In fact, being in love is what it's all about. As you fall in love with yourself, you naturally get healthier. All the do's and don'ts of health education can only build a house of straw unless love is the foundation. When you see love in operation in a relationship, you see trust, acceptance of the uniqueness of each person, understanding of differences, and forgiveness of failings. To love yourself is to love your body, your emotions, your intelligence, your spiritual nature. It is to trust, accept, understand, and forgive yourself. The challenge is to remember that love is all around you, and to open yourself to receive it. Love is not out there waiting to be found; it is within you, wanting to be recognized. All things in the universe are connected; all things in the body are connected as well. There is simply no place where the body starts and the mind stops; no place where the universe starts and the individual stops.

Finally, love means being compassionate with yourself. As you begin to realize how many things affect your state of wellness, you may at first be overwhelmed, thinking that you have to do something about each of them. But the connectedness of all things actually makes this whole business of living wellness a lot easier. As you breathe better, you move better, and digest your food better, and relax more deeply, and develop greater self-awareness, and . . . the associations multiply. When this happens, we appreciate one of the basics of wellness - that it's all one process.

The challenge of living well is the challenge of becoming the clearest, most loving, most aware channel of energy you can possibly be. To do so means to become a natural alchemist in the highest sense of the word. It is to become a transmuter of energy. It is to transform yourself.

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