This Spring -- FORGIVE!
As we welcome Spring's warm embrace with gratitude, faith and hope, it is the perfect time to spring into action to cleanse and purify body, mind and spirit. Of course there is traditional Spring-cleaning for the house, where we release the accumulated debris of Fall and Winter. As a nutritionist, I encourage you to also Spring-clean your body. Try cutting out processed foods just for one week. Eat whole grain breads and pastas. Don't just think about it, but actually EAT four servings of vegetables, and four of fruit, each day. Drink your eight glasses of water, and move that body at least half an hour daily, even if its just taking a leisurely stroll. Got it? Good!
OK, now we're getting down to the type of Spring-cleaning we too frequently ignore, but it's probably the most important job we have. I'm talking about cleaning up your mind, and your spirit. Let me explain.
When you Spring-clean your home, you throw out the old stuff you no longer need -- stacks of newspapers and magazines, outgrown clothes, expired food -- things that are no longer useful to you.
Let's do the same exercise mentally, and spiritually. All of us have an old grudge or two we've been holding on to for who can remember HOW long. It was a real or imagined slight from someone we thought was a friend. Someone made us feel left out, or judged, or lacking in some way. Or we feel betrayed by a spouse, or an employer, or an elected official. Whoever is at the root of this issue, we haven't been able to forgive them, and it hurts -- quite literally.
Science is now catching up to a reality healers have known for eons. We store our emotions in our endocrine glands and organs of detoxification and elimination. For instance, when you're angry, your liver, gallbladder and thyroid are stressed. Fear impacts the adrenals and thymus, keeping you on edge, and sapping your energy. Sadness settles into the pancreas, potentially upsetting your body's glucose levels. Not letting go of negative emotions clogs up the colon and large intestine.
What this boils down to is, when you find it in your heart to forgive someone, it truly does your heart good -- and the rest of your body, too. There is actually a Campaign for Forgiveness Research that has conducted 46 studies to date to gage physical and social effects of forgiveness among individuals, groups and nations. Check them out at www.forgiving.org.
As you reap the physical, mental and emotional rewards of forgiving, your spirit also celebrates its new freedom, no longer weighed down by negativity. Everyone wins!
In the spirit of Spring, in the spirit of Easter, in the spirit of Love -- release that old hurt you've been carrying around. Forgive them, whether or not they realize what they did. Then step into the light of a new dawn, and feel the powerful, positive difference. Your life will never be the same.
To your health!
Gary
