Today, for once, I am not going to talk about food! I know, shocker. But as I was looking over this little blog of mine I realised that there has been (and always will be) lots of food chat. I love food. I love eating. I love natural healing nutrition. But it is all part of a much bigger picture when it comes to health.

Eating vegetables alone will not make you healthy and happy. Its the best place to start but there are other powerful factors at play when it comes to the fight for our health (yes, sometimes the battle for my health feels like a mini kung-fu fight!) 

Today I am going to look briefly at one of these  important factors – the mind. We all tend to know that our minds are powerful things, we live in a culture where our primary way of understanding is through logical, cerebral learning and we celebrate our knowledge and intelligence as a civilisation. We are pretty clever, we know a lot about these awful diseases and have even created some brilliant life changing medicines to prevent them. However! With all our knowledge, research, degrees and GCSEs we still have the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other fatal conditions! And they are still on the increase. Yet we know that most of them can be prevented  through diet and naturally healthy lifestyle changes.

So what is the problem?

Knowledge and education is obviously a big one. People needing to connect to food and its relationship with our health and bodies. But generally most people have a good idea of how to eat healthily, they realise that fruit and veg should be eaten every day and things like take-away pizza and kebabs are perhaps not great daily dinner options.

So, again, what is the problem?

I would suggest that it can be found in the workings of our mind.

I believe that an awful lot of our health problems come from the fact that we aren’t always masters of our own minds. We think we are powerless to that packet of chocolate biscuits, or decide we are far too busy to cook meals from scratch, or we have convinced ourselves that we need that sugary drink several times a day. Food that goes into your mouth is a matter of choice, very rarely are you forced against your will to eat something. So when it comes to health we need to look at the source of all this decision making – our mind.

Over-eating is a choice. Emotional eating is a choice. Eating takeaway food every night is a choice. Going to bed at 2am most nights is a choice. We all make daily choices that contribute to the state of our health and wellbeing. Our choices paint a picture of our health and, like any artist knows, you have the power to paint a hideous mess of a painting or a glorious world changing one. The same goes for our mind, it can cause us to make choices that creates a masterpiece of lasting health or a cesspit of sickness.

Obviously this could be a lifetimes worth of study, but here I am just going to look at a few things I have learnt to help you along your way to creating naturally healthy minds. Now, although this wisdom is for everyone, no matter what your beliefs, this has come from my own walk and relationship with God. He had told me I was made to be healthy and am of immense value and I have decided to agree with Him since I figured that He knows best. I can tell you that I am a lot happier for it!

1.What You Believe

Do you believe you will always be ill, lacking energy and on medication? Do you believe you are ugly, too fat to bother or just not worth the effort? Do you think that you just don’t have enough money, time or skills to be healthy? If so, how is that working for you? Are you getting better and healthier? Probably not, because you have created a lovely set of limiting beliefs that are trapping you from your true self.

2. Your True Self

Now this is perhaps the most weird and wonderful thing of what I will share with you today. The idea of this comes from my belief that none of us are created to be sick and unwell, that when this happens to us then it is going against our design and is not who we are. I firmly believe that we are all made to be healthy and happy, yes life throws us total mysteries and things we don’t understand. Our health condition, level of obesity, bowel problems, skin issues or depression do not make up who we are, but often we let them and agree with our circumstances. This will make you neither healthy nor happy. Believe in who you are: a wonderful, hand-crafted being, unique and full of world-changing potential, this will set a great foundation for lasting health.

3. What You Say

There is a great proverb that says life and death is in the power of the tongue. I agree. If you were to empty all your rubbish onto a beautiful rose patch every single day, after a while all you would see would be a pile of rubbish and any sight of the roses would be lost. It is the same with what we say. If I continually speak out that I will always be fat and ugly then I am creating my own future, I am deciding with my words what I will be and become. But if I were to speak about my good qualities and unique beauty, then I would allow life to emerge and grow. For example, when in I was so ill that I was crapping my pants regularly in public as an adult, I could have felt really sorry for myself (which I did), thought it was my lot in life and been so unbelievably embarrassed and scared that I never left the house. I did try this approach but it sucked, so instead I spoke out loud to my bowels, told them who was boss and spoke out loud that I was beautiful, not weird and didn’t need to be ashamed – this approach worked a whole lot better for me.

Why not speak positive things about your health out loud? Inject hope into your weight-loss desires and believe that your health can be amazing and so much better than you imagined. Yes it may not happen instantly on the outside but you can make an instant change on the inside that will provide lasting health by believing good things, acknowledging your true self and speaking out positive affirming words. Your mind and body will thank you!