Have you ever thought that birds can teach us something about maintaining good health?
While TV commercials busily promote the latest medicines for coughs and colds in wintery Melbourne, I’ve watched backyard birds joyously zip and zoom around my garden, and seabirds soaring undeterred by gale force winds and overcast skies. No wintery doom and gloom, or tissues for them! They’ve expressed complete dominion over their environment.
If shoreline birds, and those in my garden, can be untroubled by cold weather, why can’t human beings approach the seasons with the expectation of maintaining good health? The short answer is that they can. So why doesn’t this happen?
Instead of expecting good health, often there’s an expectation that because it’s a certain season, there will be seasonal illness. Fear of becoming ill produces a fertile bed for the mental seeds of illness to grow and be experienced. There’s a connection between thought and experience. And there’s a saying that highlights this: WYEIWYG– what–you-expect-is–what-you-get. This points to a way of explaining the origins of sickness and also how to maintain good health.
Staying well is possible. It’s feasible for someone to,
1. remain confident of personal good health, rather than anticipating illness
2. keep out of thought the fear of seasonal sickness
3. be unimpressed by commercials that engender the notion of being unwell
4. exercise dominion over their mental environment.
Does this sound like positive thinking? Well, it could be labelled that way. Yet positive thinking is better for your health, than negative thinking. And positive thinking, when connected to spiritual thinking, leads to improved health outcomes.
There is spiritual reasoning behind expecting good health. Many people believe that there is a divine Creator that has made everything good. This goodness extends to the provision of robust health, as well as dominion over our thinking.
Accepting this concept and striving to practice it on a daily basis, leads to a healthy mind and body. That’s why I’m inspired to take a bird’s eye view of health, and to anticipate experiencing wellness in all seasons.
I’m a professional Christian Science Practitioner and Teacher. Through my prayer-based practice, I help people find happiness, health and healing.
Thank you Beverly for this uplifting way that we can look at our ‘wintry environment’. It puts true meaning to the saying– “As free as a bird!”
Isn’t it great Anne to think that we can have complete freedom to be well in every Season? Thanks for your comment. Yes we can have dominion over our environment like the birds. Have you noticed that our thought is often lead to expect illness. I was speaking to a shop attendant today. I said how windy it was. She replied, “no good for hay fever”. I felt so glad to understand the connection between spirituality and health and thus have no fear of windy weather.
Thank you Beverly for reminding us that we should not fall into the trap of thinking about seasonal illness.
I have just been reäding an article in the April, 2012 Christian Science Journal “Spirituality in Medicine” a review of a new medical textbook, “The Soul of Medicine: Spiritual Perspectives and Clinical Practice written by doctors both of Harvard Medical School. This book contains a chapter on Christian Science. The article goes on to say- “The underlying proposition of this collection of essays is not whether spirituality fits into health care today, but how.”
Such freedom those birds have.
You’re very welcome. Thanks for your comment. So glad that you read that article in the Christian Science Journal. It makes you think. Spirituality does fit into health care today. It has a vital role to play in helping maintain good health at all times of the year. Yes, the birds do exercise such freedom, and we can do likewise.
Loved it Beverly thank you. A great way to approach every day and season.
Hello Yvonne. Glad you liked the spiritual way of staying well in every season. Thanks for posting your comment. Drop by again. Thinking from a spiritual standpoint brings freedom and harmony into every aspect of one’s life.