Feeling Healthy

by Namaste Publishing Staff

Thanks to tireless research, people who are willing to think in new ways, and those who have the ability to bring together our best minds to pool their insights, there is a growing awareness of the connection between an individual’s health and emotional and social factors.

We are increasingly realizing that our mental state, coupled with our social environment, cannot be ignored when seeking the causes and treatment of disease. In recognition of this link, the nonprofit Heal Breast Cancer Foundation is granting awards to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to this aspect of health research.

In Beverly Hills on February 22, a gala evening will honor seven individuals for their work. One of these is the Namaste author Eckhart Tolle, whose book The Power of Now has enabled people worldwide to bring stillness and calm into their lives.

The link between emotional, social, and biological factors in health is highlighted by another Namaste publication, Ron Garner’s Conscious Health. Fifty pages of this insightful book address the issue of our beliefs and feelings, and how they help make us either well or sick.

Dietary information, medical examinations, and the advice of health professionals are aspects of what it takes to be healthy, but they are not the whole picture. Becoming conscious of the link between the state of your mind and social life, and the state of your health, is also a key factor in being well.

For instance, if you are not living authentically, so that your days don’t reflect who you really are, you are harming your health. If you hold beliefs that have a negative, fear-generating impact, you are harming your health. If you tell yourself all kinds of self-limiting statements, you are harming your health.

When we live our lives in a condition of resentment or resistance, as so many do, this damages the body’s ability to function optimally. On the other hand, when life is lived with gratitude and thankfulness, every cell of the body is nourished. This is because cells don’t simply work in a mechanical manner but respond to the emotional and social environment in which they are immersed.

A negative flow of emotions disrupts the functioning of cells. They are literally bathed in the harmful chemicals such emotions trigger. In an average human body there are something like 100 trillion cells. Yet, when you experience negative emotions, the effect in the body is all but universal. Many of the cells that are the building blocks of life are instantly affected by detrimental emotions. And all it takes to trigger such emotions is the wrong kind of thought or a disempowering conversation!

What we say, and how we say it, affects our health by sending a chemical surge throughout the body. How we feel affects our health. The social situation in which we live and work affects our health. Research is showing us that these aspects of everyday life are far more powerful than we have imagined and work to undo our dietary and exercise efforts when we don’t attend to them.

Conscious Health is a powerful book not simply because of the health information it contains, but more especially because it will help you to begin listening to your own body. It will show you how to pay attention to what your body is saying to you so that you can take charge of your wellbeing.

What’s right for one isn’t necessarily right for another. There’s no “one size fits all.” But as you become conscious—aware—of all that goes into the makings of your health, you can tailor your lifestyle for your unique makeup.

We are deeply grateful for Eckhart Tolle and the wonderful insights he shares with us in The Power of Now, Stillness Speaks, A New Earth, and his many DVDs, which can be found on the Namaste Publishing website.

We are also grateful for Michael Brown’s The Presence Process, another amazing tool to help us become calm, peaceful, and in tune with our deepest selves.

These wonderful gifts work in a beautiful synergy with the wealth of helpful information Ron Garner shares with us in Conscious Health.