Introduction
In recovery from any behavior or substance, it’s common knowledge that without your sobriety all will eventually be lost to the affliction, or as many say, “given away.” That being said, I cannot tell you how many times I have sat in a recovery meeting, thinking how beneficial it would be for my friends and me to have the essence of the twelve-step program translated into a twelve-step program for health and fitness. Its purpose would be to address the various crossover afflictions that plague us alongside our primary addiction and bring us to a healthier way of being overall. Wellativity and its twelve principles written into this book are the manifestation of all those years of thinking.
Since my early teenage years I have been immersed in spirituality, health, well-being, and the fitness industry. In the mid-’80s I entered my first twelve-step recovery program, and for more than thirty-five years to date I have been personally and professionally involved in all of these aforementioned traditions. Wellativity builds upon my experiences as a health professional and as an individual on the path of continual self-improvement. The fundamental aspect to Wellativity is the twelve principles and their application in almost every area of health, well-being, and physical fitness. Wellativity is a concept whose core focus is communication, well-being and fitness. Its twelve principles are a translation and extension of the twelve steps. If individuals have the desire to change or improve their health and well-being and a willingness to apply the twelve principles to their daily lives, they can reach a place of optimal health and
fitness. A central issue dealt with in working with the principles is coming to terms with and letting go of the parts of our pasts that are adversely affecting our health and well-being.
The book is divided in two parts. The first part transforms the twelve steps into Wellativity’s twelve principles. The correlations between addictive behaviors and the challenges we all face with health and fitness are clearly defined. Procrastination, laziness, and unhealthy habits are just a few of the crossover behaviors Wellativity deals with.
In addition, a large segment of Wellativity addresses the importance of breathing and the taking in of oxygen and the role it plays in every area of our health and well-being. Lack of sufficient oxygen in our cells is known to contribute to many health issues. Most everyone I’ve worked with, including myself, has an issue maintaining full breathing patterns. My answer to this problem is built upon in part 1’s introduction to the twelve principles, and its use is demonstrated and practiced in the second part of this book.
Stressing the importance of keeping an oxygenated mind and body, I have created a breathing conditioning program and have named it Wellativity’s Daily Breath. It is comprised of ninety writings, which are intended to be read over ninety days. The content of these readings are designed to improve the quality of our breathing by using the twelve principles and through repetition train you to be conscious of your breathing. This is ideally accomplished over the ninety days through reading and practicing the various writings and their examples.
Although the theme of breathing awareness is constant, the topics are entertaining, educational, and drawn from my life experience. I’m positive if you read and work with Wellativity’s process, the benefits will multiply and last throughout your lifetime.
So breathe it!
Chapter 1
Principle One
We declared that we needed help healing our bodies, that our health and fitness were becoming very difficult to manage.
Declaring we need help implies so much that may not be comfortable for us. From our most primal design of survival of the fittest to our higher levels of thinking, the admission of powerlessness or unmanageability goes against our very nature.
Surrendering to what has not worked and is not working with our health and fitness is the only way to open the door to true healing and maintenance of our wellness. Finding a new workout regime, medicine, diet, or therapy without cleaning up and letting go of our pasts will most likely yield limited benefits that sooner or later will be undermined by what we have not dealt with.
A good example of being closed or resistant to help is the addict who believes he or she can manage the problem alone and is not open to much-needed support. Our individual health challenges may be quite different. However, I pose to you that somewhere in our minds the I-can-handle-this aloneness is lurking behind the scenes. It does not want to surrender its will or decision-making ability to anyone or anything.
Fear is an appropriate fight-or-flight response, which is one of the ego’s functions. With a certain amount of decision-making authority, for many of us our egos have overstepped their usefulness by using fear tactics to convince us that anything larger or greater than ourselves cannot be trusted. This may be why surrendering to assistance is often difficult.
Wellativity asks each of us this question: How broken, sick, or misguided do we need to be before we declare we’ve had enough of our unhealthy conditions and are now willing to have God lift them from us? Letting go doesn’t have to be painful, yet more often than not we will need to wade through the discomfort of realizing that our old ways may not be working for our highest well-being. For most of us we need to come to a point of desperation or hit bottom before we truly become committed to change. Then and only then do we become open-minded and willing enough to listen to the right guidance. Then we are ready to do whatever it takes to move toward real and authentic restoration of our optimal health.
Principle One Tools
Word
Surrender
Food
Food represents many things to me. It is a source of life, comfort, fun, challenge, love, and much more.
Awareness, balance, common sense, and honesty are always good starting places for a healthy dietary program. Asking for help or support when you really can use it is a sign of strength and commitment, not weakness and failure.
Exercise
The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.
Our biggest challenge with exercise is our predetermined notion of what it should be and look like—sixty minutes here, thirty minutes there, traveling time, clothes, how people judge us. It’s no wonder so many people don’t stay with what is best for them … or ever get started!
If you’re having trouble managing this area of your health and well-being, it is important to read, talk, research, test, and question all those who are qualified to help and are trustworthy. A new or reformed exercise regime that is right for you will become evident when you truly open your mind and body to the help that is already waiting for you.
Unhealthy Things
Only when we surrender to the fact that we are allowing certain things to hurt or destroy us can we begin to see them as being in our lives as possibilities for growth and betterment. Are we going to let guilt, negativity, and fear get in our way, or are we going to be courageous and reach out to the ones who can best support us? How we respond to questions like these may very well define the quality of our health and the length of our lives.
Affirmative Thought
In my release is everyone’s peace.
Meditative Vision
Bliss is found in the space between each of my thoughts.