Cascading.

The extent to which we control our health is the subject of my recent deep dives in reading.  

As a culture, we have come to understand that controlling factors in our external environment – along with what we put into our bodies – has a direct correlation to our health and longevity.  

Nicotine, for example, is bad for our lungs and cardiovascular system. The link of cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke to cancer and heart disease was eventually accepted by our society, and policies to restrict its use and exposure to bystanders are now the norm – although that process took decades. 

Not so for other countries around the world who think we are unreasonably possessed and controlling in our zealous quest to stop smoking. They light up whenever and wherever they please, thank you. 

So, it’s easy to see it’s going to be a harder ‘sell’ to shine a light on how influential our inner environment – created by how our thoughts change the chemistry in our body – is on our health. 

Even when I am learning about the influence of positive or negative thinking, the application of my knowledge is spotty. 

Sigh. 

But we learn from our mistakes, right? 

I know that everything I think is my choice. Sure, I may have been conditioned by circumstances to respond to situations in a certain way, but as a reasoning adult with access to the latest information, I can gain tools to think and respond differently.  

One of my new tools is, You Are the Placebo, by Dr. Joe Dispenza. This book is broadening my understanding of what is physically happening when we think and how thought can change so much relating to our health. 

So – returning to last week’s mention of an exploding glass dish that sprayed tiny shards all over my kitchen and beyond – I had a choice to make. 

Explode like that glass bowl – or not. 

After the initial reaction of dismay – this was a marvel in glass breaking, I must admit – I was immediately disheartened at the extent of the damage.  

An open dishwasher with clean dishes exposed to breakage. Open deep drawer of dishes sprayed with glass shards. A just-cleaned floor littered with glass and carpet nine feet away with glitters of glass. 

Everything in sight had to be cleaned, recleaned, and cleaned up again. Broom. Gloves. Vacuum. Wiped. Over and over.  

Surely, I deserved a meltdown or just a bit of rage. You think? 

I knew I was in control of my reaction. My mantra is, after all, my mind believes what I tell it. I needed to be careful how I related to this inconvenience. Really, it was not life-altering, after all. 

The slow burn of discouragement of having all my earlier work wiped away came to a crescendo when I was asked, “What happened”? 

Then I chose to let loose. I chose to label all the negative things directly and capped it off with how ticked off I was.  

So there! 

Probably even a little dramatic. 

I thought venting would help. Wrong. A wave of negativity physically flowed through me even hours later.  

I was emotional earlier in the day. What I was feeling that night was physical. 

Examining why I had chosen to be as emotional as I was at the time, has proven to be helpful. Sometimes there are subplots to our outbursts. 

I am not advocating ignoring emotions – but a few messages were driven home for me.

1) I could have chosen to laugh at the absurdity of my predicament.

2) I could have asked for help.

3) I could have measured my verbal response to be less dramatic.

It was a matter of choice. I am here to tell you that I physically felt the ramifications of that choice hours later. 

We’ve heard, “you are what you eat.” I can add another aspect to that, “you are what you think.” 

Continue the conversation by sharing using the options under the MORE button below. 

Right there learning with you –  

Deidre  

Sometimes the inspiration and application of an idea can come from a familiar message that’s been put into new words.

That old idea will grab us in a new way, when it’s presented from a different angle.

I’ve written about taking small steps for years, both here and in my books. But this book about Kaizen I referred to last week, has been just what I needed.

And look – even its size reflects its message!

As I stood in the chaos of moving boxes, not sure of which way to go because some of the options required other efforts to complete, I put Kaizen to work.

Clearly, the whole project, or even part of the project, was not going to be finished that day. What was one tiny thing within my reach that I could put away? One thing.

Easy enough. Done.

Next?

By the end of the morning, I had finished moving my things into the bathroom: Shelving assembled under the sink, objects sorted, discarded, and put away.

This job had been put off for several weeks. I had enough personal hair, make up, and tooth brushing supplies – it was not an urgent task, but to complete moving in, required me to get these things out of the ugly box in my new bedroom.

You can imagine the sense of accomplishment – albeit small – that propelled me to tackle one more object in another box. Ultimately, four or five boxes were processed that day. Wow!

Reading Maurer’s book opened my eyes to another reason why small is good.

Approaching any topic from the point of view of making the smallest changes is simply more user friendly, because we are comfortable with small steps.

When faced with change involving big ideas and big leaps, our fight-or-flight response is triggered. Our body prepares for physical action (fight or flight) and the circuits for less critical operations are shut down.

In a fight-or-flight response, we do not need to digest lunch, or think about our relations with Aunt Sarah. We need to stand and fight, or get out of Dodge as fast as possible.

The problem we face in everyday situations that bring on this response is that it also brings on some degree of fear. We fear departing from anything that takes us away from the norm – and we often end up like deer in the headlights. Stuck. Frozen.

Looking at major projects can leave us wringing our hands and walking in circles.

But, learning to take the smallest step possible keeps that fight-or-flight response asleep. We can tiptoe right around it.

I’m not opening and putting away fifty boxes today. I’m going to find a home for this bottle of Listerine.

Twice weekly, extreme gym workouts aren’t happening; but I did 5 minutes of arm exercises with 3 pound weights during the commercials last night – several times. Whenever I relocate my 5 pound weights, I’ll use them to ramp up the experience.

Little things.

How can you dissolve the potential fear of facing a large or difficult project by finding the smallest possible step to take?

What’s one thing you can do for your health today?

How can you incorporate one more glass of water into your day?

Are you looking at a mess? What is one small object you can put away?

Thank you for reading foodtalk4you. If you haven’t subscribed yet, just scroll down your screen or look to the upper left along this article to subscribe today. We won’t bug you, promise. Just one email a week to alert you to the new post.

Quietly stepping around that fight-or-flight tiger.

In health –

Deidre