Can You Heal Yourself?

The law of the universe is simple: what you focus your attention on is what you will receive. Focus on negatives, and you will receive more negatives in your awareness. Focus on positives, and you will find more and more to be thankful for.

It can be difficult, I admit, to focus on positives -- and really FEEL positive about anything -- when it doesn't feel like anything is going right. It's especially tough when it's your health that's not "cooperating." It's easy to get negative and start to believe untrue statements like, "This is the way it's always going to be;" "There's nothing I can do about this;" "I'm just going to have to live with this."

Well, I don't think I have to tell you that that kind of thinking is bullshit, even if it comes from a doctor. The fact is, what is possible is determined entirely by what you believe, whether that be continuing in long-term illness or depression or poverty, or conversely, choosing to live in abundance and Love and health. Because, after all, you can CHOOSE to be healthy by focusing on aligning your internal vibration with joy -- in other words, choosing to be happy and positive no matter, and then believing that you can be healthy.

Now, before you try to punch me, allow me to point out -- in case you don't know me very well -- that as recently as a couple of years ago, I was in chronic pain, severely depressed and sometimes suicidal, and running out of options after seeing scores of doctors. Today, I'm not only feeling better, I'm living more joyfully and abundantly than I ever could have imagined before I "got sick." The point is, if I can heal, so can you.

Still, it helps to have some support. We can't always be strong, and that's when we need someone or something to remind us that we are capable of doing anything.

That's what I wanted to share with you today: a website that I found called www.incrediblehealingjournals.com. Although I haven't dug too deeply into it yet (just discovered it about 20 minutes ago), the site features some pretty awesome stories about people overcoming conditions that are supposed to be chronic and incurable. In story after story, people tell how they got past conditions like asthma, autoimmune disorders, cancer, and so on.

Check it out. Read through some of the stories. If you're in a situation of less-than-ideal health, start to imagine yourself in a place of great health by putting yourself in the stories as the person who experiences the healing.

Remember, you potential for healing is limited only by your beliefs!

Much Love,

Matthew

(P.S. - For more on attracting what you focus on, and where I'm learning about it, look for a post about the Law of Attraction in the coming weeks. In the meantime, don't hesitate to do a search on the subject. Amazing stuff. I'm just waiting till I feel inspired before I do a post on it.)

Free Hugs

The most important part of good health is Love, for so many reasons that I can't share them all here. But most importantly, it raises the vibration in your body -- it makes you feel good! -- which affects the entirety of your existence. This includes, of course, making your body feel good. After all, your body, your physical health, your mental health -- they're just physical manifestations of what's inside your heart and mind.

So take 3.5 minutes to watch this video on the Free Hugs Campaign. Share in the Love, and in the process, Love yourself. You deserve it. : )

Love Poems (Part III)

There's nothing that feels better than Love. So pure, whole, full. At least, it is when you allow yourself to Love without keeping your fears at your side.

I recently met a beautiful woman whose name will go unmentioned here. But she knows who she is. So for this third installment of Love Poems, I've included one that I wrote about her and the incredible spiritual experience she's given me.

The second is my reaction to fights about religion. I think the point that is missed -- and the only point that mattered in the first place is that God is Love. Forget the rest.

Much Love to all of you. ¡Muchos abrazos!

-

The Tree

When I met you, a tree took root among my teeth

and budded into a million words,

ready to take wing into song.

But each was silenced by your next breath,

carried into the wind by the birds.

And having forgotten everything

I had thought to say, I grinned stupidly, spellbound,

while the tree grew tall.

My God

Arguments about the nature of God—ridiculous as arguing

about the mirth of flowers.

If you want to talk about God, stop speaking.

(And if you must express something, let it be a gentle smile.)

If you want to talk about angels, look up at the birds flying high.

Instead of bickering about the roads that lead to heaven,

walk down one with no cars but a thousand trees,

and you’ll recognize the angels among the stars.

And if you want to witness God,

turn to your lover and thank her for being.

-

(P.S. - Be sure to read previous installments of Love Poems earlier in the blog.)

Should Sugar Be Regulated as a Toxic Substance?

Fact: too much sugar is bad for you.

Fact: many of us have known this for a while.

Fact: the larger scientific community is finally starting to catch on.

In this interview on NPR's "Science Friday" program, an expert talks about the harmful effects of sugar on the body, why we're getting too much of it, what is and isn't being done about it, and more. He even argues that sugar should be regulated like any other controlled substance, since it can mimic other drugs in terms of its effect on the body.

It's worth checking out. . . unless, of course, you don't value your health.

Do I Deserve Love?

Today is an amazing day. We're here, we're live, and most importantly, we're conscious. Let's celebrate that!

Today I've been reflecting on people's ideas about love. Specifically, about how many of us don't feel, on some level, like we don't even deserve it.

It's fascinating when you start to see it in other people -- that beneath the face they put on every morning, their job, their anger triggers is a person who just didn't feel enough love as a child, and who probably still doesn't feel enough love now.

Oh, he tries to overcome it in order to reach some distant point in time when he will be deserving of it. He "proves" himself according to his experience: by working really hard, by being sick, by fantasizing about killing himself, by trying to accumulate lots and lots of money, by being an asshole, by being so sweet and caring for other people that he doesn't care about himself. . .

It can take many forms, but the root cause is always the same: a feeling that he doesn't deserve love unless he somehow earns it.

Well, I've got news for you: you can't earn love. How the hell could you possibly earn something that is already yours? That is inherently a part of you?

Know that you deserve love, that you are worth more than you could possibly imagine. You are Love itself, more beautiful than any song or poem or worldly sight. Allow yourself to feel that -- that you deserve to love and be loved.

All you have to do is open up your eyes and realize that if you give up the subconscious program of "not good enough" or "not deserving," you'll find that you'll get all the love you could possibly need. Are you willing to do that?

What is Holding You Back from Wellness and Balance?

Here's a question for the day, something to mull over throughout the day, and even into tomorrow if necessary:

If you had the intuition to know what was stopping you from living a life of balance, joy, and health, what would that be?

Or if you don't have a "health" challenge in your awareness right now, you could insert something else: what is holding you back from achieving balance in your relationship with your partner? What is holding you back from financial abundance?

And now, consciously let it go, because it doesn’t have any more power over you than you give it. Your well-being is in your hands, awaiting only your decision to move into your power and claim it.

Is Sugar Toxic?

It's no secret to health nuts like me that sugar is toxic. Food purists have known for years that sugar contributes to inflammation, a weakened immune system, diabetes, and more.

Now it appears the rest of the world is beginning to catch on, as Dimitri Hagnéré writes in an article on SFBay.ca. It's time for sugar to be regulated like alcohol or tobacco. Hell, it even has the same addictive qualities!

In my own experience, I've needed no more evidence than the proof my body has given me. These days, if I cheat and eat something with sugar -- and I'm talking a granola bar, maybe, not even one of the big bad wolves like candy -- I often end up with a big canker sore in my mouth for the next week.

My advice? Give up processed sugar entirely in favor of natural sweeteners like honey and agave nectar. It's one of the best decisions you could possibly make for your health. If you're not ready to make that complete transition, at least give up the soda, the candy, and the cookies. They provide absolutely zero nutritional value, and what's worse, they're slowly making you sick. The good news is that the less unnatural, sugary crap you consume, the more delicious nature's sweet stuff -- fruit, honey, etc. -- will taste.

The New Rules of Health

Last fall, my life was uneventful, almost boring. I had made very few commitments, and the few I had made didn’t take up much time. I wasn’t quite ready to have a “serious” job with heavy expectations, so I decided that I would use my talents to tutor a little Mexican boy at the Elementary school. The “Mexican” descriptor is important here for just one reason: he didn’t speak any English, having just moved from Mexico to Minnesota, and since none of the elementary teachers spoke Spanish, he couldn’t communicate with hardly anyone.

I can only guess at how scary it must have been for me in the beginning, showing up in a strange country without either of his parents (one is in jail, the other still in Mexico) and having to start a new life -- all at just 9 years of age!

So I volunteered to come to the school a few days a week to help him with his English and be his Spanish-speaking buddy.

That was several months ago. Today, I’m still going in to work with him a few days a week. Most of the time, we do worksheets, read books, or play games I make up on the spot. His progress has been very slow, but lately he’s started to use more English. He’ll often mix it in with Spanish: “Tomorrow me voy a ir a Sioux Falls (tomorrow I’m going to go to Sioux Falls).”

Today, neither one of us really felt like working on anything, so we found a set of checkers and a board and started to play. (We tried chess, too, after he claimed to know how to play it, but when he tried to move a pawn diagonally on his second turn, I knew we’d better stick to something simpler.)

Here’s the fascinating thing about playing checkers with this little boy. Like many children, he is easily smart enough to learn the rules of the game. Yet, like almost any kid, he likes to make up rules to suit his needs in the moment. An enemy piece behind his checker? The rules say you can’t jump backwards until said piece is kinged. But that’s no problem -- we’ll just change the rules!

I heard myself telling him things like “no, no puedes hacer eso (no, you can’t do that)” and other paradigm-limiting crap. Then I realized, Hell, why shouldn’t the kid make up his own rules? He’s going to have a million people throughout his life telling him he has to do things according to a predetermined rule set. Why? Because they say so. Because that’s how it’s done.

And now here’s the connection to you and your health, if you haven’t guessed it already. When you have a health issue, especially a long-lasting one, it gets firmly defined. You receive a label for your symptom set -- fibromyalgia, cancer, ADD, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, “it’s all in your head” -- and along with that, you get a set of rules. Here’s what can happen within this paradigm, the doctors tell you, and here’s what can’t happen. Usually the focus is more on the can’t than the can.

Some people -- heck, most people -- lay down and take it, unquestioningly applying this arbitrary ruleset -- based entirely on a few dozen peoples’ limited experiences and limited world views -- to their own selves. Why? Because they say so. Because that’s how it works.

Do you see now how stupid that is? A disease or condition comes supplied with its own rule set. But just as with checkers, you don’t have to play by the rules that are written on the accompanying instructions. Why live with a symptom set that doesn’t serve you, just because your doctors don’t believe it can be shifted? Who says a chronic condition has to be chronic? What if we make it a non-chronic one? What if in the next instant it simply didn’t exist?

Here are just a few rules you can take, if you want, or you can reject these and make up your own:

1) Make up your own rule sets and reject rulesets that don’t serve your highest good.

2) Your doctor knows less about your body and your potential for feeling than you think -- often even less than you do!

3) The possibilities for your health (and your life) are limited only by your belief systems.

Use you imagination. Jump five spaces backwards in one turn with that unkinged checker, for God’s sake! Stop living by somebody’s else rules, and you’ll discover the miraculous potential of your body to heal itself.

Oh yes, and one more thing: it’s just a game, all of this, so stop being so damn serious!

[To read a post about TIME and that arbitrary ruleset, click here. While it's coming from a different perspective (and a different author, for the most part), it's a piece worth reading to continue understanding our obsession with false rulesets in our lives.]