This is a Shame-Free Zone

This Is a Shame-Free Zone, or "I Get It, I Feel With You, and I’ve Been There"

When you walk into either of the Wellness of Life locations, be it in East Sacramento or in Davis, you should feel the warmth and grace of our motto: "We do everything with love." This is a shame-free zone, and as shame researcher Brene Brown tells us in her best-selling book The Gifts of Imperfection, what that really means is, "We get it. We feel with you. We’ve been there." Whether you are a model of health and fitness, are just mustering up the courage to begin a new wellness program, or are a veteran yo-yo dieter like myself, you are so very welcome here.

Few areas of the body carry with them as much shame, fear, and ignorance as the digestive tract, yet philosophers and doctors from the ancients to the present can locate no greater source of health (or illness) in the body than what we put into and how we care for these precious digestive organs. We also carry a "second brain" in the gut, a cluster of nerves that researchers are just now beginning to understand as a source not only of a secondary nervous system, but of many of the feelings we often refer to as our "intuition." So why are only 5% of most doctors’ training hours devoted to studying nutrition and how it relates to digestive health? And why are so many people in the dark about how to care for this part of the body until they are headed in for their first colonoscopy?

It has to do with shame, both physical and emotional. For the two are not separate. They are one.

Which means that caring for this part of the body begins not only with how we nourish ourselves physically, which would ideally include healthy eating, exercise, and a regular cleansing program that includes colonic hydrotherapy. It also begins with how we nourish ourselves emotionally and spiritually.

This means that, when we begin any health-promoting program, such as Wellness of Life’s upcoming "30 Day Happy Holiday Challenge," it is important to do so with an attitude of deep self-love and acceptance.

The truth is, we are all whole and perfect right now, here, in this very moment. Breathe in. Breathe out. Relax. This is life. We are here for it. The sun is shining, or not. We are slender and healthy, or not. We have cancer, or not. This is it.

All deep, lasting change comes from this understanding that, as the spiritual teacher Byron Katie reminds us, the only thing wrong with this very moment is the story we’re making up about it in our heads. How do we know that our current challenges aren’t the gateway into a whole new life, much better than the old one? How do we know that the story we’re living and hating right now isn’t exactly the story that someone else will need to hear, ten years down the road, in order to muster up the courage to start making some positive and perhaps even life-saving course adjustments in their own journey? The answer is, we don’t. We just don’t know. And to pretend that we do is the very essence of arrogance.

Self-love, and love for this very moment is, by contrast, the very essence of humility. Are we brave enough to start loving and accepting this very body and this very moment right now?

As we venture together into the holiday season, a season of love and togetherness and also of many parties, many photographs, and many pressures to "show up" in ways that may or may not feel authentic to us, can we join hands in agreeing that, no matter how many Christmas cookies we eat, no matter if last year’s dress fits nicely this year or not, no matter if we get grumpy with Old Aunt May or not, we will pay attention to how we feel, take a moment to be still with ourselves, and remember that we are whole and perfect, right here and right now?

Can we all agree that the best foundation we can lay for improving our health lies in loving ourselves, right here, right now?

Wellness of Life founder and owner Angela Harris knows this, and this is why I’ve chosen to invest in expanding her business to include its new Davis location. Whether I’ve strayed from my healthy eating plan and my pants don’t fit or I’m running marathons and reveling in my body’s strength and power, Angela loves me – and all of us – unconditionally.

Welcome to Wellness of Life’s new newsletter, and welcome to your whole, perfect self. As meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used to tell his students, "You are all whole and perfect. And you could use a little work. Let’s get busy!"

– Ellen Anderson Holt, Partner, Wellness of Life, Inc.

Category : Blog Posted on December 3, 2013