Wednesday, May 15, 2013
TAKING THE TIME TO CARE AND TAKE CARE
Losing jobs. Losing homes. Losing loved
ones. Losing our neighborhoods to violence, natural disasters, crime and
poverty. When everyone was predicting
the world would end in 2012 – they thought about the world ending in an
apocalypse. The truth is, the world ‘we
once knew’ is ending but everything continues the same as it ever was. If you look back to the teachings of Greek
philosophers, you will see that things were no different… which is why many philosophies
and teachings are relevant today. They
are applicable. We still have the same problems, they’ve just donned new
costumes.
There are countries still at war. There is violence still happening. There are still homeless and hungry
people. And there are unspeakable acts
we’ve all become aware of because of all of the ways we are informed about it
now.
Awareness is key.
If we become the SOLUTION instead of pointing fingers of blame at others
for our problems or waiting for others to clean up a mess that they did not
create and we each started taking care of ourselves and taking care of each
other – why would we have to sit around ‘waiting for the world to change’ when
Gandhi once said “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Take a look around to those struggling. Have you ever seen a bunch of homeless people gather and hover together to keep warm around a fire and actually share the food they get with one another?
Do you see there is humanity and hope? Do you see there is an immediate identification
in a place coming from compassion to be able to relate and co-exist in trying
to help out someone else in the same situation?
Do you see how a single situation can be 180 degrees from the other,
that rather than destruct, there are people who wish to construct?
It is the same as looking at technology as both a
blessing and a curse. But isn’t it like everything else? People use it for good. People use it for evil. The recent Boston tragedy has shown us both
sides of it. The bombers used it for
evil. The public used it to help
identify them. And in the face of
tragedy and horror – there were those who stepped up and stepped in to help,
there are others who looked away and did nothing.
The gift and value of life is to see people ‘taking
care’ of themselves and each other. The comfort of a hug, a smile, a
friendly outreach of kindness, reassurance that ‘everything is going to be
alright’ – even in the bleakest moment, when you yourself have nothing to
offer, there is hope.
Is the reason that people resist from giving hope
is that they are not given the signs of hope themselves? The reason We Solved It was created was to
empower people to realize they have the power within themselves to resolve and
solve anything. Sometimes in certain
situations we are made to feel hopeless and helpless and sometimes
powerless. But when you are shown the
light to be empowered and to feel like you have within you something to promote
progress and create change, it’s quite an uplifting thing, even it just means
that someone vocally declares they believe in you.
Perhaps it is ‘pride’ that causes people to answer
the standard ‘I’m fine,’ to the everyday flimsy question of ‘how are
you?’ If given the answer ‘I’m fine’ – most people let that answer be,
and never prod further. Perhaps this is to either be respectful not to pry into
something people want to keep private, or simply be self-absorbed because they
don’t care about anyone but themselves. But you will find that most
people don’t admit to challenges or hardship. Is it to ‘save face’
or to put on the appearances that everything is alright? Is it denial?
While most people don’t admit to medical problems or
even having to sell off items to make the rent, there seems to be an upkeep of
‘appearances’ that all is okay, when it is not. But what suffers most in
this process is the reality check that one is not actually ‘taking care’ of
themselves – mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually or otherwise
because they are in an environment that is not supportive. Nothing spells loneliness like thinking no
one cares about anything in life but materialism and superficiality.
We only have ourselves as a society to blame, if we
are the ones who purchase the magazines that have the tabloid headlines, we
feed into the idea that we support things that matter less than humanity.
Perhaps there is too much plastic surgery, makeup,
the guise of the trendy diet, brand names of status and fake appearances
covering up what is really going on beneath the appearance. People appear
to be ‘too busy’ to take care of themselves, but in reality there is more
happening to alter the buttons of existence.
Our society has life backwards. Maybe today’s
economic turn has helped to change the sick cycle of need for greed and humbled
a few. Perhaps, it has made one appreciate the blessings of life. But the
truth is, no matter what your situation is, chances are that your health
seemingly comes last.
When was the last time you had a
check-up? When was the last time you consciously ate healthy?
When was the last time you went for a walk instead of sitting like a couch
potato in front of the TV? And when was the last time you made
conscious decisions about your health and well-being to insure a better
future? When was the last time you took a deep breath, if only for 2
minutes, closed your eyes and relaxed to get mental clarity? When
was the last time you laughed? And when
was the last time you actually asked someone “Hey, what can I possibly do to
help YOU?”
It takes a lot along the journey in order to bring
priorities to ‘the big shift’ for many. Maybe it is during this time, when only
real friendships surface, that one may discover that if we don’t take care of
ourselves, no one else will. Whether you
pick up the phone today to call to make an appointment for yourself to change
your life or decide to finally take your own fate into your own hands – taking
care of yourself for yourself is a wise thing to do.
It is also during this time, we realize we can only
rely upon ourselves for all levels of well-being. Maybe this is healthy
in some instances, giving us the prod, the push, the determination that we need
to be self-reliant and responsible for all our actions and consequences of
neglect.
Most economists state that we are still in a state
of recession and numbers across the globe in financial, corporate and various
industries are showing this is true. But if you take a good look around,
you will find that even in the best of times, someone is always going through
something.
If you actually take the time to talk to a person
who is 90 years old or older, you will find that what we are seeing is nothing
new, it’s just in a new form. Their wisdom is something we all need to
hear. They’ve been there, done that and
yes, wear the badge of having lived through it.
Evolution is evolution. With every new invention comes a new
problem. With every new wave of creation,
things get forgotten, go by the way side and change happens. Problems take on a new form or appear to be
in mass form – only because a lot of this information is more accessible. It may appear that the things have changed
and have gotten worse, but we’re overwhelmed with information overload now
because we have several devices to have more accessibility to opening our eyes
about how messed up things are. Some may
look at this as a curse. But in a way,
it opens our eyes up to the blessings we have to be grateful for what we have
when things are good and also a way to know we are not alone in our
struggles. Someone 5,000 miles away may
actually be experiencing the same things as you where they are. Sometimes the grass is not always greener,
(truthfully it is only green where you water it), but sometimes our eyes are
opened to the idea that it can be RIGHT WHERE WE ARE if we take pro-active
action in our own communities to make things better where we are.
Never before, was this more apparent when recently witnessing the most amazing thing ever seen.
There was an old homeless woman. It was very
apparent she had lost her home, her job, her car, perhaps many relationships
–family, friends, a significant other and most of her belongings except for a
few changes of clothes held inside of her tattered tote bag. It was
evident the long laundry list of ‘things she lost’ was very, very long.
But to much surprise, there was even longer
list of things she did NOT lose:
She was walking tall and proud.
She was walking with a smile.
She was saying ‘hello’ to people as she passed by.
She moved with energy.
She hadn’t lost her spirit.
She was singing in between greetings.
She was multi-tasking as…
She was vigorously applying SUNSCREEN TO HER SKIN!
Yes, you read right. She was applying sunscreen to her skin!
So add more to the list things she hadn’t lost: her hope to want to live longer, stay healthy and not get skin cancer and hadn’t lost her intelligence because she had the wisdom to do so.
She was taking her health into her own hands.
She was looking at what she NEEDED TO DO for herself at that moment which was a
shift in priorities.
Think about this. Isn’t this
inspiring? Seriously, to anyone who has probably been down the
journey she has been, would this be the first thing on their minds?
This was more than an amusing sight, to me this was further proof that
someone’s will, faith, conviction and belief can be stronger than any
challenging situation.
We wake up every single day with the opportunity to
seize the day and to be thankful for what we are given.
We are given the opportunity every single day to
use what we DO HAVE to make each day better – not just for ourselves but for
each other. Even if it means giving those we love, tough love. Those who are straddling the fence in-between
hardship and inconvenience won’t understand life’s true meaning of what life is
about unless they step outside themselves and their own self-pity and their
horrific situation to take action to do what they can as they can to take a
step to improve it.
Perhaps it is laziness. Maybe it’s denial.
But for those of us who are conscious about our place in the world, realize
there is something more beyond material self-worth …. There is taking care of
oneself knowing there is something more, a bigger and greater purpose for our
being. This woman represented just that. She didn’t
have to spend a ton of money to do almost everything on her list of the things
she DID DO. She didn’t have to have to have the right moment to
take action on what she needed to do. She just did it. There were
no lame excuses – even though she would be the most legit person of all to have
many, many real excuses. But she didn’t use them as an excuse not to smile,
not to be kind, not to stand tall, and above all, not to do something she COULD
DO to take a pro-active step to take care of her own health.
Most people say when s*** actually hits the fan,
“well, at least you have your health…”
Health represents many things – mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health. One affects the other. A lot of people pay attention to physical health. When was the last time you tended to your psyche, your brain, your emotional state of affairs with your life and your life situation? Is your spiritual life in check? They are all connected. And one affects the other. TRUE BALANCE can only be achieved if all are taken care of.
Health represents many things – mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health. One affects the other. A lot of people pay attention to physical health. When was the last time you tended to your psyche, your brain, your emotional state of affairs with your life and your life situation? Is your spiritual life in check? They are all connected. And one affects the other. TRUE BALANCE can only be achieved if all are taken care of.
Yet health is such a confrontational issue for most people that this seems to be the thing on the ‘back-burner’ of life. Why is this so? For the majority of people who do not address health, it mostly has to do with the fact ‘they are afraid of what they will find… ‘ For others who don’t bother to do the elementary things to ‘take care’ and preventative maintenance, it has more to do with vanity, laziness, denial and feeling ‘inconvenienced.”
While it may be more ‘convenient’ to eat junk food
than a nutrient-rich piece of fruit…. Isn’t it more inconvenient to find you
have disease, when in the middle of the prime of your life?
While it may be inconvenient to self-insure your health instead of paying $30 a
week on designer lattes, isn’t it more inconvenient to be sick and not covered?
Prioritization is key. This homeless woman
applying sunscreen would rather take the time to slather on sloppy sunscreen
and inconvenience herself by actually not having a meal that day with the money
she found, having to put it on top of dirty skin and protect the only skin she
has, rather than take the risk of getting skin cancer.
To her that was worth it. Maybe we all
have our own ideas of what is ‘important’ – but the bottom-line is that taking
care of yourself for yourself so you can be here to be of greater service to
others, even though, you yourself may be suffering is probably one of the
greatest lessons we all can learn. While she may think she had nothing….
She did something with what she did have instead of dwelling on what she
didn’t. AMEN.
Take care. And don’t forget to apply the sunscreen.
~ Athena & Tess
– We Solved It
SOLUTIONS for
everyday PROBLEMS
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