While you may not know exactly how long you’ll live, there’s much you can do to optimize the quality of your life, whatever its length. Abraham Lincoln wisely advised, “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
Not taking care of ourselves demonstrates the greatest disrespect for the gift of life. If we value the opportunity we’ve been given to be spiritual beings having a human experience, we will do everything in our power to cherish and care for our human “vehicle” mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
The owner’s manual advises that we nurture, encourage and delight ourselves in healthy ways. Because, when we don’t take care of ourselves, eventually we’re no good to ourselves or anyone else. We can give nothing of significant and lasting value from an empty well. Nutrition, exercise, rest, reflection and play are as important to the purpose of our presence here as the activities we more typically label as “work.” They are equally important aspects of the jobs we’ve been sent here to do—manifesting our unique forms of Divinely sourced greatness.
Here are a few tips for enhancing the quality of your life and health physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually:
- Drink water and eat fruits and vegetables. Generous quantities of these essential elements will increase your sense of flow and wellbeing. When you feel fully ALIVE—with your engine firing efficiently and effectively on all cylinders—life is a lot more fun!
- Get moving and breathe deeply. Exercising encourages deep breathing, provides the oxygen-rich environment your body loves and releases endorphins—your body’s natural mood lifters. Deep breathing calms you, nurtures your cells and helps eliminate toxins. And, if you workout to the point of breaking a sweat, you’ll give the toxin flush an added boost. My personal vitality affirmation: I thrive and inspire. I radiate stamina, strength, flexibility, stability and dexterity. I am healthy, happy and whole.
- Cherish stillness and silence. Our waking hours can be a non-stop hamster wheel of noisy demands on our time and attention. Radios and iPods in our cars. Colleagues, meetings and email at work. TV, social media and family at home. To restore yourself—body, mind, heart and soul—take time each day to find a private place, turn off the technology and just be still. Silence is golden. You are a human BEING not a human DOING.
- Be yourself. One of the biggest causes of unhappiness, stress and poor health is abandoning your authentic self and forcing yourself into someone else’s idea of what your life should look be. Joseph Campbell said, “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” Oscar Wilde said, “Be yourself! Everyone else is already taken.”
- Seek new experiences. New foods, destinations, hobbies, relationships and occupations. Every new experience enriches your life by creating new neural pathways in your brain, keeping you sharp well into old age, boosting your creative potential and adding zest to your days.
In the words of Maya Angelou, “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style.” Go ahead, start enjoying your life. Start now!
© Copyright 2015 DJW Life Coach LLC. All rights reserved.
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About djwlifecoach
I am retired from 40+ years of helping individuals and teams build lives and organizations they love. One of the great joys of my retirement from professional practice is having greater bandwidth to donate my professional and creative talents to support and promote animal and social welfare charities.
During my 30 years as an organization transformation consultant, I served as a senior partner in four of the world’s largest, most prestigious global professional services firms. In 2005, I took a five-year sabbatical to find healing and peace because non-stop work had taken its toll.
My recovery from burnout led to finding my purpose guiding others on their journeys. As a board-certified coach, author, consultant, radio host, Reiki Master and EFT/tapping practitioner, I share hope, possibilities and empowerment with the world.
111419 DJW Sid CH Pet Corner Photo ShootI help clients achieve rapid, extraordinary, sustainable results by connecting who they are with what they do, a connection often lost through stress and the sheer busy-ness of daily life. Courageous self-awareness and unconditional self-love lead to honest choices based on priorities that nurture you and those around you on a journey to wholeness.
Decades in coaching, consulting, change management, organization development, human resources and mixed media artistic expression honed my business sense, professionalism, creativity, intuition, leadership and communication skills. The result? Practical tools that help you become more insightful, creative, committed, productive and fulfilled.
Even the most dedicated and hard-working individuals can shift from frustration to a sense of futility when their values, passion, work, and lives become disconnected. One of the problems with not taking care of our health is that the effects of ignoring it are often slow to show up. We continue to juggle family responsibilities, work and finances until we lose ourselves, waking up one day 50 pounds heavier in body and soul—no good to ourselves or anyone else.
I love working with people who are ready to take life-changing action to make their dreams a reality. At each moment, you have inside you all the wisdom you seek to choose your life and your way of showing up. Limiting thoughts, beliefs and feelings can block you from moving forward. An absence of love and concern for yourself can result in negative head talk that holds you back with discouraging messages about who you are and what you can do.
By listening and caring deeply, I guide you in connecting with your own inner wisdom. We identify the way you’d like to live. We determine what’s blocking you and release you from the hold those blocks have over you—unleashing the positive energy that will fuel you forward. Together we develop a plan to move you closer to your heart’s desire.
My books, blog, radio show and signature coaching programs help individuals and organizations harness the transformative energy of love to turn unexplored possibilities into fulfilling realities and step into their greatness. What’s love got to do with it? Everything! My book, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! (Hay House/ Balboa Press 2013) shares my story and the stories of 10 of my clients along with my signature Discovery Framework.
For fun, I love reading, sewing, knitting, yin yoga, afternoon tea, opera and movies. I live in Williamsburg, Virginia with my spouse, Wilson Abney, and the cat who runs our life, Maisy Jane.
Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! 
Great post. Very inspiring and full of wisdom and excellent tips for really diving into this experience of physicality. Warm greetings, always, Sam 🙂