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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781481732369 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 05/10/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 140 |
| File size: | 7 MB |
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Be Well
Build Your E.M.P.I.R.E. of Health and Wellness
By Eugene R. Furnace
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2013 Eugene R. FurnaceAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4817-3287-1
CHAPTER 1
The Journey
Too easily and quickly, we evaluate our lives in comparison to another person's life. "I should have accomplished ... by now" or "I wish I had ..." are very familiar phrases to many of us, especially as life events such as birthdays and graduations approach. Sometimes we reduce our own successes and accomplishments to minuscule milestones that, for a moment, seem average at best. At other times, while conducting this comparative analysis (this trying to keep up with the Joneses, as some say), we may attempt to make the goals and expectations of another person our own. Regardless of how we judge ourselves according to another person's interpreted success and status, in doing so we conclude that our position in life, where we are at that moment, is insufficient and unacceptable. It may be beneficial to have role models and gain insights from the progresses of others, but we must filter what we think we see in the successful person through the lens of success for our individual selves. This is important because success can mean something different to everyone, so we do not want to mimic another person's life achievements. In other words, what is good for the goose is not always good for the gander. Instead, we want to learn from their life journey and be true to our own.
Each person has his or her own journey. Your journey is a uniquely carved road in the quest of life paved with your name. It is an unbeaten path all your own, awaiting exploration, acceptance, and embrace. The mandates you have, which your course imposes, may not be the same requirements that others have to achieve in order to advance in their lives. Although there are similarities in the varieties of the living experience, it is the inimitable and uncommon that makes a journey our own. There has always been only one you, and there will never be another you. Consequently, there is no need to gaze through a looking glass into someone else's life in an attempt to evaluate your own. Instead, look into the mirror of your life, recognizing that your journey is distinctly yours, and it will lead you to your expected end.
Our ability to grow emotionally and logically, in heart and mind, respectively, matures us as we travel. Growth causes change, change wills challenge, and challenge that is properly handled produces constructive character. Transition is a natural part of life. Yes, you will change—even you the most stubborn reader will change. Rather than fight against the tides of transition, rejoice and rest in the truth that the transformations you and those around you experience were likely mapped into your journey. Know that the pathway does not err, but does bend. Even the hurts, the wrongdoings, the traumas we have lived through have added something to us. You are designed for your journey, and your journey was designed for you. Every bend along the way is purposeful, and you can handle the course. Remember, you have a prepared, expected end. Since this is true, regardless of what happens in your life, your journey is mapped out toward that end—through the deserts, over the mountains, across the seas of life.
Calm, peace, and hope reside within when traveling the way paved in one's own name. This does not negate struggles, as peaks and valleys, ups and downs, joys and sorrows are a vital part of life. Yes, your calm will be upset. Yes, your peace will be challenged. Yes, your hope will be frustrated. Yes, these difficulties are all necessary and temporary! If you stay true to your journey, however, you can awaken to renewed calm, peace, and hope every new day. This is not a supernatural hope or anything deep, but rather a simple, practical hope to maximize the day—hope to get the most from and give your all to succeeding Today. This outlook may help you remain mindful to produce results in your life, and when obedient to the conventions of your journey, impacting results that remain are produced in and through you.
When you travel the course with your name—when you live your life—there is no need to wonder if you are on the right road because your journey will overtake you. Your surroundings, productivity, and fulfillment will envelop you in such a way that even when doubts enter your mind, they will not be able to stay. Do not misunderstand and think that pitfalls and mountains will not be present, because they will be. Be assured, however, that being on your journey produces an inner peace that passes human understanding even in the rough times.
In writing this book, it is my intent to encourage you to take hold of the journey that has been prepared for you. Know that you have a purpose and have been entrusted with the precious gifts of time and life. Do not allow the universe and all creation to grieve for you by aimlessly or frivolously wandering this moment in time, accomplishing potentially great things, but not reaching the destiny only attainable to the person who is true to her or his journey.
Holistically Whole
There is a lot of talk about holistic medicine, holistic care, integrated care, and a number of other terms professionals use when wanting to emphasize the interdisciplinary ideology of their practices or perspectives. These terms, however, do not have the same meaning to every person. In this section, I will give you a brief description of what I mean when talking about holistic care and how it is a framework for the philosophy of this book and the idea of an E.M.P.I.R.E. of Health and Wellness.
Holistic care, in its purest form, is founded on a comprehensive understanding that we do not understand how life works, but we are convinced that the myriad dimensions of humanity work together and not always independently of each other. We are not just our physical bodies. We are not just our mental capacities. We are not just our emotional experiences. We are so much more, and so much more complex than any single academic study, or healthcare specialty, or denominational doctrine. We were made reverently and wonderfully in the image of a majestic and bigger-than-the-biggest-big-you-can-think-of God. Accordingly, if we are to work toward better health and wellness, we cannot effectively do so without considering the multiple dimensions of well-being and their interactions. Holistic care is responsiveness to others and ourselves that encourages our movement away from brokenness in the direction of wholeness.
Unfortunately, many times, we move from brokenness to brokenness: from one bad relationship to another bad relationship, from one bad job to another bad job, from one bad habit to another bad habit. Think about it. In the relationship, we probably changed just the relationship (one dimension of well-being) and not our environment (still meeting the same type of people at the same type of places) nor our emotions (still loving characteristics that hurt us). In the job, we likely changed only the environment (one dimension of well-being) and not our thinking (still wanting a job to get by). In the habit, maybe we changed merely the mentality (one-dimension of well-being) and not our physicality (still insecure about personal weight or appearance). The best lifestyle modifications incorporate every piece of you so that all of you moves toward wholeness and none of you is left in brokenness. This true holistic, or complete, care promotes a holistically whole person and human experience.
Dimensions of Well-being
The core of this book is about us working together to improve our understanding and experience of health and wellness. To start, let us understand the acronym E.M.P.I.R.E. and the dimensions of wellbeing it encompasses.
E.M.P.I.R.E.
E – environmental
M – mental
P – physical
I – intellectual
R – relational
E – emotional
Understanding the dimensions of well-being may enhance your ability to maximize your journey. Let us admit that these individual dimensions may work independently of, in conjunction with, and/or against the others—but they all have an effect on each other. To be whole is to acknowledge the existence of each dimension in your life and allow them to work harmoniously: strengths balancing weaknesses, abundances compensating for deficiencies, superiorities uplifting inferiorities, and all without any one dimension overshadowing another.
The first three dimensions—environmental, mental, and physical—all deal with the existence of self. They are the material, tangible, visible, and most easily measurable dimensions of well-being. Our dialogue about these three existence dimensions will define each one and will confront behaviors that may be causing us to lack wholeness in each dimension.
The second three dimensions—intellectual, relational, and emotional—all address the experience of self. They are the metaphysical, existential, and many times invisible processes of our internal and interconnected well-being. Our discussion about these three experience dimensions will provide practical ways to understand them better and will confront thoughts and feelings that may be causing us to lack wholeness in each dimension.
The simplicity of living is dying and the complexity of dying is living. They are archetypes of opposition that constantly accept, reject, and balance each other. This relationship—this battle of life and death—is present with all the dimensions of well-being, both within each individual dimension and between them as an interrelated system. I submit to you that suicide is not only a physical phenomenon of the visible world, but that suicide also occurs in other dimensions of well-being. To be physically clinically dead is not to have a heartbeat (to be without a pulse). In similar fashion, if there are areas of your life that have no pulse, parts of you that are deteriorated and flat lined, they may be dead or are dying. Just as the heart, the lifeline for one's physical being, is a muscle that needs to be exercised, so too does the whole person, as summed up in the dimensions of well-being, need attention, dedication to improvement, and development. We must understand that if we identify the dimensions of well-being that we have overlooked or given no care, then we can afford them the attention needed to reverse the dying process.
Now is a good place to bring awareness to the degrees of life and of death. Do not think of life simply as living or of death simply as dying. A life that is not engaged and pursued is not a full, or whole, life. Just because you are breathing (physically alive) does not mean you are living (philosophically alive). A person who is living without a knowledge and acceptance of purpose is likely experiencing a degree of life, not a whole life. Not maximizing your potential is a degree of life and, is thereby, a degree of death. By identifying the various ways in which we experience degrees of life and death, we open the door to understanding why each area of life, why each dimension of well-being, is to be valued and not neglected. Discussing the dimensions of well-being offers a foundation on which you can establish definitions for each dimension in your own life. Defining them will give you a clearer picture of why each one deserves the chance to thrive. This is my hope for you and me: to know why our lives and all of our dimensions of well-being are super important so that we gain the will to strive for and to live holistically whole, always mindful to build our own E.M.P.I.R.E. of Health and Wellness.
CHAPTER 2
Building Your E.M.P.I.R.E.
E Environmental Health and Wellness
M Mental Health and Wellness
P Physical Health and Wellness
I Intellectual Health and Wellness
R Relational Health and Wellness
E Emotional Health and Wellness
Health and Wellness
Environmental health and wellness is basically about the social contexts in which we live. Every environment—home, school, work, a restaurant, a park—is a context, and arguably each is a unique context requiring certain actions and reactions. I want to bypass the elementary discussions of environmental well-being that revolve around avoiding socially toxic places, selecting the right school, moving to a good neighborhood, and other topics we can read about in other literature. Instead, I would like to draw our attention to our environments as effecters on our identities, passions, and decision-making processes. Understanding the environment's interplay with other aspects of our existence may help us understand the necessity to regulate our own environmental well-being.
Role versus Identity
Our environments may place demands on us to connect with specific roles at specific times, but our environments do not necessarily determine our identities. As we understand our environmental health and wellness, we must be sure not to let it overshadow other dimensions and lead where it should not. To begin, let us clarify the relationship between our environments and our identities.
To become is a primary obligation for every person. Although many facets of our individual experiences may be similar to the experiences of other people, what it means to become is different for every person. Who—not what—each person becomes is a unique culmination of all life's experiences and residues that mold, dent, scratch, bruise, break, restore, stain, wash, and leave their aromas on us. It is important to understand that we are not talking about what you are or what you become. This dialogue is about who you are and who you are becoming.
First, let us understand why removing "what" is so important. The question or idea of what you are depersonalizes the answer; meaning, it takes away the attachment to your true self that you need in order to identify yourself properly. If the focus remains on answering what you are, the introspection needed to become is lost because the "what" question captures only an existence of being and ignores the experience of being. What I am may change many times throughout the day, throughout life, and sometimes from conversation to conversation. For example, in one moment I am a counselor, and in the next moment I am a professor. In the morning, you may be a parent and in the afternoon a coach. What you are is dependent on the context, timing, mood, and intentions in which someone asks you and you answer the "What are you?" question. What you are is only useful in becoming if what you are doing is relevant to who you are.
Unfortunately, many people define themselves by what they are and do not consider about who they are. Think about this: the last time someone asked, "Who are you?", how did you respond?
I am his friend.
I am your personal insurance consultant.
I am the maintenance repairperson.
I am a supervisor. In the examples above, and likely in the answers you thought of, I ask you to consider if the responses are really about who you are as a person? No! Each answer contextually states what role a person is playing in that moment. Usually, we respond to the "Who are you?" question with the answer that will return the best results in the situation. This practice is completely understandable, and appropriate for most social interactions. Let's face it, no one really wants to know the answer to who you are; they are only interested in your identity for the purpose at hand.
Concerned father: "I noticed you were talking with my son. Who are you?"
Business customer: "I am looking for the manager. Who are you?"
Caller: "Hi. Is Ms. Smith available?"
Ms. Smith: "Who is this?" (A variant of the "Who are you?" question)
No one is truly asking, "Who are you?"—until now! That is precisely my question to you right now. That is precisely the question you will be encouraged to think through as you continue, or start, your journey to become.
Let's look back at the sample answers provided for the "Who are you?" question.
I am his friend.
I am your personal insurance consultant.
I am the maintenance repairperson.
I am a supervisor. Maybe some of your answers are structured like some of these answers: I am his/her (another person), I am your, I am the, I am a, I am one. Each of these responses, by adding connectors to external points of focus, takes away at least a portion of who and places it on what. These answers create a social context (environment) and express your place or role in a sociocultural system, which is not bad. Social connections are important, and knowing who does what (notice the intended nonuse of the popular "who's who" phrase) adds great value to the living experience. These responses do not, however, answer the "Who are you?" question.
To start moving toward a working response to the "Who are you?" question, start with answering the "What are you?" question. Your answers to the "What are you?" question are important. Make a list of what you are (the roles you play or have) as a starting point to help guide you toward who you are and away from whom you are not.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Be Well by Eugene R. Furnace. Copyright © 2013 Eugene R. Furnace. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Preface.................... 1
Biblically Based and Scientifically Supported.................... 3
Basics of Being.................... 9
The Journey.................... 11
Holistically Whole.................... 17
Dimensions of Well-being.................... 21
Building Your E.M.P.I.R.E.................... 27
E nvironmental.................... 29
M ental.................... 43
P hysical.................... 57
I ntellectual.................... 69
R elational.................... 85
E motional.................... 99
Dear Reader.................... 113
From Me to You.................... 115
Assessment.................... 119
Endnote References.................... 129