Page 19 - FLIP - SPORT-FIT STAYING FIT FOR LIFE

SPORT-FIT

STAYING FIT FOR LIFE

By: Ed and Deb Shapiro

WAYS TO DEVELOPING

INNER TRUE PEACE &

HAPPINESS

1. Don’t take yourself too seriously. At times of hardship, such as loss or
illness, it’s easy to lose your humor and even easier to get involved with the
negative aspects of what is happening. Remembering not to take yourself
too seriously brings a lightness and acceptance to the weight of
circumstance around you. Don’t forget, angels can fly because they take
themselves lightly!

2. Don’t identify with suffering, loss, or illness as being who you are. Many
of our participants realized how they’d been identifying themselves as a
cancer survivor/widow/recovering addict, or whatever it may be, but had
not asked who they were without that label or identity. When you don’t
identify with the negative issues, then who you really are has a chance to
shine.

3. It’s OK to be you, just as you are, warts and all. You may think you’re
imperfect, a mess, falling apart, hopeless, or unable to cope. But true
perfection is really accepting your imperfections. It is accepting yourself,
complete with all the things you like as well as the things you don’t like. In
this way you’re not struggling with or rejecting yourself. Each one of is
unique, a one-time offer, but we can’t know this if we are facing away from
ourselves.

4. Make friends with yourself. Your relationship with yourself is the only one
you have that lasts for the whole of your life, and you can be the greatest
friend or the worst enemy to yourself. So it’s very important not to
emotionally put down or beat yourself up. Just be kind.

5. Feel everything, whatever it may be. When you are suffering, it’s easy to
want to deny or repress your feelings, as they get huge and overwhelming.
But if you can really honor whatever you are feeling then it’ll bring you
closer to the inner happiness beneath the suffering or grief. Acknowledging
and making friends with your real feelings is the greatest gift.