Creative Health Tip 21 August 2009

Today's tip is about reliving a joyful or sacred experience.

At least twice in the past week I've heard people talk about a really fantastic experience they had, and end with the lament that they wish they could experience that again. The reason they say they can't is because it was a special time, or those exact circumstances will never be repeated therefore they will never be able to enjoy that experience again.

The fact is, you can go there anytime you desire through your memory and imagination.

You do this a dozen times a day, but usually you tune into past experiences that create feelings of anger or sadness that create poor health, like an argument you had with your mate, or the guy who cut you off on the drive to work. When you think about it later, don't you feel the same intensity of emotions you felt at the time the event took place? Of course you do!

I think people tune into these experiences because they get an adrenaline rush: anger is nearly always rooted in fear, and fear evokes the fight-or-flight response and the rush of adrenaline to fight or flee. It also shuts-down the immune system so all your bodily resources are available for survival. When you experience that feeling of anger or fear, even in retrospect to an experience hours or days after the event itself, your immune system goes on vacation so your body can put all its attention on fighting or fleeing even though you don't have any reason At That Moment to fight or flee.

Your imagination is a very powerful tool, and your body can't tell if the experience in your mind is happening "now" or not. Every thought you have, you are having Now; every feeling evoked by those thoughts is happening Now. To your body, every experience is Now!

Use that as a tool toward health and wellness! Tune in to past experiences that make you feel happiness, joy, and love. You can relive those wonderful and fantastic moments just as easily as you can the moments of harsh feelings.

The only tools you need to re-experience a joyful or sacred moment in your life is your imagination and your willingness to revisit the experience. Not only will you bring those moments alive again and bask in those wonderful feelings, your body will be producing hormones to create excellent health as you do it!



Have a great weekend!