Your Health Pendulum

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath

Where are you on your health pendulum?

You are always on a health journey and where you are on this journey is an ever-evolving process.

You may or may not know that in the past I was diagnosed as an epileptic due to Grand Mal seizures. My first seizure occurred when I was 17 years old and there is one simple fact that I can share right now, I was definitely on the challenging swing on my health pendulum at that time.

I almost never drink water because I mostly drank soda, I ate fast food and sugar all the time. I was also a very anxious mentally and emotionally and basically did not care for myself very well.

So, what did I do?

I made the choice to swing the pendulum, and you can too.

This pendulum is important for you because it helps keep some sanity within your health journey.

Understand that I do not live or teach to be perfect all the time. After all, while this is obtainable by choice, being perfect promotes rigidity, typically leading to quite a bit of mental/emotional stress, which in turn can still push your pendulum the opposite direction.

Let Me Help You Understand the Pendulum

First, I am going to assume you know what a pendulum is and that this swings back and forth with two peak points and also the center point in the low end of the swing.

When you are at the left peak point, per the picture above, you have swung into the poor health peak and when you make new healthier choices across the board, you can allow your pendulum to swing to the other peak on the right, which is the optimal health peak.

You may think to yourself, I should always be at the optimal health peak?

I do not necessarily agree with this.

We’re all human beings living a human experience.

So, if you are always in the optimal health peak, are you living the human experience.?

• Never eating out because you do not trust the quality of the food?
• Never enjoying a yummy desert because you are worried about the sugar or fat content?
• Bring your own food to your friend’s house or an outing because you don’t want to expose yourself to something thought to be unhealthy?
• Never enjoying a glass of wine or your favorite cocktail?
• Never skipping your workout because of your commitment?
• Never staying out late to have fun dancing, with friends, etc.?

I think you get the picture.

If you are that person ALWAYS trying to live in that optimal health swing of the pendulum, are you truly living your life, or do you feel stuck, rigid, overwhelmed and unsatisfied?

This is why I let my pendulum swing at times.

I was recently on vacation for a sort of a birthday trip to visit family and friends and enjoy some sporting events. *They would have been more fun if they won. 😉

On this trip I drank wine, had some cocktails, ate some organic corn chips, ate ice cream, Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups (love these!) and I even had a famous Chicago style Italian beef sandwich, with the bread. That was a huge deal for me since I have not had a piece of bread like that in over 12 years.

And darn, it was amazing!

So, what did I do on that trip?

I made the choice to swing my health pendulum to the poor health peak for six days and in all reality, I  paid for it.

I am bloated, probably gained at least 5-7 pounds, didn’t sleep well the last two nights and I am a bit achy from inflammation.

But you know what, I enjoyed myself and as I am on the trip back writing this, I have already committed to swing the pendulum back toward the optimal health peak again, knowing that it will not take long to recover from what I did to myself.

It was all in fun!

The key though, is the pendulum.

Once you have swung back into the poor health peak of the pendulum you must make the choice to swing back to the other peak.

You know, the optimal health peak.

What makes this a bit more difficult for some and maybe for yourself personally, is that the health pendulum does not swing naturally on its own.

You Have to Choose to Swing It!

And regardless of where you are right now, you have to make the choice to swing in any new direction.

This is where you may be stuck?

Maybe you have made the choice to hit the poor health peak and you are waiting for something magical to happen for you hit the optimal health peak again?

There is nothing magically to direct you.

You have to make the choice!

And in the same breath, if you have been living in the optimal for a long time and are noticing that life simply is not fun anymore, you feel very rigid and disconnected with other people in your life, you may need to make a choice to live on the wild side a bit to help create some balance.

Heck, that was my past six days.

So please, experience your health pendulum and let life swing a little!

I am no suggesting you go out and binge, eat things that you know will create significant pain or discomfort, simply get out and have some fun. Have a glass of wine if you typically do not. Enjoy some coconut ice cream or try my favorite poor health pendulum food, which is the dark chocolate peanut butter cups I mentioned above.

Simply let lose a little bit and then chose to swing the pendulum back.

And back to my story about seizures.

At that time of my life, I was stuck in the poor health peak of the pendulum swing and I was not choosing to let the pendulum swing.

I was stuck and I was actually choosing to be stuck, even though I did not know.

Ignorance is not an excuse.

Yet in the end, that seizure disorder was the best thing that ever happened to me. It opened my eyes and for the first time in my life I assessed my own health practices…

And I began to make new choices.

Swinging the pendulum!

So if you are stuck in either peak of your health pendulum, make a choice.

You’ll be very happy that you did!

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