I was reading something this morning that felt like a springboard for my thoughts and got me so excited that I just have to share it.

Every once in awhile, someone expresses hesitation over taking a holistic or "New Age-y," as I've heard it described, approach to their health because they have a feeling that that involves blaming themselves for their problem(s).

No wonder they'd feel hesitation! Here's how one dictionary defines blame: 1. To accuse of being at fault; condemn; censure 2. To find fault with for something

Who wants that? What good would it do?

NONE! Why? Because someone treating themselves that way is making themselves their own victim. And a victim, by definition, lacks power. Besides which, blame denotes that you deserve the consequences and if we think and feel we deserve them, we're stuck with them until we think and feel otherwise.

Still, the truth is, we all have immense power over our own lives. I'm not saying complete power - I have trouble swallowing that (what about victimized children, for instance?) - but power, yes. Certainly by the time we're adults, we have responsibility.

And what's that? The same dictionary I consulted before defines responsible as 1. expected or obliged to account 2. involving accountability.

Even something we have no choice in, like our genetics, doesn't completely account for illness. Not every person with the genetic susceptibility to breast cancer comes down with the disease, for instance.

So we make choices that influence outcome. We have responsibility.

This may feel negative, initially, but completely accepting this can both make you both shake in your boots and give you wings. Here's why. Honestly accepting responsibility means that we can look through a new lens. We can say, "Okay, past choices x, y and z contributed to my illness. I accept that. This is how I got here."

And that means, we have the beginnings of the road map back to wellness! We can look at our mistakes more as teachers (Okay, what does this teach me I should do differently from now on?) than as irremovable weights on our shoulders that we must carry from here on in.

In a sense, when we're responsible, we're free. We're free to grow.

All the best,

Nicole