What makes it so difficult to do something different?

What makes it so difficult for us to do something different?

In order to answer this question, we may need to take a look in the mirror….

How many of us wake up in the morning, and, in their full-blown-morning-galore-look, stare at the mirror and say: “wow!” with the most tenderness and love they can afford? (not the other “wow!!!!” that you may think of…)

I am sure few of us would. But why not most of us? Why not all of us?

My belief is that when we are staring into the mirror, we are looking to find the “perfect” image that we saw yesterday in the magazine or TV show and obviously it cannot be seen in our mirror. We want to see the image that suits the “beautiful cover” definition according to our own view. No matter what it is hiding underneath.

Therefore, when we don’t see it – we become disappointed, and cannot express any tenderness or love towards the reflection that lets us down.

Slowly we clean up, becoming a bit more like the image we would like to see, and making the decision that it is time to try to manage our health condition more naturally. So we visit a naturopath. The naturopath has some mind-blowing ideas how to create healing and how to adjust it to our lifestyle, and we go back home to sleep on what we heard.

We wake up the next morning. Staring again at the mirror. Now, what are the chances that we tenderly & lovingly would say: “wow! Look at me! Today I am starting to walk my new path – changing all my lifestyle habits and healing all my ailments!”?

IMGP3026 (2).JPG — Picture by Amit Shlagman

Chances are probably pretty slim…

We are more likely to stand in front of the mirror and again be disappointed from what we see. But now we also become angry. Since that body that is reflected in the mirror has requests – he/she needs us to make changes for him/her – letting go of stuff that we like and starting to do stuff that we have never done before. No matter if we like it or not .

All these requests! And for whom? For the stranger who reflects in our mirror? We never saw him/her before, because the “perfect” image was always blocking the way. We don’t know this body that reflects in the mirror. We don’t know what he/she wants. We don’t know what he/she needs. We have no communication with him/her.

IMGP2790 (3).JPG — Picture by Amit Shlagman

I can sit here for hours and explain you about foods and acts that may affect our body in different ways for better or worse, but if I do not emphasize how important it is to create this dialogue between you and your own body – I will be talking in vain.

This dialogue, or this communication system, can be created only when body reaches a very deep state of relaxation – shifting to the parasympathetic state of the autonomic nervous system. Nothing good comes out when we are constantly in sympathetic / fight-or-flight mode. Unless a bear is chasing us. And even then, I really hope he chases us in the first hour we are in sympathetic state and not on our 10^th year…
Shifting to parasympathetic state allows us to be present and open our eyes to appreciate what this amazing body is doing for us. There are many ways to reach parasympathetic state, but I will share here the way that works best for me – the way I use in all my sessions & in my life and it never fails – castor oil packs. The preparation that works for me is by applying the castor oil on the belly, covering with a towel and topping with a hot water bottle, then resting for an hour or the whole night. I have witnessed many people shifting on my table just from this simple castor application, and cannot talk enough about the real reason I love castor so much!!

When applying the castor oil pack on the belly, the oil lubricates and stimulates all the tissues, organs and systems in this region. Along with that, the heat draws the blood vessels up closer to the skin as they dilate, allowing oil to be absorbed into the blood circulation as well, thus distributed through the whole body. Lubricating and stimulating organs as the small intestine, bladder, colon, liver, uterus, which are part of systems that are inhibited when body is under stress (when the autonomic nervous system functions at its sympathetic / fight-or-flight state), signals the nervous system to shift to the relaxed state (parasympathetic state).

When we are deeply relaxed, we can straighten our look into the mirror and see who we really are. See how amazing we are without the need to be compared to anyone else. See how beautiful our body is, no matter what is shown in the magazines. And only when we are able to open our eyes and see, we are able to open our hearts to make an effort for the awesome person reflecting back from our mirror.

Changes will always come from within and not from without. When we allow our inner self to shine, we will be able to do something different. And this will not be difficult at all…