Lighthouse

I am grateful I did not decide to start writing these articles and creating videos earlier than now. I was fired up about what I had learned on my path to improved health that I became more of a finger pointer and preacher than a potential guide. While some paid attention it was an annoying and off putting experience for most.

I listen to the podcasts of Rich Roll who has mentioned he wanted to be a lighthouse for others and not be invested in the outcomes of a persons choices. Rather to shine a light and help them take a journey if they wanted to. In essence live what works for you, be vibrant and vital that others may decide to give it a try. It gave me pause for thought.

This light house picture I took in Yellow Knife perfectly represents my development in this arena of health coaching. Situated on a street far from the ocean cliffs where you might expect to find a lighthouse, it is not in its natural setting. What is it doing there? I do not fit the expected persona of a health coach at first glance. I am pretty skinny, have a career in life insurance and drive around in a hail damaged mini van. (more on the minivan in a future post). What am I doing here? We both appear out of place.

The little lighthouse is subdued, shining three colours advising passers by of their chances to see the Northern Lights. The light on the building behind is far stronger, piercing the night with greater intensity. When I first went down this path I was more like the intense light behind. Sure of my knowledge and convinced of the outcomes for those that would pay attention. The truth however is the intensity was off putting, making people metaphorically squint and avert their gaze. You couldn't help but look once in a while but it was hard to stay focused on. These days I endeavor to be more like this little lighthouse, I too can have several settings. I get stormy upon learning something new which I believe people would be well served to hear, you could call this the passion stage. I find this to be the least useful time to share that information with another, its difficult to let other perspectives in when your on a crusade. When the storm passes and my light shines a more subdued hue this is a better time to offer guidance to those that want it.

However normal can have its own pitfalls. Normal life means distractions, things going on in life that diminish my presence for another. Normal masks all sorts of things that make it a challenge to truly listen to others concerns or write a hopefully useful article for people to consider. Normal is the varnish we live under, providing us a little protection from the bruises and scratches that everyday life serves up. The potential to learn and share are not their best in this space, but it's where we find ourselves most frequently so we work with where we are. A perfect quote I have heard many times to suit this situation would be "Let not perfection be the enemy of progress". Even so we can strive towards it which brings us to the light I appreciate the most.

Gentle blue, calm is coming. It is a true rarity to shine outward with this setting as it's so difficult to first find the appropriate dials inside ourselves to select it. When I am able to navigate through the storm of noise our shared human society has been so adapt at creating is when I can provide the best light to guide others by. It almost always requires deliberate action to do so. But I keep looking for that dial everyday, it needs regular re-calibration. When I have tuned things just right I can hear another's opinion more clearly and be receptive to engaging with it. The deep emotional response we all carry to new information that is counter to our own is far less intense. In those moments I learn better, I share far better and gain renewal that keeps me able to see others guiding lights when my own dims. Those lights are all around us, like our own they ebb and flow, as with a lighthouse if you happen to look at the wrong moment the light is gone, shaded from view. But if you give it a chance it can shine bright through the fog and rain. I have several mentors or guides, most have no idea they are such a person to me. I do not always agree with everything they say or represent, they are simply people doing the best they can as they see it today. I endeavor to be a little better today also.

So how does this rather long explanation of the picture tie in to my opening statement?

I lived many years being what passes for healthy. I had no obvious signs that anything was overtly wrong with me. But ask me to run around the block and I would never have made it, ask me to carry anything of meaningful weight and I could not. Mental and spiritual health are key factors but at the start of my journey were not even a blip on my radar so we will leave those aspects for another time. I had those moments like many where I would get committed to improvement and go for walks for a couple weeks but then stop, not so committed after all. The motivation due to lack of energy and drive caused these attempts to be short lived. Imagine my surprise when I came across a set of information that was 100% counter to everything I believed was true but would ultimately change me deeply. Tell the earlier me what I was about to embark on and he would have laughed made some cynical comments and ignored you.

For all of us we are so deeply tied to our sense of truth that we find it almost impossible to engage with anything that might shake it. How often do we decide that something is the absolute truth, a fundamental law of nature and science? Fairly often. For long periods of time the truth remains until one day, someone, discovers something that forces us to reexamine what we thought was true. We like and to a degree need truths, they act as an anchor that help us maintain some semblance of stability. Eventually though your anchor in the storm may become a chain preventing you from course correcting when you see a light from the distant shore.

This time I was ready, I decided to give this approach to life a try. I let go one of my anchors and in return experienced a rapid change in my health. What I had read and watched appeared to be true, how could this be? Why had I never heard this before? Truth was I had heard it before in different ways at different times, but I had dismissed it all as nonsense and made fun of it. I did not want to hear it is not the same as I never had heard it. This new way of being invigorated my body such that I needed to move, it was not an option to ignore it, energy was coursing through me. This led me down an entirely new aspect of improved physical fitness which will have to wait for another time. The important take away is that I was excited, I was passionate, I needed to tell as many people as possible the truth. Very few wanted to hear it.

I don't blame them. Just because my truth had changed why should I expect theirs to instantly. We forget that we come to our current state of truth usually by a winding road of progression. It rarely is a light bulb moment. Its taken me a few years to learn this, once more showing that truth is perhaps in many cases more fluid than we realise.

So I would ask you to consider two things.

Be a lighthouse when your able, shine your calmest light outwards for others to seek guidance from when they are ready.

Equally important, seek out others to draw guidance from when you are struggling. Your light will dim it may even go out for long stretches of time. It may be that you need to gain perspective on what your currently doing, or it might be time to gain entirely different perspectives, ones your current self wants to laugh at and dismiss. Consider if your anchor has become a chain.

Thank you to those that guide me, although you may not know it. Without you I would not be who I am today. I will keep looking out for lights to help guide me to who I may become in time.