Anything That Costs Your Health Is Too Expensive (part 1)
I just conducted a heart-centered leadership training for my team on the weekend.
I found that many people are driven by the concept of success, but never really define what success means to them. When I studied with his Holiness the Dalai Lama, he said something to me that changed my life forever. He taught me, “Do not measure success by what you achieve, only measure success by what you have lost for achieving it.
The wisdom he taught really hit home for me at that very moment. At that time, I was driven by the need to succeed at whatever cost. I made a lot of money and accomplished wild goals, but I ended up with an autoimmune disease, a rocky marriage, and disconnection with my children.
I went into a week-long solitary confinement after I left Dalai Lama’s teaching camp, and I realized something profoundly shocking. I realized I had achieved external success at the cost of something precious, something that I could not buy back with money or time. Chinese sages refer to this state as “Throwing away the watermelon for sesames.”
I realized how much I had abused my body, how unconscious I was in living life, how I dishonored my marriage, my family, and my children by taking them all for granted. I realized how I ate on the run, how I dishonored my body’s need to rest, recover, and rejuvenate. I treated my body as a piece of machine, just kept pushing and going until it broke.
And broke it did. I ended up with a severe case of hyperactive thyroid Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune condition that destroyed my body’s hormonal function, which led to further breakdowns of entire endocrine function including infertility, insomnia, miscarriage, bone loss, and early onset menopause.
I realized if I didn’t wake up to my stupidity and make drastic changes to my lifestyle and emotional wellbeing, I would destroy my health, my life, and my family. Then what is the use of my so-called Success? I suddenly realized that having financial and professional success, but ending up with sickness and emotional poverty, is the greatest failure.
The reason I am sharing this experience is to remind you not to trade in your precious health and family for external achievements. Making money is important, achieving professional goals is important, but nothing is more important than your health.
Even though I am no longer in private practice, I am more than happy to offer guidance to WNA members. Contact me here for more details.
Read more in Part Two of the Series, were I go in-depth more about your endocrine system and function.
