Living well is not something we learn, nor is it something we tend to do; however it is something that we know how to do. The question is, what's stopping you from doing what comes naturally to you? And yes, there is something in it for you...
Having a cuppa in Bateman's Bay, NSW (original image)
A couple of years ago I discovered the blogging platform Medium. It may have been before I came across Steemit, possibly around the same time. I’d gotten fed up with Fakebook, and was wanting to get back into long-form blogging and honing my writing craft.
So I started a series there called The Way of Living Well. It’s not there anymore, so don’t go looking for it. It started as an idea for a book that I dreamed up while I was recovering from illness.
I’d been working pretty hard as a health professional and got pretty close to burn-out helping as many people as I could. I was running workshops on dietary therapy, 28-day cleanse programs, as well as courses in Taoist Qìgōng.
What came from that brief period of forced respite was the inspiration behind an 8-week process of self-discovery, healing, and transformation based on the 八卦 bāguà, the 8 primary trigrams which represent fundamental forces of nature and the foundation of Fēng Shuǐ, Chinese Astrology, Chinese Medicine, and the I Ching.
I started implementing this 8-session process with my clients for the next year and had some pretty interesting results.
The most stunning was with my very final client who was coming to me for ‘infertility’. She was expecting to be given all sorts of potions and supplements; what she got instead was 8 sessions over the course of about 16 weeks of transformational work. On her final session she gave me the news she discovered she had finally fallen pregnant. I took that as a sign, and closed my professional practise with that as my final session.
I don’t know where I could’ve taken this. I had people urging me to create sales-funnels, to franchise the process... but I chose instead to walk away. I felt I had completed what I had needed to do.
And that was where the Way of Living Well began. I realised that it wasn’t about medicines, or treatments, or therapy sessions. The “8 Treasures” is simply a map of how to live optimally.
What is ‘living well’?
It is my interpretation of a Taoist notion.
It can look or feel like anything for each of us. Yes, of course it is having an appropriate diet and exercise regime, and yes it also involves balancing activity with rest. But it's also about living a life that feels fucking fantastic! It's engaging in things that make your heart sing, and benefit you. These activities will be effortless to perform, and thus won't drain you.
Effortlessness — 無為 wúwéi — comes when we consciously and with purpose construct our normal, daily life to exemplify wellness, in every sense of the word.
Every choice we make can be assessed with the question:
Will this help me live well?
I started writing. And for the last couple of years I haven’t really stopped writing. I realised that for myself, writing was therapeutic creativity. This is how I ‘live well’.
One of the steps was to look honestly at we do in our normal daily routine and disrupt it by doing something different. The challenge I put forward in my post a couple of days ago — Listening To The Wind — is one of the processes I took myself and clients through.
I realised a certain irony about this when I was remembering all this today. Back then people were paying me $1200 to do the 8 weeks with me.
Now, you are getting paid to do it yourself!!
Because I’ve got STEEM, SBI, and LOTUS going to those who comment, take up the challenger and post about their results!!
That’s what I see is capable on the Steem blockchain. Social media is about bringing people together; there is no reason why it can’t bring people together for genuine, effective, sustainable change for good!
I’m really looking forward to see what kind of differences people make in their own lives over the next week or so!
Take care, and live well y’all!
😊🙏🏽☯️
