The Loop

One of the greatest joys of my practice is that when I teach people how to take care of themselves, I also get to teach them how to take care of the planet. If you know me (or if you’ve glanced at my home page) you’ve heard me talk about health being a positive feedback loop. Each good behavior building on the next until you eventually reach a new homeostasis. It becomes easier and easier to make “good” choice and eventually it becomes your default. To me, that is the bliss point… see what I did there? 

The bliss point goes far beyond the individual because when you optimize your own life, you increase your own capacity in all areas of your life. When you are in good physical health, it is easier to improve emotional, spiritual, intellectual and relational health, These are all a piece of the puzzle.

Let’s take it a step further though because this feedback loop is not just occurring in your body. The decisions you make for your own health have a greater impact on everyone and everything around you. Not sure what I mean? Here are a few examples… 

You shop at your local farmers market and buy produce grown in a market garden or regeneratively raised meat, both of which bring carbon into the soil and reduce greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

You finally start remembering to carry your stainless steel water bottle and stop using plastic bottles. This not only reduces plastic waste but also reduces the toxic load in your body and can support healthy hormone levels. 

You commit to making a change in your behavior and by doing so, you are in a better mood so you are nicer to your partner, you have more bandwidth for patience with your kids, you start to smile at random strangers as you pass them and you inspire others to make all of these improvements too. 

Bliss is more than the individual impact you feel from the healthy choices you are making. Bliss the ripple effect that is evident in your environment from each decision you make. So you see, the positive feedback loop goes far beyond your own body. Sometimes when I hear a client talking to themselves or about themselves negatively, we do a bit of a reframe. Would they talk to their friend that way?…their partner? their child? Realize that if the thoughts you are having are things you wouldn’t perpetuate to those in your environment, then they probably should not be thoughts that you continually perpetuate on yourself. We are apart of the greater whole so when we make decisions that harm ourself whether than be small or large, they do have downstream affects on your loved ones and the rest of the world. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for everyone around you.