Wellness Wednesday: Believe in Something.....

Something I've been thinking about for Wellness Wednesday is what the key components are for really being well. Not just healthy, but well.

I am a person of strong beliefs. Some might even say opinionated. Both are true. :)

But I remember back to a time when I was blown about by the wind, taking in belief systems like the latest fashion trend, always trying to root myself in something whether it fit or not. My world felt like shifting sand, always subject to the "weather" of the moment.

During my life time, I've been involved in everything from conservative Christianity to atheism and most points in between. None of those things fed my soul but I wanted an identity. I wanted a community. I wanted to belong.... so I'd rather adeptly adopt whatever surrounded me.

That wasn't healthy of course and certainly didn't make me well. In fact, it made me feel hollow.

There's a certain tearing-down process that takes place as we discover our own core beliefs and begin to live them. That becomes a foundation from which we make our choices. For me, that took place in Tucson where I'd arrived after a particularly difficult experience on the east coast. I remember looking at the brick wall in front of me in the little cottage I'd just rented, knowing that my life could not remain the same. I found a mentor and began exploring.

Most of the foundational beliefs we discover are rooted in some system that was established before us, rooted either in culture or ethnicity. None of us are islands and there's very little truly original thought. As we go along, we begin to pick them apart, examine them, turn them over in our palms like a stone, eliminating the things that don't make sense and find truth in the rest. Sometimes something so strongly grabs us as truth that we can't avoid it. That is what happened with me in Thailand.

As we begin to live it fully, it adds color and clarity to our personal tapestry. Mundane things take on a richness. We have more to give others because we're standing on solid ground.

It's not easy and it takes a lot of courage, particularly when our choices are different than the majority who surround us but I honestly believe we can not be well without it. There is a lot of truth to the title of an old country song which says, "You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything."

What do you believe?

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Courage and faith.....

I've seen a few posts about courage lately and it got me to thinking about that topic.

I see courageous people every day although they may not be the courageous people of novels and movies. They may not be able to run into burning buildings and save lives and they may not jump out of airplanes but they are courageous.

It's hard to come up with an operational definition for courage. Maybe it's something we know when we see it but can't conjure it up and put it in a neatly defined box.

I know that I am not a courageous person. There are times when it appalls me how little courage I have ~ by my own definition.

Would I run into a burning building to save someone?

Yes.

That's not choice. It's human obligation.

Would I jump out of an airplane?

If properly trained, yes, I probably would.

But courage, I suspect, is more in the realm of the everyday. It depends on a willingness to suspend emotional safety. The physical is so much easier because we can train for that. There are coaches and teachers who are more than willing to pass that knowledge along.

One of my greatest weaknesses is an inability to step into the unknown enough to really test my own faith. Sitting in the safety of my own home, it's easy to have faith. It's easy to believe in the inherent goodness of all, the benevolence of others and a deity.

When it comes to the rough and tumbleness of the outside world, it's something I've never handled well. I've completely chickened out, even to a point of creating an ability to detach that is unhealthy. I know my limitations and the things I would not be able to handle.

I don't have what it takes to raise a child or walk someone through something so devastating that my mind can only comprehend it in small chunks. I don't have what it takes to be a single mother, struggling to feed her kids. I don't have what it takes to ever face the kind of bone-breaking poverty that some face on a day to day basis. I'm not the sort of person who would be resourceful in that situation. My past method of coping with truly hard stuff has been to run. I'm a Master Runner. When it comes to running from difficult emotional situations, I would easily win the International Marathon.

While I've certainly had my tests, thankfully the two I mentioned have not been among them. My tests have always involved having to create from scratch rather than to cope with something that already exists. I haven't done a smash-up job in the creating department, either.

This is one way I've allowed myself to be entirely spiritually lazy. I've allowed myself to live a very insulated life, one that holds safety, not wonder and amazement. I've lived on a diet of bland food, in a manner of speaking.

I believe next year's spiritual challenge has been presented ~ in the form of a blog post read in the dark morning hours.

I must be more courageous. I can not be of service to anyone when I am perpetually wandering aimlessly down the Yellow Brick Road like the cowardly lion, hoping a wizard will give me courage.

I'll do my best.

What do you think about courage? What gives you courage?

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