By Diana Hoogesteger
How do we create well-being in our lives? It starts with a call from the heart, with the desire to be and feel well. What do I need to feel well? Well-being is a combination of things in our life: health, happiness, peace, beauty, inspiration, purpose, surroundings, relationships, and community.
To be well, we need to learn to listen to our heart, to observe our thoughts, feel our bodies, and be aware of our surroundings. They talk to us. We are all unique beings.
The invitation is to explore more of your true nature and create well-being through a range of observations. When we observe and get in touch with nature and the elements— when we learn how it functions—we learn more about who we are and how to create well-being for all beings.
In these times where so many things are uncertain and fear has spread, our ground seems to crumble under our feet. It’s becoming clear that there are things that need to change—change in the world’s systems and change in us.
How can we become resilient to all these happenings? We are interconnected beings. How I feel or you feel affects the whole. We see the same in the soil, where plants are interconnected through the mycorrhizal network-exchanging nutrients, water and energy.
In a crumbling world, we need reconstruction. Where we cannot rely on external factors, we can rely on internal tools. Your body is like the body of Mother Earth: a living being that is interconnected. For too long we have neglected the fact that it is a living system and have separated it into parts to see and use its mechanisms, treating it like a machine. When we separate our brain from our heart, from our feet feeling the ground, we are forgetting that they work together and need each other. It’s the same with the Earth. If we separate the water from the soil and the minerals from the water, the trees from the bushes and the insects from the plants, we are destroying the integrity that holds nature and sustains life.
In this era of rationalism, information, and hierarchy, we have lost our ground (literally, we have lost 2/3 of the arable land of the planet). We fly all over but forget to connect and take care. We have grown in numbers and money to have all that we want (more than we need), but we are restless and unsatisfied, living in a rush to get more, be more, travel more, know more.
The practice I’m inviting you to observe is “less is more”—an invitation to nurture the essential. I want to ask this: how do you take care of yourself? How do you nurture your mind? What kind of information do you put into it? How do you nurture your body? What kind of food and supplements do you consume? How do you nurture your heart? What kind of relations do you cultivate? How do you nurture your surroundings?
Remember life is about balance. If you spend all your time reading, go out more to experience life. If you are only out experiencing life, take time to go inside and read. If you are involved in politics and business, do you create time to spend with your family or friends? If you love the city and cultural/intellectual life, do you take time to go out and walk in nature and just contemplate?
Soil and plants lose their nutrients and life energy when they are separated and used to produce more of the same. So does your body/soul. We use artificial/chemical fertilizers and pesticides on our land to keep it producing, and we use antidepressants and stimulants to keep ourselves functioning. But maybe instead of “surviving,” we should realize that we all need more caring and less producing. Plants need to live in biodiversity to sustain the microbiology of the soil and help the soil to be rich and alive. That means less production of the same crop, but it will give us a diversity of foods that are nutrient-rich. Likewise, perhaps the body needs more time and diversity to listen to its needs. Often, we need much less, but with more care, to feel well. As we cultivate a better relationship with our whole being (body/mind/soul), we become more aware of the needs of our surroundings and understand that they also make part of the whole. So maybe play with less entertainment and more service, less food and drink and more gardening, less movies and more nature. It is an invitation to take care of the well-being of all beings, understanding the interconnectedness of all. If you feel better, I feel better. Slow down and listen; nourish, and you will be nourished.
