Last week I invited you to watch the “Origins” film.
If you missed it, it’s still be available as a free
screening, here:
–> http://www.scienceofbeingwell.net/originsfilm
The photography is beautiful. It makes me want to go to
those wild places.
The medical education is valuable. I’d like all my
patients to have this background information about the
body.
The conclusion is uplifting.
The film is well put together.
The speakers are passionate about their perspectives.
I watched it twice, and enjoyed it even more the second
time.
But, its premise is that the world is a toxic place
that your body has not evolved to handle, so you need
protection.
Is this true?
For years, my medical specialty was toxicity. I spent a
lot of time soap boxing about the dangers of toxic
chemicals and other toxic things in the environment,
just as the speakers in the film do.
And, I discovered that talking about, focusing on, and
worrying about all those dangers all the time had the
opposite of the desired result. Instead of protecting
me, it made me sick.
I’m afraid that at least in some cases, I also
negatively influenced the very patients I was trying to
help, by directing their attention to all these
dangers.
Here’s what I’ve come to understand since then.
If a person is aware of a danger and feels incapable of
avoiding harm, then the result is fear, stress,
overwhelm, and worsened health.
Here are three examples.
1. Sam is addicted to smoking. He knows it presents
a clear health risk due to the toxic fumes he is
inhaling, but he feels incapable of quitting.
2. Mary is chemically sensitive. She feels over-
whelmed by the dangers of the toxic substances in
her water, air, and food, including fumes emitted by
carpeting, her friends’ perfume, and laundry
detergent residue on their clothing.
She is fearful of electromagnetic fields and
radiation, from cell phone towers, power lines. She
is barely able to function because of her
sensitivities, and her belief that the world is not
safe and there’s nothing she can do about it.
3. Iris believes what she’s read about vegetables
being really good for her. But she hates vegetables.
To her, healthy food has no flavor. It’s too much
trouble to prepare.
She thinks organic food is too expensive. She’s not
about to go to all the trouble of juicing or making
smoothies. So, every day she believes she is harming
herself by what she eats because it’s too expensive
and unpleasant to eat what she thinks she should eat
instead.
For these people, awareness of danger only adds to
their stress and worsens their health.
However, if a person is aware of a danger and feels
fully capable of avoiding harm by doing some things
that are easy for him or her, then the result is
empowerment, confidence, and good health.
Here are three examples.
1. I’m aware of the risk of contracting the ebola
virus if I come into direct contact with an infected
person. I feel fine about it, because it’s extremely
unlikely that I’ll come into contact with an
infected person. All I have to do is avoid
circumstances I’m already easily avoiding.
2. I’m aware of the danger of pesticides, solvents,
and other toxic chemicals. I know I’ve been exposed
to many things in the course of my life, and that
future exposure is inevitable.
I also live in an area with very low toxicity, do a
pretty good job limiting my exposure during home
improvement projects, and eat mostly organic food.
I take lots of nutritional supplements specific for
helping my body process and eliminate toxic
substances in my body from past and current
exposure.
3. I’m aware of the presence of toxic substances and
microbes in my body and the environment around me.
I’m also aware that their ability to harm me is
completely dependent upon my vibration, which is
dependent upon what I am doing with my attention–
what sights, sounds, sensations, events, thoughts
I’m paying attention to and what stories I’m
believing about them.
Because I’m the one who decides what I do with my
attention and what I believe, it’s within my power
to determine my own health.
In these examples, awareness of my power to create my
own experience results in confidence and empowerment.
This third example is the perspective you’d have if you
understand the law of attraction, which is the basis of
The Science of Being Well. That’s because you’d
understand that human evolution is not limited to
physical changes in our DNA.
You’d understand that the presence of toxic
substances–even if they are in your own body–does not
necessarily mean that you will be harmed by them.
You’d understand that you are not what you eat, that
the health of your body is primarily determined by your
mind, and that your best path is to turn your attention
to happiness.
You’d let your delight, not anyone’s fearful beliefs in
scarcity or danger, be your guide about what to eat and
not eat, when and how to exercise, how to engineer your
life for exposure to nature, beauty, and peace.
What about you? What were your thoughts about the film?
What do you believe about your susceptibility to the
“dangers” of the modern world?
Although your premise about our minds controlling how our bodies respond to toxic substances (and how they respond to the environment in general) is correct, and the ultimate source of control; there are a couple of points to be made. First is that anyone following and/or practicing self improvement, spirituality, quantum physics and other fields that are trying to educate folks as to how our minds are the creative, controlling entities that manipulate energy in order to cause our external environment, are very aware that we are just at the beginning of learning how this works, and in particular, how to operate the system God put in place with the creation of the universe. So understanding (in a very limited way),and talking about this system, and actually knowing how to use it to create your world with it are at this time two very different things. So educating people about the evils of all the toxicity around them could indeed end up being a bad thing, without the ability to control your mind (and therefore your body). And also, to not educate people about the problems in our world is to allow apathy to start and fester concerning regulation and/or solving those problems. So, we do need to be educated, but we as individuals need to be aware of knowing how to strike a balance in our lives between information, and ability. The people you talked about in your first three examples, need to do a much better job (including not knowing about certain subjects), if that is their only option for protection from them at the moment. But letting those who would harm us (and they are everywhere and in a very big way at his time), either purposely or mistakenly, is to give them cart blanche; and I think we have seen that they find it quite easy to ignore their consciences and go about their business at the cost of our very lives sometimes.
Kevin, Thanks so much for your comments.
You know, when my ezine arrived in my inbox yesterday morning, I opened it and looked at the topics–danger and wrong–I was dismayed.
Here it was, Thanksgiving eve, and instead of sending an inspiring story or something lighthearted and uplifting, I was talking about problems!
This reminds me of what I already knew but had distracted myself from: the answer to your first point, Kevin. Rather than attempting to control our minds or bodies, all we need to do is look for excuses to feel happy. It’s not our job to poke at problems and solve them. That’s God’s job. Our job is to appreciate, love, enjoy.
To your second point, I find that my belief in the law of attraction teaches me that fighting against anything or anyone only strengthens the fight, and feeds energy to what I don’t want. The best way to get rid of what I don’t want is to build what I DO want by giving it my attention.
For example, if I want local, organically run family farms to thrive, I should spend my food dollars buying from them. I might write appreciative letters to my congressional representatives asking them to support legislation in favor of them.
with appreciation,
Alexandra
It’s good to be reminded (your last section 3) thank you
I confess that I have been stressing about toxins in my environment that seem to be out of my control, like other people’s perfume and laundry product residues on clothes.
I regularly go to a place where I sit for 4 hours in a room with such toxins. I sit by the window so I can get some fresh air, but now it’s winter, it’s not comfortable.
I have mentioned the problem to the other people, but it’s only slightly abated.
So next week I will go with a different mindset and see if I get a headache. Or maybe, it would be best to expect clean air in the room the whole session. 🙂
And yes, I would much prefer to be happy than right. I find EFT tapping also helps to release those momentums from the past.
Life is certainly an interesting journey!
Thanks so much for writing, Patricia.
Life certainly is an interesting journey!
You might want to reread the chapter in The Science of Being Well about breathing. I rewrote the little section about what to do when the air is not clean, and it’s close to what you said.
No matter what’s in the air around you, it doesn’t mean YOU have to receive those molecules. No matter what molecules you breathe in, it doesn’t mean your cells will react negatively to them.
When you put your attention on all the wonderful clean molecules, happily aware of happy things, including the abundance of healthy air to breathe, instead of telling yourself the story that perfumes are toxins that will harm you, see what happens.
When you find things to like and appreciate about the lovely people around you–instead of on “those insensitive, ignorant folks” who refuse to adjust their fragrance-wearing behavior, see what happens.
Maybe instead of seeing if you get a headache, you could see if you can fall in love with yourself and others.
And yes, do that EFT tapping to love yourself even though you have a tendency to tell yourself scary and hateful stories! (I’m saying this to myself too as I write, since I’m an expert–as most of us are. 🙂
The amazing thing is how much your body will respond to dropping stories like the world is not safe for you, that people don’t care, you’re all alone, etc.
Please write again next week and let us know how it goes!
with appreciation,
Alexandra