You are already whole.

Aren’t you?

Think about it.

Really think about it. Think about how much more you are than how much much you aren’t.

How can you be less than whole? Everything that exists is already, naturally, logically, a whole version of what it is.

How can it be less?

Half an apple is a whole half an apple. 95% of an apple is totally, 100% of 95% of an apple.

It’s logic, but it’s also a profound truth.

Fear fuels our need to be more than what we are. But we can’t be more than we are. Instead, we can fully accept the 100% of what we are now.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for things or use our privileges to help others in need. We can always reach another whole, another 100%. It’s just that the striving shouldn’t come from a place of perceived lack. We so often overlook what it is we don’t lack at all.

Do you how many zillions of cells you have, that are scurrying along in your body, helping you do things like breathe, laugh, move, see and digest your food—all the stuff being alive is made of?

About 100 trillion, give or take. Can you visualize that amount of cells? I can’t. I can’t really get a good visual on the insane number of neurons moving around in my brain sending along messages to the rest of me to ensure function, most of which I take for granted.

Let’s not stop working toward wellness, of course! It’s so important to think about things like taking the deep breaths that revitalize us, and keeping our bodies in balanced states of rest and motion. It’s so, well, nourishing for body and mind to eat the right foods, for so many reasons.

But sometimes we can panic so much about doing everything right, and getting confused about the latest data telling us what’s really healthy according to the latest research, that we forget to notice how much is working already—how hard our bodies are working to successfully flush out toxins, to convert the things that aren’t so good for you into things that don’t cause harm, or too much, anyway.

We rush along trying so desperately to do everything right that we forget how much sweet rightness we already are, and how much fear, stress and pressure damage the very cells trying so valiantly to work on our behalf carry.

What’s at the bottom of this? On a societal level, we are encouraged to buy any variety of products to stay healthy, much more than we are encouraged to appreciate and thank ourselves, even applaud ourselves for the health we already have, and to do the very simple, cost-free things we can do to maintain peace of mind (it’s free to say thank you, hug someone, watch your own vegetables grow, sit and breathe and be where you are as fully as possible!)

On a deeper, metaphysical level, there is the great big granddaddy of fears that motivates us: fear of death.

Death will come. For everyone. This is certain.

Until it does, we are alive, and there has to be a level of health associated with that, doesn’t there?

My healthy will not be your healthy, and there are a lot of ways our bodies differ, without a doubt. I am truly not trying to ignore or make light of the various afflictions that cause real suffering and hardship, or to reduce the very real problems of the world into something easily fixable.

I would just like to remind us not to over-complicate where we don’t need to. We can ask: what is the standard of health? What is a normal body, or mind? Isn’t normal different for everyone, and can’t we all work toward a harmony between body and mind, and between our mind-body complex and the world around us?

We so rarely think about what we have: what we don’t tends to consume us.

Let’s not be overtaken by what is lacking. There is more—so very much more—that we have, and that we are, or we wouldn’t be here.

Just to be here, we are the result of a bazillion things working, and that have a greater strength that we can even fathom most of the time.

Some scientists calculate (I couldn’t tell you how) that the odds of us being here are about 1 in 400 trillion.

So while we’re here, let’s really be here.

What would this look like?

Let’s celebrate our here-ness. Let’s marvel at the fact that we are here at all when the odds of our existence are so incredibly slim. Let’s take responsibility for our lives and vow to make them ones that matter, ones that reflect our desire to make the most positive impact imaginable.

Let’s not convince ourselves we can ward off death, or that everything that goes “wrong” is “bad,” or that death is an object of aversion. Let’s not bemoan the changes our bodies go through, and will definitely go through, on the way there.

These are the very processes of being alive. Gloriously, wondrously alive. All it takes is appreciation of this fact, to create a climate of have instead of have-not.

Let’s remember this.

Let’s have.

Let’s really have what we have, so that the universe can explode in have-ness.

I try to remind myself of these things every day:

—I am healthy, no matter what is “wrong” with me.

—My body has gone through an amazingly complex process to be here, and is built to survive and thrive—it does so many things for me every day to ensure this.

—The so-called good always outweighs the bad, as long as I am alive, and this is the miracle of existence.

—Even when I am ailing and when things are amiss or damaged or broken or hurting, there is more going on that is right. I can tune into this with a moment of gratitude and figure out ways to be of benefit to others.

—I need to thank my body for giving me the perfect vessel I need to be me-right-now, as I am, in all of my striving to be whole and in harmony with my surroundings. Because I can’t do that as anyone else.

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Author: Tammy Stone

Editor: Travis May

Photo: Author’s Own