Say yes! to your life

Could having a sense of purpose mean the difference between life and death? It has proven to be so in the most trying circumstances imaginable, as illustrated in Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, an autobiographical account of surviving Germany's concentration camps during World War II. How can a man sustain himself on one piece of bread for four days? How can he endure physical torture and the loss of so many around him? According to Frankl, he and his comrades learned to find a type of optimism that let them "say yes" to life despite the pain, guilt and daily threat of death.

Similarly, many who are diagnosed with a terminal disease surprise physicians and their caregivers by defying the terms of their prognosis. My mother was diagnosed with cancer (non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) at 47, but lived to 71 despite lifelong recurrences. I believe her strong will for living was what kept her going for almost 25 years past her initial treatment. Throughout the years, she would repeatedly tell me with determination, "I've got to live--I've got to live for my grandchildren."

I was a sophomore in high school, the youngest child of four and the only one to be at home when Mom was diagnosed. Yet what I carry away from that time is gratitude, because Mom taught me how to live regardless of what comes my way. That was her gift to me.

Each of us has a purpose for being here; each of us is created with unique gifts and talents to contribute to the world. Yet social pressures can deform our "original shape" beyond recognition, and "we ourselves, driven by fear, too often betray true self to gain the approval of others," says Parker J. Palmer, author of Let Your Life Speak: Listening to the Voice of Vocation.

For Parker, a "vocation," or calling, isn't just a job (though your job may be a part of it) or the traditions that are imposed by external forces. "Vocation does not come from a voice 'out there' calling me to become something that I am not," Palmer observes. "It comes from a voice 'in here' calling me to be the person I was born to be."

This month, we look at vocation in "The Art of Work" (page 98). Can you do the job you love? Can you love the job you do? It's a vital health topic. For when you discard your natural gifts and interests--at work or at home--the damage to your mind and body can be staggering. Other methods of clarity and healing can be found through the creative explorations of"Your True Nature" (page 12), the moving meditation of "Qi Gong" (page 40) or the science of Life called "Ayurvedic Medicine" (page 76).

Natural health is about protecting and nurturing your body, but it also means having the purpose and passion--the vocation--to say yes! to life in the face of everyday and even deep disappointments and challenges. Be true to who you are--your health, your livelihood, your selfhood require it. My mother taught me that life is more than surviving, it is truly living while we are alive.

This is the most important lesson about health I've ever learned. What practice or realization has influenced your health? Write me at editor@naturalhealthmag.com.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group