drink on their own bodies, as and when they are ready to do so. I continued to drink alcohol for sometime after I was introduced to Universal Medicine, and it wasn’t until I began to understand the effects it was really having on me, and questioning with myself whether I was really enjoying it or not, that I realised I really did not like the taste, but even more so how it made me feel. The crazy thing was that I already knew I didn’t like it or how I felt after drinking, but I continued to drink to override the deep feelings of sadness that I was holding in my body. Now I dont drink, and I am no longer sad, and love that I don’t wake up feeling groggy or with a hangover anymore.
We already know Sandra, that is the key. We already know but we override our inner knowing and our feelings to fit in or to numb or whatever it is which can be quite different yet the same in many ways for all of us.
RB, I love this, we can make our diets so complicated – following certain diets and food fads making it hard work trying to be ‘healthy’, what you are sharing here is so simple and feels so much easier and more enjoyable,’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.’
Reading your blog this morning RB I more deeply understood that I also made choices that were made because that was the norm; no thought no consideration, just that was the norm. Scary when you consider the consequences.
Thanks to the teachings of Serge Benhayon and the Ageless Wisdom the choices I make now are mine, the responsibility is mine; how freeing is that!
RB – you show here that it is not about just looking at our diets – but rather at why we are making the choices to eat certain foods in the first place. Universal Medicine has brought to my attention that foods come with a certain purpose – they can make us racy (ie sugar) bloated and dull (ie bread) or even damp (ie dairy) – and so we can be choosing foods that take us away from our natural sensitivity and put our bodies into a different momentum. In knowing this, the way I am with food has totally changed and I am constantly observing what foods I feel like and why. It’s really interesting and places a whole new level of responsibility on our relationship with our bodies.
I have been healthy for so long now that some people don’t know or believe how unhealthy I actually use to be. When I talk about my past, people are shocked, I am very grateful, that Serge Benhayon dedicates his life to presenting on true Medicine, Universal Medicine in fact, as I was very quickly reminded that how I was living was not working for me after sitting in on one of his amazing talks over 10 years ago.
I am the same, if I tell people that I used to drink cans of diet coke, and all the other junk food I ate they think I am joking. What I find really cool is that it has only been 7 years for me and I have completely turned my life around in so many ways, as you have too. We are living, walking evidence of how well The Way of The Livingness works.
Yes I agree RB for me the best medicine ever is to eat what my body wants to eat. If I ignore it my body will pay for it e.g. with digesting problems . . .
it really is extraordinary how vital, alive, and fun, one’s life can be When one is not pursuing any of the accepted paths of entertainment, relaxation, and happiness… When the realization is there that absolutely everything that we need is within.
Well said RB and I totally agree with all you share, making simple lifestyle choices that truly support our body can make a huge difference to our energy levels, vitality and our level of commitment to life and our relationships.
A lot of people think that – if you give up alcohol etc etc then you are boring and your life is boring. OMG it could not be further away from the truth. Giving up all these things my life rocks ??✨ instead of being miserable, awkward, trying to fit in, rebelling, pushing people out etc I feel so much more connected to me and the truly awesome person I know I am, more relaxed, more at ease, I feel more sexy, I connect with people at a far deeper level .. the list goes on and on ?
Often we do not realise the affects our behaviours and choices are having on our body and us until we change those ways.
Very inspiring RB, the changes you have made are remarkable considering how you use to live, a truly responsible living way based on every choice we make.
Thanks for illustrating the quality of our lives is determined by our choices, with self responsibility being pivotal
Once we start to live in connection with our inner hearts our bodies speak loud and clear whenever we stray away from our truth, this is a real blessing as we are here to deeply honour our sensitivity, delicateness and tenderness as that is our true nature and not the indulgent and abusive way of being.
The Way of the Livingness is simply about lifestyle choices and our willingness to reconnect deeper to that within wich is innate to all of us, the benefits are limitless as you have shared RB and also by living this way we are able to present others that they too can turn around their lives the same way.
Every-one I know who is living by the principles of the Way of the Livingness is looking and feeling younger as they grow older. This is a phenomenon and needs to be studied, as I do not see this happening any where else in the world.
It sure does need to be studied as it is not just one or two people, or the “lucky ones”, it really has an effect on anyone and everyone who choses to make the Way of The Livingness their way.
People often say to me gee your live must be boring given you only eat one meal a day, don’t go clubbing, don’t do sport, don’t watch TV, don’t hang out in cafes, don’t hang out out the beach,don’t drink and do not take drugs. You know what? My life has never felt more complete and exiting then it does now. I have amazing friends I go for walks with, work on projects together or dine together. I travel the world connecting with friends and working in different countries. I love working at least 14 hours a day, I live with 2 most beautiful women that I love dearly and I feel better then I felt 20 years ago. Never an ounce of boredom!!!
I used to do all of the things you mention Mary Louise, watch tv, go out clubbing, have long coffee dates at the cafe as there was nothing else to do and I was bored. These days, without all of that, I am never bored, like you my life is full of beautiful people, projects and purpose and I wouldn’t want it any other way either.
When you talked about your choices as a teenager I related so much. I even thought for a moment that one of my family members had written the blog about our upbringing but then the island part blew that idea out of the water. The point being though, it’s amazing how many people have life transforming things occur with the support of The Way of The Livingness. Thanks for sharing your story, its very accessible.
Yes Sarah, island or no island, the drinking, clubbing and basically being quite abusive to our bodies with absolutely no awareness is something that most of us can relate to in some way or another even if we didn’t get really into the drinking and party life, there are so many ways that we can harm our body. Over eating seems to be my latest thing. Instead of drinking and smoking, I now sometimes use food in the same way as I did alcohol in the past, and I know exactly what foods to eat to give me a sense of numbness or what I call, a food coma.
I too love your words that you are “feeling younger” as you grow older. This is part of the connection to “The Way of The Livingness” as presented and lived by Serge Benhayon and the Universal Medicine Practitioners and many Students plus those of us still learning from these examples.
“It has been awesome making healthy lifestyle choices and getting to feel younger as I grow older!”
This is a profound statement to make RB and one I do not hear often nowadays. To change life-style choices is a great challenge and if this approach works so well, the question is, why is this not championed and made known to everyone?
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.”
This is what makes The Way of the Livingness so unique and such an amazing teaching but of course at the same time a very challenging one as we do not get away with placing the blame outside of us anymore but we actually have to look at what our choices were that lead to whatever is happening to us.
“I never felt great after eating the chips – I just enjoyed the part of putting them in my mouth.”
This is a great realisation! For me this is the case with most foods. There is this part where you put something in your mouth and the taste is stimulating and that is what it is all about. What comes after that, the consequence this moment of pleasure has on the body is often ignored unless it is rather intense in its symptoms. Most are not aware of how awful we start to feel over all and how much vitality we loose when we just pay attention to the ‘stimulating the mouth’ part of the deal and not make it about the body as a whole.
RB, what you have said here is GOLD: “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.”
So many things in society and in our families are presented as ‘normal’ even though they are not supportive to the body and our wellbeing, yet when we grow up with that it is almost like it gets ingrained as being something we all do – yet as you have said, we actually do have choice in the matter. The sooner we realise this, the sooner we get to begin making more loving choices for ourselves on all levels.
‘Now I dance and sing…’ It feels to me like my life has become a dance where I stop from time to time and sing. Yes I still have down days and off days sometimes a quite a few of them, what is so different though is that they are only down relative to where I have been. And where I have been is dancing and singing with the rhythm of life.
This line rang very true with me ‘ 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.’ I have always wanted to break rules, rebel, fight back and ruffle feathers, so when I realised there were no rules this reason acted with me to. I could do it ‘my way’ all I had to do was look within and it was all there for me. Although this part has taken sometime to embrace I’m now realising that I actually do have all the answers. I know everything I need to know about me. I am me after all and it is me that experiences life every day, so why on earth wouldn’t I know precisely what I need to do in any given moment.
I lived in a very similar way to you RB, drinking sugary and caffeinated drinks like coke and diet coke to keep me awake and I would feel yuck and have mood swings all the time. I knew the reason I felt dreadful was because of the lifestyle I was living, the drugs, the drink I just didn’t know how to stop. I felt pressure to continue in order to fit in as a life that did not include these things was described as dull and boring. I also did not want to accept that I was wanted to make these choices because it gave me time to be completely lost from the reality of the world. It was only when I hit rock bottom that I chose to make changes. I realised this just was not it and for me it was time to stop and address the way I was living. Shortly after this I came across Universal Medicine and I can say my life is anything but boring. It has more purpose, joy and playfulness than it has since I was a child, in fact there is nothing about it.
The Way of the Livingness brings the freedom to make our own choices and at the same time the knowing that we’re totally responsible for all of them. This isn’t a walk in the park but it’s a walk that takes you to the truth of how you’re living your life and reflects right back the quality of your choices in every moment.
Amazing changes you have implemented and now live in your life! This is super inspiring to read – well done.
“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.” The sad thing about what you have shared here RB is that it is still the normal way that most people live today. Your story is a perfect example of the true meaning of Good Medicine as is the stories of many others whose lives have changed enormously thanks to coming across The Way of the Livingness and making healthy lifestyle choices. This is the medicine humanity is crying out for.
RB you are speaking on behalf of most of us when you say “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.” I was always aware of having a strong sense of what felt right or wrong but did not have any awareness around the importance of my choices – that I could actually choose them – and the responsibility that they carry.
Great Article RB! It feels like true freedom when we feel our body and allow and make way for what needs to let go. Thank you for Sharing.
“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.” Wow Rosie this kind of sums up where most of society are at right now, only when we start to honour and listen to our bodies will see illness and disease rates go down.
Like you RB I have now given up many of my unhealthy past behaviours and life has not got any more boring in fact it has got more fun, joyful and definitely more loving. The illusion of ‘the good life’ can often leave us seriously unhealthy or addicted to nasty substances. This kind of ‘good life’ is a sham, a lie, a hook that many of us have fallen for only, thank you RB for sharing how you saw through this darkness and came back to the real living.
Near where I live on a Friday and Saturday the aftermath the nightclubs can be literally quite horrific! Some mornings I have walked by to get the train for work or have gone on an early morning walk with my partner and the scene even at 5am can still be pretty scary, people looking like they have no idea who they are, women dressed in hardly anything in freezing cold weather, people lying unconscious on the ground(I have had to call an ambulance twice), broken glass and blood on the floor – all in the illusion of ‘entertainment’!
Sad scenes really, but yet they are very common. As I read your comment, I appreciate more and more that I am no longer part of any of these pictures. Instead of getting home after 5am, these days I wake up then and enjoy my days like never before.
That’s the it though, we think we are ‘having fun’ when the reality is we are abusing ourselves and each other.
It is indeed very freeing when we learn to take responsibility for all of our choices. The Way of the Livingness allows us this freedom and provides an understanding that all of our choices have consequences for ourselves and others.
I love what you have shared here RB, thank you.
“…getting to feel younger as I grow older!” Awesome by-product of self-care, Love your blog RB and sharing how you have steadily changed bad habits into loving ones, inspiring all around you.
It is so true that when we live in this way, and make these choices, our whole life reflects this, and then everybody benefits
And as we live this way, we are also inspiring others that they can do that too. When you see someone doing it, it reminds you that you are equally capable. I am continually inspired by friends, family and strangers.
I can totally relate RB to feeling younger as I get older! So many people moan that they are ageing yet I am loving the fact I feel more healthy, more vital and more wiser every year!
This year I went to the Universal Medicine retreat in Vietnam and on my return home, my daughter and her friend both sat there starring at me…. I asked “whats the matter, what are you starring at?” They chatted quietly amongst themselves to see if they were both thinking the same thing and then they blurted out that I had lost wrinkles.
Now we all know how kids never lie and they are super observant. My daughter also noticed how joyful I was and told me I better plan to go again next year. To me, this was beautiful confirmation. The retreats are a great way to put the Way of the livingness all into practice.
So great RB. The way you are now choosing to live is showing us all that another way is possible, and that it is actually more fun. Since giving up drinking alcohol my life has never been better, I now enjoy better relationships with everybody including myself. I know that the choice I made to choose differently was so worth it.
RB, I love the way you have made your adjustments here and there as you felt ready and when the timing felt right and also that you haven’t gotten side tracked in all the negative by-lines around judging and criticising yourself when you aren’t perfect. As you say, the choices we may have made in the past were at a stage in our lives when we didn’t know better at the time because our awareness had been so dimmed down for a variety of reasons. The main thing is that we are all able to make choices each moment of the day and slowly but surely we are all emerging out of the fog with the support of role models like yourself that inspire us through their way of living. We are then role models for others and so the ripple effect keeps going – awesome!
I know exactly what you mean RB about feeling younger as you get older, the same has been happening to me, ever since I have started attending and listening to the presentations of Serge Benhayon my energy levels have greatly increased, I no longer am on an emotional rollercoaster and I now have more love for myself then ever before. I used to dread getting older now I look forward to everyday knowing I can get to know more and more the real me.
Thanks for sharing Samantha, as I read your comment I also appreciated that not only do I feel like I am getting younger as I get older, I also feel that I am way less serious and stressed than I have ever been, so there is less tension in my body… which in many ways would all contribute towards ageing or not. It is great to realise that the way that I am living is less complicated than it has ever been, and in saying that, lots of things go on in my life and I am far from living a boring life but it is just the way that I approach everything that has changed. Less drama and hype!
The Way Of the Livingness Is simplicity itself… Bringing the connection with ourselves back to life, and through this return, feeling the deep divine knowing that we will have, and are.
I love what you say about not giving everything up cold turkey, as so many diets and lifestyles promote this way of changing oneself. The changes we make should always be in accordance to where we and our bodies are at, and how we feel. My diet has gradually been changing for the last year and a half since I had my first Esoteric healing session, and it continues to change as I evolve. But if I had gone from the way I ate then to the how I eat now, that certainly would not have been respectful to my body or very loving. I would have just been using information to change instead of allowing my body to guide me in what to do, which is how we bring about true long-lasting change.
I find my bodies willingness to just let go of foods it no longer requires quite fascinating, as I lovingly support and nurture my body it responds and with an adjustment to the foods that also support that body. Foods that were on my daily menu have been replaced with the body making the choice for food that it feels is what it needs to support a lighter body of love.
Great points raised here Eleanor, when we listen to the body and honour where it is truly at we evolve gracefully. If we listen to our minds and invent a picture of where we should be at we are inevitably building ourselves up to fail.
By allowing our body to be the guide of what to choose we reclaim our power. There are so many outside forces telling us what we should and shouldn’t be doing but the truth is the true answers have always been within us.
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.” This is what I love about this amazing religion. No rules imposed on anyone, just a beautiful allowing that lets people make their own choices without any judgement whatsoever.
My diet and in fact my entire life style has changed exponentially since introducing The Way of the Livingness, and yet every change has come from listening to the messages from my body, messages that I had been previously overriding even though they could be heard.
I can relate Shami, before being introduced to The Way of The Livingness I overid my body in so many ways getting me into all sorts of trouble. Today I listen and honour what my body is telling me this is a complete turn around to how I had been living.
If I am really honest, I am way better these days than before I was introduced to the Way of the Livingness, but I can still see ways that I override what my body is saying. I feel it and know it and do it anyway. There is still this sense that it doesn’t matter when in fact it does and I feel it all even if I want to pretend I don’t.
A beautiful sharing of your journey RB and where you have come to and the appreciation for your health vitality and singing and dancing now comes across so inspiringly. Having made loving choices too it is brilliant to look back and see where we are now by simply listening to our bodies truly and not from numbing and override.Life can be a real celebration of our choices if we allow it to be.
What I love about what you shared here R.B is the space to appreciate how far I have come in my own journey to living a healthier and more vital life. I was looking over some old photo’s yesterday and felt how empty and unhealthy I was, but to now see how far I have come is hugely confirming of what I have chosen to live. There is always a choice to change our ways and start living life with love and joy.
Awesome Kelly, it does feel great to stop and appreciate the changes we have made and how good it feels to live in a vital body! Worth celebrating for sure!
I have found with food, that my body has a great way of telling me if it is supportive or not. I tend to get a ulcer in my mouth as I eat something that is no longer supportive, normally just a small one to start with, and if I override the message and eat it again, I get a bigger mouth ulcer until I realise that it is time to let go of that particular food.
My parents use to use the threat of making bad and good choices as a judgement of character – I have come to learn that for every choice there is a natural consequence, and sometimes I am aware of those consequences and sometimes I am not. What has made a real difference in my life is choosing the quality of energy I am whilst making decisions, as that then has an impact on everything that comes after.
Yes, depending on what fuel or energy we are running with, our choices and therefore the consequences of our choices can be extremely different but this however does not change who we are. I know myself and many others have made some pretty nasty choices and had to suffer the consequence too, but they are not bad people.
I know this moment, when something that seemed so normal starts to actually feel very wrong, and there is a kind of disbelief, and it becomes a crunch moment when there is a choice to change or to stay with what has become familiar.
Yes, and sometimes we stay what is familiar… and we keep getting messages or something doesn’t quite sit right until we look at whats going on and get very honest.
Thank you RB. The vitality and zest that comes across in your words is testament to the fact that honouring how our body actually feels is the ultimate healthy lifestyle tip. You can’t be fooled by any good looking meal, and ‘wise sounding’ presentation, if only we listen – the body speaks.
And like yesterday, I walked into a shop thinking I wanted something, but once I had it in my hand, and felt it, I thought what am I thinking, my body was speaking a loud and clear NO thank you. So I laughed, put it back and walked out the shop empty handed. I laughed too because in the past I would of felt awkward walking out again without buying anything and I realised that was just another one of my beliefs and I didn’t need to buy into that, all I needed to do was honour my body!
i like this Joseph” honouring how our body actually feels is the ultimate healthy lifestyle tip” it certainly is can you imagine if the world lost all the diets and food fads in favour of just truly listening to the body. We would all be mentally and physically so much more fitter.
I was reflecting back and realising that 7 years ago, I would not have been able to honour my body because I didn’t care about it, I had no self worth or awareness. The way of the Livingness has so many awesome teachings within it to support us, I am so glad that I met friends who inspired me and then I was able to make changes.
Love how you say ‘ It has been awesome making healthy lifestyle choices and getting to feel younger as I grow older!’ RB. Getting older has never felt so good thanks to Universal Medicine.
It sure does Suse, and we no longer need to feel like a victim of circumstance, but instead realise the power that we have to change in each and every moment, with each and every choice.
When we piece the cause and effect puzzle together and accept the realisation and responsibility that all the choices that we make and the way we live our everyday directly feeds back to how we feel and how our life unfolds – life itself actually makes far more sense.
We make choices because we think it is normal and then most of the time, we don’t even realize that they are in fact choices, because we just copy paste what everybody else is doing. I also used to drink, eat sugar, cakes, drink coffee and just eat whatever I felt like, because it was normal and everybody was doing this. Thanks to Universal Medicine I have become aware that everything is a choice and that we can choose to take care of ourselves or not. I don’t miss any of the choices I used to make and all choices I make now, without perfection, feel absolute awesome because I chose them out of care and love for myself.
Yes it is revelatory to be aware that we have the power to change our course in life in any moment simply by choosing differently and not be sold out to what everyone else is doing that condones self harming behaviour as somehow ‘normal or ok’.
Yes, no more blind sheep following the next one.
It is so clear that taking responsibility for our choices makes a huge difference to the way we live, and to truly enjoy life.
Have we really gone so far down that rabbit hole as a society that we no longer realise what true self-care is for ourselves and how the impact of our daily lifestyle choices that are supposedly normal and acceptable in this present day accumulate and affect our short and long term health and wellbeing? As a society I feel we all need to seriously stop and redefine what are actually normal, and what are abnormal lifestyle choices just as your blog highlights RB. This is because despite what many consider normal in this present day it seems that our bodies are telling us otherwise and that many of the lifestyle choices we consider normal are actually harming our bodies and wellbeing as evidenced by our present and projected health statistics by the likes of WHO. A lot of honesty and truth-full reflection by us all will go a long way to addressing this issue for it should be ignored no longer.
There is a way to live… A way to be, that is so supportive of living a life of true quality that, if really understood, everyone would absolutely flock to that way… And it is such a dichotomy that this way of living is so simple, and that’s the rub, is it not? There’s a part of this that really feels that the answer must be complicated… But…it is not.
Absolutely Chris – Realising that we make it complicated by choice shows that we are really looking to avoid something about this though. It’s great to have living examples of those who have made the choice to make their lives simple and to relfect this as a possibility to others.
There is a way to live… and no it is not complicated. These days, the way that I live is the simplest it has ever been and yet the most rewarding in so many ways.
A great sharing, RB. The food I prepare now is so simple but tastes fantastic and I have come to this point by listening to my body which tells me loudly and clearly if what I am eating is not okay! What an amazing barometer our body is!
What I have found interesting is how much more I can actually taste. Now that I don’t kill my taste buds with so much sugar and other things that really can’t be classified as food, I am able to taste how sweet certain things are. I never knew how tasty a cucumber could be… or maybe thats just because I grew them in my garden!
Agreed Rosie. The food I eat now is amazing and delicious! The best part is I also feel amazing after I have eaten it – a far cry from the dullness or raciness I would get from eating certain foods and drinks before.
I just made some choices the other day with my food that gave me the opportunity to feel how I used to live. I spent the afternoon struggling to stay awake, I had a headache, I felt moody and grumpy and my tummy looked as if I was 6 months pregnant. I felt like a balloon that was about to go pop. It wasn’t a pleasant experience and I am fully responsible for it as no one forced me to eat those foods, that I knew I would probably react to. What I really found interesting is how I used to feel that way all the time, and that was my normal. Really made me appreciate that my new normal is vibrant and alive and that anything less than that is self abusive.
RB I like how you shared that you did go ‘cold turkey’. By taking baby steps you have shown how the changes need to be taken slowly in order to curb the patterns that we can return to when things start to get wobbly and it is so convenient then to return to how we used to drink, eat and behave. Thanks for reminding us that there are no “quick fixes’ and it all takes time and a lot of patience with ourselves.
I love the simplicity of how you now live your life. It is beautiful to feel how the ideal we tend to hold about simplicity being boring is actually the polar opposite of the reality as it is simplicity that we naturally seek to live.
The word choice is an interesting and in itself very revealing word… And when people realize the profound and ongoing effect that every choice that they make is having upon their lives, humanity will collectively start to take responsibility for their actions and the effects of this will be extraordinary
I agree chris james. The fact that everything is a choice that we choose highlights a responsibility most just are not ready for. Hence the comforts of saying that where I am at is something I am forced or placed in outside of my own control.
Yes Joshua, that is the total cop out. We have at some stage made choices that led us to feel like we are forced or its outside of our own control. It always comes back to us. Now that is responsibility!
With no rules there’s nothing to break except old habits!! Like the sound of that..
I have noticed the more healthier options that I make to support my body allows the body to then give me markers when I slip into old habits when I am feeling out of sorts or not feeling equipped to deal with things. The body speaks volumes and I choose to sit and ride it through rather than eat my way through another meal of numbing food.
The way of the livingness has also provided me with choice, true choice, to understand energy, that I am not the thoughts that come in that are negative and unloving. That there is a way to truly connect to something within us, that we are all equally so, a love that is so profound and live from that, not from the external forces that are there to always say…..’you are not enough’, but to learn to listen to what is within first and live from that. This is profound and made an enormous difference to me life. It is just remembering to make that choice, when you feel down or not 100% with yourself, to connect back to that loveliness, that tenderness, that preciousness. Connect and know that is the real me, not the other thoughts. This is an ongoing and daily commitment.
Good point Raegan, and sometimes the thoughts can be persistent and pestering but it is still a choice to feed them and give them power or not.
In writing – ‘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.’ you highlight such an important point. There is nothing to achieve other than just developing our relationships with the choices that we make – so often we have targets or outcomes to achieve though introducing new diets, lifestyle changes etc. but this only leads to a ‘pass or fail’ type scenario to measure up against ideals from outside of us, in total disregard of what we feel and know so naturally. So refreshing to make changes because of what we feel within in our bodies instead.
Without the goal, there is no failure if you don’t get to xyz, so there is no pressure, and so it makes it all so much more fun and easy to explore.
I know what you mean RB when you say that there were choices you made you did not realize were choices, sort of unconsciously adopting unhealthy habits for no other reason than it is normal for those around us. Self love gives us the courage to not follow the mainstream but stick to our innate truth, and it is never too late.
Yes, Never ever to late to change. I have seen it and experienced this myself but also witnessed many others turn their lives around bit by bit, step by step no matter what there past was like.
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.” So much is simply presented, and it is totally up to us what we do, or do not do, with what is offered. How loving and inclusive of everyone is this!
Thank you RB, for a great blog, isn’t it amazing when we look back now and think that back then we didn’t know we had a choice. it was so great to read that you didn’t go int to the blame game, beating yourself up for your past choices. No wonder you can dance and sing, choosing to live a vibrant, and health loving life.
RB your blog is so awesome to read, I can feel your joy and vibrance in every word.
I love, and very much appreciate, the way in which you took responsibility for transforming your life.
Agree there Shirl there’s so much more then words on page…
I can relate to this blog big time, I often shudder at what I used to consume or inhale into my body. For me it is a constant choice of what is true or untrue as I know the road to where I was before is a slippery slope that is only a few bad choices away.
Yes Kevin and no matter how bad it may be, it is also only a matter of making different choices to get out of any situation. I often think well if I can do it, anyone can.
Feeling there is another way live life is so important. I remember living life and feeling that this was it, but feeling very unsatisfied, despite ticking lots of boxes in terms of achievements. Even more important is seeing that way lived, not just hearing the words. There are so many people who give good advice but don’t follow it themselves. Luckily I came across the teachings of Serge Benhayon where I met many people who were choosing to live differently. When I actually saw other people making more self loving choices, it was inspiring. The proof of the pudding was to try it for myself, and yes it works.
I agree Debra, it is so much easier when you can see the living proof right before your eyes, or read about it in these blogs. Very inspiring and definitely worth a try, nothing to loose that is for sure.
I smiled as I read the last line of this wonderful blog RB: “It has been awesome making healthy lifestyle choices and getting to feel younger as I grow older!”. I too am feeling exactly the same, and if anyone had told me 10 years ago that in my 60’s I would be feeling better that I have ever felt and actually growing younger, not older, I would have laughed very loudly at such an impossible suggestion. Now I am laughing with joy because it has actually happened!
Yes, Ingrid you like many others that I know are living proof of this. Feeling younger as you grow older. Aren’t we changing things thanks to the inspiration from Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon. Thank you very much.
It’s is interesting how we can think life is ‘boring’ if we are not consuming certain foods or drinks. I initially had these thoughts also, but my body spoke of a truth that was much louder than the whispering thoughts in my mind. And this truth chose to honor and explore more and more. Being inspired by the presentations of Serge Benhayon, I have discovered that in truth there is so much more of life to explore than what is found in the foods and drinks I was attached to. And now looking back, being caught in this cycle of dullness and raciness from the choices I made without being aware of my body and what it was telling me, was far more ‘boring’ than the wonder-filled life that I am constantly inspired to choose to live now.
Yes, I found that the truth is alcohol made me feel sad and disconnected, sugar – racy and out of myself, gluten – heavy and dull. To me it is not fun to feel this way, the body is designed to be light and therefore requires foods that support that light not take it away.
To take responsibility, knowing that everything you do affects everyone around you was a huge revelation when I first heard this presented by Serge Benhayon. It stopped me in my tracks and asked me to revaluate my life, which I did, as I realized that the way I was living was harming all those around me. As exposing as this was, it was awesome, as from that moment on I started to make different choices and am continuing to do so.
Its massive when we stop making life all about US and we consider those around us and on a bigger scale, everyone. Everything we do, every single choice has an effect on someone other than just yourself.
Many people consider that we lead boring lives because we have stopped eating loads of foods that were not good for us any way and live very simple lives. What many do not realize is the level of love we have for ourselves and each other is the gold we live every single day and no food or distraction is worth getting in the way of this.
I agree Mary-Louise. There may be no excitement or hype, however that feeling of connection I feel to myself when I am making the right choice for my body in terms of food, sleep, exercise feels so good that I really miss it if I go back to my old unloving ways.
So true, I personally would never want to go back to how I used to live, and if that was my definition of “fun” then really, I had it all so wrong because looking back on it now, it all looks really scary and depressing.
Beautiful journey of how we really can change our lives by the way of the livingness and the joy freedom and flow it brings to us and who we truly are. Thank you RB for sharing so simply and clearly, a real inspiration and joy to read.
I love this line RB ‘I didn’t give everything up and now live a boring life’ that it is quite the opposite to this, that in letting go of what didn’t support you, you know have much more joy and vitality on your life.
Great read RB. Not only is it “normal” to indulge in certain foods, drugs, cigarettes and alcohol, it is then “normal” to try and stop them. From my experience, just trying to ‘fix’ the problem has never worked. Through Universal Medicine, I have been able to look at the root of the issue which has led to me wanting or needing things to numb or distract me from what is actually going on. This feels normal and has allowed me to feel more myself than ever before.
Being offered the possibility that there is another way by Serge Benhayon, I jumped on it, as it was clear the way the world people live in general, was not reflective of the beauty in the world or in the essence of people. So simply being presented another way to be, saying no to choices that abuse our bodies, and how this brought such powerful change, was everything – like a kick start to an engine lying dormant knowing it was not functioning as it could. Once it fired up and began to purr along, there was no turning back.
I like how you compare it to an engine Simon. Once I had an engine that ran smoothly with no clunking or over heating… I never wanted to go back!
I love what you share when you say ‘The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.’ Having experienced this too I have felt what it is like to be held in love and acceptance without a trace of judgement or expectation by Serge Benhayon and other Esoteric Practitioners – this true feeling of freedom grows from being allowed to be me without any imposition and learn to be responsible for my choices because I can feel the effect of them.
Yes, and feeling the effect and consequences of your choices when you have changed them and you can see the impact that this has on your life is worth celebrating isn’t it Michael.
RB- What an amazing transformation you have gone through – a living miracle.!
It just shows that it is never too late to change your loveless ways, when you are willing to take responsibility, and start to self care and self nurture more.
Very inspiring blog for those who are living in disregard but don’t know that there is indeed another more loving way to live. All that is needed is honesty and a willingness to change.
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.” hear hear I say. It is all about responsibility and making choices to live a life that is loving and self honouring.
I love this RB that you know dance because you feel to, rather than dance because you are wasted. What amazing changes you have made all through taking responsibility. Very inspiring thank you.
Thank you RB, what an apt description of The Way of the Livingness – ‘… being connected with yourself; taking responsibility, knowing that everything you do affects everyone around you.’ – so simple and so powerful.
It’s amazing when you think that people struggle with keeping to diets or exercise regimes, seek therapy or medication to stop themselves from poor choices they make, yet with the Way of the Livingness there isn’t any trying, these things that don’t support your body or vitality just tend to fall away when you start to be loving and responsible with the way you live… you like many others are living proof of the beauty and power in this way of living.
“I just thought it was a normal way to live”. Yes RB this is the sad truth. Why are we so arrogant in thinking that the choices we make are normal, and do not affect our bodies or others around us? It took me a long time to accept the fact that because millions of people eat cheese, because well meaning people dedicate their lives to manufacturing and refining it, and more importantly because I loved eating it, that it was not good for me. I was putting my trust in a way of life and cultural custom, rather than in my body. Now I have a new concept of what normal is.
Isn’t it interesting Patricia when we stop and re-evaluate the things we have trust in… some are things that we have never ever stopped to question and when you do you kind of feel a bit silly for ever believing or trusting them in the first place. Well this has been my experience and the more I learn the more I realise that my body is the best in telling me if it works for me or not. Loud and clear it gives me almost instant responses.
The Way Of the Livingness redefines for humanity the word religion, and enables us all to experience again what the true feeling of this word means for us all, in its most ancient ancestry it carries the true definition of love, and in its transparent accessibility it is so obviously they are for each and every person, all that is needed now is for enough people embody what this true feelings is like, so that people can start to trust again, open their hearts, and feel the one true connection with their heart and God.
Chris I never heard about how important the relationship with myself was until I started attending Universal Medicine workshops. Learning about this and starting to develop this relationship with me and my inner heart has been life changing. When I feel truly connected to myself I feel a connection to god, because as I have always felt, god is in my heart. This connection I talk about can come about simply by focusing on my breath, or appreciating the beauty in my daughter’s smile.
I keep being drawn back to your blog RB; it is so honest and real which I very much appreciate.
My body also speaks very loudly to me and I am learning to deeply listen to what it needs.
It is true it is not a matter of giving things up cold turkey. What is presented by Universal Medicine and I have experienced for myself is that true and lasting change come from the trust in our own understanding of our bodies and from them, if our choices are healing or harming. Therefore as RB shared, there is a longer term building of trust and honesty in understanding what we feel, even if this means challenging it by ‘repeat offending’. Eventually we may choose to delve deeper into the root cause of the problem and come to a point where there is simply no more impulse to behave that way. It is a steady, unfolding, harmonious process of change and not one which is fanciful or dramatic.
I second your great comment, Simon, and have found for myself that I feel really delighted (full of joy) when something that I previously ingested just drops away, almost by itself … I seem to forget about it and it’s only later that I suddenly realise that I haven’t bought that particular item for a while, and this brings a great smile both on the outer and the inner.
Yes Simon and I have found that as I make these choices, they become lifestyle choices and changes and become a way of living not just a diet or a stage you go through. The results are then long lasting and very rewarding. No quick fix needed.
So true Simon. I still hear about advert where claims are made to turn your life around in 10 days, or the 30 day lose weight program etc. I have tried many of them and they don’t work. It’s just a set of rules you follow that may give quick results but where there is no true learning and understanding of yourself. In allowing the unfolding you write about, when we do finally let go of certain foods or behaviours the change is sustainable. No will power is needed.
I am always struck by how common and normal it is in society to have such an extremely unhealthy lifestyle. We all tend to adopt these health-destroying habits automatically because everyone is doing it. What you have described here RB is a good example of this unconscious self-destruction. We do not recommend that children partake in unhealthy habits like drinking alcohol and smoking, so why is it okay for adults? Perhaps the reason you look and feel younger RB is that you have returned to the purity of a child while living as an adult. Thank you for sharing.
I can relate to what you have shared here about not knowing any different RB. When we are surrounded by a consistency of behaviours even when they are unnatural to our body we grow up thinking such are normal. Familiar would be a more precise word to describe this. Yesterday I discovered that globally humanity digests over one billion serves of coca-cola a day! This is happening when on a global scale our bodies are showing we need to cut back our sugar intake with the rise in diabetics and obesity. I am sure many people are growing up thinking “it’s normal to drink coke everyday” without questioning the impact this may be having on the body.
” 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 love this quote. I used to have the same thoughts around the idea of living life without drugs and alcohol. Once I started taking care of myself on every aspect of my life I began to feel much better than what I did when I was wasted, normally so on a daily basis.
What you share RB is awesome and anyone who has been on a ‘diet’ in the past will recognise the huge difference in what you share with us. Making healthy lifestyle choices. In making small changes and refining the foods that you eat over a period of time makes so much sense. Feeling what your body needs to nourish it as opposed to eating to fill a need/comfort. Making the choices that feel right for you each and every day. A very inspiring read.
It is amazing that by making loving choices and by listening to your body, you can feel so much more vital and you can feel so much more. Often I will feel tired and know that I have been running myself like I have been living two days at a time. I mean if I am thinking and worrying about something that is coming up, this is like living that day as well as the day I am in. Then I will be tired. The big difference here is that in the past I would have had sugary food and coffee and chocolate and completely numbed myself out never realising why I was doing this. Now I will feel the exhaustion and will know why it has happened. I can rest and curb my thoughts to come back to be present in the day I am in. Then I am more vital. In the past I would have only stopped to consider what was wrong when the illness was big and way past the simple answer. Then I would be trying to unravel a mess and made my life complicated.
So the way of the Livingness keeps things simple, healthy and vital.
It is so inspiring when you realise that there is another way to live that feels true though witnessing others joyfully living it. I too have been constantly inspired by the students of The Way of The Livingness to discover for myself the power my body has in knowing what is true for me and the responsibility I have in making choices that support my well-being and health through which my vitality had improved immensely.
Great point RB: the ‘no rules’ approach was super important for me being quite rebellious myself. It has been and continues to be a slow and steady approach of letting myself feel the ramifications of my thoughts, words and actions and naturally taking responsibility. No one has ever said ‘don’t do this’ but simply presented how it is for them, or even just lived it without saying anything. Then it is up to me to work with myself like my own science experiment: try it out and observe the effects. Then make choices. It’s far from being boring. I feel more engaged with life than I have for a long time.
I know what you mean, you can see someone living a certain way and they don’t have to say a thing and you notice it all and think….. what ever they are doing… I want to know about it… it’s inspiring… and we can all learn from each other. So much easier to learn from example than from reading it as a concept. That is what I love about The Way of The Livingness and Universal Medicine. The lived examples are right there for all to see.
How refreshing it is to have a natural and honest approach with what we choose to consume, to actually acknowledge the authority our body has on what it knows is good for it, as you have shown is true for you RB, thank you.
I loved reading about your transformation RB; lots here to ponder on and be inspired by.
I agree with you, it is a work in progress as there is always something to learn.
We are certainly the forever student.
Thank you RB an inspirational sharing and I love how you describe the baby steps you have taken to change the choices you made and have changed your life to one of vitality and singing and dancing with the joy within. Beautiful to feel and know from your livingness.
“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.” It is amazing RB how we begin to make choices that are not loving or caring to the body. I did this with bread – I would get stomach pains and bloat when I ate it but I remember looking around my friends at the time and thinking that no one else was having a problem so there must be something wrong with me, and over-rode what my body was telling me and continued to eat bread, until I came to Universal Medicine and really understood what bread was doing to my body.
That is exactly what stood out for me whilst reading this as well ‘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’. This is so true and what I see in observing young people today that it is not a conscious choice they are making but what is seen or felt as normal!
Yes Vicky, being normal and fitting in is like getting sucked along in a rip tide without realising that you are in it and that you can actually swim to the side instead of getting taken out to sea. We always have a choice even when we think we don’t have one. Even accepting that there is no other way is a choice. Its a choice to think that way.
Thank you RB definitely “food “‘for thought. What a different Life you would be leading if you hadn’t made those wise choices as would many of us.
I can so relate to what you have shared here RB, thank you
I too have deep gratitude for Serge Benhayon, his family and Universal Medicine for offering me another way… The Way of the Livingness. I am forever inspired as I continue on this path of return to who I truly am deepening my love for myself and therefore for everyone.
Tony, your love and appreciation for RB is expressed so beautifully – thank you.
Thanks for your sharing RB…the body has so much wisdom to offer us if only we are open to listening to its messages and willing to act on them. How amazing would it be for children to be taught to honour the messages their bodies offer…this would have a profound effect on our health care system as they took responsibility for what they eat and their lifestyle choices.
Tony, you are also just as beautiful and just as complimentary and wonderful. You have brought up for me what it is to truly appreciate someone and feel the very beauty that they are, innately so. Your words have touched me deeply and I appreciate and feel how true your words are to RB. What a remarkable man you are to share such loving insight with us all.
Hi RB,
Giving up those things that you didn’t even recognise or feel were choices.. like alcohol, drugs, bad food choices.
Not even registering that we have a choice with everything that we do. This is such a common problem. So many choices are made everyday without the knowledge of the FACT that we have a choice.
I feel It is one of the biggest problems worldwide.
RB, what a honest and confirming sharing. I inly can agree as I have made similar food choices as you describe and this changed my body to now have much more viatlity than some years before.
I love the reminder of taking “baby steps” and “making small changes slowly”. Whenever we try and do things or give up things that are directed from the outside of us (i.e. doing what we ‘think’ we should be doing, what others say, or conforming to a set of ideas etc.) and/or in a certain time frame, it requires a certain momentum or force to sustain whatever it is we’re trying to give up, and when this momentum stops, we often revert back to old habits and behaviours. Taking responsibility for our choices is much easier when we start with our bodies first, and listen to what they are telling us!
I have found that it can take time to rediscover the actual vitality that lives within our bodies. It is a journey of letting go of old an perhaps comfortable ways of living that do not serve us anymore, and experimenting with new ways, observing and understanding that the commitment can still be there even if mistakes are made along the way.
Thank you for this great sharing RB. “The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.” Bottom line, responsibility, loving baby steps to a more true and vibrant version of ourselves. Your writing and this article are very inspirational.
“I was so into cheese that I could eat a 1kg block of it by myself in less than a week.” Me too, RB, in fact I could go through a kg in 2 days!! Not only that, I would defend dairy products as being natural, nutritious, etc. and I had no allergy or problem digesting them. But eventually my body told me the truth…. and I quit without looking back.
I wonder if our body does or did have reactions to things such as cheese, but in my case I just never put 1 + 1 = this or that…. I never took the time to put the pieces together and realise the consequences to my choices..
A kilo in 2 days… that must of been a serious work out for your digestive system!!
I used to be a cheese lover too, and although I’m sure that if I’d eaten a kg in 2 days, I would definitely have been very sick (!) and it would have been an obvious reaction in my body – it made me realise that even consuming smaller quantities still had an impact on my body, which I never really stopped to consider as I just felt this was normal for my body. It’s amazing how much we can override what our bodies are telling us, and also how amazing exactly how much our bodies are telling us when we are ready to listen!
What comes out so strongly here is that its never too late. No matter what choices we’ve bad, how much disregard we’ve lived with in the past and how unhealthy we have been (in every sense) we can choose to turn this around and start to live a life of vitality, true health and in that seemingly reverse the ageing process. Deeply confirming.
Thank you RB for sharing your before and after life style change and how you were inspired to change. It was with support and with no pressure or judgement of self. It felt respectful and honouring of yourself. Devoid of the should and shouldn’t lists, blame and condemnations or missing out. But the abundance of vitality and quality of life.
Thank you Concetta. I don’t usually respond very well with shoulds or should not. I usually react to rules being imposed on me and that is why I absolutely love the Way of the Livingness as there are no rules. I even wrote a blog about it. http://truthaboutuniversalmedicine.com/2015/07/07/being-a-student-of-the-way-of-the-livingness/
Awesome how you put it RB that there is no ‘Pass Go’ or goals to achieve. When I actually consider this, I wonder well what is it then that we are here to do? What if all there is to do is be you? What if it’s not more complicated than that?
Great question Joseph. What if we are the ones who are making it complicated, out of recognition, or just because we are getting in the way of who we naturally are.
Beautiful Doug. This line is gold. If there was ever a way to approach life this is it. “being connected with yourself; taking responsibility, knowing that everything you do affects everyone around you.”.
I love this line too Fiona. This is huge in terms of what The Way of the Livingness has taught me also. That I am ultimately responsible for my life, how it has panned out and how it will be in the future. For someone who blamed others this is hugely empowering.
What I have found is the more healthy choices we make for ourselves, the easier it becomes to know when something is not right for us anymore. I now know that what my body needs is continuously evolving – what works for me one day may be not great for me the next, and so it goes that the more I listen to my body the more I know exactly what it needs and when. I love living in this way, and it reflects in my vitality and wellbeing.
Goes for me too Jo, the more I honor and listen to my body the more I know exactly what it needs and when, we become the experts of reading our own body…..in these last few days, my body was saying very clearly – more greens, more greens. I honored this and made soup with lots of green veg; well, every spoonful was a delicious divine moment of pure satisfaction!
It is like fine tuning an engine so that you get the right sound, and so it is not overworking itself. Not too much fuel consumption, not too much rattling… just what is needed for if you are going long distance or change a gear if you are going up hill. We can do this for ourselves each day and in each moment rather than just doing the same old same old each day.
A great article RB. I was amused where you said “I have always been a bit rebellious and have never liked being constricted by rules and regulations” and yet you had conformed to what you saw as a normal way to behave in what you ate and drank, smoked and perceived as having a ‘good time’. True rebellion comes when we start to make choices from how our body feels. This is the freedom that The Way of the Livingness has shown me and, like you, I too feel alive and vibrant in a way that I never did when I conformed to what I thought was normal.
Thanks Mary, thats another spin on true rebellion!
Awesome, inspiring blog RB, thank you. I love how you added that it is not about being perfect and is a working process.
Awesome blog RB. Can soooo relate to such a lot of what you have shared. When I read “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.” I thought wow almost everyone in the world could relate to that – it’s huge!
Tony I whole heartedly agree with and second every thing you say about RB and I would add that you do look 10-15 years younger then when I first meet you at the Heart Chakra Workshop and that you are drop dead gorgeous.
Whoa thank you Tony and Mary Louise. It touches me deeply to read your comments. You both have been amazing role models and an inspiration to me. How lovely is it when we can be inspired by one another and celebrate each other instead of compete and be jealous. I so appreciate you in my life.
It is a mutual admiration RB. I so appreciate and love you and your daughter being in my life.
RB great read, the thing that I found most important to me about my own Livingness and making changes was baby steps, as I refined my food, the more aware I became of my body the more I began to feel what food supported it and what didn’t. It was then that I could feel how much better I felt as I began to let certain foods go.
Yes, it does not have to be complicated.. just one step at a time, and as you feel more, you can refine more and nothing has to be forever as each day your body can feel quite different and require a change.
This is a great blog RB, showing that it is very possible, with baby steps, to stop unhealthy lifestyle habits. You are a living testimony to this.
That’s a really great point RB – that each day you did not set yourself up with ‘goals to achieve’ and that you made choices that felt right for you and being very aware of why you wanted to eat certain foods. Eating foods that nourish the body is so different than eating foods because it fills us up when hungry or that we are visually stimulated by it or, simply because of the aroma of the food which stimulates the digestive juices into action. A great sharing with us all thank you.
Dance and sing and have fun, feel light and playful like a child again – who wouldn’t go for this if it seemed like an option? Good blog RB.
RB, the process of letting go of habits that felt so normal yet so uncaring into more loving choices feels so natural and gradual. Whilst I hear it was not always easy or instant there does not feel like you have been hard or driving yourself which in itself is its own form of self-abuse.
Yes that’s true Jenny, I have not been pushing or driving… more like accepting, being aware and allowing myself the time to make the changes, without any expectations. Quite lovely really… and quite a contrast to how I used to have to do things a certain way because I needed to control everything.
This is a beautiful blog RB about how simple healthy choices can be if we make them lovingly and from the connection with our body. And I agree, even though there are quite a lot of foods that I choose not to eat, I feel my meals have a richness that they never had before I changed my diet. And the lightness and vitality I feel in my body because of that is awesome. I would not trade this in the world just to have a tantalizing taste in my mouth for a few seconds.
Wow RB what a change and turnaround – reading your blog it’s hard to imagine what you did before…as you wrote the blog its all about who you are and the connection to that and being honest, patient and loving with yourself like embracing and appreciating the babysteps 🙂 forever learning – wow truly inspiring – it must feel like a second birth in the same life…and yeah I agree with Lucy how amazing must it be for your daughter to see her mum dancing and singing because of feeling the joy she is….thank You for sharing this with us. With love Nadine
Thank you Nadine, it is like this life and my past life that are all in the same life…. hmmmmm, maybe that is how it is with all of our lives?
I think we are conditioned to beat ourselves up – I love that you did it bit by bit. I have never met you but I can feel your fun, playful you through your blog. Lucky daughter seeing her mum dancing for no reason at all except for the fun of it.
Thank you Lucy, I have been exploring this beating ourselves up even more lately, and the thing that I am playing with and looking at is appreciation. I was with a group of women the other day, and when we were sharing how our week had been, I noticed that it was so easy for us to talk about what they did wrong, or how hard it was. It dawned on me that we are often quick to share all the not so good stuff, but there seems to be a reluctance to share the good stuff. To say, actually my week was awesome.. sure there may have been this or that, but not to let the not so good stuff take centre stage, and to really appreciate the little moments of goodness.
This conditioning of seeing the not so good instead of the good needs to change…why would we want to focus on that…when we could be celebrating and having more of the goodness.
I agree RB, while it is always good to share what went wrong so we can learn and grow, it is equally wonderful to celebrate ourselves and everything we have done. Just being together to talk about it is worth celebrating!
I have noticed too recently how we as women find it easy to bring ourselves down, always quick to be hard on ourselves but I am learning not to be hard on myself. It has been a big one for me but I am learning to say no to these thoughts that I know are not who I am and focus on appreciating myself instead so I absolutely agree with you RB, why wouldn’t we want to celebrate the amazingness of who we all are?
I can really relate to having lived in a way that felt very loveless, overwhelming and filled with anxiety. Then to not feel any of that I would eat food that was not good for me and drink a lot of alcohol. This never really made me feel good about myself, in fact all it did was validate how much i didn’t like myself or my life. But these days, I really have changed my life around, I began to make more loving choices for myself, like going to be when i felt tired, eating food that was more loving and found that i didn’t need to drink alcohol anymore to fill the void that was inside. I started to have a relationship with me, felt what it was like to spend time with myself and build a relationship with the one person I really needed to, which was me. And boy is it amazing to know who i really am and feel that love and connection.
Boy oh boy does this connection and love feel yummy in the body! It tops all the chips chocolates, tv shows, drinks….
We tend to make choices based upon what is ‘normal’ around us. Indeed, we make choices without even registering that we are making choices. A choice involves always more than one option. Yet, that extra option may not be even have a chance to be considered seriously. The problem are the criteria we use to given an option a serious chance. These are also constructed pretty much based on what is normal around us. The Way of the Livingness is the best set of insights ever to realise that we make choices all the time, that what we have normalised is not always good for us, that re-imprint what we consider ‘normal’ is not hard and that re-imprinting it simply leads to amazing results at all levels.
Our body is a fine tuned instrument that responds to every single of our choices. I am still learning how to play it to its best advantage. The changes I have made to my diet thanks to Universal Medicine are proof that we can restore it to its near optimum health by listening attentively to its messages. So the question is why are we polluting our bodies with the abundance of substances available?
That is a great question and I would also like to add that – if we knew – and remembered that we are in fact divine precious beings, would we then do the same? So we can also add to this mixture how is it that we’ve forgotten that we are beings worthy of looking after? Is there a source within society from where there are messages being given that we are anything less than divine? If so that is definitely a source to look out for!
Well I can speak from my experience and it has taken 36 years to get to a point where I would even consider that I am divine. Up until being inspired by Universal Medicine, I had never looked at my self worth or more honestly, my lack of self worth.
We pollute our bodies because that is the habit we are in, habits form our behaviour, and we ignore the constant messages from the body until it gets our attention usually in the form of illness and disease, then we stop, then we are ready to listen and make changes, this is what happened to me, so yeah, I had a big wake up call.
Is it simply because we were not taught another way and we have just followed along, doing what every one else was doing without stopping to feel what it was in fact doing to us. I know this is true for me.
Spot on RB.
So true, for so many of us…”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. ” I at a ‘pretty’ healthy diet full of fresh vegetable, oil fish and meat and yet I did not take account of the reliance I had on sugar, gluten and carbohydrates to fill me up, in an attempt to not feel the pain in which I was living.
Resolving the hurts has been my only way of letting go of food and drink habits that did not support me, no trying or denial, just small choices that have built a foundation that supports me so much more every day. When I feel good about myself I don’t eat food that does not support me to live well.
I like what you have shared here, “When I feel good about myself I don’t eat food that does not support me to live well.”
We do not really need to focus on the food at all but the lifestyle or what is behind the choice to eat such foods in the first place. Resolve the hurts, then there is no need to comfort or to indulge anymore.
RB, you describe the only one way we can truly make lasting changes that support us: by feeling it from within ourselves and making the changes out of love for ourselves. It is not about discipline, being strict, forcing ideals and beliefs on ourselves, it is about reconnecting to the gorgeous beautiful being we hold inside and honouring what our body is communicating with us.
Thats great RB ,It amazing when start to become more conscious of our selves and bodies , for me my body was always the one that showed me the way but I just wasn’t ready to listen . If feel thats a big part of what consciousness is listening and feeling into what we are constantly being told by our body and soul .
Not sure if anyone has picked up on this, but it may be important to express that being made aware there “is another way”, through meeting role models, as RB has shared at the beginning if this blog, depends on being open to the possibility that things are not great and that there must or at least may be an alternative. Whether this is a personal reflection or one about humanity, I wonder how rare it is? I mean, how conscious is the deliberation that things are not right as they are, for the average person? Naturally this speaks of the importance of the many blogs being offered by people on websites like this one affiliated with Universal Medicine, which is leading the way in stating there is another way and how accessible it is to people.
My feeling is that many of us, myself included felt that life was not great, or that feeling “Is this it?” but then did not know what to do or that there was in fact another way. I am so grateful that I met friends who introduced me to Universal Medicine.
I love writing blogs and sharing my experience with others… if I can turn my life around, so can anyone else.
We all have our pasts and I no longer let mine dictate my future.
I agree RB and often we are so cought up in the merry go round of life that we just do not get to stop and truly clock this nagging feeling somewhere in the background. Im sure though Simon that there will be some who want to hold on to the illusion of certain things, such as drinking alcohol, is not damaging but i am sure that innately we all know exactly what we are choosing and the effects it has on us. Yet not all may be ready to connect to this and that is of course absolutely fine too. Rosie your blogs and that of many others to me serve as a beacon of light for humanity, for all those that are ready to bring that awareness to the foreground and introduce more love into their way of living.
Thank you Carolien, if it were not for the beacon’s of light that I met, I may not have been inspired to turn my life around as I have done in the last 5 years….and now as I light up, I am able to offer that inspiration to those around me. Its light ripple effect.
You made a very good point here Simon. The fact that WE know there is another because we have felt that the world is not living as it could be is a true blessing and not to be taken for granted. We know there is another way, and that way is for all and the only way the world is going to feel it is through our example and it is indeed freely accessible to all.
Cool article. I love this evolutionary path and viewing lifestyle choices (dieet, food etc) from another angle , thus a true one, that actually works.
Coke is used to unblock drains in my workplace, imagine what it is doing to the body. Such a beautiful account RB of all the loving choices you make that give you so much energy and vitality now. I too have been inspired by “The Way of the Livingness” to take more responsibility and make choices that are loving and truly supportive to my body, and the way I feel now to how I did 20 years ago has improved enormously.
Growing up I was introduced to rum and coke very early on and grew a liking for it, but in those days no one spoke about the sugar content in alcohol or coke, but it was suspected and talked about that some sort of drug was introduced into the coke to make it more addictive – as if the sugar wasn’t addictive enough.
As I grew up into adult hood my body started to reject coke violently and I would be crippled in pain, sitting in the bathroom all night waiting for the poison to flush through my system – eventually falling asleep due to exhaustion.
It has also been reported that coke is used to clean up the road after serious car accidents or can be used to clean coins and toilets – it doesn’t bare thinking about what it does to our insides.
It is quite mad that with the intelligence and the studies that we have these days, and knowing what coke can do… why did I choose to drink it? For me, I chose it because it tasted good and I didn’t care what the consequences were. I am glad that I have shifted in my level of caring enough for myself today to not want to abuse my body like that anymore.
Until we have a template of what actually is ‘normal’ that is what is balanced, what is stress free, what sort of living inculcates a harmonious life, people will be at the whim of whatever is current or trendy.
The teachings of Universal Medicine provide this template, in all areas, and Serge Benhayon is living, and now many others are now starting to live, what can be seen to be a balanced harmonious life. It is possible.
Great point Chris, and unlike a trend which may only last a year or two, what Serge Benhayon has presented probably for about 10 years or more now…. (I am not too sure, as I have only been going to presentations for about 5 years) has not changed. Trends change or fizzle out. What Serge is presenting grows and evolves, but has the same foundation, like you say, a template and it is simple and there is lots of living proof available for all to see.
Great exposure of the myth that we must deny and suffer to live a healthy life “I let go of a lot of the things that were not healthy for me, and now I live a vibrant, energy-filled life”.To live from your body in health and awareness can only be a celebration, food can nourish and support us or can act as comfort and way of numbing ourselves, this is a choice we all can make. It is empowering.
Wise words Carmel, I totally agree!
This is such a beautiful sharing, bringing a simplicity and joy to life if we take responsibility for ourselves and our choices, thank you RB for sharing this. Before we know this it is like we do not know it but once we do it is clear and obvious, simple and loving. The way of the livingness presented by Serge Benhayon is definitely life changing, step by step along the way allowing love, health, vitality, joy and stillness into our lives forever. Wow who wouldn’t want that.
Exactly TriciaNicholson, who wouldn’t want that?
Taking baby steps is definitely an approach that works for many of us – when we try to give up a particular food before we are truly ready, we can end up breaking that rule and overeating in a ridiculously excessive way. Doing anything ‘because someone said’ never works, but doing it out of self love feels completely different. We are brought up with beliefs about how many meals we should eat but when we can let go of those and only eat when we feel hungry, our bodies feel much lighter and we can feel more of what is going on in life.
HI Carmel, I agree, there is such conditioning around food that we grow up with, the most obvious one being we need three meals a day. I have found that by truly listening to my body, I eat less and thus I feel more. However, there are still times when I over eat to avoid feeling something, but I have much more awareness when this happens and then it is time to ask myself what is going on?
You make it sound so simple and doable, RB, making baby steps-and it is how we all go, step by step, one leg in front of the other. But the chosen way, direction we go and choices we make along the way-that what counts. Thank you for sheering wit us your amazing journey.
And simple and doable it is Elena when we allow ourselves to make the baby steps and appreciate ourselves for making these. And as we fall, like a baby when it is learning to walk, we just stand up and give it another go. No judgement, only the innocence and curiosity will help us to find out what is right for us and our bodies.
Beautifully put, Nico. Appreciating each little step forward and no judging ourselves when we fall but just lovingly give it another go.
It is simple, and I only know that from my experience.
Beating ourselves up over our past choices seems to keep us making them. The suggestion to instead explore little changes and see what happens is great. It has supported me to let go of the past and allow lasting change as well. While it is true that we sometimes go against what we know to be the true and loving way forwards, it is only because we are holding onto past hurts. I have come to experience that the letting go of those hurts can certainly improve our health and our life in general. It can also take us to a point where we come to re-evaluate the very essence of who we are. This can be ongoing and it feels possible that the process of letting go never really concludes, if we are prepared to remain open to what is possible.
It is very much so an ongoing process as you mentioned Simon, and what I have found, is that when I let go of one hurt, there seems to be yet another hurt which I may not have even been aware of and therefore was not even aware that I was holding onto it.
So true RB, what I have found is that there can be a few layers to our hurts. For example, a hurt of mine has been exposed and released, and then a few weeks/months later this same hurt crops up again but with a much deeper intensity, (the root of the hurt) which makes me appreciate how wise my body is for releasing an old and ingrained hurt in this gentle and loving way.
Yes, bit by bit so we handle it.
Thank you RB, a very readable and inspiring account of lifestyle choices that we have all made and can all relate to.
Thank you RB – so simple and let’s listen to our bodies. If only we could all do this – what could we all achieve together? On another note it’s amazing that alcohol can be cheaper than other beverages. There must be many things at play in this – mostly self interest from somewhere is my guess, without any regard for the consequences.
This is so lovely to read RB, ‘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.’ How gorgeous, I can relate to this as I now have the energy to have fun and be playful, rather than being exhausted from eating too much sugar and drinking too much alcohol, I love the feeling of dancing without alcohol, just enjoying me and being playful and feeling how lovely my body feels when it moves, rather than dancing drunk, trying to impress and look sexy.
Oh no! Not the dancing to look sexy and trying to impress!!! That made me laugh and cringe both at the same time, because I have done that for sure. The so wanting attention, that you go to all extremes to get it! I recently read a blog about the pictures a woman should be a… and some of the comments on there get really honest about this.
https://everydaylivingness.com/women-in-relationships-the-pictures-of-how-a-woman-should-be/
Hello RB, I used to think I lived a free life, doing whatever I wanted and eating whatever I wanted but as you say the effect it was having on my life was crushing me. I would go from highs and lows many times in one day and it came to a point in my mid 30’s that I could hardly get myself out of bed, how could this be when I was so free? I realised that there were things I was doing and choosing that over time lead me to feel the way I did. As I took steps back into these, which were actually steps forward in life but when you look at it honestly I was walking back over a road I had created and back to a starting point, so in effect I was returning and not actually going anywhere. I realised there was no real freedom in my life, I was controlled and at times it felt like this control was crushing the life out of me. I was an old, tired and bed ridden 35 year old. Then enter Universal Medicine and as you say,
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.”
Now at 42 I feel in the best state of my life and outwardly everyone is saying the same thing. I work long hours but have more than enough time for my also large family. This didn’t come by accident or by eating some magical pill, I took responsibility for all the little moments I chose to do things that actually didn’t make sense to the man I am. I stopped running, numbing or distracting myself away from life and started to live. But not live not caring but live with a deep care and that deep care first started with how I was with myself. Thanks Rosie.
Yeah! That is worth celebrating Ray, true freedom and I love how you share, it does not come from a magic pill but from taking responsibility.
What I came to realise today, before even reading this was how much less up and down and all over the place my life is today. It’s much more steady, less highs and lows and I could really feel how exhausting living in a high and then a low actually was on my body.
You’ve really touched on one of the most loving ways to initiate change and that is to never beat yourself up for whatever you have done in the past – beautifully expressed here Rosie – thank you.
Now that I have come to understand that our food choices are determined by how we are living, which means well before we go to the fridge, our daily choices are going to affect what we are going to choose, I can see that to go on any type of ‘diet’ is really only a form of control. Nothing has changed, other than an increase of control being exerted. It makes sense why people then want to break diets, which is really stopping that level of control. Reverting back to previous eating patterns only confirms that nothing has actually changed.
It is amazing how much we focus on the food we eat rather on what drives it i.e. the way we are living – I know I was obsessed with food – I’d be eating one meal and at the same time planning my next one! My whole life was based around food. I know now that it was simply a way of not living and not feeling anything that was going on around me.
How we are living determines our food choices… that one sentence really gets me thinking. How am I living? Why do I want to snack so often? It is not because I am actually hungry, so what is going on for me.
There is this misconstrued notion that has been falsely reported by the media that Universal Medicine is about imposing a set of dogmatic rules upon one’s life, when in actual fact it is the opposite. Universal Medicine simply presents to us to question all of life. So many of us live life blindly, because it is what we are familiar with, never seeking to question that which we have always done. In some cases we call that tradition, and defend it as such. But just because something is traditional does not necessarily make it true.
Very true Adam, and just because it has been tradition, and others have been doing it for years, does not always mean that it is the best choice for us and that we should follow blindly.
‘Today it is easy to make these choices, because I feel the best health-wise and look the best I ever have.’ This is such a confirmation for the choices you are making RB and I can say the same, I am 54 years old and feel vital and joyful, I work more hours than I have done for years and this all because of the way I choose to live. And I share my joy in life with all the people around me!
Awesome article – thank you RB. I can’t believe how important the intake of what I eat plays out on my moods and how I am within myself. I am enjoying deepening this connection and seeing food in a whole different light – to nourish who I am and support me to be all of who I am, as opposed to dulling me. I also don’t find it easy at times! But I keep bringing it back to what you say about the Way of the Livingness and my responsibility to be who of all I am and that I actually deserve this – “being connected with yourself; taking responsibility, knowing that everything you do affects everyone around you.”
it’s funny isn’t it that people think when you give up something that doesn’t truly support your body, that you won’t have any fun any more. It’s absurd to think this way when the opposite is true; you may no longer eat chocolate but wow you have an amazing, vital, joy-full body. What could be more enjoyable than that, certainly not a hot chip!
Thank you RB – Since “I let go of a lot of things that were not healthy for me” joy has come back into my life. Living in a way that did not include self love or self nurturing I was not truly feeling all of me to celebrate each day.
Letting go of what our body does not want, but our mind has decided it does can be tricky. It’s a great process of experimentation and becoming a ‘scientist’ of ourselves. We each have our own living science but also the same innate quality of divine love – which makes us equal, even when we all look so different in how our living sciences unfold. This means we can never compare one to another, and always make sure we are being true to ourselves. Thanks for your wise sharing on this RB!
“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.”
It amazes me how people can think just because you don’t drink, smoke or stay up late you have to have a boring life! Like you RB my life is anything but boring in fact with the more energy I have now it has never been so fun and interesting. Life is full of love when we look after ourselves enough to feel it!
Thanks RB for such an important subject to discuss. Having re-read this I was a Coke addict. Diet coke was a funny taste and I could see no point in trying to have something that was fix tampered with in anyway. I grew up on coke and had no idea about the caffeine and sugar that goes into these fizzy drinks.
When my husband was a truck driver, he delivered tankers full of sugar to manufacturers producing fizzy drinks. I had to meet him one day and the foul smell in the air was not just on the premises but beyond and I was told it was the sugar process. This in itself confirmed to me how wrong all this is and that sugar is really killing us.
The damage of sugar to our nervous system needs to be studied in depth and made front page headlines. The world has much to learn about the harmful effects of sugar in our diets.
Ah yes, Sugar, the most easily accessible cheap drug.
You spelled this out so well RB. Every man, woman and child has been through or does go through these choices in their lives. Your friends noticing the difference in how you look and your shining sparkle are a testament to someone who has had the courage and dedication to really look into those choices and be brave enough to go against the grain.
Awesome!
If someone had told me that one day I would not be eating cheese I would have laughed at them. It is so much part of my ‘culture’ that it is incomprehensible to my compatriots. Why would I give up such pleasurable food? And yet the large consumption of dairy did nothing to avoid osteoporosis. Nowadays my food choices are much healthier and my body is loving it. I do slip up occasionally, not with cheese but with the occasional hot chips. But I remember that I am not perfect, reflect on it, feel my body and move on.
The environment or people we hang out with can play a huge part in normalising things that are plainly not good for the human body. It feels so great to break out of that and make self care more of a normal practice.
And it really is as simple as what you share here RB: “being connected with yourself; taking responsibility, knowing that everything you do affects everyone around you”. Your story’s a great one as it describes much of the norm of so many people’s lives, and yet not so many are as honest to admit the poor quality and devitalised way in which life is lived, and continue in their same choices to not feel this. Your story shows how easy ‘another way’ actually is and the great benefits enjoyed.
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.”. I can completely agree with this simple yet very profound statement. I used to think I was free to make my own choices and if I am truthful, I can see that I really turned away from being responsible for many of them. But I have come to realise that I had so many blinkers on that I was making choices by a limited viewing range – if that makes sense! By starting to connect to myself, honouring that connection, making more and more self-loving choices, the blinkers have started to come off and my view & selection of choices that I have on offer has expanded beyond my wildest dreams. Through the Way of the Livingness, I have so many more options to choose from and have such a deeper appreciation and understanding with how my choices effect me and those around me. I choose much more wisely these days.
I know what you mean about the blinkers! And what a vast horizon is actually there when you dare look beyond the self imposed blinkers, that for me, kept me in a false safety that was not actually safe at all.
I just re read your comment Sarah, and realised that it is only about 9 months since this blog was published, and already my options in life have expanded way way past any thing I could have ever imagined. It just goes to show, that I have made some pretty awesome choices lately. I sure am appreciating myself!
RB, I love this post. I love that you used your rebellion for good, in that you did not become a dictator of yourself and create all these rules and regulations. You took your time and allowed the slow process that it needed to be to unwind all the bad habits or less loving choices you had made in the past. It’s an inspiring story to be as amazingly vital and healthy today given how you described yourself in the past.
It is indeed the baby steps that lead to this vitality and feeling of wellbeing. If I look back at all the so-called little choices I made i.e. regarding food. Small experiments to leave certain foods out, try different food. All these choices, baby steps have led to the woman I am now: vibrant, full of live and energy, and still evolving, because yes, it’s not about perfection. It’s about the choices and the commitment to these steps.
Another thing I have noticed is that when I am feeling a bit off and I do eat foods that are supportive, if I eat them in a rushed and uncaring manner I can feel that they no longer feel like they support me at that time but become just something I stuffed down. I feel empty and not nourished by the very foods that always do nourish me normally.
So it is not only what I put in my mouth that I am getting much clearer about, it is also the way I eat and even how I prepare it. All of the affects I feel as my body never lies. I love how amazingly obvious and simple that it can be if we choose to listen. Great bog to revisit RB. Thanks.
Jeanette, I too have been pondering the way that I eat. I am aware that I tend to snaffle my food down! I have consciously tried to eat a bit slower and at times even lovingly and it feels very different. It’s just that I have been snaffling for most of my life and so it will take a while to change. A bit like my routine in the shower, that too is a bit rushed and like my eating I have been doing it that way for a long time. But as RB pointed out, baby steps is all that’s needed to lead to radical change.
I am so pleased that I came back to this awesome blog RB, and in doing so received another big dose of inspiration for continuing and strengthening my commitment to the Way of the Livingness. And it was the last line that jumped out for me this time. “It has been awesome making healthy lifestyle choices and getting to feel younger as I grow older!” I do have days when my body creaks and groans a little, or a lot, but overall I definitely feel much younger now that I am living a way that honours me and my body. I have realised that this feeling of being younger doesn’t come from the way I look, it comes from a feeling deep inside that radiates outwards.
I was just re reading your comment and thought to myself, there were times when I was young and looked younger but boy oh boy did I feel old and tired! These days, I may have aged on the outside, but how I feel is so totally different.
It’s funny, one of my friends asked me if I was on a ‘Food-Free’ diet because of all the things I’d given up eating, but in fact I eat a lot. It’s just that the things I no longer eat were no good for my body. Like you, RB, Alcohol always made me sick, cigarettes tasted awful but I became addicted to them, and I used to eat bread and cheese in huge quantities. As for sugar – that too was an addiction. Now, having made a few healthy choices, I am 41Kgs lighter, needing no coffee or tea to keep me awake, I am so much less sluggish, and my vitality is far greater than it was 10 years ago. I do occasionally crave sweet things and that’s always a sign that I’ve done something or been living in a way that has left me exhausted, so I can choose to look at that and make a few changes. I agree – Life is fun!
41Kg lighter, thats a big change. I bet your bones and your organs feel better not having to deal with all that extra weight. That is almost a whole body extra! Your body will be loving you for the choices you have made!
Gorgeous RB, what a transformation and what a gem you are showing how amazing it feels to have made such inspiring life changes, no wonder you love singing and dancing – there is so much to celebrate!
RB I can feel you dancing, with life as your partner. It is so beautiful to go back to the life we are meant to live and leave behind the soul and body destroying habits. Thank you Universal Medicine for showing us the way back.
It is amazing what our bodies tell us when we really listen. Sometimes we don’t want to listen when we perhaps succumb to eating chips (for example), but, gosh, our bodies force us to listen in its reaction to the chips: lethargy, headaches, nausea, anxiety and raciness. These all place such a burden on our bodies that we soon learn to listen a bit more carefully.
Thank you for sharing this. I too had a terrible lifestyle based on my own choices, which was mostly around getting wasted or getting over being wasted! Since making new, healthy choices based on the Way of the Livingness I’ve completely changed my life and feel only now have I truly started to live instead of just existing. The fun and lightness I now experience in my day was something I was always searching for in the alcohol but never found.
It is a strange reality how such habits mentioned in this blog seem to be just the normal way to live. How has normal become practices that harm our bodies? Are we to assume that we all want to have healthy, well and productive bodies? How did we get to the point that normal means lifestyle choices other than choices that lead to this? This seems particularly important as life style disease has taken over as the number one killer, according to WHO statistics. Although this has been a source of wonderment for me over such a long time, it still is of some mystery -we all have answers, but we do all experience a degree of disregard and allow it from day to day. I feel in this inquiry, no beating up of myself (or humanity), but a deepening commitment to a lighter and more joyful way of being as expressed in this article, for one and for all.
I no longer having daily highs and lows like I used to have when I existed on a diet of sugar, caffeine, carbohydrates and gluten. What a revelation to find that eating nutritious foods that support the body sustains energy levels throughout the day, irrespective of the number of hours worked.
Like you RB, and with the support of Universal Medicine, I have changed the way I live by taking care of myself and making healthier lifestyle choices. What I appreciate most is no longer having daily energy highs and lows like I used to have when I existed on a diet of sugar, caffeine, carbohydrates and gluten. My energy level is higher than ever before and sustained throughout most 13 hour work days, 6 days a week. I’m 63 years old.
That is awesome James. I have a few friends who are in their sixties and they are such an inspiration and are changing the way I had believed getting old was to be. Its great that at your age, because of how you care for yourself, you are able to be vital and work long hours.
I have always had a great relationship with food. Great, in as much as it always shows me where I am at. If I felt hungry but particularly virtuous, I would have a loving prepared healthy meal. If I felt like losing weight then I would cut calories and leave my body hungry for more. If I felt frustrated or bored I would just eat for the sake of it, anything would do. In the past it was chocolate, chips, cake or a baguette with lots of cheese. If I felt hungry but depressed and wanted to comfort myself it would be fish and chips, or pizza and of course, the odd glass of wine. How I loved to use food to self-medicate. My weight fluctuated and I was a typical yo-yo dieter. Going from self loathing if I was “overweight” to pure joy if I was skinny. I knew everything there was to know about calories, and used to count them methodically. My relationship with food and my fluctuating weight rather reflected the state of life was in, empty and a roller coaster ride of emotions that changed with a drop of a hat.
I was already quite a healthy eater when I found Universal Medicine, so changing my diet to gluten and dairy free, cutting out sugar, caffeine and alcohol seemed normal and a natural thing to do. I didn’t miss alcohol because I had felt what it did to my body and never really had a craving for chocolate either, and considering I was a bit of a chocoholic this was quite a surprise to me. This new way of eating for me is still very healthy, but I have more of an awareness of why and when I eat, and what my body likes and does not like. I don’t diet anymore, as my weight remains constant. I am healthier than I have ever been and don’t feel like I am missing out on anything. In fact, I feel that my diet is more interesting as I love to experiment with different herbs and spices, and using my imagination with my dishes. This line RB, stood out for me –
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them”
This is absolutely true for me, now I can take responsibility for what I eat and how it affects my body and whether I am eating to nourish myself or numb my feelings. And it also true and everyone is different and to not to go into comparison about what someone else, is or is not eating, just feel for yourself what is good for you, and your body will certainly tell you if it is not right. I still drop sometimes and eat hummus to comfort myself, or handfuls of nuts when I am bored, but I am not perfect and accept that there is always another day to make a different choice and to not be too hard on myself.
I find healthy choices make so much of a difference, not only do I look and feel younger, but I have more energy in my body. My body tells me straight away if I eat something it doesn’t like. The body is very clever, if only we stop to listen.
Feeling younger as you grow older – healthy choices make such a difference to how we are in life. Awesome to feel the changes made that support you, your family and your relationships with others.
“There isn’t a goal as such”, I love that sentence. So often there is a goal that we aim for in the near or far future , which puts so much pressure on us. With that goal, we can become very strict and hard on ourselves. I love the day by day mentality, which I use as well. I notice that some foods are hard to let go of, others are easy to let go of. And both is fine. When there is no goal, I experience that certain foods just naturally leave me, without me trying. I just don’t buy them anymore…
Your words ring so true to me Mariette, not to be hard on yourself, and I have also experienced that some foods just naturally fall away and I just no longer feel the urge to buy them. Being hard on ourselves and setting goals is just another trap we fall into instead of just lovingly nurturing our relationship with food and our bodies.
“Nowadays I choose not to eat them, as I no longer want to ignore what my body will tell me later.” Yes RB I do the same – I am listening to my body. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with your food choices so that everyone can have this choice as well.
I can relate to what is written here. I too have taken up more responsibility of what I eat and am refining it uptil today. The wonderful thing is that my body talks to me, since I am listening. The more I listen, the more it talks – in whispers or in loud talking. It is up to me to ignore the signs or to pick them up. A clear sign which I now picked up was farting. Whether farts are part of the body’s chemistry or not, it felt like time for attention. I am now in an experiment of not eating fruits with nuts in the morning, but eggs, broccoli and roasted seeds instead. Just an experiment for a week and see what effect it has on my body. No goal, no diets, just a playful try-out with a consistent commitment: one week. My body can talk to me then. In this way it becomes fun and I keep it light!
Thank you RB,
I can see that you now value yourself in a way that cannot not honour your body and how you live.
What a past you have and an amazing turn around you have made.
I really appreciate the strength you show here.
Thanks for your awesome blog RB, there is such a gentleness toward yourself in the way you have made the changes you have made that is very inspiring. Listening to your body and choosing one step at a time, without any goals in mind, is so honouring of yourself and so simple and sustainable.
I can relate to this RB – “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”.
I am also a student of The Way of the Livingness and have loved developing the awareness and re-connecting to who I truly am. This is a truly loving and honouring way to live. From this point I am now making choices with awareness that supports this connection. And I notice that when I eat from this place my body feels simply nourished and satisfied and I do not have cravings for the foods I used to eat which took me away from the vitality and vibrancy that I feel today.
I love the gentleness that comes through in this blog – that you started slowly and built it up. A sustainable and loving way to make changes. Thank you. And I know what you mean about hot chips!
I love how casual and honest you are in this blog RB. This no pressure approach to making different lifestyle choices is certainly very appealing.
I agree Anna, I love how casual you share RB and how the feel of your blog takes away all pressure or self-bashng about our choices. We have so many choices in a day, Im learning to say, ok next time better, if I make one that is not supporting or loving instead of reacting to it and in that way ensuring that the choice thereafter is not loving as well.
What a beautiful guide and inspiration RB. Giving up those things we call fun and pleasurable is not so easy, but the baby steps make it so much more simple and not a battle of will.
There is no battle in fact as our body starts to feel clear and light again..it is as though it asks for us to let go of more.
What amazes, me on reflection of my own past choices that became habits, is that habits are so very easy to form. You don’t have to put any effort into that at all!
To let them go takes conscious choice, and it is an exercise of will (not will-power).
This is very revealing of deeper aspects to habits that I don’t think has been widely explored or addressed.
What is it that makes the stuff that hurts us so very addictive?
It is time to look underneath the “I like it” or “it tastes nice” or “it’s the chemicals in it” to what is really going.
‘The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.’ We often take instructions from others and then blame them when things go wrong even though the choice was ours all along. When we allow ourselves to truly feel the consequences of all our choices, whether it be what to eat, how to speak, how to live, then it becomes easier to see how harming our actions can be to ourselves and/or others.
I know for myself Carmel, I only feel the consequences of my choices when something becomes uncomfortable or stands right in front of my nose that I cannot avoid it any longer. For example, it was due to ill health that stopped me in my tracks to look at my choices and how I had been living which then allowed me to take responsiblity for all my past choices.
Oh yes Carmen that is so true what you wrote “When we allow ourselves to truly feel the consequences of all our choices, whether it be what to eat, how to speak, how to live, then it becomes easier to see how harming our actions can be to ourselves and/or others.” Out of my own experiences this is sometimes the only way to deeply learn!
I can definitely attest to you looking younger as you get older RB! Having known you and observed you over the past few years I can definitely say you are looking more gorgeous than ever. I love what you said about The Way of the Livingness giving you the choice to live truly however you want to live. To make a true choice we need to be fully informed of all the options – and The Way of the Livingness does a great job at showing us options that are so loving to the body. I love that I have been able to make more loving choices for my body – and will continue to do so as more and more unfolds.
RB, it was a pleasure reading how you made the adjustments to your life over time and are continuing on in developing your life according to your own choices – with no emphasis on ‘getting there’ or ‘trying hard’.
It can be a natural development to change your life-style, by just listening to your body. Then the changes are quite easy to make- and it feels so much more vital and light.
A beautiful article RB. I agree wholeheartedly that “The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.” I have let go of so many ideals and beliefs that I recognize were choices of others that I had just gone along with. I do not feel that I have ‘given up’ anything as the way I live now is so much more.
Yes, I too do not feel like I have given up a thing… quite the contrary… I have gained so much… not in things or in weight, but in vitality and joie de vivre!
Thank you for sharing your story, RB. It reminds me yet again that it all comes down to choices. We all make our own choices and we also get the consequences by those choices. It’s easy to want to blame everything and everybody for how our life is, and also for the “wrong” choices we make, but if it is “everything” and everybody else’s fault, then we are not in control and can’t do anything about it. How could we ever change everything and everybody to suit us? When the “blame” is back into our own hands and we take responsibility ourselves, then, and only then, can we actually change things. Makes so much sense and it’s very empowering.
Yes we have choices, no need to blame anyone else, or wait for anyone else… just start to be responsible, and not make a big deal out of it.
Great blog RB, I enjoyed reading how you lovingly made changes in your life that now support you in your livingness.
Wow RB! As I’ve only met you recently, it’s pretty amazing to see and feel the great shape you’re in now given how you were so tired and unwell from the self-neglecting choices you made when younger!
What an amazing turnaround… to have been exposed to so much as a child, and then to be able to still recognize truth when you heard it. This is the sort of true revelatory story that we could be reading in the press, inspiring people that, no matter where they come from, what they have done, that the doorway to reconnecting with the simple truth of who they really are is there for them. Thank you RB.
Yes James, thanks. I often think to myself, well if I can do it, so can many others.. It really does not matter what our past was.
Awesome Blog RB. It just shows people that there is another way of choosing how to live and that the horribleness of choosing to abuse your body with alcohol, sugar, cigarettes, drugs etc doesn’t work in the long run ( which people all know anyway).You have made a dramatic change in your lifestyle and deserve to be celebrated, and I know you do celebrate.
Reading your blog reminded me how we eat sugar because we’re tired, but in doing so we have sometimes stopped ourselves even admitting we’re tired and even if we do notice and question why we are tired, eating the sugar sets off the vicious circle of being tired, using sugar that creates a short term sugar rush followed by a longer term sugar slump. It’s like we’re tricking ourselves to not listen to our body, and in doing so missing out on the support it asks for. Recently the harm that sugar can cause is becoming more apparent, and the depth of the problem coming to the surface. However, there doesn’t seem to be any successful solutions popping up, so it’s great to read your experience of the way of the Livingness and the changes it has bought.
This article is such a joyful read. The fact that you have let go of a way of life which didn’t support you and have chosen to feel what your body was showing you, to change your diet and your way of living, to now how healthy and alive you feel is truly worth appreciating and celebrating.
“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.” Cool approach I say.
RB your comment here sums up everything for me “The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.” This really says it all. We want to shirk our responsibility all the time, why? because it is easier to do so. The Way of the Livingness does ask me to bring ultimate responsibility to all my choices, does it confront me sometimes……yes it does, but boy do I learn and grow and it does feel amazing to stop, connect and feel the real me as a result.
I like your example with the doctor, I had a similar experience with the doctor I was visiting for a check up, we are living role models.
‘Taking responsibility, knowing that everything you do affects everyone around you.’ – This is such a powerful quote RB and as much as I want to pretend its not true, I know in my body and from lived experiences that what you have said is nothing but the truth.
RB I absolutely love this and agree wholeheartedly. ” 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.” Its so true, it’s not about goals but about making more informed choices for ourselves from listening to our own bodies. Simply amazing to think that we all hold the key to living a healthy and vitally rich life within.
I can really relate to this RB. Just cutting out one or two things that you can feel don’t agree with you and going from there. Eventually you are feeling so good and wondering why you ever ate them in the first place.
Your approach makes complete sense to me RB, thanks for making it so simple.
Its amazing to feel, RB, how many people who stand to be exposed by the self-loving choices we may choose to make such as no longer having chips, actually see as making life boring or dull when I have found in my experience is it a total joy from living such simplicity.
I love this blog RB as it confirms that no change is impossible.
What you describe in terms of the way you used to eat is so normal for so many people. Whilst I didn’t do all of these in one go, at one time or another cheese/cigarettes/cannabis and many other vices equalled my unhealthy lifestyle – although I would have said I was healthy at the time.
You’re spot on with describing making the changes as baby steps as it is like that and there is no goal. So often we can give up and become overwhelmed as we try to change decades of one way of living overnight. It’s not really going to work – slow and steady is definately the key. Taking it oneday at a time I find is the best way to not put pressure on oneself and to avoid overwhelm.
Your blogs are so well written and easy to read and relate to. I love that you’ve not invested in beating yourself up for making unhealthy choices – but just let them go and made ones that now feel right for you. Awesome!
RB you write very clearly and give a wonderful example of how accepted dysfunction is in our society. You say you gave up poor food choices, well this is huge when you consider that we are bombarded day in day out with tantalising foods that destroy our bodies. So to overcome this shows more than just will power on your part because will power cannot sustain, it shows a fundamental shift in the deep love you hold your self in, thus eating healthy comes naturally.
Wow, that is such a beautiful way of looking at it Zoe. I loved when you said ‘It shows a fundamental shift in the deep love you hold your self in, thus eating healthy comes naturally.’ – this just reminds me that we are all such amazing human beings.
I like how you said that you were letting go of things that aren’t healthy for you. Sensible thing to do.. Yet some people would see this as weird, giving up alcohol and foods etc. also when you were talking about how there are no rules or things to follow it makes it clear that it’s what’s going on for you and based on what your body feels. This isn’t presented in many places so it’s great to have so many people to observe it from. First from Serge Benhayon and universal medicine – now so many people all over the world! Simply because how good it feels and everyone can see the difference it makes to their lives and the lives around them. Like you have shared RB. Awesome blog
That’s so cool RB! It’s funny how we tend to think we are giving up things, like it is a loss…but what you have described is nothing but enormous gain. Letting go of what is not supportive in the first place…very inspiring RB, thank you.
Your description of “The way to get sick” made me chuckle Ariana, it is spot on! The Way of the Livingness is my choice, and am enjoying learning about my body, listening to it, and I really appreciate how it stayed with me through all the years of unkindness to it.
I totally agree with you RB, I too feel years younger since bringing The Way of The Livingness into my life. I am a vital, energetic woman of 39 years and feel great. Oh and I look pretty fabulous too!
This blog shows clearly what impact our daily choices are. I had the same experience as RB. First unaware of the choices I made, as lots were normal e.g. to society/around me. I gradually dropped things. What helped me a lot that everything was an experiment. So when I decided to stop with coffee many years ago, it was not ‘I am going to quit now’, but a no coffee for 3 weeks experiment. Light and playful, but committed. A lot of things have dropped from my diet and life that way. After three weeks my body did not ask for i.e.the coffee anymore. And that my second part of the experiment. If my body was not asking for it, but my mouth or head was, I had a short ‘talk’ with myself, a check-in. Often the signs of my body were so clear, that even when I did drink a coffee, I felt the effects. The body talks, that’s the biggest bonus of this all. I have chosen to listen more to my body.
This is great, RB. “Looking into the reason why I want to eat certain foords” is the key in a sense that cutting the energy that makes you do things. Thank you for writing this.
Thank you for sharing your steps and path with us RB. I appreciate the simplicity and honesty.
Loved you Blog RB, a simple A to Z plan of making choices that support oneself like, healthy food, drink and lifestyle. Without any arduous regimes or diets that nobody can stick to.
I love simplicity!
RB, reading your story from yet another angle still makes me sit very still in honor of your steps and choices. What a healing you therein give to the whole Caribbean area and its consciousness!
Thanks Felix, I had not stopped to feel and see that. It is so true, as we start to heal ourselves, it has a flow on effect to everyone we are connected to. How awesome is that! And it just goes to show what a responsibility we all have, because every single thing we do either harms or heals. There is no inbetween.
This truly is the key to remember daily isn’t it:”… every single thing we do either harms or heals.” Applying this in everything we do will make such a difference in all areas of daily life.
Thanks RB, the power of our choices and the craziness that the things we take to give us energy (sugary, alcohol etc) in reality drain us…who’d have thought that vitality lay in NOT looking for the most stimulating foods you could find but allowing that vitality to come from within.
RB, I really love how you express and share with such honesty. You have a true strength in being able to share something with simplicity, practicality and plain ole common sense. To the point that it makes readers go – I wanna get me some of that ‘Way of the Livingness’!
RB this reminds me of when I started to make more supportive lifestyle choices. I like you, took the baby steps approach, one thing at a time, then moved on to the next. I gave up smoking thirty years ago. Alcohol came next and was more recent. As a teenager I was part of a teen alcohol culture. Heavy drinking at weekends was the norm and I was often drunk. As an adult I was never a regular drinker or enjoyed it that much. I really only drank because everyone else around me did. Giving it up became a playful exercise to see if I could do it. It was relatively easy for me. The hardest part was reactions from friends and one person in particular that felt threatened by my abstinence and did all he could to persuade me to drink with him. I stayed with my choice. Since giving up alcohol, I’ve never looked back, or craved for it. What I have now is so much more beautiful – that I can enjoying each day without the need of external stimulants.
RB, thank you for sharing such a vast difference in your lifetime and lifestyle and with such simple changes to honour what you feel being your key. Is it possible that making each small moment count, listening to our own inner wisdom (on every topic..) and being honest with the little things and tiny details is exactly what leads to amazing grand change and whole new ways of living being grounded? Yes, it absolute is possible. Your sharing here is inspirational as you are living proof of what The Way of The Livingness has to offer everyone equally – another (more loving, more joyful, more real and more fun) way.
My experience with the Way of the Livingness has been very similar. It has not been a magic wand style, everything fixed in an instant experience, it has been a gradual process and one that I am feeling more and more that will continue to develop throughout my life. By being able to observe others and the vitality and joy they experience by how they live and take responsibility for their choices, not from a place of ‘look at me I’m awesome and your not’ but instead from ‘you can equally feel this way’ I feel a sense of space in which to say ‘What if I can? what does that feel like?’ instead of feeling lesser and in the ‘not as awesome’ chair. And what I am learning and feeling more and more is that I am the one who can accept and be more open to what is in front of me from others and that I can apply the same quality in my own life OR reject all of that and sit in the ‘bogged down feeling rubbish with all my issues and/or focus on how bad the world is’ chair. When presented with what the Way of the Livingness teaches the best angle to come to it from is with ‘what if?’ in mind.
I always felt there was something wrong with the way I and everyone else lived our lives and harmed our bodies, but before I met Serge Benhayon I never found a “way” that worked for me or made sense. Meeting Serge showed me another way, a way that works and a way that makes sense. So YES the Way of the Livingness has also transformed my life beyond recognition, brought me previously unimaginable joy and vitality and given me the freedom to be responsible and make different loving choices.
I really enjoyed reading your blog and feeling the wisdom in it.
You mentioned your rebellios streak and how you don’t like rules and regulations and that was one (of many) things that you appreciated about the Way of the Livingness. That it is always our choice what we do or not and the responsibility is ours to make those choices and feel the effects of them. And you so eloquently describe how you have felt the difference between the choices that are supportive and allow you to grow OR the the choices that hold us back.
And isn’t it great when we feel how supportive choices really do make such a difference to our quality of life, energy, vitality and job.
A great sharing, RB, thank you. I too made the changes gradually. I was actually found to be gluten intolerant before meeting Serge Benhayon and had already been making the change to gluten free bread etc. But after the presentations with Universal Medicine, I began to look more deeply into the hidden gluten in so many products and discarding those too. The milk I found not quite as hard, I had many years before been following the Pritikin lifestyle, and had only been using skim milk products. I had generally stopped the cheese during that time as I did not find the skim milk variety of it very appetising. The process to eliminate all cheese was not so hard. And it was so easy to just change to soy milk or almond milk. Now I find that I never use the soy, and the almond milk has virtually disappeared. I just don’t need it. Actually, I find that I need far less food now, just by listening to my own body.
I was never really badly overweight, but over the past couple of years I have lost some more weight, and now I have been realising that the way I now feel and look is the true me, an amazing realisation. I feel so much lighter and freer. A wonderful feeling.
RB the changes you have made are remarkable and I can feel in your words the joy that you now have in your life from the self-loving choices that you have made. It is funny how we see things as “normal” as that is what is all around us. What you have shared here is that it is easy to shift the goal post to a new “normal” by making different choices that support us whole being.
RB your story was a delight to read and broken down to feel the simplicity of living a healthy lifestyle. I like your honesty on how it is a constant to check in with your body with different food choices, this is something I am learning to do and look at why I feel I want the food choices I think I do. Thank you for sharing your experience.
I love the way you have described baby steps to be where you are at and making it out now and not being hard on yourself about the past. I like the way of the livingness you have shared here esp. about no-rules approach. Very inspiring. Thank you.
With many things I had tried in the past had a lot of rules which I didn’t like. Going to Universal Medicine presentations showed a different way, a you just go with your feeling, listening to what your body is telling you and making a choice from there. It seemed super simple, and it is as you mention baby steps. Before knowing a different way, I lived with not regarding or taking responsibility of my choices in many areas including food and now am learning to feel what my body is telling me after I eat a certain food or express or behave in a certain manner and then making a choice. Taking responsibility for myself feels very supportive.
I got called into my doctors surgery yesterday for a random health check that a trainee doctor was carrying out. He looked at me in amazement when I answered the questions whether I smoked or not, the units of alcohol I had in a week, both none, and the extremely healthy diet I was maintaining. This would have been a totally different story 10 years ago with up to 60 ciggies a day and 6-8 pints of Guinness + red wine on a daily basis and all the takeaway burgers and pies I used to eat.
Fantatsic Kevin. I had a similar experience of going to a new doctor in my area. His eyebrows went up as I said no I didn’t drink, smoke etc. He couldn’t believe I was 67 – thought late 40’s was more like it. When he checked my heart he said ‘This is a beautiful heart’. Imagine what my heart will sound like when I fully let people in! Many many thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for the practical wisdom and love they have shared with all.
You are an inspiration Lyndy, I want to look as vital and vibrant as you when I am 67 for sure!! You make ageing look not like ageing at all!
I love what your doctor said about your heart Lyndy, indeed what a beauty-full heart! no wonder you shine like a bright star at 67. I too can relate to working on letting other’s in more so they can experience who I truly am.
Its quite fascinating Lyndy that a health care professional would be surprised that a person chooses to not drink alcohol or smoke and eat a healthy diet that their body tolerates. That he raises his eyebrows with the fact that you actually take care of yourself clearly highlights the baggage that the average patient is presenting to your doctor everyday. When you think about it this is really quite sad.
I have heard lots of stories like this, of students of the Way of the Livingness meeting and impressing their doctors with the state of their health. What is awesome is that the doctors then start to see that there is another way to live, and it must be super inspiring in their day when they see a lot of the opposite. The state of our health as a whole these days is in desperate need of a shift. You only have to observe people everywhere and what they are consuming, not to judge but just to see the cause and effect. I always find it confirms the choices I am making.
Awesome Kevin, what a great learning moment that would have been for the student. You are an inspiration now and you also know what it’s like to try both ways of living.
This is exactly what I did, the fags, the chips the cheese etc…and of course the baby steps, I was never a person with a strong will to be healthy, I used to take advantage of my youth. The only way I have been able to look after myself is to do it with baby steps, learning what my body has to say…through doing this I have stopped consuming so many things that did not support me. “I took baby steps, making small changes slowly, without ever having to give it all up at once”. Bread became gluten free and now I don’t eat bread, but that took me quite a few years, the same with cheese, I stopped the cow cheese and went to goat cheese and slowly over the years it felt right to cut it out. Baby steps work because you embody the changes and choices as you go, it makes it real without the stress and depravation. Awesome hey, the choices concerning healthy actually become part of you rather than an aspiration.
Hi RB, thanks for sharing. I can definitely relate to doing things cause they are considered normal and everyone around you is doing them as well. It’s awesome that people are able to see beyond these things- other wise everyone would stay doing them forever and nothing would change for anybody.
Great blog RB, highlighting about self responsibility around our choices, showing that we do actually have a choice in every moment. And if we do eat something for example that does not support our body, our body wonderfully tells us through discomfort or whatever, so we can then ask ourselves the question, so what’s going on for me? So simple but very empowering and loving.
“I made some choices that I didn’t even realise were choices”. I love this. Most of us do not realize that we are making choices all of the time. That brings a great sense of responsibility, not responsibility as a burden but the responsibility that comes with knowing there are consequences to our actions.
Yes Elizabeth, that is so true, and something I am constantly reminding myself and my daughter about.
Thank you RB, for this discussion on food and how it affects us …
my personal work-in-progress includes your line, “Nowadays I choose not to eat them, as I no longer want to ignore what my body will tell me later.”
I say, work-in-progress, because I still sometimes choose to eat something that I know “my body will tell me later” is not good for it. Then I can reflect on, “looking into the reason why I want to eat certain foods.” … ie, reflecting on what is really going on emotionally and addressing it.
So true RB, I find it is so much easier to follow a rule because then I don’t have to take responsibility for what might be happening in any one moment that I don’t want to deal with. It is an ongoing challenge to deal with feelings in the moment and not use food as an avoidance or check out and accepting what is.
RB what a beautiful blog, I really injoyed it thank you – I love the last line – “getting to feel younger the more I grow older.” I also now look younger at 37 that I did at 26. The Way of the Livingness definitely turns back the ageing clock on your body.
How great is that. People spend thousands of dollars on botox and all kinds of drugs and ways to look younger, and here we have found a very simple, easy way.
Oh yes, I can say this too. I have never felt that young and liking what I see when I look into the mirror, as I do now and I am 55 next month. There must be something super right what we are living.
My prevarication for Serge Benhayon, his family, Universal Medicine and The Way Of The Livingness could stretch for miles. I am very thankful for what they have offered me.
Me too Madeline, and words can’t really express my deep appreciation.
Love that getting younger as I get older! So true you would think the world would want to know about such things!
We are a society of rules and regulations and often look for the rules and regulations to guide us in what we do. We have been blasted in the media with all the diets and the rules of the diet that will make us feel good and look better. It is so simple to feel our bodies as they talk to us but we are not encouraged or taught to do that. I am learning to live from my body when choosing my foods and when to eat so I may skip a meal if my body feels to or have a vegetable smoothie for breakfast! It is a constantly unfolding process for me!!
This is amazing RB; “The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.” It is not often that you find something that gives you back your freedom, instead of trying to influence your choices for you.
Yes, good point.. Usually people want to enforce their ways upon us or rather than inspire us to choose what is right for us.
I love how you say that you had no goals, RB, in the process of changing your relationship to food. This feels really liberating, and brings it back to simply feeling what is true for you each day – a body led rather than a mind led approach to food.
I love the no goals point too Janet. I know setting goals, for me, just leads to self judgment – a mind led approach.
Yes Laura, a goals approach for me doesn’t work either- I not only go into self judgement, but then self loathing . I then think I’ve failed , so what’t the point of doing what I set out to do- therefore setting myself up for failure. But by slowing changing my eating habits one thing at a time, and learning to listen to by body is the key to eating more healthily. And if I slip up I say “Phuff!”- and I make a more loving choice next time.
How sad that in our society it’s normal to drink, smoke, eat junk and get wasted and anyone who doesn’t do these things, the assumption is that they live a boring life. It’s a revelation to know there is another way that gives us the freedom to make responsible choices and as you say Rosie, “live a vibrant energy filled life”.
RB I love the way you write so simple and practical. It’s incredible how much I ignored the choices I was making in how I was living. Although I knew eating crap food, not exercising, staying up long after I felt tired and being stressed was bad for me, I couldn’t seem to sustain any real changes. Like you it was not until I encountered the Way of the Livingness and Serge Benhayon did I slowly begin to make more loving choices. Although I still have some slip ups, at 54 years old I feel more vital, healthy and steady within myself than any other stage of my life. Simply embracing the Way of the Livingness works!
I would never have been able to make the changes I made to my lifestyle (cut out alcohol, cigarettes, sweets, dairy, gluten) without the inspiration of the people I met at and through Universal Medicine who were already doing it. It was through inspiration of seeing it being lived in others that I received the resolve and motivation to make similar changes for myself. It was never from being told to do anything – it always came from me.
And how awesome is it when you see someone living in a way that makes you want that for yourself too. What Universal Medicine presents and how it has inspired so many people is worth celebrating.
So true Conor, I always rebelled when I got told what to do even if it was for my own good. Nor did it work me berating myself that I should give up cigarettes or eat healthy. Through the inspiration of others who have lead the way and been very real about their gradual journey towards living in a more self caring way, I have been able to let go of things that I can feel no longer serve me.
What a turn around RB. For you to make all these different choices that go against the grain, but that are all in fact very natural choices is amazing. You’ve reset your life and you’re living proof of it being a possibility for everyone.
Thank you RB for sharing a simple, common sense way of living. What we put in our bodies, whether this is food, drinks, drugs, emotions, is bound to have an affect on our lives and our bodies are amazing at showing this. The key is to listen as we have so many ways of ignoring these signs. To me it is simple if we put diesel in a petrol running car it does a lot of damage and STOPS – same with the body..simple.
RB I love how you say that you feel younger as you’re getting older.
For me this is about being less serious as I build a relationship of acceptance and actually enjoy being with myself.
I no longer need the alcohol, drugs and over stimulating foods to ‘convince’ myself I’m having fun.
I look in the mirror and remind myself of who I am and the smile that comes says it all.
Hi RB, Thank you for your sharing. For me the most important thing is to feel the difference between what people think it’s normal and the true body feeling once you get aware that things are not really ‘normal’ just because all around do it.
Then to choose from that awareness to eat, act and behave in a more loving and respectful way to oneself. And of course the possibility to take those little baby steps everyday and build a solid foundation as you did.
I love the lightness and joy in your blog – ‘now I dance and sing and have so much fun’. I know that in the past when I have changed my diet, I felt I was missing out whereas once I began to feel the benefit of ‘The Way Of The Livingness’, why would I want to go back to a way that made me feel so lacklustre. I do still look at food that can draw me in if I allow it but somehow I know deep down that it is a bad investment -it will only make me feel heavy and numb. The decision to eat healthy food that is both delicious to eat and supports my body seems to be a decision that makes so much sense. Why would I want to change?
I love this fact you have made – not only was eating this way affecting your body – but “my whole life” – this really stood out for me, not so much in the terms of food and drink, but how every ‘negative” choice shall we say, be it a thought, word or action affects our whole life – every single part of it, not just our body. And also the fact that you made it about what felt right to you … each day – not trying to be like anyone else, follow a rule book or a plan, but simply making it about each moment and learning from you and your body, not what someone else has told you or how you think you should be. Imagine a world where we took responsibility for ourselves in this way, in all we do, it would be so empowering for everyone, I feel a lot of exhaustion would disappear.
Thank you RB for your beautiful sharing from your chosen Livingness – baby steps of loving choices leading us home, no must do’s or have to’s – a living quality which is the Way of The Livingness called forth from my body as I listen more attentively to it.
Great comment Shelley and yes listening to our bodies is the key to living soulfully.
Yes, the Universal Medicine students are very inspiring and some of them really do not look their age, and are fitter and healthier than they were 5 years ago.
Awesome RB. It is so true, with The Way of the Livingness there are no rules, just healing, increasing awareness and responsibility for the choices that we make and the way they make us feel. As we build a self-loving relationship with ourselves we care about how different foods and choices affect the way we feel. If we eat something that makes us feel unwell we can then choose not to eat that food, choosing instead to eat and live in a way that supports a loving, vital body and life.
Dear RB, love what you have written about “The Way of the Livingness” as that is just what it is to me. My days of drinking and taking drugs are long gone now and I feel amazing for not putting that poison into my body any longer. On the other hand, when it comes to food, I’m still letting certain foods go as my body speaks louder to me each time I put the wrong foods into my body.
Every now and then I might have hot chips and when I do, it’s just that first intake of fat and salt my head loves, but when it passes down into my tummy I feel ill and it takes days to recover from this. The marker is always there, it’s just the choice I make to which foods are going to benefit to my well-being.
It is just a choice, and one that we have to constantly keep making.
Yesterday after a particularly long and challenging day at work, on my drive home all my head wanted to do is stop and buy a packet of chips. I knew that I just wanted them for the salt and the numbing effect that have always brought to me. Since a young child I have used chips as comfort food, to make me feel better.
Yesterday I chose not to comfort myself but to allow myself to feel sad because of the way I had been spoken to, to feel how tired I was and to just accept that. It was not easy! Every single store or gas station that I drove past was like it was screaming out for me to stop and buy a bag of chips and I had to continually make a choice as I must have driven past at least 6 different opportunities. When I got home, I was proud of myself for not giving in because it could have been so easy, to override the body and just say “its only a bag of chips!.”
It is such a great point you make regarding the Way of Livingness, RB, when you say, “there are no rules or guidelines, so to speak, so you can’t fail or not ‘pass GO’.” So often the fear of failure can so easily hold us back from moving forward.
Yes the fear of failure in the past often stopped me from even trying.
Hi RB love your honest sharing, you are truly inspirational in the changes you have made and the path you have walked.
I loved reading your blog RB…because it’s these kinds of stories that show so clearly how easy it is to change our lives simply by making different choices. You don’t have to have a degree or PHD for this, just an understanding that we have choices and that each one has an impact on our body and thus the quality of our lives.
More and more people are waking up to the fact that if we go along with the current ‘norm of today’ we join the long lineup of illness & disease.
I have opted out of this line and not accepted this as the norm…I have chosen, like you Rosie, my own normal which makes much more sense and feels so much more yummy in my body…in fact the way I choose to live I feel is much more ‘normal’ than today’s ‘norm’! The ‘Way of The Livingness’ as presented by Serge Benhayon & Universal Medicine makes such simple sense and is inspiring so many to live healthy and joyful lives.
I can get caught up in getting it right instead of feeling what my body is telling me, this means I make rules where there are no rules. Your blog is a great inspiration to explore and experiment with honesty and love for myself, thank you RB.
I love this Annelie, that you make rules where there are no rules. Now that is a great awareness and you can’t blame anyone else for that. Thanks for sharing. It makes me wonder about any of my own self inflicted rules!
“Getting to feel younger as I grow older” – loved that RB, Thanks for sharing this.
I spent many years eating anything I wanted and never stopped to consider the effect this was having on me. When we connect to how our bodies truly feel after eating certain foods the body will respond, for me either feeling supported or tired. I am continuing to listen to my body everyday and if my body reacts to a food I no longer want to put that food in my body simply because it does not support me. How often do we hear people saying they feel tired after lunch (this is common at my workplace) now that I avoid foods that make me feel this way I no longer feel tired after lunch and can continue my work day with ease.
Busting up the ‘normal’ box RB. It is actually quite strange when we take a moment to consider all of the things we choose without question that are so called normal and socially acceptable. When we ask the body if these choices are normal the body just says no, very simply. How do we get to a point of justifying our ways when they don’t make sense to the body that is living with the consequences of those so called ‘normal’ choices? You have clearly exposed and questioned this commonly lived outplay as through sharing your past ways, smoking like a chimney and drinking like a Caribbean fish, claiming this no longer made sense to you. Amazing you were willing to see in the other people who were living the common sense of their own bodies a way that would make true sense to you also. Through your sharing you now offer this same gift. Thanks Rosie for your livingness, this is Universal Medicine indeed.
What a brilliant example you have set for your family and friends. I am not surprised that they have commented on the way you look now compared to 15 years ago.
How crazy is it that we have millions of ideas, books, fads, diets, presenters, clinics, etc, etc…. all trying to tell us what is ‘good for us’, when the real answer is to simply pay attention to what our bodies are constantly telling us. Thanks for clearly presenting this RB – awesome!
RB I can feel the joy in your words as you express them. A beautiful transformation.
When you describe your past experiences Rosie, the way you said you did it just “because I thought it was normal” stuck with me. It is amazing how we can accept all sorts of things we see around us, as how its ‘meant’ to be. This is why its been so powerful for me to come across The Way of Livingness and people like you, who shine and sparkle and show us all, another definition of what is normal. It makes me wonder – what other areas of our life are we accepting ‘hot chips’ when we could be enjoying super nourishment?
Thanks Joseph, yes I love what you have written here.. what other areas of our life are we accepting “hot chips” when we could be enjoying super nourishment?
A few areas come to mind, not to criticise myself about, but to bring awareness to. That’s great because then I can start giving those areas the love and care that I have given to my choices around food.
Watch out, my sparkle and shine is just gonna get brighter!
I just had to add another comment here Joseph, because it is so great to write a blog that inspires others and touches them, but then for me, its great to read comments from everyone including yours, which then inspires me back and lets us all take it to another level of understanding. When we all share with each other, we all win.
I agree, RB, it is awesome to make healthy lifestyle choices and feel younger as I grow older. I love that I chose to live the “Way of the Livingness”. I am still taking the baby steps, well to be honest, they are more like long strides!
Amazing sharing RB, thank you. I love how you talk about making responsible choices because they make you feel better and because they effect others. Very few of us realize that how we are with our own bodies impacts on how we are with others. When we eat too much, drink too much, all of this makes us more irritable and cranky and whether we like to admit it or not, it does impact on how we are with others. I wonder if in the future when citing reasons for divorce instead of stating irreconcilable differences, we will be listing irresponsible choices.
Good point Caroline, the food choices we make not only affect us but also others we come into contact with
You only need to be in a small space with a child who has eaten too many lollies or junk food to feel the effects.
Irresponsible choices as grounds for divorce instead of irreconcilable differences – love it Caroline!
Dear RB I love how you allow yourself to do everything one step at a time and with that explore and deepen what feels right for you and your body.
Wunderbare RB what you share here is gold!!!! I love the easy way you showed the world another way. I by myself went this way as well and I have to say that was the best I have ever done. I did not cook before I live the way of the livingness – I don’t like cooking at all – to much work and to complicate. I loved it to go out and found it wunderbar not to wash up in the end. Now I love cooking and preparing my own food. Can you imagine how my friends react when I invited them to a dinner – they fell of their chairs. And they loved to come even I did not serve alcohol, gluten and dairy products. Now they ask me for recipes – and I loved to share everything and I love my new way of living even the washing up!!!
So awesome RB, I love reading your blogs. It really stood out to me what you said about choices when you were a teenager – that you were making choices to eat junk and take drugs, without even realising that they were choices. This feels to me that it is very common in the world we live in, and for teens everywhere. Getting out there and educating – from any angle is so important to support people to be able to make loving choices for their own bodies as they grow.
Thats awesome RB thanks for sharing your story. I can feel the simplicity and joy you experience from embracing the Way of the Livingness.
I love the idea of feeling younger as I get older. This most certainly would not have been a remote possibility if I had not stopped and taken responsibility for myself and my choices with the benefit of Universal Medicine’s teachings. Thanks for sharing your story RB.
A wonderful blog RB. What a transformation in your life. You touched on a very important point that the choices we make for ourselves affects everyone. Loved your final line ‘getting to feel younger as I grow older’.
Thank you RB, a great reminder to take one step at a time, one day at a time, even one moment at a time – feeling what will truly support our body, and being.
“I let go of a lot of the things that were not healthy for me, and now I live a vibrant, energy-filled life.” This statement resonated with me as I have done the same. When you express it this way it is very simple and an individual choice you make on what is healthy or not for you.
I love your blog RB as from it we can feel how taking responsibility for our choices and learning to listen to our body and adjusting our lifestyle accordingly is not hard or a drag but a loving way of being with ourselves that brings joy and vitality.
Yes well said Carolien, making healthy lifestyle choices is often judged as hard and boring but that is not true at all. The way my body feels now compared to when I was not aware of what influence my choices had on my body is just a world of a difference!
Great blog RB, so light and full of fun and that’s what it is living The Way of the Livingness living full of joy every single day!
It is interesting that people assume it was always an easy path to be healthy. It is now very easy to make the choices that best support my body, but it took nearly 4 years to finally stop having a soy chai latte and only recently ordered one after many months of leaving that choice behind. My body felt the effects of this drink for nearly 2 days and sparked other unloving choices I normally wouldn’t do like eating chips. So much became effected from this one small cup of caffeine. I was bloating, racey, unable to have a rejuvenating sleep and found my thoughts were scattered. With a consistent commitment to ones health the body and how it responds makes the choice to be healthy easy. To live in a body filled with unloving choices is not something I can now ignore and not for the sake of a chip or drink. Being healthy isn’t boring like some may think, it’s the most fun I’ve had and wouldn’t change it for anything.
The essence of your article, apart from your fearless honesty, is choice. By choosing to write this, by sharing who you are now, we are all enriched. Thank you RB.
Totally Alan and RB, you are an inspiration as I have watched you transform yourself from the first time I met you many years ago into the amazing woman that I see with clear beautiful eyes and a cheeky smile.
What an incredible read Rosie- I loved it! What really hit me was how the list of how you use to live is actually accepted as ‘normal’ in life- which when listed sounds absurd! And this lifestyle is actually being lived by the majority of the world still today! Why is this being accepted/condemning to this being normal? That is the beauty and the amazingness of Universal Medicine and the Way of the Livingness, which allows you to not NEED any of these things, but to actually begin to ENJOY life and uncover a Purpose behind all that you do…and not to mention the vitality! The principles of true care that the people choose to live by in living this Way, when listed makes sense and could be classified as the real normal, in comparison of the two different lifestyles. Any human being could recognize that…so why is the world living so un-normally? That is why the Way of the Livingness needs to be known by all- every single human being on this planet and the front page of every screen and paper.
Amazing how we do know what is right for us, yet go thru all sorts of distractions and mind games to justify not changing and/or avoid making the right decisions. Hindsight always shows us that we knew all along, but we do so often still not listen to this inner knowing. Thanks for sharing how things unfolded for you and what you have learnt from it all. Beautiful.
Wow I love this RB… so real and practical. I agree The Way of the Livingness just makes so much sense – listen to my body as it has all the answers and so clearly shows me what it likes and doesn’t like. This is something I do not do all of the time… my mouth still very much trumps my body at times. I’ve also noticed over the years how much emotions (just like certain foods) affect my body and disrupts my digestion and then what foods I choose from that. This is great –
“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.”
It is amazing how we can feel and look younger every day by making loving and fulfilling choices – it is so against every trend the world is showing us.
Beautifully put Alex – we are ‘going against the grain’ – the ingrained way of living that is leading humanity down the drain. We are saying ‘no’ to so many ‘trends’ the world is showing us, and in the process revealing a fresh new life, no longer in bondage to these trends. The old alchemists, who were intent on transforming ‘base’ man into ‘divine’ man used to call it the ‘opus contra naturam’ – the work against nature, meaning the nature or behaviour that man has artificially adopted.
Great point Alex and so true. I see this in myself and I see it in many others. We are living proof, we are the science of the future!
Yes I find that too Alex, and how much lighter and and with so much more vitality we can be in our daily lives … what joy.
Lovely Sharing RB! I can always feel your lived ways in your blogs. The way of the livingness provides no rules or passes or fails but very muchly an awareness of listening to your body, honouring yourself and making choices that support all of you. I too have changed much slowly and look and feel younger now.
Great article RB.
What I liked most was (as well as the line quoted in many comments, about it not being boring…but being a letting go) was that I could feel your essence through your writing, and what you wrote about as your past choices doesn’t even feel like You now!
Thank you RB for sharing a very inspiring account of your journey, written with such a lightness and joy.
If we all would let our bodies decide what was good for it and let our mouths become accustomed to those choices, what would the world look like? Would the obesity epidemic still be out of control? Would domestic violence and other alcohol fuelled problems be so commonplace? Would cancer, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, etc. statistics be different? There is so much more that comes from our choice to listen to the body or not, it’s a bit of a concern that the mouth has so much say in what we eat.
It really is a concern, because you only have to look at the statistics in health and disease today and see that there is a lot that needs addressing.
Yes I agree Rosie, that is amazing about The Way of the Livingness, that there are no rules and regulations, only you, your body and the responsibility for your choices – what a liberation!
What an inspiring blog RB, thank you.
What a honest article RB, thank you for sharing. I have found that eating healthy takes the stress out of life, it is so much more simpler to go food shopping knowing what suits your body and what your body will benefit from rather then getting pulled and allured to all those seemingly ‘yummy’ treats only to feel awful for days after.
It is so telling isn’t it about the level of disregard in our societies when we hear that living healthily means living a ‘boring life’ !, I like many, know that this couldn’t be further from the truth.
What a great article RB. I too for many years made ill choices with the way I was eating and as a consequence became very ill. The vitality and energy levels I have now from the food choices I make are incredible.
There was never an imposing tone from the practioners from Universal Medicine. Just people showing me another choice in how I lived.
Just like Gabrielle was saying what stayed with me after reading your blog was the lightness and joy what you bring. It is if I see you dancing enjoying yourself to the max.
Hi RB – I find my food choices are evolving all the time. I have been eating nuts for so long- a big container each day- it became a habit to have these. Then I started feeling in my body that they were too heavy but I continued anyway as I thought I needed them- mind over body!. Then my body felt bloated after the nuts and I really was not enjoying them! I have now stopped having the nuts on a regular basis but will just have a few when I truly feel to. Food choices can become a habit but if we listen our body can be very persistent in its’ messages. As you say there are no rules just loving choices inspired by the body.
Thanks Anne, your comment made me look at the way I eat nuts. I have grown to love them because in the past I would not eat them. Now I can see that I usually go for the nuts at times where in the past I would want chocolate or a bag of chips, so really they are just a substitute… and if I feel into it a bit further, and get really honest, they are just a distraction so that I don’t have to feel whatever is coming up for me in a given moment. Yes, I do at times quite cleverly choose foods that help me to not feel.
Who would have thought that making healthy and loving choices would result in more playfulness and fun in our lives. But really it does make sense….
It certainly does make sense Jen but unfortunately we sometimes just complicate what is in essence simple.
I enjoyed the lightness and fun in your contribution and how you bring this to the Way of the Livingness
I am sure so many of us can relate to your story. My eyes boggled when I read about the kg of cheese a week yet I was able to eat a whole family block of chocolate no problem! I loved the way your story shows how unaware we are of what we are choosing and how we don’t realise there are other choices we can make. The key to change is not will power, knowledge or diets. It is developing awareness of how we are feeling and how each of the choices we make affects our body. The more we stop making harmful choices the more we get to feel how great our body can feel.
The funny thing was Fiona, I thought that I was being healthy, because I was not eating the chocolate… and I was so into my cheese and I could not imagine life without it and would avoid anything or anyone that would suggest otherwise. If I did hear about what cheese and dairy was doing to me, I just conveniently ignored that part. I knew all along, but I chose to ignore.
Hi RB, I love your blog and feel and share your joy at living in this loving, responsible, yet ‘no rules’ way – a way based on knowing ourselves and what is right for us at any moment more and more clearly and fully. I agree – I have WAY more fun and playfulness in my days now, then when I was being the so-called ‘party girl’. Now I really know how to celebrate!
Great blog RB.
It was a revelation to me that we create our illnesses through the choices we make, lifestyle and behaviours etc. I had an inkling of it years before when I gave up alcohol and felt so much better for doing so. Once I began looking at my diet, not because I should but, because that naturally began to happen once I gave up certain behaviours and attitudes and emotions that I was invested in, I felt much more alive and enthusiastic about life and people. The Way of the Livingness has shown me a much simpler and more truly loving way to live as it has you and so very many others and I am in deep appreciation of that fact.
Beautiful comment Jeanette, the way of the livingness certainly rocked my world and transformed it from a miserable existence to a life of responsibility, love, true choice and so much more.
What really stood out for me after reading your very gorgeous blog RB, what the fact of choice and not even considering the way you were living was a choice you made each time you lived that way. This feels very revealing and very very humbling.
This blog is great RB, it clearly outlines that The Way of the Livingness is about choices that we make in every moment to honour ourselves – and this evolves over time as we discern what works for us personally. There are no rules, just wonderful inspiration, and the results on our health and wellbeing speak loudly for themselves.
I sometimes still fall for the potato chips crunch, but my body tells me right afterwards and dropping my joy that I had before, and I am dragging me through my day not really participating anymore. It feels like a drug to me, when I do choose potato chips to numb my awareness with food. It is a split second that when I choose this crunch over my yumminess inside of me , it is ridiculous, but a learning process. I become more aware and not criticising me for not being always the same, but what I feel is that it is not worth it to give up what I have discovered for myself and how amazing I can feel with myself when I am clear connected with me and my body. I can choose that state of inner joy and embrace it to live it throughout my day or the crunchy chips in my mouth, which give me a quick moment of this salty crunchy taste, but it wants me to go on from there, not stopping until the bag is empty, and then looking for something else. The drug effect starts already with the thoughts and flirting with the comfort feeling this chips bring. It depends on how much I am loving myself to say no and to withstand the calling for the crunchiness. I can choose it how I want to feel with myself, and the attacks are getting lesser and I am most the time just smiling at the bags in the supermarket and passing them with the feeling of satisfaction that I am so yummy and don’t want anything else to numb it anymore.
The attack of the potato chip! I know the feeling…. and when I do succumb I feel ill afterwards…. for me there is no way for just a few.. its is the whole bag or nothing. It really is like a drug!
Like you, it is great on those days where I feel like NO WAY, I wouldn’t want to do that to myself, and walk past them in the aisle with a smile of my face, not giving my power away.
So true what you say here RB that The Way of the Livingness is a “no rules” approach – just the willingness to look at how we are living and taking responsibility for it. What could be easier than that?!
So easy, but somehow we all seem to like to make things complicated!
So joyful to read this RB — your blog is full of the vitality and joy that comes with how you live and the choices you have made to live a life that is truly FULL of life and joy every day. This is the most natural and normal way to be and it is available to us all when we simply start making honest and loving choices to care for ourselves and our bodies.
Thanks RB for what you have so beautifully shared. My own path is not to dissimilar to yours in many ways and I too want to show my appreciation for Serge Benhayon, his family and the Way of the Livingness
Thank you RB, I am, like you also inspired by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine to live The Way of the Livingness to the best of my ability and I love it. Even though it might not sound really much fun to be responsible for all the choices you make, I really find it a very freeing. If I am aware of the consequences of the choices I make, for instance with how my body feels after doing something, I can make a different choice the next time when a similar situation comes around. In contrary to not being aware of the fact that everything that happens is because of a choice I made, then I can keep going around and around in circles a long time without any change.
Having read your blog again, I only wish I had read it the other day just before I went out to lunch. Rather than sticking to what I know is right for my body, I let the impostor in and had food that was no use to my body. The following morning I felt like Mr Blobby. I now know that in future I will stick to only what is good for me.
Mike you are hilarious, maybe you could print it out and keep it with you for emergency backup. I’m telling myself this as well and I think that laminating it could be on the cards as I wouldn’t want to spill any food on it.
Thank you for your great blog, RB. It is so beautiful to feel the messages of our bodies and have the freedom to listen to them. As the vibrant and healthy you confirms it, it is truly worth it. And, that is also my own personal experience.
Great to feel how loving you have made your changes as usually people tend to put themselves under a lot of pressure of what is supposed to be right and wrong. That is a crucial part of changing one´s lifestyle, i.e. to introduce more and more love to one´s choices and not just doing the now assumed right thing. If it is loving, considering my whole body and wellbeing, it is naturally right FOR ME, because my body and being are telling me so.
Thank you for this beautiful blog RB. I can very much relate to what you describe.
Especially in regards to food I never could abide any rules. However since I re-learned to connect more to my body it´s easier to let go things that don´t support me in my wellbeing and vitality. As you described I don´t say ‘no’ to the food but ‘no’ to the consequences for my body as well as my mood. Yes, I experienced that certain foods change my mood, e.g. too much salt makes me feel grumpy. I never realized that before. And now as I am aware of that I can make a deliberate choice if I want to eat certain foods or prefer not to. How great is that?!
Thank you RB for the inspiring blog. What is it in us, that when we consider to make changes in our lifestyle to better our health and overall wellbeing, that labels this as boring? The same type of comment I get a lot when I eat my home prepared lunch at my work: “wow that is healthy food”, as if they would say not for me, that is so boring.
Great blog RB I can totally relate to it.
When it was spelt out for me, you are what you eat, so therefore eat what you feel. If you feel great keep going, listen to your body. If you slip, and fall down, don’t worry or whip yourself. Just pick something up on the way back up, and keep going. I am finding the more I listen to my body the less I slip, I knew it’s a long road, but it’s not a race and I will get there in the end, I still slip a lot but as long as I keep going then I still achieve the result I want and will have learnt truly what my body is trying to tell me. Shame it can’t draw stick man pictures yet.
Wow, I didn’t realise. You look so healthy and vibrant today, it’s incredible the changes youve made. Thank you for sharing
Thank you for sharing RB, our body is telling is so much about how we are most supported. But when there is something going on like feeling uncomfortable or have lost a little bit of yourself. We can quickly go back into eating and doing things that are not supporting.
Great article RB. You have shared so beautifully and honestly and I can definitely relate to all that you have said. I still eat the hot chip as I still enjoy the moment of pleasure from the taste, but my body is getting louder and louder in telling me to really think before I eat certain foods.
Very inspiring RB. Thank you!
Mmmm a set of rules… there would be absolutely no way I could possibly do that, The way of the livingness is your way within The Way, thats the beauty and simplicity of it
I relate to what you call ‘baby steps’ concerning altering what and why we eat and how we look after our selves in general. It felt absolutely vital to me that I do things for ‘real’, concerning eating food that supports my body, I needed to feel the difference in a doughnut and broccoli, until I did these ‘baby steps’ I could not honestly drop something out of my diet. It all had to come from a true foundation of knowing the difference and letting go of the emotional hooks in the food that I did not feel I required any more. I am still in this process and it is not one that I see coming to an end point, I change, so my diet changes. Thank you for a great blog.
It’s so awesome when your body becomes your best friend and adviser, always letting you know if a choice is right for you, or not. I love it too. I love that my best friend is with me all the time, come rain or shine. Thank you for sharing how that worked for you, RB.
So cool Rosie, love reading your experience and the way you write it awesome, clear, simple and straight to the point.
Thank you for sharing RB…this blog reflects out to a lot of people, how simple this is… connect with yourself, take responsibility & know that everything you do, affects everyone around you.
A really beautiful blog about one persons Way. RB your words – “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.” This is what’s so beautiful about The Way of The Livingness as its called, because it makes the person central again, it’s our responsibility to feel what’s right for us, instead of slavishly following rules or guidelines, or the ‘norm’.
Thank you RB, I too led a very wayward life for over twenty years and believed that ‘If I was not wasted then my day was’. Not knowing how to make different choices for myself until I found, ‘The Way of The Livingness’ as presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
I am astounded at the level of health and vitality that I have at 48 years old. In my entire life I have never felt this wonderful. This was all made possible by paying attention to how my body felt with every choice I was making. Serge Benhayon has shown me a true way of being and I am forever grateful for his loving support.
Thats great Andrew, you are your own science experiment…. and what you are choosing is giving you the results!
Great to read your before and after lifestyle choices RB, and the response from those around you in regards to the effects of changing your choices. I like how you explained you didn’t know any better, and its so true, everything that isn’t good or healthy for us seems so normal to do in the world today, its hard to know that there is any different and that is is actually having a negative effect on us.
Yes what is “normal”? and how easy is it to believe what you see in the supermarkets, media and television. I feel that for me, I thought I was pretty healthy, but I just did not have any role models that inspired me to delve deeper into what foods would really support me and feel right in my body for me, until I came across the Way of The Livingness.
“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.” – so liberating. We are just catching up with what our body naturally asks for, then eventually, the needs and cravings we have held for so long fall away.
RB thank you taking us through the steps you took to bring yourself back to true health. I had an aha moment when I realised that letting go of unhealthy lifestyle choices opened new doors. There was a richness in discovering the wonderful world of alternative foods that were delicious, nutritious and energising.
RB, I love how you have written about unhealthy ‘habits’ of the past never really feeling to be a conscious choice, that it was just something you ‘did’ – and by all accounts seemed absolutely ‘normal’. Can totally relate to growing up thinking alcohol and cigarettes were ‘normal’ and somehow fine choices to make – even when my body clearly couldn’t handle the punishment…
Truth is, the way I feel now – and most especially so since coming to the work of Universal Medicine – is that none of that behaviour was in fact ‘normal’ at all. It was actually the polar opposite.
To our minds it is common sense not to harm ourselves so brutally, and yet we do… Why? Well, what I discovered was that such choices that seemed out of my control actually stemmed from pain I still carried, things I had taken on in life – basically, where I’d been worn down.
The work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine supported me to actually let go of these deeper pains and undealt with issues, to the point that I miraculously no longer wanted to harm myself in ways I had done before. And believe me, I’d previously spent a lot of mental effort in delving into my ‘issues’ and had developed a very deep understanding of them. Thing was, before I came to Universal Medicine, and in particular, the Esoteric Modalities that truly support our body to let go all that is not truly ‘ourselves’, I still partook of harmful choices. The Modalities allowed my body the opportunity to let go, and in time, I found that it was no longer a matter of choice – harm was simply not an option!
The ‘process’ ever-refines, really, of feeling what does truly honour all that I am, and it is truly amazing. Like yourself RB, I also feel more vibrant than ever, and absolutely love singing for the pure Joy of it!
Thank you Victoria, it seems from all the comments, that we all have different reasons as to why we have chosen to
“harm” ourselves with food and even other substances. With what you share, I feel it is so important to get to an understanding of the WHY, that is underneath our choices. The Esoteric modalities are a great way to support this process.
I have found the Esoteric modalities such an enormous support to get underneath why I have hurt myself with food choices and the way I live and with this understanding it has been easier to make changes. Before I had a deeper understanding I found that will power alone was not enough to make long lasting changes. Esoteric healing and Universal Medicine has been such a profound support to me in my life and I am so appreciative of what it has inspired.
It feels like the best way to approach changing our eating habits is to become more discerning about how the food feels after the initial taste sensations we receive. Often I could eat something and not relate the food I consume to feeling sleepy afterwards, or not as bright and alert. I feel it is always good to hear of the experiences of others too. I find reading of RB’s changes is a huge support. But it is beautiful to acknowledge that it is our own individual choices that are right for us, and we make the changes that we feel comfortable and able to make. From this we can say that what we put in our body is a great measure of how we truly feel about ourselves.
It’s sad that an unhealthy way of living has become the “norm”. I often see post on facebook of people making unloving choice with food and drinks. Friends then comment back accepting and confirming this behavior as good, and the ball keeps rolling. It feels amazing to take responsibility of what food I choose for my body. You can’t help but reap the rewards of loving choices.
I am setting the new “norm”. Everywhere that I have worked, just by me choosing and making healthy food choices.. I have noticed how it has rubbed off on others and they have been inspired.
‘each day I just made choices that felt right for me.’
That for me is the joy of what Universal Medicine brings for me to consider, that I do have a choice and that it’s for me to make it.
I really resonate with what you say RB about having no rules around food, just listening to my body and not being influenced by what others may be doing. Food can be such a loaded subject and how easy it is to adopt rules about what we think we should and shouldn’t be eating. As many have said here it is an ongoing and ever developing relationship with one’s body and listening to it, on a daily basis as to what is required for today. So there can never be a formula, an ever learning process in which one is also free to make mistakes and learn more.
I agree Josephine, I am forever refining my food choices, quantities etc. My body never holds back telling me when a food choice, or quantity or quality of eating has not agreed with me…it speaks very loudly at about the 1hr mark after eating. It is at this point that I learn and refine my choices. Over recent years I have really appreciated the wisdom that my body offers me, always guiding me back to loving choices.
Baby steps….yes and for me also it is about keep going forward even when I go back. In the past if I ate too much or drank too much, it would almost be like an excuse then to just keep eating and drinking more….these days I realise that in every moment we have a choice. Thanks for sharing your choices with us.
What I just realised too is that if we do make a choice that does not feel good in our body, it’s not like a massive big hill to walk back up to get to where we were before making the choice.
It really is as simple as becoming aware of the fact that you made a choice, and felt the result and no longer want to do that. Simple. No rules, just awareness and the will to make changes.
Great blog RB. I also ran across a friend lately who said I look younger every time she sees me. A compliment to myself and The Way of the Livingness.
Your blog is so refreshing and candid RB, and Christina I agree the baby steps are the way to go, with no rules imposed from anyone else, just honouring our body.
I love what you shared in your article about the choice. That there is no rule but the truth of your body. That you made your way finding out what you need in “baby steps”. That there is no “goal” to reach. Living healthy in the way of awareness what your body truly needs.
Thank you RB for your inspiring words. I am in that process of taking steps towards healthy lifestyle choices right now. It’s the ‘occasional’ sugar and french fries that I still find hard to resist. Even though my mood takes a swing for the worse immediately after. And with two young teenage children it’s not always possible to go to bed early and let them sort everything out for themselves. It is comforting to read that even with baby steps I will get there eventually. I already feel the changes in me and I know there is so much more to come.
RB, what you have shared is just so beautiful, thank you so much for sharing this. Things i have learned over the years about lifestyle, relationships, diet, when i went to bed, well just about everything, i made it about rules. So when i didn’t adhere to those rules, I would beat myself up, be critical and the like. Which would always feel so awful. Because i was behaving this way towards myself, I in-turn would be critical of those around me. Since i have made my life and choice i make just that, about choices and responsibility, I am much less critical and so much more joyful towards myself and all those I come into contact with, which is a much more loving and supportive way to be.
‘I made some choices that I didn’t even realise were choices’, I love this line RB. And highlights for me how far so many of us have come, myself included with re-connecting to the body’s innate wisdom – and my growing awareness of what is supportive and loving for my body and what is not.
The honesty you shared about your past food choices and the responsibility you have chosen and the changes made is inspirational. I have recently gone back to looking at the foods that I eat, and realised there are many foods which I have chosen to omit based on the intellect, so I went back and tried these foods again–this time, feeling how it truly felt in my body and then making the choice to continue eating them or not. It was a phenomenal to have allowed myself to be deeper in honesty to myself.
Adele, that is so true! I find it amazing how I can follow my mind at times and override what my body wants, because my intellect is telling me I should or shouldn’t. It does take time and practise to really feel, and to become aware of how you feel after you eat certain foods and be able to link the moods, emotions etc to what you have eaten.
It is actually so easy yet so hard for most of the people to let go of things like coffee or alcohol – it is so important to not back up and think that if you decide not having it that you are the alien- what most of mankind does eat and drink is not normal in my eyes and it is shocking when you actually see what the substance does to the person. Me allowing to feel what is actually right in my body was lifechanging for me. And the fact how easy it was, when I decided to feel and not to numb.
Its great that there is no cold turkey with the way of the livingness or giving things up. I tried for years to stop smoking and drinking every way possible including cold turkey. With the way of the livingness , it didn’t happen overnight but I slowly, with more self love began to tolerate alcohol and nicotine and certain foods less and less until I discarded them altogether with no withdrawal or anything. I still eat foods I shouldn’t because my body lets me know when I have but I feel over time I will learn more and more what I can and cannot do and just feel better and better.
I agree Kev, there is no ‘cold turkey’ with the Way of The Livingness. The Way of The Livingness is about a way of life and certainly not a quick fix. As you say, it doesn’t happen overnight, but the more choices we make to truly love ourselves, the easier it gets to feel what is and what is not right for us.
I agree, there is no right or wrong way, just your body giving you signals that you either listen to and then choose not to eat that again, or you keep on eating it. I also have noticed that what might not feel okay in my body one day, will feel fine on another. I am my own food and eating experiment.
‘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’. I love this line because it is not about giving up things which implies a ‘missing out’ but rather a choice to let go of things that are not healthy for the body, which feels very empowering.
I agree Jacqueline, I find that as I have taken that same approach of not eating foods which are not healthy for me, I am now not eating foods which are no longer supporting me and therefore I don’t feel I miss out on anything.
I can echo your agreement Amita. I used to crave all the unhealthy stuff and did not seem to have a “no” button and would eat what I liked when I liked. Now that I have felt what the impact of these foods are on my body it’s easy to say no. I have no more cravings and I don’t feel that I miss out at all. In fact I can laugh at myself because the food that I sometimes crave these days are all things green, like broccoli and beans. Going to a market and seeing all the fresh green and verdant produce makes my heart light up, and quite the opposite when I see a cake and sweet stall, I feel a little sickly.
On re-reading you blog RB, I too have a deep gratitude to Serge Benhayon and his family for showing me The way of the Livingness, which helped me make healthier life style choices – and just like you I feel younger as I get older.
I have observed that people at work apologise to me because I can’t eat the cake or the treats, as if I am suffering in some way and being left out. It gives me an opportunity to share there is no need to feel sorry for me as it is my choice.
Yes Julie my experience too. Yesterday I shared some of my gluten and diary free food at a family lunch, and everyone was surprised at how tasty it was….
I don’t beat myself up for not knowing or being aware of the details of quantum psychics or other vast academic subjects so why the constant critical commentary in my head over normal daily choices? It makes me wonder if I am much more aware than I give myself credit for if I have what appears at times to be such a huge opposite counter balance. If so would that not mean I have a huge potential in making more self-loving choices? That is something certainly worth appreciating and celebrating and learning.
Thank you RB, this is such a great sharing to read and inspiring with your day to day loving choices you have made.
Growing up I would think that ‘healthy’ meant boring and that resting when my body naturally wound down, was ‘missing out’. I’ve learned that the foods that I once used to rely on, the same ones that made me feel tired, are not the only foods that are ‘tasty’. In fact, and quite to my surprise, I’ve found the way I prepare my food now, by listening to my body, and the end result is far more tasty and supportive, than I thought possible.
I was the same David, I thought that anything healthy was boring. A meal wasn’t a meal if it didn’t have chips and a gallon of tomato sauce followed by a sugary dessert. With the presentations of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon I have been inspired to make changes that truly support my body instead of those that just fill a need. The results speak for themselves- not only do I feel younger, I look younger, my skin is clearer, I am healthier, I have more vitality and I have lost over 12 stone in weight. How’s that for making the right choices?
Yes, what is with this boring thinking?? I was the same, but in fact, my food these days makes the old food that I used to eat look super boring!
A colleague of mine was questioning me yesterday about why I don’t eat gluten, dairy or sugar. She was trying to tell me that God doesn’t mind and that he wants me to eat as much as I like. This is so the opposite of what I feel to be true in my own body. I can feel that my body is sacred and that I can connect to God through my body. When I eat foods that numb me or make me racy I can no longer feel this sacredness within me and God disappears. I explained this to her and enjoyed her expression as she tried to take it all in. I so love the choices that I make for myself with food. They mean that I can truly feel and love my body.
That is a great point Rebecca, our bodies are sacred, the more we connect to our bodies, the more we connect to god, and as you describe: “When I eat foods that numb me or make me racy I can no longer feel this sacredness within me and God disappears.” A few seconds of pleasure in my mouth are nothing to feeling the sacredness of god in my body.
Thanks for this RB. It is amazing how people think that we are lucky for being healthy or shapely or fit or even joyfull. Everything comes about because of our choices and this is a lovely blog celebrating just that.
It still surprises me when people I work with offer me chocolate or coffee and say ‘Oh but it’s only just this once. You won’t die’
No, I won’t die. But what I’ve come to realise is that it isn’t about how bad chocolate is, it is about a constant commitment to support my body, and honouring the intelligence I have allowed myself to feel.
Only with that can I say that in my lived experience, chocolate doesn’t agree with me, so I won’t eat it and I won’t feel crap and I won’t bring other people down with me.
Choice is a very powerful thing and something my mind can be good at fighting against.
But by simply connecting back to my body and honouring the knowing of what supports me and what dulls me, allows me to make choices with ease – and stick to them.
Thank you RB, reading your article has shown me that the time has come to give up some of the foods I loved for years, and I feel a lot better in my body.
Fiona, it is also my experience of The Way of the Livingness . No boundaries, constantly loving support.
Yes it is strange that every generation gets handed down certain customs and behaviours in society which we assume are normal but do we actually stop and check if they are actually healthy or good for us? The great thing I found after coming across Universal Medicine, is that it asked me to actually ask my body for an honest answer as to whether my choices in life were actually good for it or not. My body came up with all the answers I needed (and still does) not anyone else.
Great point Samantha. It is not about will power at all, but either loving or unloving choices that determine our food choices.
Yes, I agree with you Michelle. Samantha has expressed this well. It’s much, much easier to change our habits when we feel how these choices impact our body. Then “Not giving up but letting go” of food that no longer supports becomes a much easier process.
Great blog RB. I was recently at a celebration where there was no alcohol, drugs or anything of that nature but there was music and singing and dancing. I realised that this is seldom the case anywhere but it has become very normal for me now days. I marvelled at how everyone was having so much fun and that it was all totally natural and not artificially induced. A few years ago I would not have deemed this possible.
Yes Kev, I was at a party like that on the weekend. It was the middle of the day, there was laughing, dancing and we all had so much fun and there was not a drink or drug to be seen. I love and appreciate the new normal so much.
Thank you, a fantastic blog. Not giving up but letting go is a great way of describing the process of learning to eat food that supports our bodies rather than one that can create sickness and disease. People often think that I am one of those ‘healthy’ people that has always been this way and they often comment about my ‘will’ power. I have to tell them, this is not will power, i have never had will power, which is why I used to be able to eat a packet of crisps and drink a bottle of wine with ease on a Friday night. This is about a choice, I am choosing to feel the difference in my body. Once I began to be honest about how pasta or sugar felt in my body, it has made sense to let go of foods that do not feel good. This does not mean that I have not succumbed to a food that does not support me on a day that I feel worn out, but being without this food for a while means that when I have it again I can feel how clearly it does not support my body. It is definitely a process.
Yes, I agree Samantha, for me also it never was about will power as I could indulge with the best of them. It’s about understanding what foods are actually doing to our bodies and then making honest choices that support our bodies and not to just fill a need or push down our emotions.
Yes, Samantha, I know what you mean about succumbing to a food that does not support when feeling tired. In my experience it only masks the tiredness and then I over-ride the tired feeling and push myself and I pay later with an achey body and feel even worse, so it’s just not worth it,
RB this is a great blog! When we start to take responsibility in and for our lives and our choices, what happens is amazing. For me at least, I started to realise how powerful I was and what an agent for change I could be in my own life. When I realised that what was present in my life I had already chosen and that I had the power to change it, it was a complete game changer, after so many years of being shown and told by society that what you have is ‘your random lot’ – now deal with it – I now know that what I have in my life I have chosen and there is always the possibility to choose something different.
Giving things up because I feel they do not suit my body is so empowering and it makes it easier to remove an item from my diet. I also love the fact that, there are no rules and I felt very free when I gave up on diets and pushing myself with the “no pain, no gain” type of exercising – more like endurance tests and torture than joyful and fun.
In the early days I used to think it would be boring to give up all of my favourite things I liked to eat but over the years I have not missed them and I feel so much better for giving them up.
Briliant Blog RB and how empowering it is to make our own loving choices on how we live and what we eat .I love this way of living so much too and your writing inspires me and what great choices you have made and are making consistantly.
Thank you for sharing this.
I have become so aware of food being a “crutch” of mine. I get this feeling of doing an amazing job, or being an amazing way with people and I feel so lovely deep from within and all of a sudden I yearn to shut it down with some bad food or drink choices…it’s literally an addiction and such an amazing level of awareness. It happens literally everyday at the moment and so clearly it is something for me to realise and learn. Re-visting this blog I get that renewed sense of “I can do this” and a great testament to the support we offer through blogging.
Oh yes Phil, the everyday food shutdown following an amazing moment – know that one well. You are not alone at working with that is all about, Thanks for nominating it.
Yes, same here Phil, I know exactly what you mean. When I am in the supermarket or any shop that sells food, I find myself looking at foods that I no longer eat, foods of the sugary kind, ( that I was once ‘hooked’ on) and that if I did eat, my body would have an immediate reaction to, so why I am still looking…? mmm, something for me to ponder on….what comes up is to look at my commitment to myself and see how this can deepen! And to remember that these foods no longer have a place in my life, and body and I chose that – appreciation there also!
I support others to shop which takes me down supermarket aisles with products I wouldn’t now buy. There are some foods that I definitely wouldn’t buy – i just don’t have the slightest inclination though, I can recall how I thought I used to enjoy them, some that I still do eat, however there are some where I feel I could still be tempted.
Just staying away from those products is one way, however as you note Jacqueline, with some pondering I may get an insight into why those are different from what have become the definite no’s.
There have been times when I really wanted a certain food, knowing full well it would not be good for me and it would probably make me feel quite sick. What I have experimented with is actually buying it and having some. I stop the battle in my mind, have it and get the full result of my choice and that usually is enough for me to learn from. I don’t just then have the knowledge that it wont be good for me, I have the real life proof. I wouldn’t do this with all things of course, but with some I feel it to be a good learning opportunity.
That’s so interesting you find that if you eat the food you are craving but you know will harm you that you learnt your lesson. I find that if I do eat it from that point on I constantly crave it and whenever I next feel bad it’s the first thing I go to! Whereas if I say no the first time it’s easier to say no the next time.
I have also experienced that, Phil, feeling amazing and glowing and in harmony with people, and then the “shut down” happens because of this sudden longing to put something in my mouth. Even if I don’t the thought is there and that is enough to start a change of energy to a mood of feeling not good enough. Why do we do that to ourselves? Is it because the amazingness is so unusual it feels too big and we have to diminish it to be like everyone else, or we will stand out? How senseless it seems when I consider that, to make myself small to fit in so I am accepted. More practice of being amazing, and then it will become natural, is what I feel is required to stop that false hunger.
Following on from your comments here Phil, Kathie, Jacqueline and Joan – this food hook can be so subtle and it feels like it can be in action almost before I know it.
I am realising now that when I am not accepting who I am or how things are at a particular moment is when I can use food to block the feeling and override the truth of my body. This may include eating a little too much or an occasional craving for sugar disguised as a ‘healthy natural bar’, then the after feeling is usually bloated and uncomfortable or racy.
‘More practice of being amazing, and then it will become natural, is what I feel is required to stop that false hunger’. Yep, I echo that Joan, just practice feeling comfortable in our amazingness….and that this is ‘normal’.
Thank you Phil and Joan I can relate to so much of what you have both expressed. I agree Joan “more practice of being amazing and then it will become natural, is what I feel is required to stop that false hunger.” It also feels like that when we experience those moments of amazingness we need to stop and appreciate this is the real me and that this confirmation will support us to continue choosing to stay with this way of being.
My feeling Joan is this is an acceptance thing. If we can accept ourselves as being awesome and amazing, we would have no need to dull ourselves or numb ourselves with over eating or eating foods that make us just want to sleep and not feel that amazingness.
I know this has been the case for me.
Anything that is new to us, just takes practise to get used to. Having spent years not being amazing and feeling great, I am now practising this and wonder why on earth did I fight and resist this feeling for so long.
For many years I was concerned that if I ” gave up certain foods, my life would become boring “.
What would there be for me to look forward to in later life ?
I made the commitment to let go of sugary/dairy/gluten foods, this has sometimes been a struggle, yet some have ‘fallen away’ without my ‘trying’ to give them up.
As I continue to clarify, feeling more vital and loved, I am so enjoying this ‘later life’ part of my journey.
Wendy this is such an important point, I have often had the comment about eating healthily is ‘boring’ and I’ve often been asked ‘what do you have to look forward to?’ It is incredibly sad that so many people live their lives for their next exciting plate of food, or for that special treat at the end of the day. What do I have to look forward to? It’s simple, I have myself to look forward to, unimpeeded by bad food choices, an always deepening love and life that is deeply fulfilling and is only getting better.
So true Meg.
It’s amazing when the table is turned (so to speak) and it is the moments of not eating that are more enjoyable… A consistent deliciousness within – rather than fleeting moments of something that only tastes good in the mouth followed by a let down, or heaviness, or raciness in the body to follow.
My food choices have changed so much to better support the in-between time, and not just satisfaction or enjoyment in the time of eating. And, it is amazing how good food can taste when it is truly good for you! SO it’s a win win.
i was always wary of what other people told me to do. i understand now with the support of Universal Medicine that this was the true me that i was feeling. i am now starting to trust those feelings and understand that those inner feelings are my truth. what a great way to live!
Awesome Ken and how freeing it is to to trust those inner feelings and live by that marker!
Agree Doug what really shines through is the power of building love in the body step by step, with a steady loving commitment. By letting go of perfection and viewing life as a learning… consistency and true change is possible.
Yes Anne-Marie, how refreshing having spent so much of my life aiming for perfection to now realise that there is often so much to learn from the imperfect.. no need for self criticism and judgement.
I certainly agree about your ‘no rules’ approach. The Way of the Livingness is the only thing I have ever come across that leaves you to work out your own way with life. No blueprint, no 5-point plan, No can-do, can’t-do. So nothing to rebel against. But when I started to think more about my choices and take responsibility for how I’d feel after I’d made dumb ones, that made the difference. As you say, ‘it was more like each day I just made choices that felt right for me.’ So simple. No big demands, no massive expectations. Just baby steps with your choices.
It’s great to read an article like this and everyone’s comments, I feel supported to be free of the food conventions and listen to my own body. I now realise have the freedom to choose, not just what I eat, but the time at which I eat (or don’t) and what each meal should contain…soup for breakfast, why not if that’s what I feel like?
I agree Kathie, being free of the restraints of when and what to eat is so liberating. Listening to when and what my body wants to eat, I have noticed that I have less cravings and there is less focus on being good generally.
Some great points – there are so many unwritten rules and conventions when it comes to eating – such as the kind of foods breakfast should contain, when I choose to eat soup, or salmon and veg for breakfast people are shocked? But why? My body loves it!
I too have ignored the messages from my body in the past. When I was young and had three glasses of wine I would end up vomiting the next day. It would take me until 4pm in the afternoon to get over it and even then I was still feeling fragile. Then a couple of months later I would repeat the same thing. One day, some 20 years ago I couldn’t bring myself to drink anymore, but it took a long long time to completely say ‘no’ and acknowledge what my body was communicating to me loud and clear. I still sometimes ignore what the body is saying and override it, but that is getting less and less. And the more I listen and follow the feelings in my body the more vital and alive I feel. Heartfelt thanks to Universal medicine for shining the Light and leading the way with this simple, practical, all-encompassing wisdom.
From what I have found by choosing to live and make choices that are healthy, where I take full responsibility for my choices, is not boring. I have experienced so often people being amazed when they discover that the food I eat is gluten and dairy free as they have the perception that such food would be bland in taste and appearance. In fact what they experience is that it looks ‘normal’, in fact extremely appertising, and tastes delicious.
I agree Jonathan, many people I speak to baulk at the idea of going gluten and dairy free because they feel they will be missing out. When I show them what food I eat and offer them a different view on the potential health benefits, they are usually quite surprised and have been inspired to incorporate changes into their lives.
I couldn’t agree more Jonathan – at first people thought I must eat cardboard or something but then when they actually see what I eat, they are really impressed and inspired…. I have never eaten such tasty food and the fact that I can eat it and not feel really full and sick afterwards is obviously a total bonus 🙂
In the early days when I just bought pre-prepared gluten and diary free products some of them did taste a bit ‘cardboardy’, however once I started to experiment and cook for myself a whole new world of taste opened up.
That is very true, there is a common misconception that healthy food is bland and boring and tasteless. But I agree with what you have said and find I am eating the tastiest food I think I have ever eaten!!
Johnathan, i get that too, a lot of people feel that gluten and diary free food is boring and they would be missing out on delicious food. A lot of our friends have seen how we cook our food and that it is delicious and also more healthier; they have been inspired to try new recipes themselves. Our own livingness has been the inspiration to others.
Awesome RB, I too am enjoying feeling younger as I get older which is fantastic! I have loved reading how choosing choices that supported you has had such a direct impact on you and your energy levels. What you have written make so much sense, it is simple and yet so very profound.
Very true Samantha. Simple but so very profound. It’s wonderful that when we make choices to support our bodies we begin to feel younger…and look younger too! There is a secret here that the beauty industry doesn’t want us to know about!
This is an inspirational article raising significant aspects about our relationship with food . When I read….’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’….I realise how huge the gap in our education is, unless we are unwell we just simply eat without stopping to ask if this food is supportive of our bodies or not?….Thank you RB
Fabulous blog RB and as Julie says – no nonsense and down to earth – love it. The Way of the Livingness is such a simple and practical approach to living and has turned my life around too. Like you, I abused my body and never once considered the impact on my health or others. Once I started to listen to my body and take responsibility for the choices I was making then I slowly made different ones, more nurturing choices. Now at the age of 50, I feel the best I have ever felt – and the bonus is that life reflects that back to me.
I have just attended a day of talks and presentations about Universal Medicine and am marvelling at the power of our every day choices to bring true change to our lives and, as a ripple effect, the world. When we take care of ourselves and responsibility for the essential part that we all play, we can turn the tide and arrest the ill patterns so entrenched in society today (the abuse of food, alcohol, drugs; the dysfunction in our relationships from micro – cruel words spoken between people – to macro – a world that has not been free of war for hundreds of years; and the lack of respect for our natural world). We can, as individuals, make a difference. Our words and actions today and how they are spoken and presented, setting a foundation for tomorrow. I am inspired by and in awe of responsibility as a joy rather than a burden.
I love this blog RB, it has a no nonsense down to earth, simple and clear quality.
The Way of The Livingness has changed my life beyond recognition and I for one feel younger and live a more productive life than I did in my twenties and I enjoy getting out there in the world now. The life I live now is so far removed from my previous existence.
I agree Julie, RB has taken all the complication out of the word healthy and is simply using common sense and feeling to know what is now right for her, I love how simplicity can be so satisfying!
I agree with you RB, looking younger, being fitter, feeling more vital and looking well is a wonderful by-product of The Way of The Livingness and one that I have seen in so many students of this Way. I love the way you explain it so simply as the small changes over time that come about from listening attentively to your body and honouring what it has to tell you, keeping you on a gentle road towards greater health, fitness and wellbeing as you grow older – wow, what other way can deliver this as a by product?!!
Hi RB you make some great points in your blog that people can be inspired by. Through Universal Medicine I have found that living a vital and healthy life comes from listening to my body and making choices based on what I can feel from my body. My weakness was sugary foods and because I never really put on much weight I thought I was getting away with it, although my body did show me by giving me spots but this was not enough to stop me eating them. The more I listened to my body the more I could feel how sugar would make my body feel racey, it gave me a vibration that made me feel uncomfortable, so the more I listened to this the more I would stop eating foods that made me feel that way.
The human body is amazing in how it keeps functioning when we consistently keep abusing it – even though it speaks back so loudly with hangovers, bloating etc but we do not listen. As so many comments say and myself included “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.” Now, like so many others have said, I am learning to listen to my body and have experienced huge beneficial changes. In doing so, by working with it, I have gained a far deeper appreciation of my body and its amazingness. By doing so it has also led me to appreciate so much more about discerning and be responsible about life’s choices, instead of accepting what is ‘normal’.
Absolutely spot on RB, ‘The way of the Livingness’ allows you to make choices as and when you feel to. Bringing the awareness that there is another way and playing with that – choosing to see what it presents and how it feels for you. I, like yourself, have taken it in stages as, when I felt I was ready and as I have got older I am looking younger… I feel younger than I did back when I was 20!
It’s amazing how things change when we start to listen to what our body needs or doesn’t need. Last night I didn’t feel like any dinner but I had a bowl of soup anyway as I had a two hour drive home and thought this would have been supportive, but instead gave me a stomach ache all the way home. Next time, I’ll go with what I felt first and not override that.
I know what you mean Kev. We are so used to doing things a certain way that it’s so easy to override what our bodies are telling us. There have been many occasions where I have overridden what my body was saying and eaten a meal because society says that is the time we should eat but felt awful afterwards. Learning to listen to our bodies is not always easy but definitely worth doing.
The teachings of Universal Medicine show a true sustainable way to live that is not a quick fix from the outside but a complete change from the inside out and that is why so many people have simply made remarkable changes in their lives that endlessly open up further opportunities to learn and expand. I am so inspired by so many of these life changing stories.
True Matilda – The Way of The Livingness is not a quick fix like so much that is on offer that is purely about relief and not lasting; the changes we make come from re-connecting to our own bodies and the innate wisdom they hold bringing lasting results, and as you say – a sustainable way that is true.
Changing from the inside out – love it Matilida.
Hi RB, I re-read your blog today and it made me stop and wonder why did we not know these things already? Why is unhealthy eating, heavy drinking and a general lack of self care a normal everyday part of life? If we were truly educated as children there would be a whole heap of healthier adults and considerably less strain on the healthcare providers.
“Getting to feel younger as I grow older”, that is how I feel. RB, but it is not so much my body as my vitality and ability to be part of more things such as dancing, volunteering in the community, and other activities that are new to me. I am in my 70’s after about ten years of illness and lack of energy and looking older than my age, but now, after nearly seven years of experiencing the Way of the Livingness presented by Serge Benhayon, I look younger than my age, and feel it, despite the fact that my ageing body is showing many symptoms of the wear and tear I have subjected it to in my life, and can be very painful. But it is the joy growing inside of me that shines out which I am slowly connecting to more and more. There is a light in my eyes I never saw in my life before. To me this is a miracle, as I felt I was on the road to a complete debilitation, but the Way of the Livingness shows me the way to be my own salvation through the choices I make that my body loves. All I need to do now is to keep on committing to unfolding a deeper relationship with myself and others.
Well said Joan, I too look and feel much younger than I am. I like how you say ‘but the Way of the Livingness shows me the way to be my own salvation through the choices I make that my body loves.’ Its these day to day choices that truly supports my body that gives me that vitality and energy that was lacking before, which gives me the confidence to be myself and be more open with others.
Reading your comment Joan was lovely, “Getting to feel younger as I grow older”… Your story is a true testimony to The Way of the Livingness. How inspirational it is for all of us and for those that have begun the journey back to our truth well before our 70’s you have shown what the potential for us will be when we get there.
Food is a religion in itself. We all have a relationship with it bar none. The superstores are our churches, where we can find aisles upon aisles of food in all the flavours, origins and qualities. The use of alcohol and drugs are the same. With so much to choose from, it is easy to lose oneself, as did I. What brought me back from oblivion? It was a man. Serge Benhayon, who shared with me and many others the importance of caring about ourselves. Once I began to re-connect to the part of me that I missed so much, I felt less of the emptiness that always drove me to find something to numb it with, be it smoking, drinking, eating, fantasies and relationships etc. It’s all about living a life that is real, honest and loving.
Interesting point on the many relationships that we allow that take us away from ourselves , be it food,sport, fantasy etc that we use to numb ourselves. By recognising the dependancy on these we become so much more real about life and ourselves. A level of honesty and truth develops and it is amazing medicine.
Love what you have expressed here Jinya and I agree, food is a religion as so much centers around food from the moment we stand up until we go to bed. And yes the supermarkets have so much variety and aisles and aisles of food to choose from (most filled with hidden sugar and way too much salt). As much as our bodies need the fuel food provides us, foods of the unhealthy kind are a temptation and a seduction, and can become an addiction, ( I had an addiction to sugar) especially when you are feeling tired or emotional which makes it so easy to reach for the comfort…When i was choosing food for comfort and to numb myself it can be really hard to see this habit when you are in this cycle. I became aware of this habit when I began attending courses with Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and with the awareness have changed my eating habits and now choose food that truly nourishes my body, which my body loves!
Somebody asked me recently if Universal Medicine was a weight-loss programme, because so many students have lost weight. It is not intended as such, but myself and many other men and women have found that, through making healthy lifestyle choices, their bodies have regained their natural weight. For me, letting go of emotional reactions, staying calm, exploring the behaviours and choices I was making that drained my energy helped me to crave fewer stimulating foods and to eat in a more nourishing way. As a result, the weight simply dropped off . . . and stayed off. It is thanks to the inspiring presentations of Serge Benhayon, who lives what he presents, that I have been able to make those choices.
I had to smile at your ‘had to be wasted to dance, I was always a 2 and ½ drink minimum before I had the dutch courage to hit the dance floor. Now I love to dance and when I get out of my head even my two left feet go away and everything just flows.
Awesome blog RB, thanks for sharing. I love: ‘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.’ So often I get that question asked about my healthy food choices and how boring that most be. People want to fix it and come with solutions. But you only have to see and feel you to get the awareness of what healthy food choices do to the way we look and feel: simply amazing.
Monika you have well expressed how it is for me too. I used to get caught up in food, food, food. Now I’m finding the more simple it is, the better it feels. I keep my meals light and tasty and inspired by the feeling my body gives me at the time.
Oh the bad choices I have made because I thought it was normal, or cause everyone else was doing it, or because I wanted to be the first to do it, whatever reason, as you say it was and is a choice. I’m learning on a daily basis of how much each and every choice I make not only effects me but effects everyone else. Thanks RB
There are so many reasons why we make bad choices and it continues because we ‘don’t know how’ to change them. I know that I sometimes feel stuck in a rutt and give up because it all seems too hard but what RB is presenting here is that it doesn’t have to be hard and it can actually be an amazing process but support is very much needed. The amount of change that people have gone through because of the support of the Universal Medicine practitioners is incredible. I too use to make extremely bad choices and with the help of many healing sessions have changed my life so much.
What I love about your writing, RB, is that your presentations of how Universal Medicine has supported you to make better choices in your life are always practical and accessible for everyone. But there is also profound truth in the simplicity of them, and you are a living example of how simple it can be to turn your life around.
I can now see that I was blindly following a path of illness. disease and self abuse, which I rarely questioned and when I did the answer was always in the next diet or keep fit craze.
These days I am quicker to realise when a food or behaviour is abusive to my body, which makes it is easier to not go there again – it may take a while but I get there eventually.
I love what you share about the fact that you looking great and younger than you did 15 years ago, is a ‘by-product’ of a much deeper evolution in your relationship with yourself and the world. So it is not about trying to fix our appearance to fix life, but developing an honest and tender relationship with ourselves, making loving and supportive choices, engaging enthusiastically with our responsibilities and then enjoying the ‘by-products’ of improved health, vitality and the way we look as, not needed, but much enjoyed bonuses.
“The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.”
This is what Universal Medicine presents to us. An awareness of our own free will alongside the consequences of each and every choice – responsibility. When we learn to live in this way, we get to feel everything, and that guides us further back along the path to our natural beautiful selves.
Well summed up Jenny, Universal Medicine has given the guidence but ultimately the choices we make are ours
Yes, the choices are ours as it the responsibility, wether we want to admit it or not.
Thanks for sharing RB, I like the way you said you didn’t have to give anything up but rather let things go that no longer suited you. For me it was, and is the same, its like the old analogy of wearing a shoe that was too tight just so you could take it of to feel the relief. Now I’m not needing to put the tight shoe on in the first place. Eating hot chips and then washing it down with a coke was something that I was slow to let go of, Oh the comfort, oh the sugar and caffine fix,,oh the bloating and sick feeling afterwards.
Another amazing article RB – I really loved when you said, ‘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.’, this is so true and relatable! At school many of my friends think my life is ‘boring’ and say that they couldn’t live without alcohol or chocolate or caffeine, when the thing is I would never want to drink or smoke etc. because I know my body would react and it would prevent me from living in a healthy and joy-full way.
What you share here is so true Susie and I remember in school I also felt the same way. There was no way that I wouldn’t drink or smoke or take drugs because thats just what you did. It was my normal. If anyone had another way of living, that which was not associated with drinking or smoking I would be ok with it but would never actually listen to any of the sense the person may have been living. How my life has changed and now has total respect for my body and how these substances are so toxic.
Love it RB. When I first realized how much I had not been taking the driver seat in my life and began to learn how to listen to and take care of myself it was very challenging as I felt I needed to go back to pre-school…after all my hard work and exhausting efforts!…
…now, like you, I am loving listening more and more to my body. Now it is quite obvious what feels loving to eat to do and it’s more natural for me to do things in gentler and more supportive ways.
Well said Jo. When we step up our responsibility and take the drivers seat for our own lives and make changes to our previous lifestyle choices it can certainly feel like we have our L for learner plates on! But with commitment and letting go of our ‘bad habits’ that P for proficiency comes shining through and we can make more and more loving choices that continue to rebuild our bodies and our lives.
When I do away with rules about how things should be done, I free myself from the chatterings of my head and am able to feel and be guided by my body. Choices from here are current, in alliance with what is going on in any given moment and lead me to living a life that is responsible, free of dogma and evolving.
When I read what you said about how you had liked hot chips, ‘I just enjoyed the part of putting them in my mouth’, a penny dropped for me. I finally understood that eating is not just the first part, where you put the food in your mouth, but includes everything thereafter, which until now I had separated and saw as being something different in my mind, something almost not related to me, something mechanistic that happened after I had eaten. In seeing it as separate, less related to me than the part of putting food into my mouth, it was easier to take less responsibility for it. And this has been such a trick, because intellectually I fully knew that eating and digestion were totally related, and I have heard people talk in the way you have lots of times, but I hadn’t fully heard it, I hadn’t wanted to; sneakily a part of me only saw the two as separate, so that I could carry on ignoring the effects some foods were having on me.
This is a great point to highlight Catherine, ‘eating is not just the first part, where you put the food in your mouth, but includes everything thereafter, which until now I had separated’.
An inspiring blog RB – and in particular I like the following passage – ‘The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.’ – after some trial and error with my diet I am realising the wisdom of your words. I have been on a gluten and dairy free diet for a few years and during this time I was copying other people, as in what they ate. It was only recently that I decided that I needed to take responsibility about the choice of what was best for my body and what felt good in my body and now the change has been significant. My life feels more vital and joyful than I have felt for the last 69 years – wisdom can come with age if we allow it – although I am often inspired by the wisdom of the young.
Hi RB, what a great reminder that there are two ways of approaching life. The first is in reaction and making lifestyle choices with food, drugs, alcohol, distractions etc that ease, numb, relieve the tension of what we are caught up in. The second is to look at why we are in reaction and take responsibility for that. And once we do this, it is very easy to start the process of reviewing how we have been living, so that we can make more loving choices.
Hi Janet, thanks for your comment… It made me think that we can either be in RE-ACTION, doing the same Action again and again.. reacting and getting the same or similar or sometimes louder response… or we can choose to CREATE and live our life creating it from here forward.. making choices, like we plant seeds in a garden, in a way that supports us and makes us feel vibrant and alive each day.
I agree Janet, we have two choices in how to deal with our issues, reaction or responsibility. For me, taking the reaction road is so much easier and ultimately doesn’t solve anything, but taking the responsibility road we get to see what a difference we do and can make and is so much more fulfilling.
Agreed Tim. The re-action road is so much easier, but for me it is not an option any more. It feels absolutely awful. Taking responsibility takes more loving effort and is indeed so much more fulfilling.
Beautifully summed up Janet, ‘there are two ways of approaching life. The first is in reaction and making lifestyle choices with food, drugs, alcohol, distractions etc that ease, numb, relieve the tension of what we are caught up in. The second is to look at why we are in reaction and take responsibility for that’. I am choosing the path of responsibility, and making loving choices that support my body.
The beauty of the way of the livingness is that it gives you the freedom to make your own choice and take responsibity for your choices. Students of the way of the livingness are great inspirations and reflection how amazing life can be when we take responsibity for our own choices.
I can relate to much of what’s been shared. Sixteen years ago I was very unwell with digestive problems so I removed some foods from my diet. This made a huge difference to my health at the time, but slowly overtime I felt tired and stressed again. It was when I met Serge Benhayon that I could understand why these foods affected me and became aware of why we choose what to eat. My body had always been telling me what it likes and doesn’t like but with this deeper awareness of how foods affect me, I can continue to refine what supports my body. Thank you RB.
Our choices of what food to eat are definitely reflected in our bodies. They can show up as obesity, or diabetes, and in extreme cases, heart attack, but I am learning there is a more subtle effect that has taken me a few years to truly cotton on to (realise). I’ve known for a while that I eat to numb my body from feelings I don’t want to deal with, but I am also learning what amazingly sensitive instruments our bodies are and that they can help us to understand what’s going on in the world, through what they can feel. If eating certain foods, or eating too much dulls that sensitivity then I am denying myself of a great deal. So now I’m having fun exploring how different foods affect me and how much I need to eat to sustain a healthy body without dulling my sensitivity. Feeling me and my own delicateness is a totally new experience!
I was having a moment yesterday, appreciating how a friend of mine is so good at reading energy and feeling what is going on in their body. I then got real honest and thought to myself, well we all have that same ability, it is just that some of us chose foods to numb us or dull our sensitivity just enough to not feel. It was great because instead of comparing and feeling less than my friend, I was inspired to make some new choices with how I am living so that I too can feel more.
I very much enjoyed reading this blog RB, I kept saying ‘yes’, ‘yes’ to everything you are saying. The Way of the Livingness gives me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them. I too feel and look so much healthier and have more vitality and enjoyment in everything I do.
Great blog. Very clear and very much from your own experience. I could really feel, how realising there were choices and making different ones, altered your life. I have been making conscious choices to alter how I live and have slowly removed many things from my life, including alcohol and cigarettes, both of which made me feel so unhealthy and worn out. I feel really good and yes easily look and feel 10 years younger than I am. I can remember how I felt at 30 and I was exhausted and disillusioned, my reliance on alcohol and nicotine annoyed me…I could feel the control these two substances had over me and it has been a very empowering and joyful experience to remove them from my life.
I find it interesting that even when you are caught up in the habits and addictions of smoking and drinking, on some level you really can feel the effects that that they have on your body, yet you override it and ignore what your body is telling you. It is not until after stopping, and well done on you Samantha for making that choice, that you start to really feel the difference and then it’s quite scary because you can feel the harm that you inflicted on yourself. Looking and feeling 10 years younger than you are is how you should be and just shows how much the alcohol and cigarettes age you.
“I’m not perfect. But my body speaks very loudly to me” I love this – I too know this to be true
RB I think it is awesome that you shared honestly that there is no perfection in this process of developing self awareness and self care. In fact what I realised reading this blog again is that oscillation between taking care of ourselves and not taking care of ourselves is actually a natural part of the process. After all if we did not have the odd slip up then how would we really know for sure that a food or sleep pattern is not right for us? You only have to experience the ‘brick in the stomach’ (as many have commented on this blog) after eating something a few times to really get the message that may be this is not so good for me and my body!
I agree Andrew, the slip ups, the lessons, the loud reminders from the body are great, because with them we learn from experience.
A great way to look at it RB and Andrew, and with that it helps us re-look at what a useful tool the body is to help us literally feel what is or is not true for us. Eat the wrong food and you most certainly feel it. Instead of blaming the body as having the problem its refreshing to start to look at what I do or put into the body as being the thing to adjust.
I agree there is no perfection for we are fundamentally imperfect human beings but in many ways it is actually our slip ups that highlight our imperfections and are our greatest teachers by allowing us to pay far more attention to the details and impact of the choices we make in our daily lives and thus how we understand ourselves and others.
Well said Suse, a big YES from me. When we make a mistake or things are not exactly how we would like them to be, those are the moments where we can learn so much. In the uncomfortable moments there is much to learn from.
What I feel is that it is from these uncomfortable times that I have had the most “aha” moments, and had massive realisations that have caused me to change my life so even though at the time it may have been challenging, I would not want to change a thing because of the learning that took place.
I love what you have shared, RB. I feel like you have put aside any drama about self-denial, and just made sweet, simple, respectful choices every day that have built a loving, purposeful, health-enhancing life. Inspiring.
Hi again RB. When reading this I was reminded of a time when I could also only dance and sing when I was wasted. I can remember going out for a night out when sober and not knowing how to move my body, I felt really awkward. Now, however, there’s not so much pressure to get it right, and just have fun without the alcohol.
Also, Doug, there is no “goal” as such, only small step by small step towards a deeper connection with ourselves, and that is never ending, there is always more to discover and feel. That can never be boring, especially as it brings more vitality and joy.
What a great sharing RB thank you for showing the loving choices in your life now, so simply with step by step joy as you feel them all. A real inspiration and beautiful to read. I too have made enormous changes to my life thanks to Universal Medicine and The Way of the Livingness and am now enjoying true dancing, singing, music and having fun with it all.
“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 too have gone through that – thinking it was a normal way to live. But now, in much appreciation of feeling the affects for myself with how I was treating my body and through the amazing presentations by Universal Medicine, I know and am beginning to truly live, another way, free from the ups and downs of food affecting my moods and energy levels.
It’s great to re-read your article RB, I can really relate to this ‘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.’ It now feels exposing to read this and be aware of the harmful choices I was making with smoking, drinking, taking drugs and eating vast amounts of sugar and incredible that at the time I didn’t even consider the effects this was having on my body.
Its quite unbelievable when we do stop and think about it what we have made to be normal. Excessive eating, drinking, smoking, taking drugs, porn and staying up late and then we don’t consider the huge impact this has on our physical body and how this makes us feel. It begs the question, why do we do this?
I have also taken small steps in changing things I had always done. A lot of the changes I made were like when I quit smoking, the first 3 of 4 days were the hardest. As time goes by you loose the cravings for what you have changed and before you know it you begin to feel the difference in your body. With smoking there were lots of benefits other that the obvious health stuff… I could taste and smell things! Food is the biggest change, it is a constant evolution of refining my foods as you have said about the awareness of what and why we eat things.
Being able to dance and sing because you feel great and without being wasted. That says a lot about the effect of making different choices that are simple and gradual.
Hi RB, you have written in a really no nonsense way, this is how it was and making small changes as you felt, to your health and natural vitality returned. I look back at my earlier years and wonder who it was that made all those choices – I just don’t recognise the person I was back then. I have learnt so much from the presentations at Universal Medicine and I am slowly making changes as I feel to, its pretty awesome to actually understand I have a choice.
Exactly before understanding more about my body I thought I could eat, drink and consume whatever I pleased. No wonder I would often get sick and feel run down! Understanding we have a choice is very empowering indeed.
I can really relate to your article, in the past I did not live a healthy lifestyle, i didn’t take responsibility for my choices and thought how I lived was normal… there was not another way to live. From being inspired by the Benhayons, true role models, and Universal Medicine I have changed my lifestyle choices, gradually with what is right for me, and now feel clearer, have a stronger body and more vitality with the feeling of true joy. It’s lovely.
Beautifully simple and truly inspiring, a great article, thank you RB. I love this line …’ The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them…’
Great summary Doug – very simply put.
RB, I especially enjoyed reading that your life is not boring, now that you do not eat chips or drink alcohol, but that in fact your life feels vibrant and fun.
“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.”
I too did this and feel I am still unpicking this pattern.
Likewise, Michelle. I could pretend that I did not know any better at the time, but in truth I knew how much I was hurting myself through the choices I was making. For me it felt a bit like watching myself doing these unloving things, but not being open to any other options because I was locked in to seeing the world in a particular way. Thanks to Universal Medicine this is very different today.
Isn’t it crazy Janet, how we knew.. yet did it anyway… and we are intelligent, yet make very non-intelligent choices.
Maybe we all need to redefine what is actually normal in today’s society as when we live not paying attention to and considering the effects of our choices these choices are still accumulating in our bodies regardless if present day society views them as normal or not.
There is no maybe about it Suse, for what we have accepted as normal in our society is harming our bodies and making us ill, I love this: “these choices are still accumulating in our bodies regardless if present day society views them as normal or not.”
Very true, no question about it, even if it is considered normal, it can be very harming to our body.
Thank you for sharing Rosie, I can relate to what you have shared and I loved how you said – ‘there are no rules or guidelines, so to speak, so you can’t fail or not ‘pass GO’’. Simply we can take responsibility for all our choices and actions.
Love it, RB. So simple and clearly expressed. I know about the rebel inside myself also very well. So having no do’s or don’ts it was really Me to choose different, in my own timing, when I was ready. Having drunk alcohol (heaps) since I was 14 years old I still was drinking 2-3 years after I started learning about The Way of the Livingness and making ‘baby steps’ practicing it. Then one day – no special day like New Year or so – I stopped, totally and haven’t started again for a few years now. I have been able to do this with the support of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine as I am learning to take responsibility, feel and make my own choices.
I just loved reading this – honest, no judgement and straight to the point! Loved it.
I agree Michelle, so honest , no judgement and straight to it.
Thanks ladies, thats my style… no beating around the bushes…
What an offering, RB. Like you – I went along with whatever food because it was there or because other people eat it. Knowing full well that it didn’t agree with me. It was through how my mum started to make more loving choices with what she eats, after being inspired by Universal Medicine, that I started to understand food does more than fill a stomach. And what I choose to eat could either harm or support me. What I love is, like you – food is always a choice, but a choice from listening to my body first. When I eat something not supportive – I know its because I’m ignoring my body and not because I just want it. That’s amazing to be aware of.
I agree with your comment Doug, small steps, feel whats right, no do’s and dont’s, being connected with yourself, taking responsibility and the life changer at the end, knowing that everything you do affects everyone around you. That for me simply sums up the Way of the Livingness. Great blog RB.
RB, this is a great blog with so much I can relate to (more on this another day perhaps!). I love your words – “In this Way, there are no rules or guidelines, so to speak, so you can’t fail or not ‘pass GO’. This is so true and initially it was very challenging to me as I had been so used to following rules throughout my life. Such a freedom since attending Universal Medicine presentations.
Hi RB. I can really relate to this article. Particularly the bit about the hot chips, enjoying putting them in your mouth, but not feeling great afterwards. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing this RB, it’s great how you took small steps to change things instead of just going full blown cold turkey and then a few weeks or months later going back to how you were living. So inspiring
This is such a great blog RB. Your inspirational story is one that should be shared with many.
“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.”
This is such an important statement. Somehow there seems to be a misconception that not eating or doing certain things means that somehow you are deprived or missing out. It is hard sometimes to fully appreciate the feeling gained from not eating or doing these things anymore until one tries it for themselves. Having felt the changes for myself, it is easy to not make those choices again. It does not feel like something I’m missing out on, only something I’m gaining.
Some people sometimes go into sympathy because I won’t eat certain foods that they consider a “treat”, with them. I never feel like I am missing out. I am simply making a choice..
My friends and colleagues know I don’t drink alcohol or eat chocolates, so if they ever want to say thank you, they buy me a punnet of strawberries or a bunch of flowers, which is lovely.
I enjoyed your blog too, RB. I never stopped to check what I was eating or how it made my body feel. I just had what ever I wanted especially chocolate, biscuits, crisps and take away food. I used to always eat vegetables with my meals and kidded myself that I had a healthy diet! My body protested loudly by the time I got to my thirties with hypoglycaemia and excessive bloating, exhaustion and lethargy. Like you I also gradually changed what I was eating as I began to notice how my body responded to what I was eating. It’s still a learning process but it has been so worth taking the time and care to pay attention to food, and to see if I feel nourished and light, or bloated, dulled and heavy.
RB, I can tell that what you say about feeling vibrant now is true, because your vibrancy and zing is popping out of your blog. It was a joy to read.
As I was growing up I made many choices to fit in and to conform to the image that I wanted others to have of me. As a result I was never really me to such extent that I did not know who the true me is. Since becoming a student of the Way of the Livingness I am having great fun in finding out who I am and just being who I am. There is increasing joy and lightness in everything I do as I no longer burden myself with conforming to what I think others expect of me.
Ditto! I did the same… and still feel like sometimes that old version, the made up version of me comes out… and it feels kind of weird… but only feels weird now because I know that it is no longer or never was actually the true me.
This is so true Mary and Rosie, yesterday I was expressing in my fullness to a stranger and someone I knew well came along and I felt “that old version, the made up version” come up. And I questioned the real me. So like you say it felt weird, but only “because I know that it is no longer or never was actually the true me.”
To live a life where you feel to sing and dance naturally, without the need to get drunk before you do, reminds me of how a child lives, with the joy and fun of every moment. What a gorgeous way to be Rosie and what an inspiration you are to those around you.
Thank you Fiona, I was singing and dancing around the house today… and then stopped as I realised I have new flat mates… and worried what they may think…. then I chose to not worry about that, but to really just enjoy expressing, singing and dancing… and in that, I allowed them to open up and enjoy that too..
Imagine.. if I had stopped, in case they may judge me…. we all would of missed out…
Sometimes we just have to not allow our minds to get in the way.. and we just have to give it a go..
I find it amazing that so many people are convinced that we must have alcohol or drugs or even just cake in order to have a good time. It is like our ability to enjoy ourselves cannot exist without the help of another thing which stimulates us in some way, and yet as children we were quite often perfectly content for hours on end with a cardboard box and our imaginations. Yet for many people to simplify their lives like this as adults seems like they are losing something, maybe losing their “adult privilege”. I noticed for myself that when I started going to bed earlier that there was a part of me that was fighting it simply because I felt that I was an adult and it was my right to stay up late. Nevermind that my body was actually tired and was telling me that it was time to sleep. It has been learning respect for what my body is telling me works and doesn’t, that has been such a profound and healing affect on my life. No rules involved, just paying attention to what I feel and acting accordingly!
I ate something the other day, after convincing myself a small bit will be okay…even though there were elements that were healthy, I knew it was food I normally wouldn’t eat.. and the consequence is little ulcers on my tongue! Thank goodness for the body which is always giving me feedback on the foods I eat!
Great sharing. It’s so true making steady slow changes is what supports to understand and reflect what has been behind in making choices to harm the body. What I am realising is that I have to slowly understand what it is behind a food that I am holding onto which I know when I eat it, it makes me feel tired, bloated or heavy. I know that if I have given it up quickly and not understood, why I stopped and what harm it was causing my body, a few months later it would creep back in. But once I have nailed it, it’s gone. Like alcohol, I am around it all the time at work, and have no urge of feeling to drink. So for me at the moment letting go of food that is harming me is a work in progress.
I never had much of an urge to drink, but would drink to fit in and socialise. Now it never ever enters my thoughts.. I can easily feel that I won’t ever be craving it, that is for sure.
You are an inspiration RB, I too have embraced, ‘The Way of the Livingness – being connected with yourself; taking responsibility, knowing that everything you do affects everyone around you’, and I equally love the freedom within that ‘to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.’
Gorgeous RB, it is an amazing thing to get younger with each year that passes. Perhaps the fountain of youth is simple, and lies in one’s dedication to listening to what the body feels. This is a big problem with junk food, alcohol and other harmful substances, when they are cheap and normalised, how are we to know that the detrimental effects they have on the body are not normal, and not necessary.
Haha, imagine Rebecca, the search for the fountain of eternal youth, and all those other amazing stories were literally distractions from the truth. That eternal youth is within us all anyway, and we choose to ignore it and “grow it up”…how many times as a child do we hear “grow up” as if it’s just no cool to be youthful…then decades later we begrudge ever having grown up in the first place. I too love RB’s feelings here, the Way of the Livingness, is just that, a way to get the most of out of your livingness, no matter how old or young we as people yearn for fullness. It’s lovely to know the simplicity that it starts within.
It’s amazing to think of the choices we have made and perhaps continue to make that we think are the “norm”, I really value your attention to that. From my experience having also been exposed to true role models I am enjoying a life of being aware of my choices. So much awareness it can hurt sometimes but nevertheless true awareness and the feeling is amazing. Taking complete control of my life has seen me grow into a fitter, healthier and generally more “with it” place than ever before, and I keep getting older. Way to reverse the “norm”
Absolutely, Phil. Having made some pretty huge shifts in the way I treat my body and myself I feel so much better, more vital and simply more engaged with life. But I also have been able to realise that it is not just about being “better” than I was, it is about being aware of what my body feels like and then the most crucial part, listening to it when it is telling me to change somthing.
Naren for me it was actually important to realize that it is not just about being “better” than I was – with that I was still trapped in this “being better thing”. Since I have discard it I felt even more aware of what my body is telling me . . .
Hey Phil ‘norms’ are funny things. I had a friend of mine recently say something like ‘it seems to me there’s not many normal people in the world’. Referring to all of the crazy things we call ‘normal’ like how we push thought life, or fight, or consume energy drinks to get through a day etc etc. I too love the normal I live now; as all of it feels far more harmonious than in the past. Great blog RB.
Yes Oliver, I guess it all depends on what your definition of “normal” is.
Love your blog RB, your transition from Caribbean life to here has been an eventful one, and quite a dramatic change. Any one reading this could not argue with your easy and common sense way of bringing changes to your life.
I was struck by this too Rosanna. The Caribbean life you started off with RB feels so very different from what you are living now. This blog is a gorgeous account of the changes you have made.
Super blog RB and it’s great to read of all the changes you have made. I love your comment at the end where you say ‘it’s awesome making healthy lifestyle choices and getting to feel younger as I grow older’. I know exactly what you mean!!
Awesome RB – very simply said. Apart from the Caribbean part, I could share a similar story of choices in my past compared with choices I make now. And yes, I feel younger, look more vibrant, am much slimmer and have more energy. It is amazing and so freeing to feel this way and live in the Way of the Livingness. You have explained the process of making true life changes and choices here so clearly – thank you for sharing this.
Beautiful blog RB, I like how you have presented how you approach the Way of the Livingness as not following any set rules, but actually just choosing what feels right every day…
Its easy when we see that we have a choice, and it is our responsibility and therefore we cannot blame anyone else.
Dear RB, I started making true changes also when I first met Serge Benhayon in 2009. The first thing for me was to try for me what serge was presenting and his experience with food he shared with us. I stopped eating gluten first which made my feel a lot lighter in my body. A year later alcohol was out of the way, and also I could feel the huge positive change in my body and felt that I did not want to experience the after effect of alcohol it had on me when I used to drink such as hangover, tiredness, and the quality of my livingness in general . Sugar took me a lot longer as I found it extremely addictive and it is present in a lot of food without realising it… Going to bed early (before 9pm) was also something new for me, it can be challenging from time to time at the beginning as the social pressure becomes stronger and tronger, as people tend to feel uncomfortable with it!!
Interesting isn’t it how we so often allow “social pressures” to rule us, rather than we just choose what is right for us regardless. How is it that we so often put ourselves last on the list instead of first?
Beautiful RB, I can fully understand how you did not link life style choice and health issues together, as I too lived like that until I met Universal Medicine and The Way of the Livingness. Your vitality and joy are very evident in your writing and I know how glorious it feels to simply be able to have fun with no artificial stimulants. It is possible to have a very simple, normal, fun and joyful life just by living simply. What a huge turn around and how gorgeous for your daughter too, to have such a beautiful, vibrant woman as her mother.
Thank you Rowena, my daughter is awesome and what is really great, is that she gets the inspiration or reflection from me, you could say, but what I allow her to do… is to make her own choices! Its great, the other night she went to a birthday party and ate a pizza and too many lollies.. she stayed up too late and in the end called me to pick her up because she felt so ill. She actually made herself be sick because she didn’t like how it all felt in her body. She knew straight away what she had done, and she has learnt from her own body and her own experience and not from me just telling her. The migraine and a few days of feeling really tired and lethargic were her lesson to learn from.
Yes I agree Rowena, just by living a simple, normal life it is very possible to have ‘fun’ without any stimulants. The fact that there are no stimulants actually means you can have more fun because we are being our true selves and there is nothing more beautiful than that.
Tim that’s so true , living a simple life without stimulation feels amazing. There is more fun to have when we are connected to our truth then being stimulated with external things.
love that last line as I grow older and feel younger! It is so true, I just kept nodding my head as I read this blog RB, ditto to all of it, Serge Benhayon was the first person to present to me that what I put into my body mattered, it mattered to my body, it directly affected how I felt. It just had never really been put to me like that before, I knew I had to eat to live, but never connected how I felt tired, bloated, exhausted to the food I put in my mouth or the other substances. Since taking responsibility for that direct correlation, life is so much better on so many levels and I am only at the tip of the iceberg, when I see how others are living with a true joy and vitality that I touch on but are committed to living more and more!
Simple, yet encouraging to everyone around. There are no rules, just an awareness, and as this grows so too does your vitality and love of life. Awesome.
Now that I have started to listen to my body I have seen how much I put effort into ignoring it’s constant communications. Covering up feeling a bad choice with another bad choice and so on in a circle is crazy. Having realised I do this, beating myself up for having done such does not break that pattern that I have discovered is within me through the process of listening to my body. This has shown me that the body knows what is true for it and this blog is a great example of that fact.
Great points Leigh, that cycle of hearing what the body is telling us, then ignoring or overriding it, then one bad choice turns into another bad choice. To break that cycle is to continue to feel your hurts, to continue to connect with oneself, building a body of love. This was once a completely foreign concept to me, but now it feels more and more natural to honour myself, letting go of the bad choices, but without perfection.
‘The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.’ That is what I love about Universal Medicine and the way everything is presented – how we live is our responsibility, we are not victims of anything except the choices WE have made and are making.
That is so true! We are not victims… No we just need to stop, take responsibility for our choices…. and continue if it feels good or change it if not. Simple.
Hi RB I love your blog and I can confirm what you say here “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 have found this too; I have so much more vitality and none of the ups and downs of feeling full of energy one minute and then completely depleted the next. The more I listen to my body, the more aware I am of the foods I eat that are truly nourishing for the body and the foods I am using for taste and satisfaction for my mouth. Sweet foods were my addiction, and I can see that they were purely for taste and as a reward or pick me up and a way of filling an emptiness I was feeling inside.
Amazing how we use sweet foods as a reward… as if we are not already enough and we need a reward to make us feel like we are worthy…??? Strange as I know I have done this.
Great comment Alison – the way we can look at a process in two totally different ways… one that keeps us on the same track taking no responsibility for why we are not feeling great, and the other gradually removing the layers that stop us feeling ourselves and fully living our potential.
Very true Alison, I too looked for the sweet treat to pick me up and could never really understand why one wouldn’t choose to eat sweet and sugary foods, until I felt what they were really doing to my body! The energy and vitality I feel now having removed them from my diet far out weighs the fleeting pleasure of eating them.
This is lovely to read RB, ‘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’, this has been my experience too, it can be seen as boring not having alcohol, caffeine, sugar etc… but they always made me feel so awful that there is definitely nothing boring about cutting these things out of my diet for me, I do not miss them at all and love the light, nourished feeling in my body without them.
Friends and family often ask me about the foods I can’t have now. My response is that I can eat whatever I want to, however my body prefers me to eat in a certain way. Thanks to the sharing of gluten and dairy free recipes on Facebook I have been introduced to so many more delicious tastes, ingredients I never knew existed.
Listening to my body makes every day’s nutrition different, a far cry from the Sunday roast, Monday cold meat, Tuesday shepherd’s pie approach from my childhood.
Kathie, I love your response ‘ I can eat what ever I want to, however my body prefers me to eat in a certain way.’ This is actually very empowering, it allows others to look at what choices they are making with food, without having the do’s and don’t.
RB a great blog and interesting to reflect on choices that were made growing up on food, diet and other things that at the time I also didn’t really think was a choice – rather that’s what you did. I am sure there are many people who also didn’t know anything else. But what is great is how you took ‘baby steps’ feeling what was right for you at each stage instead of following a rule book and the difference now – it feels much more solid to make choices this way.
‘ 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 can so relate to this RB choosing to follow the Way of the Livingness does not feel like I am depriving myself of anything rather making choices on a daily basis to support my body and refining it all the time. Thank you for sharing your journey.
This is great Rosie and I very much felt I was reading about myself. I very often have comments (compliments really) from friends I have know a long time who say I look younger now than I did 15 years ago. Having made the changes you speak of I relate well to what you say and I ate all those other things that were making me tired without the awareness that the tiredness I felt was related. As I made changes in my diet, I found my vitality increased, my weight dropped and I had much more sparkle in my eyes.
I also took baby steps and changed things over a period of time, no cold turkey for me either. My relationship with food is ever deepening as I listen to how my body feels with what I choose to put in it as opposed to going with my head. I am not perfect and slip up now and then and boy do I feel it in my body. No beating myself up though, just an awareness of a way that no longer works. The inspiration from Universal Medicine and the introduction of the simplicity of The Way of the Livingness has been life changing, no rules, just an opening to a possibility of true way of being/living.
I smiled when I read your comment about eating the odd chip from your daughter’s plate – I used to do the same thing. And in exactly the same way I would find when I ate a portion of chips that they tasted great, and I always looked forward to them, but then the experience 15 minutes later of feeling like I had eaten a brick would slow me down for the next few hours. A crazy pattern to keep repeating!
Ah yes, the brick in the stomach feeling. I also wake with it in the morning if I’ve eaten something that my body’s not needed the night before. Either too much, too heavy a food, too quickly or eating because it’s supper time rather than maybe considering I don’t need another meal on that day.
Glad to hear that I am not the only one.. my secret is out… and so is yours!
Great blog RB, the way of the livingness is such a simple path that allows us to be so much more. I truly feel your line ‘ It has been awesome making healthy lifestyle choices and getting to feel younger as I grow older!’ It has been a real long time for me, since I have felt this young.
I hadn’t quite thought of it this way but ‘getting to feel younger as I grow older’ is exactly how the way of the livingness feels. Well said.
Steve age is definately becoming blurred and yesterday a guy suggested I join the airlines as he felt that would suit me… I didn’t tell him I was a stewardess just under 40 years ago. So it’s the choices I have made that have lovingly supported my body to be joyous, vital and appreciative on my evolutionary path.
Whoa isn’t that an awesome confirmation of how amazing you look and how vital you are living!
It is great to read how you made the changes in your life – that it was not suddenly over night but a process that took time. By sharing this, and with your honesty that you “still have to stop and question why I feel like eating something sweet, or what have I done today that makes me feel like eating junk food” you present that it is practical and achievable. And I can also attest that the Way of the Livingness works as it is what I have done and people also say how much younger I now look.
Thank you RB, your joy is very much felt, in how much better you feel because of choosing to care for your body rather than continue to neglect it and abuse yourself. What a difference it makes when we simply stop and pay attention to the body. As you say, it is not about changing everything overnight, but just starting to be more honest about how things make us feel.
You are such an inspiring person RB, I love reading all your blogs.
Me too Priscila – they are a joy to read.
Thank you, I love writing them and enjoy reading all the comments…. its as if the whole blog just grows and as each person shares, there is more inspiration for everyone.
I agree RB, you set a beautiful foundation here in what you’ve written and every comment adds another level of inspiration and clarity as the whole gets bigger and bigger, making it all about that and not the original piece or the comments individually. It’s true group work in action and makes awesome reading for everyone.
The Way of the Livingness has no rules. For me this is such an important point as it gives me the responsibility to make my own choices at my own pace. I am a student of myself and learning to make choices in the way I live by how it feels in my own body. I do not have to conform to any rules or dogma and I have, like you RB, found a freedom to enjoy being with me. I sing and dance with joy.
Lovely insight RB of how big lifestyle and health changes are possible with baby steps made slowly over time. Great point also that it is not about blindly following rules or a set diet or program (as there are plenty of those around!) but that it is all about awareness and responsibility. Developing ways to become more aware of what our bodies are telling us (which cannot be denied) and then being honest enough to admit that it is not doing us or anyone else any good.
Yes very true Andrew. How amazing to relinquish rules (never a personal favourite) and then step by step with an honest awareness, see how one feels after every choice. It may seem a bit intense, but actually it is simple and the more we have a go, the easier it becomes. It is so beautiful, our bodies can really show us just how lovely we can feel if we feed, water, rest and exercise ourselves correctly and that correctly is unique to each person. No rules, no beliefs, just a Way to Live each day that supports us to live life to the full.
Slow and steady baby steps and being kind and gentle with ourselves is definitely a very supportive way of introducing and sustaining any change to our lives and lifestyle choices.
Very true, with slow and steady and commitment, we can make amazing changes in our lives and the long term results prove to be great unlike a quick fix, that is then hard to sustain. This can apply to food, exercise or anything really or even just changing an old behaviour that you don’t want to keep with you in life.
Thank you for sharing this RB. It is a real breath of fresh (Caribbean) air. You make a very good point about what was considered normal, because everybody else seemed to be doing it! Smoking was considered normal when I was young
in the fifties and sixties, even beneficial in some quarters! The main reason I never smoked was, I associated it with old people, coughing, and brown stained teeth and nails. I rebelled and became a non-smoker! Your little by little approach to introducing change into your diet is, I think, much more effective than the ‘cold- turkey’ shock approach.
Thank you for sharing your lovely simple lifestyle changes, and how easy the way of the livingness is.
Such a simple and powerful blog RB. I love your direct and loving expression. I used to eat tonnes of cheese as a child, teenager and adult as it was part of a normal diet and was considered healthy. I was so disconnected to my body that I didn’t even feel the side effects. It was only when my sinuses got so blocked that I felt that there had to be something in my diet that was not right. I realised that the body speaks louder and louder until you listen. It took 6 months for my body to be free of dairy after I stopped it completely. Now my nose enjoys the air coming in and out of my nostrils and it is a Joy to breathe.
I too loved cheese and I never connected my constant blocked nose to my dairy consumption until I cut out dairy altogether. Our bodies really do tell us so clearly and I am very glad I have learnt to listen to mine.
I completely agree Maryline. I have known many people who have had checkups at the doctor which have revealed high blood pressure or cholesterol or other health problems. Some of them have chosen to cut down on sugar, dairy, alcohol and caffeine in their diet, and their next checkup was perfect. And I can speak for myself, the amazing benefits of eating healthy by the standard of my body, not the standard of society. When I listen to what my body needs, I can never go wrong with what I eat.
It is beautiful to feel the joy in your writing RB. This is evidence that there is in fact Joy in responsibility. Your journey from not being aware to being aware and choosing to honour your body is inspiring.
Being aware is pretty empowering!
Hi RB
I love how simple and clear you have described your life before and after finding Serge Benhayon and The Way of the Livingness, with no sense of self punishment.
I can relate to drinking and trying drugs when I was younger, neither of which agreed with me and made me sick but that did not stop me trying over and over. It never occurred to me in those days to have more respect for myself and to even look after myself.
Things have changed these days and I put that down to the support I have had from Serge Benhayon and his team, showing me that there is another way to live, without harming myself.
I agree Julie, the problem for a lot of people, is that there are very little options other than that which the majority is doing. I am very blessed to have gone through my teenage years having another option reflected to me by Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon, but my friends and the people I talk to know no different and so see no issue with the harm they are doing to their bodies. So thank you for sharing, it’s great to get the other options out there.
A truly inspirational blog RB. Thank you.
Thanks Monica, what I have found is that the more I appreciate each little step and each choice I make, the easier it is to make more steps. Also, appreciation is a much more loving way to treat ourselves, rather than always looking for the faults and beating ourselves up for the mistakes, or the step backwards we sometimes take.
For me, the steps backward are great lessons, as I get to feel the effect of my choices and then be okay with making new choices.
The no rules approach, other than the honesty of how your body responds, has been such a powerful insight into my life as well. When you take the pressure off, the get it right, I found my body leading the way to places of joy and vitality I did not imagine.
So true Joel, without the rules or borders, you can go places you never imagined.
Yes it is a great point Rosie and Joel. Universal Medicine has no rules, just some very sound suggestions to experiment with and that’s the joy, we can live out our own experiments and make decisions based on very solid results. My body too has shown me the true effects of my choices and through trial and through error, I have claimed the foods and drinks that support me and have left alone those that don’t. I too am experiencing a health, joy and vitality I had never imagined and so are many, many other people as well. We are all living testament to the Way of the Livingness and joyful explorers of new frontiers.
So true Joel without the rules I find myself letting go of foods that do not support me any more. When I used to try and follow rules, I always ended up breaking them and would then beat myself up about it. But now it’s in my own time with my own awareness and connecting to how my body feels.
Absolutely Joel, just plain and honest responsibility, honesty and openness to what ones body is saying back
I love your blog RB – such true content expressed in such a beautiful way.
What particularly stands out for me at this point in time are your words:
‘I didn’t give everything up and now live a boring life.’
I too have found exactly this in my life. One might imagine that life without drugs, alcohol, cheese, hot chips etc. could be immensely boring, but, as you say, the opposite is true.
As we allow our bodies to flourish by supporting them with food and life-choices that do not work against them, the flow of vitality increases proportionately and the quality and joy of life, that was always there waiting for us, is released and we experience incredible well-being. – a wellbeing that can only grow, expand and deepen as we continue to make those loving choices.
Thank you Rosie!
Very true Lyndy, I too can vouch for the fact that life without all these things we think are good fun, is incredible. I can still remember feeling sluggish, depressed, sick and extremely exhausted living on such a life style and looking back, the “fun” gained from these substances was extremely short lived. What ever may have been enjoyed for a few minutes or hours would take days to recover from. These days clean living and getting to bed early is leaving me far more energised and joyful and as RB says, having fun is simply a natural side effect.
Wow RB, what an incredible story! You are living proof that honouring ourselves and caring for our bodies can make the most glorious life.
I love the honesty of your blog RB and the changes you have made in your life. The results speak for themselves. Inspirational and a great reminder that everything is a choice, so choose love! A few years ago my body gave up wine, which felt a bit disconcerting at the time as it was part of my social life but it was loud and clear and as it now tasted of vinegar, there was no option but to listen to the wisdom of my body not the chatter of my mind. It was a major turning point leading me to choices about food and many other areas of my life, an ongoing process, not always easy but as I commit more to myself, the temptations lessen!
Love the way you describe the fundamental truth of the responsibility each of us has for all our choices, particularly around food, but also in everything. Once you know this truth, you can’t ‘unknow’ it. You can’t conveniently walk away from the knowing. Once you know, everything thereafter becomes an opportunity for reflection on the choices you have made. Each choice, every time. It can be tough, because you then have to choose whether you want to hide from acknowledging your irresponsible choices. Quite exposing but so worth it, as your ‘vibrant, energy-filled life’ attests.
Well said, Cathy – once you know the truth, you can’t unknow it…
And so hard sometimes because we are often pulled or led astray if we allow … but that being led astray, is still a choice and still our responsibility.
Beautifully said Cathy, we cannot magically un-know something, just attempt to ignore our new found understandings in an arrogant attempt to deny our power and responsibility. RB is a great testament to the results of choosing to know and know more, to observe the effects of her choices and make new ones, based on the most reliable information in the Universe, how she felt. And yes RB’s vibrancy and energy are a clear testimony to the effectiveness of taking responsibility for herself, her choices and her life and the true power of Universal Medicine.
Exposing is right Cathy – I certainly took advantage of ignorance because ‘I didn’t know better’ – but now that I do – it comes with responsibility and an awareness that if I make an unloving choice – it is because I have gone against what I truly know. And I feel the repercussions very strongly. But it also means I am much more sensitive to what my body needs – and that is absolute science. I am my own experiment and I love knowing that I can continue to nourish and support my body if I chose too.
I agree, once we understanding truth of responsibility for all our choices, everything there after becomes an opportunity for refection on the choices made.
I can so relate to living on cheese and diet coke. What is ridiculous is that I believed that they were ‘healthy’ options, so totally ignored how they felt in my body (constant sinus issues and raciness). My food choices made me so tired and would pick me up by having more. It is so freeing to know that we do have a choice, and all we have to do is listen to our bodies (rather than the myriad of opinions out there, often presented as ‘science’).
RB I feel the same and have a very similar background and can vouch for how much more fun and amazing it is to nurture your body rather than get wasted! Bodies are pretty clever things yet we choose to numb them left right and centre which is a shame because if we nurtured them the real magic would happen! I can absolutely testify that the feelings I get from my body when am listening to it far far out weigh the fake highs of class a drugs for absolute sure! There is no doubt!
Great blog RB. Thank you. I can completely relate. “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” this is so true I didn’t even realise that I was making choices either. I just did what everybody else was doing and the world regards disregard and dishonouring as normal. The realisation that I have a choice and that my body is communicating this all the time has been a complete game changer for me. Connecting to my body and feeling what is truly needed to support me is hugely empowering.
I can completely relate to this Anne-Marie, ‘I just did what everybody else was doing and the world regards disregard and dishonouring as normal.’ Absolutely. It’s the healthy eating, going to bed when you are tired and generally looking after yourself that is considered abnormal in society – now that really is crazy.
Love it Mary – “It’s only when someone comes along that isn’t neck deep in the disregard and suggests another way that we can see we do have a choice or not.” So very true.
Very true Anne-Marie, we take on the habits around us without question and also the lack of vitality that arises from them. It is a massive game changer when we realise that our bodies are informing us continually about our choices, which ones support it and which ones damage it and then stopping to actually ask ourselves, “why am I making this choice, what lies underneath it?” Taking a moment to truly stop and feel and look for the real reason is very powerful.
So true Rowena. Taking that moment to stop and feel into the real reason we are making a certain choice is super empowering. My life has completely turned around. I no longer cruise along on autopilot but now have a dynamic, engaged and inspiring relationship with my body, and all of the amazing wisdom it is forever sharing about patterns and behaviours that I was not even aware of before.
So Lovely to read your story, RB. What goes down must come up! And now, thanks to The Way of the Livingness there shall be no need to re-visit the ‘downs’ again. Bravo! I particularly like your no-nonsense attitude when you said, “but there was no point in beating myself up for doing things I hadn’t even been aware I was doing,” HEAR, HEAR!
“No point in beating myself up for doing things I wasn’t even aware I was doing” – absolutely. And no point in ever beating ourselves up about anything but rather to hold ourselves tenderly in love and the understanding of why we might be behaving in that way.
Yes, bring understanding is a much kinder way.
Dear RB, This is a beautiful post. I can relate to what you are expressing here. I sometimes find myself slipping into eating processed, “easy” foods that aren’t supportive of my gorgeous body. I have a real appreciation for you bringing this up as it is a loving reminder for me to choose me and choose love. All a choice.
All is choice, that is right Shayla, and the choice to make that bit of effort to support our bodies with real food, is so worth it.
It is great to read of your experiences Rosie and how you have made changes to feel younger and healthier. The way you have slowly made these changes seems very sustainable. A good question is how much of our diet is eaten for the taste in the mouth but not the feeling in our body, I love how you share that you instead look at the reasons you would choose that food, that seems the crux of the matter.
Yes, and I am no saint at any of this…. I still have to stop and question why I feel like eating something sweet, or what have I done today that makes me feel like eating junk food.
yes its a continual process, daily, moment to moment sometimes!
I agree Stephen, and it’s not only the taste to consider when we choose certain foods but also the sight, the way food is prepared, is a big factor in our choice.
I also like how you share how much of food is eaten for taste in the mouth than how it feels in the body. It’s so interesting as I reflect how I used to eat; how all my food had to taste a particular way and if it didn’t taste the way I know it to taste I used to be fussy. I now remember I learned this as I grew up and was taught how to cook. There was much focus on how all dishes should taste, and if it did not taste a particular way, then it would be no good and that I hadn’t cooked it right. A great reflection for me and my food patterns.
It amuses me when I ask friends for recipes of food they have provided, so often there are no quantities stated. And the reply to, ‘how much?’ is always whatever you feel to put in. Confusing/frustrating initially but I realise that is how I now cook.
What a contrast to food outlets and ready made meal providers who spend so much effort on creating the same taste every time.
Stephen slowly is key I feel. Years ago I tried to “cut everything out” because I read it in a book…. This didn’t work for more than a few hours. This time, I had no intention of change my diet, losing weight or anything. I just became more aware of how my body felt so I no longer wanted to eat or drink the stuff that made me feel bad. But this was a gradual change over 2 years and will likely continue to change…
RB, thank you for sharing, isn’t it amazing how when we listen to our bodies we can make choices that support good health and well-being and also by practising the Way of the Livingness life becomes a natural, simple and vital way of being.
And simple is so much easier!
Dear RB, the stand out line for me was “The Way of the Livingness gave me the freedom to make my own choices and be responsible for all of them.” I personally didn’t ever take drugs, and was not a smoker, but I certainly made many other choices that all had an impact on my body. In fact, I thought that I used to eat relatively healthy (i.e. organic, very little junk food etc.), and yet despite this, even though at the time I considered I was healthy, I look back now and can feel that for most of that period, I was bloated and uncomfortable, tired, stressed etc. (which I considered at the time was my normal ‘healthy’ way of being).. It was only when I truly starting taking responsibility for my choices, and for listening to how my body felt, that finally things started to make more sense. The less I listened to my head or to what someone else was doing, or to rules or ideals about what was healthy to eat etc. and the more I began to listen to my own body, the easier it was to take responsibility – because when I didn’t, my body would speak loud and clear (and still does!). In all this, it’s not that my body has ever stopped talking to me, it’s just that I have finally decided to pay attention. As a result, it’s not hard to make certain choices, just to know who and what to listen to… and in my experience, I’m learning more and more every day that it’s the body that is a great marker and that always knows best!
“In all this, it’s not that my body has ever stopped talking to me, it’s just that I have finally decided to pay attention. As a result, it’s not hard to make certain choices, just to know who and what to listen to.”
Thanks for sharing that Angela!! I would love to see a billboard with this on it!
That is great what you have shared here RB that your body was always talking to you it is just you started to listen. I have found this as well and how honesty is really important. I recognise when I still override what my body is telling me by eating certain foods that leaves me feeling either bloated or racy.
I still have struggles with food. Currently its nuts, and you are so right, RB. I don’t really want them, ‘I just enjoy putting them in my mouth’. Looking at it this way will make me think again before I reach for my next handful!
I have been there too Catherine, gosh, until recently I was totally aware “i didn’t really want them” but hey it was all right they were only… I am learning to use those reaching out moments as places to pause and assess the situation. Quite often sitting down and resting just gives me the minute I need to avoid pushing on and munching through it. Great to be honest about it though hey 🙂
Food is an interesting one – I find there is a line between what is easy and right there in front of me to what will actually support my body – it is a constant and I feel a forever learning – there is no one diet suits all rather an ever changing one according to the way we are living, the temperature outside, our workload etc.. Something I do notice is that when I take the time to really prepare a meal for myself it always feels soo much nicer and more filling then when I am simply snacking and nothing seems to really fill me up.
Yes, I love what you say Phil about sitting down. i usually go for a walk so that I can be with myself to feel what’s coming up rather than reach for food instead. I may even write things down so I can be honest and so no longer need the food to numb myself out.
I often go lie myself down. I have a funny image of lying myself down quite a lot in random places whenever a thought about going to the fridge comes in – at least then I cannot walk to the fridge! but taking a moment to re-connect is important.
Yes Catherine, its a fact that when I snack on nuts I am usually seeking to numb something like an emotional reaction and it doesn’t support my body at all. I love the point James made about really feeling the quality in food when you have prepared it lovingly. It brings a feeling of fullness not from the quantity of food you have eaten but from the quality in which it was prepared.
I still struggle with food too Catherine. A big one for me is nuts too, especially roasted almonds. I started to realise that by roasting them they tasted like digestive biscuits in my mouth, so I may well have been eating biscuits, so I weaned myself off them. It was hard at first, but the more I said NO to them the easier it got. Another one was hummous, I was addicted. Was it the taste, the texture, or both I asked myself, I had it with everything. Then I realised I was using this as comfort food too and decided that I didn’t need it anymore so I stopped buying it. Strangely enough it was easier than I thought it would be, it’s was once the decision was made, it was made! I DO know the difference between hunger and wanting to numb myself, so being honest and saying NO to what’s not true is the key. Another one was stopping my mid morning snack at work, again nuts, I was almost panicked at first, “OMG how am I going to get through til lunch!” It took a couple of weeks of commitment to not distract myself at 10 o’clock with nuts – that tasted like biscuits – (meanwhile judging my colleagues who, regular as clock work, bring out the biscuits (and chocolate ones at that). My relationship with food is an ongoing refining process and it’s just being honest and asking myself “do I really NEED them?”
Ah, nuts, Catherine! and Tahini, the things that are easy to pop in your mouth, and then keep on eating! However, I find it is all about the energy I approach them with, for if I use them as “fillers”, or because I am “prowling around” looking for something to comfort me, (as beautifully described in a comment above) then my body tells me, and I also know deep inside that is not loving and supportive. But if I am feeling good about myself and choose to cook myself a nutritious meal, then it can include both the above ingredients in moderation without harm. We are all at differing stages of development with our food, and what may be nourishing for one is not for another, it is such an individual affair.
Yes Amina, and Phil and Karen, that is what I find too – just a moment to pause – reflect and connect is often all it takes. Thanks for the great reminder.
I’m in the same camp as Catherine when it comes to nuts, I find it easy to keep popping them in my mouth when my body doesn’t really need them or want them. Something I am working on, learning to stay with my feelings in those moments.
Thanks Catherine. I too experience those moments of not really wanting food and reaching for it only to have my body tell me loud and clear after taking it, that it was not a good idea!
James I can relate to just eating what’s there because it’s there and convenient and quick, but if it’s not what my body needs it will fill me up but won’t be nourishing. Taking the time to feel and prepare what’s needed feels amazing.
I have started to listen to my body too, in fact my body has always talked to me, I have just chosen to override it. I now ask myself, am I REALLY hungry or do I want to eat because I don’t want to feel something. Or, if I eat this, is this being loving to my body. If the answer is no, then I don’t eat it, it is hard sometimes and takes practice, but the more awareness I have of my body, the more awareness builds. It’s an ongoing process, and all it takes is a little honesty and love and respect for my body.
I agree Sandra, our bodies do talk very loudly to us, but we appear to have this strong over-ride switch that kicks in before we know it and we end up ignoring what it is trying to tell us. And it does take time to start to listen and learn to understand what it is telling us, but I have come to know that it is absolutely worth it. As you wrote so beautifully; It’s an ongoing process, and all it takes is a little honesty and love and respect for my body.” So very true.
He he…Sandra, I can so relate to what you wrote. I remember Serge Benhayon saying once – it’s all ice-cream, just different flavours – and if we are eating to distract/comfort/numb etc… it does not matter if it is biscuits or nuts – it’s all the same! I remember coming out of an uncomfortable situation and my colleague went straight for a ciggie and I went straight for the almonds and I saw how clearly it was same/same but different!
It’s interesting I am finding how supportive it is to read the comments and replies to RB’s blog on the food issue, and especially finding it supportive to read that others have had a similar challenge around ‘nuts’. I have discovered that I have not been alone inadvertently reaching for the roasted almonds denying that I was using these as a comfort food. I am still working on letting go the non-connected activity of snacking on nuts – I haven’t truly mastered that yet, but I am sure it is just around the corner, waiting for me to accept that there is another way, and that way is for me to listen to the body more lovingly.
Great points Sandra – I too have rediscovered what it feels like to be a little hungry. I have cut out habitual snacking in between meals – the basis of which was never hunger but simply not wanting to feel, just as you say.
Thanks Sandra, as you say, the key is to stop before we go for food to ask whether we are actually hungry or want to eat to avoid feeling something. It is in these moments that we can really connect to ourselves and take responsibility for what is going on inside us.
Completely so true Sarah Flenley, it matters not the foodstuff (or activity) , but instead the energy we’re in at the time that determines what quality we then eat in – to affirm, distract or numb ourselves, and it’s being honest about this state of being before we consume, during or after it. Is the food to nourish the body, or to fill or dull it? Hmm. Are those ‘hunger pangs’ at 10am real, or not?
Great blog RB, and I can relate too Vicky. Recognizing when I override what my body is telling me and even having that conversation with myself as I am about to eat that extra something and still sometimes going for it. It is always a gluten free, dairy free choice, but a choice to fill some emptiness that I haven’t dealt with, just the same, and then that feeling of bloated or racy also follows.
Absolutely Vicky, my body tells me loud and clear and now I am listening, whereas before I would dismiss it or dull and numb my body so as to not feel.
I can relate to what you have said Vicky. My body doesn’t hold back letting me know when I have eaten something it doesn’t actually want. In the past I would ignore the messages, but no longer. These days it’s all about honesty, and nothing less.
Once we listen to the message once, just once and notice and make a choice, it gets easier to make the choice a second time. Temptations are around us all the time, but knowing and being aware of the effects of the temptations make them not worth the fuss, effort or effect it has on our body.
yeah there are lots of things that if I am really honest my body does not like one little bit but I let my mind be in charge and run a muck! But I appreciate those things that are well and truly gone and my mind doesn’t even get a look in and it is only when I have really let myself feel how it has made my body feel that I can no longer indulge my mind over the love of my body!
I love the feeling you get when your body is so sure that something is not right for it that your mind literally holds its hands up and says “yeh you’re right”. It comes without ever putting pressure on it too. Just simply listening to your body.
Thanks Vanessa and Phil, I agree. Those moments of choice when we can override the body and give in to the mind are super important, because right then we are choosing whether to stay connected to ourselves or to let things get out of control. I too love it when I choose to listen to my body.
So true about the mind running amok Vanessa. There are certain things that i would never eat, and my mind accepts this , but there are others where I can feel my mind prowling around for a way in to tempt me. I’m slowly recognising the signs and know that these foods too will lose their attraction. Its a journey of constant discovery.
Well said Vanessa it is the same for me too. It can be a body / mind tug of war sometimes and the choice is always mine. But allowing myself to really feel the impact of non nourishing foods helps me to say no and not even desire them.
I know that feeling, when my mind takes over and then i will eat those foods, then later my body shouts out loud to me. So a work in progress, to really recognise and honor what my body likes and dislikes. But i really appreciate the things i have truly let go and my body is so grateful for that.
Beautiful Vanessa and so true the body can speak volumes when we are listening and not letting our mind take over. Thank you.
I smiled a smile of recognition Mary as I saw ‘chips’ as I remember last summer at the seaside. I had some, which looked and smelt so yummy but only after I had eaten them did I click that the oil was not great for me and my body complained loud and clear for the rest of the day. Lesson learnt!
Yes Lorraine I too have done that. Down at the seaside, the smell of chips, but the feeling in my body after eating a few, not so good! Overriding the initial feeling of ‘don’t do it’ is not the way to go. Lesson Learnt!
Reading your blog, RB, and your reply Angela, I realise that it is so simple, and I make it all so complicated. A billboard is a simple statement and says all we need to change is start to listen.
I agree Rosie – a billboard would be so good 🙂
Yes Mary, it is so incredible how manipulative these sneaky and persuasive thoughts try to come in often pretending to be a feeling.
My partner recently shared something that was a milestone for me in regard to how the choices of what I eat affect my body and how responsible I am towards myself.
He asked if the eating was not quite the same as making love?
For me it definitely is, as I am allowing something and its’ energy to enter my body – my innermost.
Pondering on this has allowed me to appreciate my body far more and from there listen to it with love, tenderness and clarity.
I loved how you have described this Michael, as thoughts trying to pretend to be feelings…so, so true! And funny!
Beautiful Michael. On Valentine’s eve it seem super appropriate to be reading this. If we allow ourselves to see all of life as a lovemaking act, how tender and gorgeous we and life might be.
I agree Michael those thoughts can mask themselves as feels and the effects are felt soon after.
Wow Michael, deep thanks for sharing what your partner asked you, “He asked if the eating was not quite the same as making love?” Thank you to your partner too!
I’d not viewed eating as making love to your body before, I love this perspective … I’m off to ponder further on this … !
Michael this is another awesome reminder of the level of responsibility we have. Everything we eat not only affects ourselves but everyone we are connected with.
He asked if the eating was not quite the same as making love? Micheal
thank you for sharing this, I shall take this into my day and definitely something to ponder on further.
So True Michael, allowing ourselves to feel that love and tenderness that we truly are simply allows the deeper clearer choices to be made
These were the words in Angela’s reply that struck me too RB. That word ‘response+ability’ are powerful and when we choose not to use our ability to respond, the impact is enormous, not only for ourselves but for everyone around us. I will ponder this more today, thank you!
I love the way you have written that, it has prompted me to see things from a different angle…
I have had a habit of expecting others to do and express the same as me, and when they don’t I have reacted and stopped expressing.
A timely reminder that if I have the ability to respond then that is my responsibility!
I agree with what you are saying, Mary, for me it is not hot chips, but vegetable chips in the packet. When I am feeling a bit down, maybe a bit empty, and I am in the supermarket, I can always find it a good idea to buy a packet or 2, just to have in the place when I feel a touch of nausea. Of course, that touch of nausea might come even when I am driving back home from the shops.
It is absolutely crazy how our minds can affect us and make us think we need just this little thing to make it all better. The times between my giving into this need thank goodness are now becoming further and further, as I am seldom now having this feeling of neediness.
I found this too, with vegetable chips/crisps Beverley, especially around Christmas when I felt particularly empty and didn’t want to feel what I was feeling. The urge to buy them has gone now because my body really didn’t like them but my mind did, so I decided enough is enough, how long do I want to go on avoiding my feelings, do I want to heal or not? I can walk past the aisle where the vegetable chips/crisps are now and not feel tempted at all. The day that I am tempted is the day that I know there is something I have to work on and I should go home and feel into it instead.
I know this mind trick too Beverly, and have found that in the past I have used food shopping as an excitement, knowing that there would be some treat to get for the cupboard or the way home. More and more I am feeling that the joy of life must come from the way we live, not from the excitement of food or even other forms of retail therapy.
I can so relate to having this or that when its been a hard day or as a reward, but I keep becoming aware of it, and sometimes I really have to keep making a choice, like every minute or so, to ensure that I don’t let my mind chose something that is clearly not supportive for my body.
Thank you Vicky Geary, I know this: Everything we eat not only affects ourselves but everyone we are connected with. BUT… I don’t like the responsibility of it… so often try to forget. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks RB, I love how you have described the process of honouring what your body was telling you and feeling what worked and didn’t so that your diet gradually evolved into the foods that truly felt right. Funny when we make it about rules or will power to not eat something, it just becomes a battle or a rebel action – and I would find myself eating something when I actually didn’t even really want it, just because I’d made a rule then rebelled against my own rule.. crazy!
That is crazy…. and I can so relate!
Absolutely Rosie, it’s a billboard that would stop traffic ! It has amazed me how much I will avoid listening to what my body is clearly telling me as if I’m blind, deaf and dumb but equally amazed at how much my body responds to when I do really listen and pay attention to what it is telling me. Especially around my period this is a clear indicator of how much I have listened and honoured what my body was sharing, by directly affecting how much PMS I experience to the flow and length of my period it is quite amazing and confirms that the body feels supported when listened to.
I am only now learning how I have had the meaning of the word responsible totally muddled up. To be responsible is something that I am working on in so many areas of my life and it is quite revealing!
So true RB, i’ve finally started to listen in to my body and what it’s telling me, then honouring that by making different choices – and the effect is incredible – night and day .. When I honour it, I actually have a body that I love to be in rather that seeking to escape the incredible discomfort that was just my body’s way of communicating with me I was making the wrong choices for it. so simple, and so powerful.
It’s tue Annie. And often, the more uncomfortable we feel in our bodies, the more we continue choices to numb that feeling, which make us ultimately feel more uncomfortable!
The Way of the Livingness really has been the only way for me to break this cycle and also love the body that I live in 24/7.
It seems ‘easier’ as a man – I don’t remember having this incredible discomfort you are talking about, more a general malaise or semi-tiredness but it makes a huge difference when that is gone.
This morning I was reflecting back on the years when I was a vegetarian, and how tired and grumpy I was. I know it had to a lot more to do with than just what I was eating, but the eating carbs and having the highs and lows of the sugar and the lacking in protein was one way of keeping my body from being vital and vibrant. In fact thinking about it, makes me aware of so many different issues that were affecting me before being inspired by the Way of The Livingness.
Yes me too Mary, I remember the times (years ago now and pre Universal Medicine) when after a meal I would then (and purposely want to) zonk out as you say, and end up feeling heavy and lethargic, unable to move; not wanting to move. Since learning the art of self-love and the beauty of the body, it was natural to then choose different foods that no longer deadened or weighted the body, but supported it back towards its lightness and natural vitality. Feeling this abundance of energy is worth everything, and is efficient too.
The body is so precise with its messages. And at the same time the mind is cunning with its excuses. Wonderful how you related the zonking to the chips. When we are willing to link what is happening to the body to what was causing it, then we have a possible new choice to make. It’s up to us what we do. And whatever we choose, the body will keep on speaking to us.
Caroline I have found my mind try’s to manupilate my thirst for water into a searching for food. Now when I find myself in front of the pantry, not knowing what I feel like …I stop and feel into what it’s actually asking and usually it’s for water.
I like how you wrote that Caroline, how the mind is cunning with excuses.
and I agree Merilee, more often than not it is water that my body wants, not food!
I’ve had this experience too Mary, with gluten and dairy free lime cheesecake. A special treat for a friends birthday… Whatever little sugar was in it in the form of fruit I had to pull over and stop the car and shut my eyes to sleep it off on the way home!!
Feeling tired, sleepy and heavy after eating something is something I dislike so much it will deter me from eating the offending food especially as I have become use to having steadier energy levels after eating-like RB found no discipline is required. This is quite a strong signal though and there are perhaps many more ways our bodies are communicating, when I am connected I find I will detect much lesser drops in my energy levels and awareness and it is also easier to pinpoint what the influencing factor was.
Hi Angela, I find it easy now to make these healthy choices too, although there are the odd days where I feel like eating things that I know don’t really support me, I am finding that if I ask myself the question ‘how will this make me feel’, then it helps.
Also Laura, I find I’m asking myself the question “why am I doing this, what am I trying to avoid feeling with this?” opens me up to let go of all sorts of stuff that’s been holding me back. This is not always the case, sometimes I’m just not ready to go there so carry on regardless, and this is when my body tends to kick in with a firm “no” and I know about it! This is how my journey of learning to feel my insides and honour them is going…
Just the other day I asked myself that same question that you mentioned “why am I doing this, what am I trying to avoid feeling with this?” in regards to eating too many nuts. The amazing thing is the next day I no longer had the craving to eat the nuts at all. I hadn’t gotten to the source of the initial drive to over-eat them, but it was as if by simply checking in with my body, registering how yucky and bloated it felt after the nuts, and asking the question “why?”, it allowed me to let go of something that was pulling me away from what is supportive of my body.
That is a great point Michael. Often just taking the time to look at and asking the question “why” and allowing ourself to feel the impact is enough to change a habit of a lifetime.
Great point Michael and Golnaz – simply asking the question why?, with an openness and willingness to see through the behaviour, at least brings your awareness to why you are doing or eating it and then you can say no to it from love, knowing it is not supporting your body, rather than simply saying it from the head as a command or I must not eat this! I have tried, tested and exhausted the latter only to find myself ‘re-offending’ and then getting frustrated for repeating the behaviour.
This is the amazing thing – we always had the feedback from our bodies, we just powered through and covered it up with distraction, in my case, food, drugs, drink, work, arguments etc etc. it’s so lovely to wake up, take note and get to know myself.
Yes Rachel, powering through is very familiar and with the same props! It is amazing to wake up to how I was treating myself and begin to loving take care of my body. What is clear from RB’s blog and everyone’s comments, is just how much our bodies struggle on despite the crippling way we treat them and then when we do get it, how amazing we feel as a consequence! Its a beautiful relationship to nurture and I am continually appreciative of Universal Medicine to help keep me on track.
I agree Rachel, our bodies have always told us what is not good for us and, as you say, we just powered on through totally ignoring it and then wondered why we feel so yucky afterwards. Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon has inspired us to know there is another way, a way that appreciates and respects our bodies and to not override what we are feeling.
Yeah it is the stop that was provided by Universal Medicine simply posing the question that what you eat and drink may impact your body in certain ways, what ways was up to you to discover as every body is different. Thank goodness I listened and experimented, my body thanks me today!
Exactly we just ignored our body what it had to say and we just then ended up blaming the world and everything else outside of us. How crazy is that.
I love the simple economy of your statement Rachel – listen to our bodies, feel what is being communicated – there is so much to understand and enjoy.
A big yes from me Rachel. It takes a lot of effort to drown out the constant communication from our bodies. No wonder so many people are so exhausted.
Yes Rachel – we are fighting ourselves. The battle is within and then gets externalised.
To stop and really feel that our choices can be just to drown out the constant communication from our bodies is crazy. This communication is the love and support we have always been looking for and yet so much energy can go into blocking and rejecting it. Just to feel this opens the door and the possibilities.
It is crazy as you say Vicky, that what we want and need the most is what we close the door to by numbing ourselves. And I thought I was intelligent!?!
And isn’t it amazing that our bodies continue to feedback to us regardless of how much we may have or still do ignore them. Always steady in its reflection to us of what is really going on.
So true Rachael. This just goes to show that we can find a way to cover up what we are feeling with just about anything!
I feel that’s a great point Angela, not listening to what others are doing but choosing what is right for our body. The messages are loud and clear, our bodies really are amazing at telling us what is right for us.
This is it Michelle it’s a choice you make – we are currently moving into a house that has a dishwasher and a big fridge freezer to support us in our routine as we spend a good amount of time in the kitchen preparing everything we eat from scratch! I love making this the priority in my life as the result is that I feel great when I eat this way and rubbish when I don’t!
Pretty simple isn’t it – eat well feel good, eat rubbish feel rubbish. It has taken me a long time to accept it is indeed this simple.
Yes, Vanessa, it is simple. On the other hand I found that sometimes I eat “a good food” but it is not what my body needs at that time-and it feels wrong, for example, I don’t feel vital but rather tied or sleepy. So sometimes now I might skip a meal instead of eating whatever is there to be eaten.
Took me a while too Vanessa – all those little treats I thought I enjoyed but didn’t really want to feel how they sat in my body.
I love this Vanessa – my new mantra! “Eat well, feel good, eat rubbish, feel rubbish”
I too love your saying: ‘eat well feel good, eat rubbish, feel rubbish’ Vanessa. Tis would be a great thing to share with our kids when they are growing up. It would make so much sense to them and stay with them throughout their life.
It has also taken me a long while for me to accept that it is so simple!
Yes, exactly Michelle. It is so normal now for my food to be prepared in advance. My freezer is stacked up with my food for work and whenever we go away or on a trip out, our first consideration is what food we are taking. Doing it this way I know I will never put myself in a position to have to compromise on what I want to eat. I know exactly what is in my food and as you rightly point out, I am so much more healthier for it.
I agree Tim being prepared around food has become a way of life and one that is really very simple. I remember in the beginning it took a bit of extra time, planning and discipline but I can recommend this approach to anyone, it is truly worth it, my body thanks me every time. It feels so supportive to know there is something there that is nourishing and supportive to eat. What is usually available from restaurants and other food outlets just does not cut it for my body any more.
That is a great level of self care… preparing your foods if you are going away so you never get caught out is so important.
It can be quite a mission to prepare food for a day out, or even just for lunch if you are not used to it, but once you get into a routine of it, preparing food for the day becomes as normal as brushing your teeth. I really enjoy getting creative with my lunch boxes and even impress myself with what I come up with. I like painting and art, so sometimes get very playful with my food. I don’t paint anything, but I do get creative with shapes, colours and how I place it all in my lunch box. It makes it fun.
RB, visualising your colourfully creative lunch boxes made me smile, and inspired to have some fun with mine. Thank you for the inspiration!
Awesome RB, thanks for sharing your story with us – very inspiring. Look forward to dancing with you one day 🙂
Yes, the amazing thing about RB’s description is that what Serge Benhayon teaches works just as much for difficult cases as for seemingly easy cases. When you remove the need for bad or numbing food or drugs it doesn’t matter how many of these you took before, you can simply stop.
Once the need stops overriding the body, the messages from the body become loud and clear and after a while it is simply easier to stop. This is quite amazing and so contrary to everything that is being scientifically investigated at the moment.
Very true Mary, I went along to a lot of courses, and I continued to drink alcohol and have my coffees. Not once was I told I had to give up. That choice was mine and mine alone, and I only stopped when I felt to. When I realised that I really didn’t like how it made my body feel.
I have made the same experiences with alcohol, I never ever liked the taste of wine but I used the glas after cooking for the numbing and lightheaded feelings it gave me to not to feel the way I have felt that time, unhappy and not satisfied with myself. I used to numb my body, to let loos the tensions I had accumulated from frustration and anger. I even looked for a wine that might taste better so I could enjoy the taste of it and the search was not really successful. There is no wine that I like because it is alcohol and my body knows this.
Amazing it is Christoph, wherever you come from and whatever you have done to yourself, the teachings of Serge Benhayon do remove the need for the abusive ways of living and provides us with an opportunity to truly connect to our body that knows exactly what to eat and what not.
This is a great point Christoph. It is the need for the food or drug not the substance itself that is the problem. As so many students of Universal Medicine have found, it is possible to no longer need something they were completely addicted to – simply by filling themselves up with themselves rather than a temporary filler or fix. This shows to me that programs like the 12 step program do not actually support the person to heal, which condemn the addict to forever have an issue with a substance.
and quite often what happens is we find another substitute… so we stop drinking but take up eating or even give up one food for another.
Fiona it’s a clear message we now know as our truth ‘heal your hurts’ and the need to numb the pain diminishes thus we get true healing.
So true Christoph, the teaching of Serge Benhayon supports everyone to get to the core of what is causing the numbing in the first place. The many lifestyle choices people make clouds what is really going on inside. When we nominate this the urge to numb whether it be through alcohol, drugs or food diminishes over time and what we get to feel is the quality within us that no substance can every compete with.
Yes, no substance can ever compete with what we have and can connect to within. There is no comparison.
Very true Christoph. If we keep looking at the symptom as the cause of the problem how can it ever be resolved? By getting to the root of the issue, there is no longer a need for the harming behaviour.
That is so true Christoph, will power and going “cold turkey” do not seem to work, or are replaced by another vice. When the underlying root cause is addressed the need is no longer there and healthy choices become easier.
I agree with you Mary, Serge Benhayon presents the facts, he has never told anyone what to do.
What happened for me was after a while of doing the esotric healing and choosing to make loving changes for myself, the clearer my body felt and I started to recognise I could feel so much more.
Then one night I went to have a wine like I use to at a party and I couldnt drink it, it just felt so foreign in my body….my body rejected it. From that day on I never drank alcohol again.Which was so amazing to me, as I could never imagine, me before going to a party and not having a couple of drinks.
The need to have that drink was gone.
It’s funny isn’t it? As children we taste the things that adults enjoy like alcohol, tea and coffee and don’t like them. I defy anyone to tell me that their first cigarette was a pleasant experience. No, we have to teach ourselves to like these substances as our bodies are naturally averse. Then once we’ve made these things part of our lives we learn all over again to let go of them. If we had only listened to our bodies in the first place and not been swept along by all sorts of societal input, it would have saved a lot of angst.
Funny, crazy in fact! We train our bodies to cope and then we spend ages re training it to stop… when all along we knew.
Exactly Josephine , I also remember feeling sick with anything dairy and and disliking sweets as a child, but everyone ate them and I thought that I had better get to like them – especially dairy as it was championed as ‘good’ for you!
Ah yes, I remember trying to drink a glass of milk, almost gagging on it but being told that it was good for me. I love that these days I can honour what my body is telling me rather than what someone else is telling me.
As a child I was very surprised as to how adults liked cigarettes and alcohol it looked like their whole life was dependent on these products, so I had to test them out. So as a child I tested alcohol it was so disgusting and I tested cigarettes it was life suffocation. From that day forth my observation of adults was confusion . How can they like these cigarettes and alcohol , I found out later in life that they didn’t.
Yes Christoph, removing the need by addressing the issues that created the need in the first place cuts out all the trying to give up and it just becomes a process which happens naturally and easily. The letting go of unhelpful foods and habits is almost a byproduct and as you say so contrary to what is being scientifically investigated at the moment. We make ourselves our own science experiment, the results speak for themselves.
I had a similar experience Mary, although I had been drinking wine for quite a few years and always thought it tasted like vinegar! But the difference was that one day I had to stop and ask myself, ‘whay are you still drinking this, when you don’t like how it tastes?’ And it was from that day on that I never touched a drop of wine, or any other alcohol again. And not because anyone had told me not to drink, but because I allowed myself to feel how awful it felt in my body when I drank. Like you, “my body spoke louder than words”, and I could no longer ignore what it was telling me.
What is interesting is when you listen to your body like this, and you honour the fact that it tastes like vinegar instead of over riding that, you never have cravings for it again, so giving up is easy.
The ease with which we are able to ‘give up’ certain things is quite remarkable – and yet very natural – when we take our queues from the body instead of our heads or someone else.