Your body and mind’s natural state is being well, and well-being. When you are working toward a big vision and in the habit of “doing”, you can forget this when your mind is tipped off-balance. There is no need to fix things. Just let your thoughts settle and they will naturally return to a place of well-being.
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Being Well
I attended a Smithsonian lecture in 1997, excited to hear Dr. Herbert Benson speak on his newly released book Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology of Belief (Integration of Body, Mind and Soul). Benson is a cardiologist who has conducted pioneering research in the field of mind/body including the effects of prayer and meditation on healing. He founded the Institute of Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and coined the term “the relaxation response”—the opposite of the fight or flight stress response.
His definition of the placebo effect stuck with me to this day. He calls it “remembered wellness.”
This makes such intuitive sense doesn’t it? That our body’s natural state is wellness.
Just contemplating that notion, I relax. Whatever may ail me, my body knows just how to return to being well—the center point. Yes, life events, epigenetics—the traits of my genes, business ownership, and a Puritan work ethic, can tip the balance. But underneath it all, informing it all, is wellness. Being well. My body knows. My job is simply to support its return to its natural state.
Well-Being
Your mind’s natural state is wellness too.
I face all the challenges any business owner does. I am rigorous about ensuring our organizational and leadership development approaches evolve to help clients in evolving marketplaces get the results they want. These are mission-driven leaders who are contributing to a better world. I have a driving commitment that must be worthy of the people we help and their compelling visions.
Sometimes though, my mind can become unhappy, fearful or insecure, and tipped off center, Sometimes it can list hard as it did in December, tipped by my sense of urgency. If you’ve ever seen the movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you may remember a gruesomely funny scene. A knight is increasingly debilitated, but tenaciously insists on continuing to fight. I was that knight… “
Molly Gordon, Master Certified Coach, offers us her imminently practical spiritual wisdom on well-being. She guides us to simply “let our thinking settle.” There is nothing for you or me to do to fix our “off-center state.” Just relax. And trust that our minds just like our bodies will return to their natural state of well-being. They will and they do.
Trust that our minds just like our bodies will return to their natural state of well-being. They will and they do.
I think you’ll enjoy her wonderful, short video titled Your Psychological Immune System where she draws a parallel between the inherent intelligence of our psychological immune system and our physical immune system. Her grounded presence and tempo invite us to… settle down.
Being well. Well-being. Here’s to your whole-bodied, whole-minded, whole-spirited wellness.
