Why Having A Good Diet Isn't The Only Answer To Being Healthy

Tom Cronin TOM CRONIN

So you drink kale and spinach smoothies each day, you eat organic, gluten-free porridge with home made nut milk and you are very rigid with your dairy-free, gluten-free, yeast-free, sugar-free, pesticide-free diet. Yep, you have it all sussed out. But are you remembering to nourish the most important part of your body?

  • Do you still have angry thoughts?
  • Do you still feel unworthy?
  • Do you still have issues with money?
  • Do you still find it hard to forgive?
  • Do you still have thoughts of guilt, fear, shame, sadness or hatred?
  • Is your mind running fast and furious all day and you just can’t seem to calm down?

All the green smoothies in the world won’t be able to purify your mind of negative thoughts. Buddha once said: “What we think we become”. Our body is a printout of our mind and so what we think ends up showing up somewhere in our body. Each thought we have, (and there will be about 40,000-60,000 of them in your brain each day) filters down into our physical body in the way of physical actions, and biochemical releases which show up as emotions.

If we truly want to be healthy, then the one place we need to start with is our mind. A healthy calm, clear and positive mind is like a deep, stable root system of a tree. If the roots of the tree are in poor shape, then it doesn't matter how much water and nutrients you feed it, it will still be an unhealthy tree. 

There are a number of ways to have a healthy positive mind like reading positive self-help books, doing yoga or tai chi and brain exercises like sudoku. But one method that really stands out is meditation. Many studies have shown that daily meditation has been proven to increase your brain's potential, improve your emotional state and enhance your immune system. It has helped people alleviate depression, insomnia, anxiety and even MS and cancer.

Through the process of meditation you will calm your mind down which will in turn lead to a calm body. When the body is calm, the parasympathetic nervous system will become activated and a re-organizational process in the body unfolds. During this time, a balance is restored. Through regular daily meditation, you will feel lighter, happier and a whole lot healthier. 

There are many ways to meditate. There are breath meditations, guided meditations, deeper transcending style meditations with mantras and chanting meditations. Some of these are easier than others. To get started, you could sit comfortably in a chair, close your eyes with your hands in your lap and observe the breath moving in and out of your nostrils. Sure the mind will get bored and wander away, however with some gentle effort you would bring the mind back to this one focus. You could do this for 5 to 10 minutes morning and evening. This technique alone enhances mind control and calms the nervous system. 

 

 
Tom Cronin

BY TOM CRONIN

Tom is the founder of "The Stillness Project", a global movement with the mission of inspiring 1 billion people to sit in meditation daily. Prior to this he led a very successful 26-year career in finance as a broker, trading swaps and bonds for global investment banks. A few years into his career Tom embraced meditation as a tool for stress management. His experience from meditation was so profound that he was compelled to complete his teacher training in India, Bali and Australia to help others find the same inner peace that he did. Now Tom devotes his time fulfilling his mission through "The Stillness Project".