Part II: Practice

SPEAKING OF PRACTICE, there’s more to life than work, eat, drink, be merry, and sleep.  According to the World Health Organization’s 1948 definition, health is:  a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.  Ask yourself, on a scale from 1-10, how you measure up overall.  How do you truly feel about your health?  According to a favorite university professor, most people tend to place themselves somewhere near the middle.  I feel 8.2.  After you mark your number, ask yourself what you’re doing to improve on it.  Shouldn’t we all be trying to move forward?  We’re not getting younger.  This is life, it’s not a dress rehearsal or preparation for the future.  We should be enjoying it to the utmost, feeling our best.  We need money for survival, but what is more important… having a shitload of money… or feeling like a million bucks?  What do we practice to maintain what we perceive as being ourselves, our sanity, our senses of well-being?  Self-medication and psycho-therapy sessions?  Television, sports, eating sweets, eating fresh foods, crosswords, reading, and the arts?  Worship, meditation, and taking time out for breathing and awareness?  Meeting with a book club, a Mom’s group, or happy hour buddies?  So many things, so many ways.  How positive or beneficial are our practices?   What do we spend our moments, days, months, years, and lives doing? Living.  Now.  No judgments here, nor expectations, and no excuses.  Explore and contemplate.  Think about your practices… and in which directions they’re leading you.