A Legacy of Health
Talking today about a legacy of health.
Are we going to leave a legacy?
Do we even care one way or the other
whether we do or we don't?
It's going to happen.
And I say we should make it a healthy one.
I'm going to share a beautiful passage
from this book, Dear Artist,
about a legacy.
To me, the type of space
where you can just take a deep breath.
That's what I want this session to be.
A deep breath.
Open up some space for some reflection,
hopefully some deep reflection.
Today, open up
a centering space in the mind body spirit.
We want health across our whole being,
body, mind and spirit.
I'm a big believer.
Health is a way of being.
And this reading actually gets
right to that, which is why I love it.
All right, take a listen to this.
Remember,
this is a book for artists about people
who are creating things, which to me
it means it's a book for everyone.
We are creating our life
and our health experience.
So channel these words
that most people would think are
about somebody
painting something or sculpting
something and say, this is about
my way of being in the world.
This is how I'm going to create it and be,
and it's going to be healthy
across all domains.
Jesus says, you may care for your legacy
or you may care about it.
Not at all.
You will leave one, though
not necessarily
in the form
so often sought and celebrated.
Your spirit will live here on earth
forever.
The nature of it,
the ripples of its aura and behavior.
You are not a stone dropped into water
whose ripples soon fade.
You are the water.
Souls will drink of you.
You will make things and not make things.
Some of those things may be celebrated
or scorned.
You can call this your legacy.
Though the social experiences
are ultimately fleeting
on the grander scale of existence.
What you are doing with yourself
now, on the inside, in each moment.
This is your legacy being conceived.
You are creating your own weather system.
It will stay in this world
by seeping into other weather systems.
Make no mistake, you are an ancestor.
Happening now.
If you have love in you, work the fields
of your love and this will be your legacy.
We all wear the jewelry of our ancestors,
their spirits strung together
across generations.
They become our way of being.
Beloved.
You are now choosing your way of being,
which will be inside
our way of being long after you have been.
You are a forever thing.
Create in a good way.
How does that feel to you today?
To me, I read that last night
while I was getting ready for our session
and thinking about what would pair
well with this footage.
Beautiful water, this beautiful world,
the beautiful opportunity
we have here to just be in this moment.
Sit by some water, see some clouds,
take a deep breath and contemplate
being healthy in a world
that is a really struggling to do it.
I give you some thoughts.
Line by line, or at least most of them.
You may care for your legacy or care
not see it's okay.
Like these
things are just happening here to me.
When I read that, I was like,
look, things are happening.
And, you know, we talk about
fasting space, meditation space.
We say we sit here, it's nothing,
not doing anything yet.
Look at what's going on.
Life is happening all around us,
whether we care about it or not.
So it's like, this can help us
take some pressure off, right?
You leave a legacy, though
not necessarily in the form
so often sought and celebrated.
So to me, this is also diving in
so much in our space.
To me, a fasting space is a very simple,
grounded space,
very humble space, nothing flashy,
nothing hyped.
It's just reality,
which means it's just life, you know?
Life is happening here in this moment
and the body is here.
Our being is here.
If we are grabbing a coffee,
if we are having water, teas
like no calories coming in,
but the body has energy and reserves.
We are strong, we are powerful.
We are here in this moment.
The body's got this.
Not a lot of people say,
oh, I'm just celebrating that, you know.
But we should, you know, to me that's
the idea of where we are at in culture.
You know, we have consumption culture.
We celebrate new and flashy,
big, better and more.
Above all else, we want more.
And so fasting,
that's a totally different sort of thing.
To celebrate.
Say we can celebrate the simple
and the humble and this is showing us.
Something so much more grounded.
Say your spirit will live here
on earth forever.
You don't have to believe
that this, you know,
bring in a lot of spiritual things
in this book.
A lot of artistic books
do that, trying to look for inspiration
of things bigger than ourselves.
You know, maybe I don't know what is
the core nature of what I'm trying to do.
Simple fasting is really medical,
you know, I want people
to have medical effects.
I want people's blood sugar, blood
pressure better.
I want the number on the scale to go down
if that's what you need and want,
you know?
But many places say, does it help you?
I say, even if you don't believe it.
What if you lived in a way that.
What if it were true?
You know, I was joking.
You know, some people appreciate it,
some people wouldn't.
I have had so many conversations with the
years, people coming through the clinic.
Sometimes we wander into a space
of some spiritual thing,
and I'm talking to
someone who is an atheist, and they said
it's a very meaningful for them.
Like, no,
I really believe, you know, in nothing.
I say, you know what?
Fasting
is the perfect dietary process for you
because it is a dietary process
about nothing.
If it floats your boat.
Okay.
The ripples of its aura and behavior.
Right?
The ripples.
I love this as we see
and look at the ripples of the wind
going across the water,
as we think about the ripples
of our aura and behavior of our spirit.
All right, say we're not a stone dropped
into the water and the ripples soon fade.
We are the water.
I found a beautiful quote the other day.
I have to find the exact one
and who said it?
But it's something
like the enlightenment of a wave
is when it realizes
it is the ocean, just in that
the wave is like a fleeting moment, and
then it's like, I don't know, you know?
And it's like, whoa, I am, I am this
and then gone.
Isn't that kind of like us? Aren't we?
Like a fleeting breath?
We're here today
and then gone life so quick
and we realize it
and it just has to make us grab on to it,
you know, and squeeze
every bit of love and goodness out of it.
This is what it is inspiring for me today,
just to think about our health process
and what are we doing here
and what are the things that really matter
when we have words like this
that are showing our life like a wave
and we just realize what an incredible
gift it is, and we're part of it.
But fleeting.
Doesn't it make you want to just take
the very best care of yourself
that you can,
and doesn't just make you want to?
Share love and kindness to everybody
you can, especially those
that are closest to us,
and then practicing that to share.
Share it with as many people as possible.
Isn't that the core of health?
You will make things and not make things,
and some may be celebrated or scorned.
Especially love that last line
celebrated or scorned.
You know
we do not control other people, right?
We do something.
We take in action.
We are trying to move forward
in a direction.
Someone may like it or they may not.
You know who is in charge here?
Are we in charge?
Are we letting other people's opinions
or our fear of other people's opinions
make decisions for us?
And I'm speaking to myself, you know,
because I've certainly done that a lot.
So we want to be strong
in our in our spirit, right in our being.
We want to strengthen it,
and we want to be
really good
about what our way of being is.
To find a place of knowing.
Ultimately, here I am on my path here.
I'm not walking anybody else's path.
I'm not trying to get
someone else's approval.
It's like we get our own approval.
Do you have that?
You know, isn't that enough?
What you are doing with yourself now?
On the inside, in each moment?
This is your legacy being conceived.
This is raise a great question.
Like what are
what are you doing with yourself?
You know, I'm thinking, now, what am I
doing with myself on the inside right now?
Well,
that's a good question to say in a day.
It's like to me,
I read that and then I'm thinking.
What if you what
if we were continually asking ourselves
that at some point
it would really help, wouldn't it?
What about the time when we're angry,
when we didn't really want to be?
What am I doing with myself
on the inside right now?
I'm going to definitely be bringing that
as such a great reminder.
Are we centered? Are we grounded? Right.
If we are taking the time
and the thoughtfulness to ask such
a deep question, can't that help us
through our health decisions,
the difficulties, the trials of life
that we inevitably
face in each day?
Don't we need a grounding perspective
like that?
They say here
you are creating your own weather system.
I love that because I'm
looking at these clouds, right?
We had rain come through in the morning
and these are the
the lingering clouds,
the remnants left behind.
You think there is a weather system
coming through here?
And there's really something
to think about.
Oh, are we creating our weather system?
The way I'm interpreting this,
at least for my own life, is like,
do you ever feel like
the emotions that we have
that could be like
in a weather system, right.
Especially when we get angry.
I know for me that's like a storm, right?
That there's a thunderstorm
and big dark clouds and lightning and
thunder and it's like, are we creating?
How about we create a weather system
more like this, a gentle spring rain.
And then it cleared out and everything is
fresh and new, and there's
some fluffy clouds floating by over
the lake, and it's beautiful.
Let's create
a weather system like that. What?
He says he goes on this weather system
that we're creating.
He say it's staying in this world
by seeping into other weather systems.
So do you feel his words about legacy?
Right.
It's like we're creating a weather system.
It's seeping into other weather systems,
I think especially about my kids.
Right.
I think, man,
sometimes I've gotten angry at them. And.
Why, you know,
we want to help
our enduring weather systems,
our little weather systems
into the future.
Help those to be beautiful, you know?
To me,
I think if we get into a space like that,
say, what is the weather system
I'm creating?
I don't know, how do you feel about it?
To me, it is a more helpful mindset
than what is the number on the scale,
say, today.
You know, it's like,
let's let's get a whole level
beneath all of that and just flow.
Make no mistake, you are an ancestor.
Happening now.
I just thought that was such a profound
line, man.
Such an interesting perspective
to this moment.
Right? Just to think like man.
The humanity people
extending into the future.
We are here in this moment.
Let's make the very best
of this opportunity.
This is our moment.
Like we are on stage now, you know,
and then quickly fleeting.
Let's just dive in.
All this water was so beautiful.
I wanted to dive in right in the moment
when I was there.
But that water is 52 degrees.
I stuck my hand in. It is cold.
If you have love in you.
It's the first part of the phrase.
Like I just stop there.
It's like a question if you have it like,
do you really?
That's how I read it, do I?
You better believe I do.
You better believe we do.
That's what I say.
Oh yes. Yes.
And this is like telling yourself,
you know,
telling yourself,
making it the reality we do.
He says work the fields of your love
and this will be your legacy.
We all wear the jewelry of our ancestors,
their spirit strung together
across generations.
This is like this is some real writing,
you know, this is some real thinking.
He starts the phrase with love
work, the fields of the leg of love.
This will be the legacy.
Okay?
Think of the generations of people working
and working the fields of love.
This is the history of the ancestors
as he weaves all this together.
And he's picturing it like a necklace,
right?
The jewelry strung out
across the generations,
the jewelry of our ancestors
like they are the jewels in this string
that has gone into the past
and then us in this moment,
and he's shown us into the future.
We're the ancestor happening now.
He's just creating this incredible
sweep of history.
I just think it's beautiful.
They become our way of being.
You are now choosing your way of being.
This is the process.
And I just loved when I read this.
I was like,
oh, we've been talking about this so much.
This is our way of being.
We're talking about
how do we be in this world,
in this moment,
with all the commercials and the media
and the synthetic food and the confusion
and the anger and,
you know, all of these things and we say
just one person here and so many people
shouting about these things,
and it's like, do you ever feel like
you're just spinning around?
And it all is like, we need things
that are real and grounding.
And to me,
fasting is one of those things.
You know, Greg described it on the channel
as an anchor in the waves,
and I love that.
It's the nothing that's something.
It's the nothing that is a tangible thing
that says, actually that can bring us
right here into our body,
into our very self, right in this moment.
It's a process that can help us
say no to so many things like,
we're practicing fasting.
You have to be very, very strong.
We think about,
okay, fasting, strength in the body
of accessing the energy within it,
but think of the strength in the mind
that you have to have in order
to protect that space.
Like that beautiful session
we did back in the fall
during the harvest time, about the squash
and the thick skin of the squash
that's protecting the nutrients
and the energy inside of it.
That's our fasting process.
In a giant squash metaphor,
it's like we got to say no
to everything in that space.
I'm not eating anything else.
I'm protecting the value
of this fasting space.
And and all of a sudden,
the thousands of messages coming at us,
it's like when the then the answer is no.
It just shuts everything else off.
To me, that's part once.
And you could even say small part one,
small part of a way of being.
That I think is very important
in this present moment.
This will be inside our way of being long
after you have been.
To me that says this matters.
Our health matters.
I loved that session we did the other day.
That this is important.
Making healthy decisions,
taking the best care of ourselves
that we can despite all the challenges
that this has, meaning
that this has meaning now
and into the future.
He ends.
You are a forever thing.
Create in a good way.
And that's why I keep going
back to the books like this.
Create in a good way
these things really matter.
They are deep and profound
and we can get lost in the culture
and in people trying to sell us stuff
and tell us that we only have value
based on what we do or consume.
And something like this showing us
that being has great value
and our way of being is maybe the most
important thing, actually, that we have.
And at the foundation of that way of being
should be love
for ourselves,
for everyone and everything.
You know why limit it?
And if we can find a way of being
that is in alignment with our nature,
that is finding a space of love,
isn't that a space
also where peace and contentment
can be found?
Where there is strength
to make it through adversity
and to do difficult things, to change
and to move forward in health
and to start fresh every day
and give it our best shot.
And even if we do not accomplish
what we set out to,
still realize that everything is okay
and it's been okay and it will be okay.
Wouldn't that be the type of legacy
that you want to leave to someone?
You know, that type of strength?
And maybe we say we don't have that
strength now is an aspirational vision.
To me it's an aspiration.
Say I want to have that kind of strength.
Strength in spirit,
strength in mind, strength in body.
To be able to move forward in such
a loving, thoughtful and positive way.
And pass that on.
That would be a true legacy of health.
