Day 23: The mind body connection

Cam and I watched an interesting movie last night called "Enlighten Up" about a film maker who has been doing Yoga for years and has been struggling to commit to it to the point that it might become transformational. She then finds a person who has never done any Yoga and follows him around for close to a year while he tries out all forms of Yoga in settings throughout North America and India. The film maker wants to see if Yoga has a transformational affect on the man. There are parts to the film that were a little superficial but then there were some really good moments particularly the ones shot in India. It left me thinking about a few things. For one thing it reaffirmed my love affair and fascination with India. It is a place I definitely want to return to in the coming years. Cam and I have a decided that for our 50th birthday (in a mere 6 years from now) we will be making a trip to India together. All good things happen with intention and a little bit of planning.
The film also got me thinking about my tumor. A few years ago Lizanne passed on a book to Skye and I called "When your body says no". The book basically highlighted the connection between a person's cognition and health. Specifically the role stress plays in a person's health outlook. Over the last few months many people have been all to happy to give advice and to share their thoughts about what might lead a person into a particular health dilemma. Of course there are all the environmental factors (which I think are not to be minimized) but then there is the cumulative life experiences we have and our reaction to those events and how that plays out a particular psychology in one's life.
What I do know is that when I do certain things in my life that acknowledge key aspects of who I am then it has a dramatic influence on how I feel and how I relate to the world. In a very broad sense, for me that involves knowing myself and exercising things that I am good at in a creative manner. I am very visual and love the feelings associated with creativity. At different times in my life I have paid real attention to that and it has made me fell really good. How this plays out in terms of me moving forward and influencing my body away from self-destructive tumors is a mystery to me.
I do know that there are many ways to age. Occasionally I am confronted by an older person who has a deep level of being at peace with themselves. It is incredibly attractive to see a person in the late years of their life seeming to feel like they are happy with the choices they have made and that they are not living in a state of internal turmoil. I want to be like that. Is it a tall order but hey why not strive for the good things. It all begins with some basic intention.