focusing on that feeling, how wonderful and powerful I feel when I’m in the positive. Truly, I never want to leave again.”
Once you see how the three steps work—the Reflect * Release * Radiate sequence—you can use those steps both as the structure for living and also as a decision-making technique. You’ll learn to automatically apply the three steps to every challenge you face, every moment of pain you experience, every worry or moment of uncertainty you have—because you’ll learn that these three steps, taken in this order, have the power to help you face any situation and come out the other end feeling stronger.
Let’s take a quick look at how the program works. Then, in the three chapters of part 2, we’ll consider the program in depth.
The Three Steps
Adaptive Response is the mechanism behind both vaccination and homeopathy: When exposed to a very small amount of a harmful antigen, your body not only repels the invading force, but also learns from the experience and grows stronger by developing antibodies that protect you from subsequent exposure. Going forward, anytime your body is exposed to that bacteria or virus again, these antibodies will prevent it from taking hold. In other words, your body has responded in an “adaptive” way—a healthy, positive, protective way.
Exposed to stresses every day—some good, some bad—your body tries to tap into this Adaptive Response constantly; in so doing, it’s trying to grow stronger. If you pay attention to the structure, function, motion, and emotion of your body—if you feed your body well, take care of it, allow for ample activity and rest, face and express your emotions—then when you’re exposed to a new stress, your body can make the most of it. Your body will turn that stress into a learning experience for itself, a “teachable moment,” accessing your body’s innate healing instinct.
REFLECT
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates’s timeless maxim reminds us that we need to constantly be looking at how we’re moving through this world, keeping tabs on our thoughts and feelings, in order to give our experience any meaning at all. When you’re in pain, you can be confounded by the effort it takes to simply get through the day. You might think, “I don’t have time to deal with that pain: I have to get the kids to school, meet this work deadline, get Mom to the doctor’s office.” The list goes on and on. In a lifestyle of stalwart soldiering on, it takes strength to take a moment to stop and look at where you are, to consciously be in your body, to check in with your soul: I am here. I am breathing. I feel anxious, but I can do this. What am I doing right now? Am I where I want to be?
Developing the ability to check in with yourself may be the most powerful habit you learn in this program. Truly becoming in tune with yourself, your emotions, the feelings in your body as they are today is the first step toward any meaningful change. Simple awareness all by itself has the power to shift you into Positive Feedback, before you “do” anything else. All meditative practices start with awareness as the first step—in fact, it’s the core of mindfulness meditation, one of most thoroughly researched and scientifically affirmed approaches.
Mindfulness trains us to be present in the moment. In focusing attention on the moment, you don’t have to commit to a lifelong plan—or even a weeklong one. You just have to make a good choice right now. This skill immediately starts to transform your life by maximizing the beauty and stillness that can occur moment to moment. A nice walk. The feel of the sunshine. The taste of an apple. The smile of a friend. We learn to stop and appreciate these details through reflection. These are gifts from God—they feed our bodies and souls way more than any junk food or glass of wine ever could.
The Reflect phase, outlined in chapter 4, also helps to reverse our sympathetic nervous system
Once you see how the three steps work—the Reflect * Release * Radiate sequence—you can use those steps both as the structure for living and also as a decision-making technique. You’ll learn to automatically apply the three steps to every challenge you face, every moment of pain you experience, every worry or moment of uncertainty you have—because you’ll learn that these three steps, taken in this order, have the power to help you face any situation and come out the other end feeling stronger.
Let’s take a quick look at how the program works. Then, in the three chapters of part 2, we’ll consider the program in depth.
The Three Steps
Adaptive Response is the mechanism behind both vaccination and homeopathy: When exposed to a very small amount of a harmful antigen, your body not only repels the invading force, but also learns from the experience and grows stronger by developing antibodies that protect you from subsequent exposure. Going forward, anytime your body is exposed to that bacteria or virus again, these antibodies will prevent it from taking hold. In other words, your body has responded in an “adaptive” way—a healthy, positive, protective way.
Exposed to stresses every day—some good, some bad—your body tries to tap into this Adaptive Response constantly; in so doing, it’s trying to grow stronger. If you pay attention to the structure, function, motion, and emotion of your body—if you feed your body well, take care of it, allow for ample activity and rest, face and express your emotions—then when you’re exposed to a new stress, your body can make the most of it. Your body will turn that stress into a learning experience for itself, a “teachable moment,” accessing your body’s innate healing instinct.
REFLECT
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates’s timeless maxim reminds us that we need to constantly be looking at how we’re moving through this world, keeping tabs on our thoughts and feelings, in order to give our experience any meaning at all. When you’re in pain, you can be confounded by the effort it takes to simply get through the day. You might think, “I don’t have time to deal with that pain: I have to get the kids to school, meet this work deadline, get Mom to the doctor’s office.” The list goes on and on. In a lifestyle of stalwart soldiering on, it takes strength to take a moment to stop and look at where you are, to consciously be in your body, to check in with your soul: I am here. I am breathing. I feel anxious, but I can do this. What am I doing right now? Am I where I want to be?
Developing the ability to check in with yourself may be the most powerful habit you learn in this program. Truly becoming in tune with yourself, your emotions, the feelings in your body as they are today is the first step toward any meaningful change. Simple awareness all by itself has the power to shift you into Positive Feedback, before you “do” anything else. All meditative practices start with awareness as the first step—in fact, it’s the core of mindfulness meditation, one of most thoroughly researched and scientifically affirmed approaches.
Mindfulness trains us to be present in the moment. In focusing attention on the moment, you don’t have to commit to a lifelong plan—or even a weeklong one. You just have to make a good choice right now. This skill immediately starts to transform your life by maximizing the beauty and stillness that can occur moment to moment. A nice walk. The feel of the sunshine. The taste of an apple. The smile of a friend. We learn to stop and appreciate these details through reflection. These are gifts from God—they feed our bodies and souls way more than any junk food or glass of wine ever could.
The Reflect phase, outlined in chapter 4, also helps to reverse our sympathetic nervous system
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