Transform Your Health, Transform Your Life: The Healthy Human Project
The amazing thing about when life shatters is that it destroys everything and leaves a blank slate for something new. A part of me died with my husband’s passing. The part of me saw life as one reality, my version of it; the part that judged, criticized, and saw myself as separate; the part that did not see clearly. Of course, I knew the power of yoga to transform the physical body, and decades of practice had helped quiet the mind to some degree, but I was still ignorant of my soul self. I was an American yogi living in a material-focused, external reality. I believed what I saw with my eyes.
Eight months after my husband’s death and my own near-death experience, a layer of the grief fog lifted. I saw my kids and I were in trouble. We were angry, reactive, and miserable. We barely saw each other and argued when we did. It was as if our family’s ship was on autopilot and heading toward Niagara Falls. I’d spent the early months in shock. The grief was so powerful it consumed me to the point that I couldn’t see my kids. I could not process what was happening to me, so I could not help them.
Let me rewind to four years earlier, 2017. My son Keanu was a few months old. Life was blissful. I had a beautiful, healthy, strong baby boy, my daughters were joyful and thriving, and I’d never seen my husband so happy. I, however, had an overwhelming sense of panic. I had a recurring vision of driving across a frozen lake with my three children buckled in the backseat. In this vision, the ice cracked under the pressure of the car, and we fell in. “Who do I save first?” I’d frantically ask Nate. “Do I unbuckle one of the girls to help unbuckle the others? Do I save the baby? Who do I save first?” The feeling of panic and visions about my kids drowning in freezing waters lasted over a month. “You’ve never driven on an ice road. Plus, there’s not even snow on the ground,” he’d say, trying to calm my nerves. He never understood my Sophie’s Choice visions, but years later, I found myself in a panic, asking the same question. “Who do I save first?”
We were sinking into a sea of grief and hopelessness. Each child had different symptoms, all severe. I knew I needed to be the grownup. Maybe for the first time in my life, I had to put my suffering off to the side, step outside my human suit, and see the situation from a greater perspective. Because I couldn’t see a way out of the storm from my small vantage point.
I asked Nate and my team of light for help. Nate started giving me snippets of information from the other side of the veil as “downloads.” He showed me my kids’ perspectives. For the first time, I saw myself through their eyes. Yikes. I realized their problems were not caused by Nate’s death per se but by the person I had become in the aftermath. I was in shock, distracted, over-reactive, and, at times, plain neglectful. I realized I couldn’t change the past. I couldn’t bring Nate back or undo anything. What I could do and needed to do was change some of my behaviors. More importantly, I needed to change who I was as a parent. I needed to learn as much as possible about being human and what humans need to thrive. Then, I needed to create an environment for my family to flourish. I wrote a “Family Manifesto,” declaring our home a “safe space.” This is a phrase we use in yoga classes. As teachers, we are responsible for creating a safe space for our students’ growth and development. A safe space means being physically safe, of course, but it is also free of judgment, contempt, belittling, and negativity. And it had to start with me.
“The Healthy Human Project” is meant to be a free resource for anyone who wants to know what it means to be human and what humans need to thrive in this rapidly and ever-changing world. Life on planet Earth is unstable and impermanent. It can be full of suffering or full of curiosity and adventure. As a spiritual being with human experiences, I started understanding the importance of faith and connection. I didn’t just want my kids to survive their dad and stepdad’s death; I wanted them to thrive, not despite it, but because of it. I want them to live exceptional, fulfilling, beautiful lives. Bad things happen. We have all experienced hardships, heartbreaks, broken promises, and disappointments.
THHP is about sharing seeds of resilience and health and growing healthy humans to flourish.
THHP is for parents, caregivers, and people going through life transitions. It is a model for Whole-Human Health based on the understanding that we are more than our physical bodies.
Five Domains of Whole Human Health
Physical: The body and its systems, sleep, nutrition, exercise, water, disease resistance, and vitamins.
Mental/Emotional: How you feel, your mood, brain & nervous system health, thought patterns, quality of one’s relationships
Spiritual: Relationship with a higher power, faith, community, feeling a part of something bigger than oneself.
Energetic/Biofield: Prana, chi, the invisible energetic field in and around a person.
Environmental: One’s habitat, the air, water, home, pollution, radiation, EMF, and clutter, including what a person consumes through social media, TV, and technology. This also includes a person’s relationship with one’s home—the planet, country, and community.
Each week, I’ll share recipes for wholeness, focusing on one or more of these domains. Recipes are big concepts with small implementation, focusing on small changes done consistently, knowing life is a journey and not a destination. They are meant to be explored, experimented with, and adjusted to work for you. Some will resonate more than others, but the goal is to have more humans experience Whole Human Health, hence living more joyful, fulfilling, healthy, and meaningful lives.
Join me on June 10, 2024, on YouTube for the Premier. If you think this sounds cool, please help me out by subscribing, commenting, and sharing!
It’s our goal to increase humanity’s quality of life, one person at a time, by having people take ownership of their health, look at health from a WHOLE HUMAN perspective, and take small, inspired actions to gain big long-term health benefits for individuals and their families.
In tandem with THHP episodes, each week, I’ll add a MaKa Movement video to go along with the THHP episode, mindful movement for mastery of life. (PS – here are a few new videos for you).
Asymmetrical Body? How to Get More Out of Your Yoga Practice
