No, it’s not what you think! We aren’t going to explore a crime scene, but I invite you to play the role of detective regarding your lifestyle, connecting the dots.
The word premeditation has a negative connotation and is generally associated with wrongdoing. But it essentially means forethought, which is clear when you take apart the word and notice the components: pre and meditation. Before I meditate, I take care of things so I can be at ease and fully in the moment, practicing what I’m supposed to. My action makes it possible for me to still my mind and not be overcome by a tsunami of thoughts, especially about things I should have done but didn’t.
Just as we plan for a crime, with all the nuances and details, outwitting our foes, we need to acquire the same mindset to predict, plan, and prevent the erosion of our quality of life and the inevitable decline of aging. While we all would take steps to cover up a murder, we often rely on luck to take care of our bodies in the present and future, assuming that somehow we’ll be ok, even if we do nothing.
Premeditation generates prevention. And prevention takes awareness and committed work. The evidence of the crime is usually in the closet, pushed aside and buried until someone opens the door. But we still feel it. We feel overwhelmed even if we don’t see anything. We enjoy mysteries and crime stories when we can be passively entertained as observers, but how often are we analytical and investigative regarding our own lifestyle?
Do you have small pains that you ignore?
Do you have dietary intolerances, like feeling bloated after eating dairy, for instance, but you still continue to eat the food?
Do you feel tired all the time but address it only with eating, often overeating?
Is wine your main method to unwind?
Do you have tension headaches and migraines that come from stress you didn’t address earlier?
Many debilitating medical conditions develop over time, taking decades to manifest symptoms. Or we can end up at the emergency room due to some small pain that snowballed when we neglected to see the clues.
We acknowledge that it’s good to clean our gutters every year, maintain our cars, and financially plan for retirement. Many of us even give more attention to our skincare routine than we give to exercise and nutrition. Yet no one wants to spend their retirement at the doctor’s office, or filled with aches and pains so it’s impossible to enjoy life. The dreams of freedom, travel, and joy require a body that’s fit and healthy, not one that’s been neglected for decades. No one can gift you good health, in this area you must make your own luck.
DEEPER CONTEMPLATION
Many mysteries are solved with the detection of one tiny element, something that’s often invisible to others. Can you detect one small habit in your lifestyle that only you know about and is a clue to a crime against your wellbeing?
Leave your response below in the comments.
Low self-esteem
Self esteem is a very complex subject, and I feel that it starts with comparisons. Years of working with hundreds and hundreds of people I’ve learned that you can build your self esteem by becoming the best version of yourself. Not what someone’s ideas about you, but feeling good in your own skin – because you’ve earned it, you’ve made it, and you’e created it. Also appreciating your own efforts.
spending way too much time in front of my computer screen with poor posture…equals neck tension, headaches. Very insidious and unhealthy behaviour for me and yet it is how I stay connected to the world outside. I want to mindfully change this pattern of behaviour because it is affecting my health.
Technology is a part of our life as a modern tool, we just need to use it for a good purpose and set some limitations. How much and when and quality usage. Sounds like food doesn’t it? Jackie I hope you find just enough but the intention must come from you. That goes to all of us.
My neighbor was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. When I asked her if there had been clues, she said that there had been many such things she ignored, she powered through them: wanting wine to unwind, feeling slightly pudgy around the middle (despite hard training), feeling tired, and then falling asleep during a dangerous high profile stakeout (despite chugging coffee and sweets to try to stay alert). When she collapsed, it was renal failure, but misdiagnosed as stress. These things happened over several years.
I notice if I eat ice cream or something really sugary the night before, I wake up sluggish with inflamed joints.
Thank you Aniela and Jerzy, I really enjoyed the Mentor Q&A last evening. Always learning new nuggets of wisdom in our interactions. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!
Eddie, we all have done it, repeatedly, and one day we might just stop. I wonder if making your own ice cream from organic fruit and controlling the ingredients (and amount) would help?
Thanks Aniela, I do have a Yonana machine which I should use more often😀🏋️
Caffeine, and staying up all night working.
Coffee is a funny buster that robs you from energy at the end. I don’t know what’s your sytuation but relaying on your real energy is more beneficial in a long run. Rejuvenating with sleep and naps are the best. Just to let you know: if Jerzy can quit coffee, anyone can.
Late night snacking is my problem area
Rex you are doing what most of us do when tired: become mindless and reactive. Is the mind tired or the body? It really doesn’t matter, it’s good to trap yourself with strong principles like eating every three hours or having three snacks and two meals and not touching food in between. And this becomes our habit. So if doing is a habit we need to do something else: substitute the old one with a new one – but not eating. I find a walk, meditation, reading, folding laundry or simple washing dishes put me in a different set of mind. I am more relaxed. What’s your doing relaxation?
Snacking is definitely my downfall, daytime and latenight. Prevention for me would be eating more well rounded meals so I don’t get snacky, taking the time to sit down at lunch for a more fulfilling meal, and replacing my evening nachos or ice cream with something healthier and earlier. It’s all emotional. Mostly stress from feeling overwhelmed by kids, activities, renovation, over doing it in general. The worst for me I think though is that I know all of this, but feel too worn out most times to resist the urges.