How do I make this holistic health stuff work?

I've read the books and listened to the tapes. The principles make sense. But my life's still the same. How do I make this holistic health stuff work in my own life?

Have you ever grown vegetables or flowers from seed? The process you'll undertake in creating a significant lifestyle change is very similar to growing tomatoes.

• You browse through books and catalogs, choosing just the characteristics you want, then place an order and wait.
• You carefully prepare a spot for your new seeds; in a Northern climate like mine, you'll start your seeds indoors months ahead of when they could be planted outside.
• You water and fertilize carefully, ensuring that your little darlings get enough light and heat.
• Finally, the grand day comes when you can take them outside. You harden them off first, to make sure they're not shocked by the sudden transition.
• You prepare the planting bed for their arrival, taking care to provide proper nourishment.
• You put them in the ground and then begin your watch ... which includes even more watering and fertilizing.
• You mulch and weed. Even after all this work, if you don't care for your plants, an unruly bunch of weeds could overwhelm them — with disappointing results.
• If everything's gone well, before long you'll have your first sign of good things to come. Little green tomatoes.
• You wait some more. One day, the first one turns red. You carefully pick and transport it inside to be enjoyed.
• Yummm! You celebrate!
• When the harvest is complete, you evaluate and make plans to improve on anything you can think of for the next season.
• At which point, you'll do it all again.

Bottom line: you've got to attend to your project consistently over time to get the results you want.

Yet there's one factor you'll have to deal with in changing your lifestyle that is not a factor with gardening. Gardening is an objective pursuit. You can look outside yourself for clues about why you got the results you did. More often than not, you can pinpoint errors to correct the next time.

Changing yourself is subjective. You see what you know. You experience your options through the lens of your old biases and beliefs. It's challenging to figure out what went wrong, much less see possibilities for creative change.

That's why sometimes having objective feedback from an experienced mentor or coach can be invaluable. They see what you can't. Our wellness coaching program supports you in creating the healthy lifestyle you envision. Check it out.

Still confused? Click the button for a link to our question page. Questions of a general nature will be answered in our blog.

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