by Joel Levin
To lose a friend or loved one through suicide is traumatic for all who are involved. A few years ago a close friend of mine committed suicide and the ripples are still felt today. From time to time you review past conversations with the person, wondering what signs might have been missed and if more could have been done.
There is rightly much effort placed on understanding and preventing suicide, but what is unclear to me is why these efforts focus on only one form of suicide.
It would seem that most of suicide prevention focusses on the ‘acute’ cases; the cases where someone makes a choice, on some level, to end their life in an abrupt way.
Calling it a choice is not intending to minimise the anguish some people feel in the lead-up to that choice; in fact, contemplating the level of anguish one must be feeling to reach that point, helps me understand the choice all the more.
But there is still another form of suicide that goes under the radar. What is this other form?
Lifestyle diseases.
Lifestyle diseases come from the choices people make about what they eat, drink, how they move and even how they think about life. These choices put stress on the body and lead to diseases like diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, to name but a few.
These diseases are not uncommon in society; in fact, according to the World Health Organisation, lifestyle diseases are now the leading cause of death globally[1].
Consider the magnitude of that fact for a moment. To achieve this result means that people around the world are making a repeated choice to live in a certain way that is so detrimental to their health that it is now the leading cause of death GLOBALLY.
This makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable.
That means that there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day.
So the only difference between ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ forms of suicide is the timescale. Both come from choices made by the individual. While it is important to note that there can be a range of external factors and pressures that people face on both fronts, the facts are staggering nonetheless.
Looking at lifestyle diseases in this way suggests that there are many more people dying from their own hand (choice) than are thriving from their choices. This is a big claim to make but if we are interested in the anguish of those that attempt or commit ‘acute’ suicide, then it might serve to also start a conversation about the anguish that might be behind the levels of ‘chronic’ suicide that could now be considered a global pandemic.
Could it be that at a fundamental level, regardless of race, creed, colour or religion, we are missing something far more fundamental? While we might be missing certain behaviours, the term ‘missing’ more accurately refers to something we miss. The reality is that we must be carrying a level of sorrow or loss that is so strong that either ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ suicide becomes an option.
In the case of ‘chronic’ suicide, not only is it an option, it is considered a normal. In fact it is heralded as the lifestyle all should aspire to. So we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves, yet at no point do we ask – “what drives that behaviour?”
Look at the ‘Before and After’ pages on the Universal Medicine website and you will see people making different choices. They are not better people, nor special people, but they have been brave enough to explore what it was they were missing, which turned out to be a deeper connection to themselves.
[1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-04-28/lifestyle-diseases-the-worlds-biggest-killer/2695712
Read more:
Medicine and Serge Benhayon 
Joel what you have written is fascinating, you have blown the lid off how we are all living
“That means that there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day.”
How many of us have looked at our lives in this way? That our lifestyle choices are killing us, that is as you say a humongous statement but we cannot deny its truth.
When we consider our diseases as the consequence of our repeated ill choices, we give ourselves the opportunity to heal, not only by changing those choices, but by realising what took us to that point in the first place. We can learn so much about us and life just by being honest
Doug, when I read your comment, I once upon a time thought it was ‘normal’ to stuff my body with binge eating, alcohol, smoking and even exercising. And how did that all serve? Well let’s put it this way, it wasn’t pretty. I was none the healthier! And yet this cycle continues amongst humanity.
We are considered abnormal when we decide to make changes or choose differently but all we are doing is what feels true for us, it is that simple.
Joel, when you have put it like that, wow!…Most deaths are traumatic for any person, losing a loved one leaves many impressions in our lives. Wishing we had said this, or said that, wishing we hadn’t argued or had more time with them, and the thoughts could go on.
What if death could be a closure of one body, and the beginning of another body, and if it was free of any suicidal beliefs or abuse to our selves, how would we then perceive our bodies? What if we lived our lives from within, to the fullest, knowing we are actually here to serve and help others, then would we accept life more differently.
There is so much to ponder over about life, and many of us haven’t touched the sides, yet. Life is magical, let us live in this magic and see what unfolds. Life speaks to us daily, how are we going to respond or react is a good question to start with?
“To achieve this result means that people around the world are making a repeated choice to live in a certain way that is so detrimental to their health that it is now the leading cause of death GLOBALLY.” That is really a sobering statement and inspires me to commit to living more aware of this so I can have a deeper understanding of why I have repeatedly made choices which were detrimental to my health which brings a deeper understanding to why others might do so.
When there’s that tension for a deeper connection often we are taught to harm ourselves with various lifestyle choices to not feel the tension. Universal Medicine has shown what happens when we choose to embrace the tension
I really love what you are offering here, Joel. By considering the definition of suicide, it really makes us stop and think what then it means to truly live, and we may actually find that not many do.
Reading this gives a truer perspective of what the state of our health is as a collective, and it’s all down to our choices.
When we make a choice to live in a way that is detrimental to how we in truth deep down, know we should be living then, it is a step towards suicide. When we see it like this, then it becomes a wake up call, that we are making choices that are slowly killing us no different to make a choice to end a life.
It makes sense to me that every choice I make either supports my health and wellbeing or it destroys me which in time could lead to suicide. I cannot discount any choice I make as every choice has impact on my body and mental health and hence that of others.
“according to the World Health Organisation, lifestyle diseases are now the leading cause of death globally[1].” This is a shocking realisation if we consider that ‘lifestyle’ has become so ‘fashionable’, and supposedly a sure way to enrich ones health and wellbeing. What a contradiction, and what an illusion.
Thank you Joel for presenting what’s going on worldwide with lifestyle related health conditions, what humanity needs is support to educate around this and also educate on how to truly be self caring in a body focused way. This line really highlights the entrenched normality of today’s unhealthy lifestyles worldwide, “In the case of ‘chronic’ suicide, not only is it an option, it is considered a normal. In fact it is heralded as the lifestyle all should aspire to.”
It is very interesting to step back and look at what we consider a healthy lifestyle and what we champion as our treats. When obesity contributes to those statistics we could start by considering what we eat and how much of it is for health and sustenance and how much for indulgence and ‘a little treat’.
The Ancient Wisdom Teachings as presented by Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine, offer clear markers for the importance of re-connecting to our body and the the divine essence within. Living in separation from this essence is not natural and is a root cause of feeling suicidal, as the loss of connection with our source is devastating..
If we combine the ‘acute’ and ‘chronic’ cases of suicide then it is very clear that many more have pressed the self-destruct button than were previously included in the statistics .
Beautifully honest Joel, when you stop and ask yourself the question are the choices I make slowly killing me? Because I know for sure had I not changed many of my choices I would be destined to live a shorter life and by my own hand which is slow suicide.
It is so relevant to look at lifestyle as a disease. We are choosing to put our bodies through a way of living that is not supportive and effectively killing ourselves slowly. In this is an opportunity to change how we are living, and to ask if this is really the future we want? Ultimately we are all a reflection to another, so if only a few people choose differently and reflect this back, then we are starting to show another way.
Every choice, in every moment, we make in life is either advancing our health and vitality or lessens it. The moment we are governed by hurts and beliefs we get hindered to make these choices freely. One more reason to look at our past hurts and things we took on to survive in any way shape or form in this world. Life is not about surviving but living in its fullness in fullness.
The disconnection of people needs to get filled with outer substances. No wonder majority of mankind, knowing that how they live is not healthy , prioritises the relief through filling the emptiness. Everything is welcomed to not feel the pain of disconnection. To change that cycle people need to become more honest with themselves and eventually take responsibility of all their choices. Question is, how sick do we have to become?!
People are sometimes saying: one wine/ cigarette will not kill me- what if it does kill you? Especially the emotion that runs in your body in between the moments that then lead up you then craving of a glass of wine/ cigarette.
Yes, what a good question. I know the tension I feel in my body when I want something and it often escalates till I give in, now I see that I am choosing to not be aware of what is going on emotionally rather, I am convinced I ‘need’ this remedy which will actually harm my body.
How we choose to check out and escape from life, no matter how much stimulation/numbing we give ourselves along the way as rewards, and even though we might be scared of dying, our ‘normal’ already looks like we are just holding our breath and waiting for the day we drop dead – with varying degree of urgency but still the same trajectory. I thought I was missing something too, but realised that I was missing, the true I.
I am absolutely in agreement with what you have written here Joel. When you look at the latest statistics on state of the world’s health, you don’t have to be a ‘genius’ to get the picture – a huge proportion of humanity is slowly killing themselves with their lifestyle choices; they are literally eating and drinking themselves to death. If I hadn’t made my way to my first ever workshop with Serge Benhayon 13 years ago and from there begun to make many self-loving choices I would have probably been one of those statistics by now.
“This makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable.” This line alone should be a wake up call for us all. I know before I met Serge Benhayon I was in a form of suicide, not in a dramatic kind of way but I was going through the motions of life yet not really being a part of it, and in this withdrawn state I functioned the best I could. It looked good from the outside but I felt like I was dying inside. We know suicide is shocking but you make a great point that slow suicide is still suicide and if we called it that and linked it to our life style choices we might begin to take responsibility for the choices we are making to slowly suicide.
Where is the quality to living a life based on slow suicide and essentially living life as an existence? The trouble is this has become our norm, and with this form of existence, we accept less from ourselves and those around us. On a positive note, there are people around now who are waking up to this form of living and are proving that there is life after the existence and that this does not have to be the way it is. Students of The Way of The Livingness are bucking the trend of what it means to live the lie that we have been sold for aeons.
Yes well said, it is blatantly evident that we are missing something is a big way and looking outside for the answers is also obviously not working. Throughout the ages is has been offered to us that our true medicine in life is the quality in which we live, the degree we are willing to live in connection to our Soul.
Yes, insanely we champion and promote abusive lifestyles whilst we continue to witness, experience and subsequently are met with its damaging and harmful effects, hence our accelerating rise in illness and disease, and still we continue to disregard our bodies and beings and the truth that is communicated. The big question is as you have raised – what drives this behaviour and why do we will such disregard and abuse to be prevalent in our lives? For if we are willing to be honest about this we then will come to understand the grave dis-empowerment we are choosing to live with when we resist living in connection to our essence, our innate way of being.
“In the case of ‘chronic’ suicide, not only is it an option, it is considered a normal. In fact it is heralded as the lifestyle all should aspire to.” Yes this is great to point out, that this life lived with chronic diseases is seen as normal because it is so common and we are collectively not all too worried about it. As long as it does not hit us or a dear family member and it does not affect our comfort. But is this really living?
This is a great topic to raise Joel. It is also interesting to observe how so many industries profit from ‘slow suicide’, and thus our demand for alcohol, drugs, sugar, nicotine amongst other toxins is met by suppliers and the ping pong between the consumers and producers is set up to last indefinitely, with no one questioning the choice to eat/smoke/take these things in excess quantities.
For me those deleterious choices are a distraction from that feeling of missing something. What I miss is my connection with myself as I choose to go into mental pictures or ‘just have to do this’ or focusing on tasks. My choices deteriorate when I make what I do the sole focus of life.
We are now starting to talk about sugar as a poison to the body, in the same way that we know alcohol and cigarettes to be. I wonder what else we will consider harmful to the body in another 20 years or so.
When we miss ourselves it is far more serious than missing anyone else and the way we react to this loss is nearly always deleterious to our health ironic though it may be. The only way to find ourselves is to connect to ourselves first. When we are with ourselves we really don’t need the props of cigarettes or alcohol in fact we see and feel these for what they are – ways of avoiding really connecting not realising that connection is where the joy and enjoying of life lies.
We understand suicide as a single act which takes a life, yet we don’t think about the effect our lifestyle choices have on us, and how they accumulate which if unchanged also takes a life.
When we consider suicide as someone ‘taking their own life’ this sheds further light on the numbers of acute and chronic suicide.
We can no longer be blind to the fact that so many people are making daily choices that will end their lives prematurely. We can educate and legislate to try and get people to make healthier choices so they are less likely to become a health statistic but until we address the core issue of what people are trying to avoid feeling i.e. their own lack of connection these statistics are set to carry on increasing and the conversations about slow suicide are likely to become more common.
The falling down the rabbit hole with hopelessness and darkness overwhelming you can allow you to take that last quick, fatal step. But lifestyle diseases are a choice. And, this path has a slow, possibly painful and lingering end. The third option, as you Joel and many others are re-discovering, is that making different lifestyle changes and the connection to ourselves offers us all a different direction that allows us to evolve, not slowly dissolve.
I think I would have actually suicided or seriously contemplated if I had not made the choice to seek and find the truth of what was missing – a deep loving connection to myself and it was through Universal Medicine presentations, practitioners, and therapies that supported me after years of trying to make that a living daily practice.
What I can feel is how our every choice stems from a very fundamental choice of whether to truly live, or not, and how that is reflected on how we treat our body, how we hold our relationships, how we engage with the world etc., and it comes right back to what we consider life to be. There is a way of living that comes with the knowing of our true magnificence, that makes our ‘normal’ look pretty retarding.
It is the fact that we are not nurtured to maintain the deep connection to ourselves that most have as young children, that has now the reality in our world that ‘lifestyle diseases’ are ‘the leading cause of death globally’. Our world needs and through such statistics, is actually crying out for this connection we all know innately. The first point in beginning this paradigm is to know we are all Divine within. Our essence is divine, it has just been our choice to not connect and live from this unchangeable reality. A choice we can change, if we begin to love the body in which we live.
This turns the current model of illness and disease on its head because most people still think that we just get sick by chance or bad luck. But as Joel has indicated here it has already been proven that poor lifestyle choices are now the global leader of death, so this naturally tells us that everything that happens to us happens as a result of a choice that made it occur. Even things like our thoughts and emotional reactions are now being shown to have direct effects on our physiological health in a myriad of ways. So this news can and should be very inspiring and empowering in that it shows we are the makers of our own health.
Yes Joel, realising I was missing a deeper connection to myself and working with this turned me from the path of slow suicide you talk of and harmful way I was living which had a deep and profoundly healing affect on my health and my life in every way.
Once we are separated from ourselves we don’t realise that this is the primary stress even though there can be many stressful things happening around us, the true stress is in the disconnection. No matter what is going on if I am connected to myself I can move though it with much more grace and steadiness, not perfectly at all as I’m still learning, but if I’m in disconnection and something challenging happens that I react to, the effect on my body from how stressed I get is very detrimental. In disconnection to my essence I tend to be more dependent on how the outside world needs to be. When I’m connected to me it’s like I am held by the most solid rock of love – the eye of the storm so to speak.
‘Slow suicide is still suicide’ is a novel concept Joel – but true it is. Most of us are gradually killing our own bodies because of the way we live and the way we treat our bodies. Here are our valiant little bodies sending us communications and warning signals such as ( translated into English, now known as ‘Binglish’) ‘Don’t withdraw from me, some strange other being will take occupancy of me’, and ‘don’t eat that huge dessert, I will feel so racy and heavy after that and won’t be able to communicate signals from true intelligence to you’ and ‘don’t slam that door and drive that car too fast, that will harden and tense me up so that other parts of my self (my body) will tilt out of harmony and have to compensate for such madness’ and ‘please don’t kill me with indulgence, emotions, driven mental activity!’
Admitting that the way we choose to live can be slow suicide is a big first step and one of responsibility.
Lifestyle choices are the biggest killers of all? Wow, we are in a real mess. This is news, this is what we need to be talking about in the media, not what Kim Kardashian wore on the beach yesterday. Not about how much money we can raise to cure this and that. Let’s look at what’s possible for FREE!
Yes people are making many grave choices.
This article really brings to light just how we, as a humanity live and the level of arrogance we have in relation to our bodies. There are many foods and drinks that we consume that we know cause detrimental effects to our bodies, yet we continue to consume them, so where do suidical thoughts begin, for they don’t just appear one day, there is a trajectory that we choose to embark upon that takes one to the point of suicide. Could such a trajectory, if left unchecked begin in the choices we make about how we care for, or more to the point, don’t care for our bodies?
Yes we should not see suicide as something that suddenly happens as it is in fact a product of how our society is and how we are living together here on earth. The harshness, the end goal drivenness, the competition and the disconnection we often feel is not healthy and has an effect on us all, in some resulting in suicide, in others in withdrawing or hiding in work or study, overeating or eating the wrong foods and so on.
Suicide is seen as a single act; the act of taking one’s life. Yet, to get to the stage that is required to consider suicide as an option, a person has to make other choices along the way. We have to consider death by suicide as a possible consequence of the dis-ease produced by life and the lifestyle we create around it. The lifestyles we create in full acceptance of the dis-ease created by life deserves our full and undivided attention.
It is a big wake up call to read this blog and feel the huge responsibility that is how we are living. With the leading cause of illness and disease being lifestyle related, there is a lot for us to be honest about and consider. Certainly, we have a responsibility in how we live to not add to the statistics that are already pretty grim.
The concept of acute or chronic suicide is definitely a view for us all to consider Joel, great blog.
‘That means that there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day.’ It is surprising that many people don’t associate that the daily choices they make can lead to an early death.
‘What drives that behaviour’ such a fundamental question and one for all to consider as we survey ourselves as a humanity today with higher suicide rates and rampant lifestyle diseases as mentioned here. And yet we easily buy into our accepted life which is in fact ‘killing us slowly’ in most cases … and yet those comforts we strive to maintain at all costs do not work … we’re left with that ‘dis-ease’ in us as we feel the fact that in fact we miss us, and without that no external comfort no matter what it’s value will assuage us, and our lifestyle diseases reflect this.
What comes across strongly when reading this blog again is the level of giving up within humanity. It seems as though we have backed ourselves into a corner and have nowhere else to go, because all of our choices are coming home to roost as they say. There will come a point when no amount of distraction will be able to quell the disturbance we feel in our bodies.
Such a staggering statistic that we in actual fact are choosing our own deaths by our lifestyle choices. The Universal Medicine before and afters are incredible and I may not be up on the page like many others may not be, but I certainly have made many different choices that have turned my life around from existing in life to being fully committed and loving every minute. Even those minutes when I am learning what doesn’t feel right in the body and I get to make another choice.
It is terrifying to consider that what is the norm is in fact a global death wish with people choosing this way of life from a tension or anguish and as a result becoming a potential statistic which is completely avoidable. The responsibility to connect and reflect another way is paramount so that people know there is a choice aside from the norm where true enjoyment and true health is a possibility.
It’s totally absurd that we continue with behaviours that we know are not supporting our optimal health, as if we could get away with anything and everything and “it won’t happen to me ” attitude. The before and after pictures and blogs on the Universal Medicine Website are indeed very inspiring. I myself have come a long way and find this blog of yours Joel a great reminder for me to choose wisely on a daily basis.
‘The reality is that we must be carrying a level of sorrow or loss that is so strong that either ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ suicide becomes an option.’ When we are willing to admit and feel the truth of what you present here Joel, we become aware of that which is living inside us and that we actually have a choice to heal the patterns that cause our ill behaviour.
No matter what another says and justifies to convince me otherwise, there is nothing out there or outside of myself that is greater than the connection to my soul and God.
So simply put Joel ‘…they have been brave enough to explore what it was they were missing, which turned out to be a deeper connection to themselves.’ We have so much to pay attention to, the slow suicide you speak of is clearly an epidemic and it makes no sense why we would choose that avenue out of here.
It is shocking to learn that ” lifestyle diseases are now the leading cause of death globally”. Thus, slow chronic suicide is an apt description for our choices – for the alcohol, the food, the drugs, the sedentary lifestyles, the general disconnection from and disregard of the body.
A powerful and profound expose Joel. How true is it that our lifestyle choices are slowing killing us? We only need to take one honest look at the health and well-being of our society to see that we are not only choosing to deform ourselves but we are slowly killing ourselves, to the point that we are no longer being alerted to this fact, accepting this as normal and worse, teaching our children to do the same. We have allowed ourselves to live disconnected from the truth, from knowing love, as such disempowered, and instead led by a corrupted sense of normality that champions glamourizing lovelessness as our ‘greatest’ achievement in life, regardless of the cost. The cost being our lives, the quality of life we are born to live, and the exploring the full potential of what we are here to live together.
Having been there, done that with most of my life, the self-slow suicide, it is so easy to observe others on the same path. I know from experience that words are useless but, by being a living example, is a whole new kettle of fish!
Thank you Joel for naming something that must be named by what it is. Slow suicide is still suicide, yes. And must be named because life is another very different thing compared with what many people are ‘living’. Life naturally takes care of itself. Living in a way that harms us therefore, is not living at all.
We all die. No question about it. And we die when we die. Yet, not everyone dies when they could have died. Many people make choices that have an impact on the body which shortens their lives. In those cases, death is also a suicide. It has to be seen as such. Labelling it this way may help those that are embarked onto the suicidal path to put a true name to what are they doing.
The exposure of ‘chronic suicide’ is desperately needed to halt the prevailing pattern of illness, disease and the generally dysfunctional society.
‘according to the World Health Organisation, lifestyle diseases are now the leading cause of death globally[1].’ It is time to look at what life is truly about and why we choose to resist the love we all are by choosing the destructive behaviours that lead to lifestyle diseases and the misery we are currently in.
Slowly dying from the choices we make; insightful, confronting and thought provoking Joel. As you have pointed out, exploring a deeper connection to ourselves is the key to preventing this slow form of suicide.
We can look at the acute cases and rightly say that when a person does commit suicide there is a huge impact on those left behind in the loss of that person suddenly not being there. But as you mentioned Joel and as I’ve experienced we only hurt ourselves when we have lost our connection to ourselves, in the void we make harming choices. To what extent are we being harmed in a world full of chronic suicide choices? To what extent do we harm when we are not ourselves? as there is still the void of that person what we live and interact with even if they are not completely gone as the acute case brings.
‘Looking at lifestyle diseases in this way suggests that there are many more people dying from their own hand (choice) than are thriving from their choices’. Ouch Joel, as we open our eyes to the reality of the escalating rates of disease and illness around us today in relation with the responsibility we have to care of ourselves, this is a very sobering fact for us all to consider both individually and collectively.
Joel your words ‘So we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves, yet at no point do we ask – “what drives that behaviour?” This is a great question, because all those behaviours are seen as ‘normal’ yet they carry consequences that although we know, we choose to turn a blind eye to, and would rather suffer those consequences of illness and disease than to stop and change the way we live.
‘That means that there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day’. This is such a new look at what ‘suicide’ actually is. We have been living, as a race, in a way that is untenable.Time to re-look at what life is all about and how we can live lovingly.
You make a very great point here Joel which can be expanded into all areas of life. Not only do we make unhealthy choices for ourselves but we inflict them on and can infect others. If you bring everything back to its essence anything other than living a truly loving life is harmful.
ps: – using the word love here in the true energetic sense which does not include one ounce of emotion as outlined at Unimedpedia Love – http://www.unimedliving.com/unimedpedia/word-index/unimedpedia-love.html
The fact that we only look at one suicide (the abrupt ending of a life) and disregard the constant killing we choose through our lifestyle choices, is clear indication of the deep lack of appreciation of life and its beauty.
I remember very vividly the feeling when I heard of a person suiciding in my home town when I was younger. It wasn’t normal then and stood out to everyone as the person was only young. You could see we all didn’t understand and in a way it took us all by surprise, “out of the blue” as we say. Yet as the article is saying how can something so so extreme come out of the blue, we could say the person is good at hiding it, we didn’t really know them or they were functioning really well I thought and with respect the list goes on. What are we missing? For me I have found when I am blind to something like this it usually means I am hiding something or not wanting to see a behaviour in myself that is then causing me to ‘not see’. Perhaps this is what this article is offering us, if we continue to deal with our blind spots or our choices and every day reflect on things that went well and appreciate how they got there and equally reflect on things that went not so well and how they played out and write it all down. Doing this without a judgement on ourselves then each day you could open yourself up to see more and more. Then each week you could look over your notes and see if there is a pattern, if a choice that didn’t support you or others was there consistently but just looked different. A way to keep building a detail view of the world, of your world that then opens the same up for everyone.
Joel another great blog bringing us back to the importance of our own choices and how those choices are either supporting us, or slowly killing us, it is through our responsibility that we will change the reflection for others to know how to lovingly support themselves and choose a different way to live.
It is indeed a sobering fact to realise that we are making lifestyle chooses that diminish our quality of life to such an extent that we, as a society have become unwell to the point that it is seen as normal these days. The sad part is there are so many health conditions which people put up with that could so easily be cured if we looked at how we live and how we interact with the world.
With social media and ongoing bullying it seems suicide rates, especially in teenagers have gone up. Only a few weeks ago in England another young girl committed suicide from being bullied. Someone told her to go and hang herself after a constant barrage of bullying and so she did. Her family had no idea the bullying was happening to her. And of course this is not just with young people or from bullying and I agree with you if we loved, cared more and were truly aware of what is going on within our communities and societies maybe this could be prevented. I also think it’s really important, although may be seen as a bit challenging for some, what you share with regards to how we live can in fact be a slow form of suicide .. this is so true.
I see all around me people ‘committing slow suicide’ and sadly they consider that how they are living is normal and that someone like me who is choosing to eat and drink in a way that supports my body and my well-being is the abnormal one. It is hard to stand by and watch what they are doing to themselves, but it is important to respect the fact that this way of living is their choice; the only one that can save them from this “slow suicide”, is them.
They are dead (pun intended bad taste as it is) right Ingrid it is becoming increasingly normal to make harmful choices and your healthy life style is not the current normal for most people.
What an eye-opener this is… that there is ‘a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day.’ It is this resigning to a slow death while actually being alive that is a deep pain for mankind, for we know this is not how we are meant to live.
If lifestyle disease are almost all preventable, then the choices and behaviours that are made preceding the habit to smoke, drink alcohol, over consume foods high in sugar, salt and overly processed certainly seem to fit the category of a slow suicide – an interesting and alarming way of describing actually what is going on..
A great wakeup call that is asking us to take responsibility to a new level – wherever we are at now- we can choose to be more naturally alive through our choices or, however slightly, deaden ourselves to the world and the truth of who we are and slowly support our own demise. The choice is ours in every moment.
It is pretty dire when you look at the lack of common sense, and what seems to be the inability to make healthy choices when it comes to our own health, or even performing our own little experiments of what works and what does not for us as individuals. I can see why the author of this piece has described the current state of our health as slow suicide.
During the black plague they would ring the bell and call, bring out the dead. Today with our choices are we not getting on the cart ourselves?
There is a fact no one can deny: every day we see behaviours that are signs that people choose to kill themselves ‘softly’ day after day. These people may get offended if someone suggests that this is slow suicide and argue that they are not suicides (the typical argument is everyone dies one day or another for one or another reason, so they are not different). But this is exactly what they are and this is exactly what they do.
Great point Joel which probably applies to many other areas of life for example without any disrespect to people who have had to take out an AVO (Apprehended Violence Order) to stop an abusive person approaching them, oftentimes our bodies could do with an AVO to stop the abuse we pile on them. It really comes down to how you define things. If you apply the energetic definition that anything less than love is abusive and harmful – well we are certainly in a bad way as a species.
You put it all so simply Joel! And you are so absolutely right about it all. It’s staring us in the face and we are choosing to look the other way. A painful life is what we’d rather choose. It’s sad.
‘people around the world are making a repeated choice to live in a certain way that is so detrimental to their health that it is now the leading cause of death GLOBALLY’ This is due to many different factors – people are deliberately choosing to ignore what they feel, deliberately numbing themselves so they can’t feel and then in may cases succumbing to the marketing ploys of large corporations who are selling junk food at huge profits without having a true care for the health of their customers. Not only that, large Pharmaceutical companies are happy to design and prescribe medicines, again at great expense, rather than encourage people to live healthy lives. We are all responsible for both the greed of large corporations and the ignorance of the masses.
If something is slow we think we can fool others that it is not happening at all. Like a kid in a candy store with their hand on a chocolate bar they plan to steal, we stealthily slide the prize out of view. Yet all of the time what is the bigger effect? We harm ourselves and others with every destructive move we make in plain view. Your words here make it clear Joel that our current way of living is not living at all but a slow and steady way to say no to Love and fighting against life.
No matter what we seek without, we always feel bereft until we come back to and connect to ourselves. And it starts with each of us. Thanks for writing this Joel, I have not really considered that in fact there are extreme cases of suicide and then the more long term ones but in fact there are, and your line here really gave me pause ‘there are many more people dying from their own hand (choice) than are thriving from their choices’ – now if ever there was an indictment on how we live this is it. Definitely something for all of us to look at.
Plenty to ponder on Joel. We could say that any form of dementia that is a result of checking-out is chronic suicide and as such the suicide statistics are certainly missing a great deal. To change the statistics we all have to develop a deeper and truer connection with ourselves and each other.
Joel I love the responsibility you bring here – lifestyle disease is something that is fast growing in a world where we don’t want to know the consequences of our choices. This made me consider how I can over-think things and think too much, and as a result I can have really crazy thoughts that are not mine, and I have a scalp condition. It goes to show that the way we live has consequences that can be seen and felt by the body.
This is such a powerful blog Joel, thank you. The consequences and sum of our choices can indeed be a slow suicide; in our society today the evidence is sadly compelling.
Joel, you could write an Ikea instruction manual and I would love it. And of course your writing here is no different. As I started reading your writing about suicide the idea that our lifestyles are a type of suicide popped into my head – only for you to cover it off in full. Very interesting and it makes me super appreciative of the choices I’ve now made for myself.
The lack of responsibility in our choices and lifestyle affects more than just the person concerned in this life, there are consequences to every choice we make. Perhaps if we understood that how we live this life, is what comes back for us to look at and heal in our next and, or, future lives, then maybe we would choose differently. ‘That means that there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day.’
Slow suicide is a constant loathing and rejection of self and life and from there we make lifestyle choices that automatically lead us to a quicker death. Conversations such as what do we truly miss that such anguish is felt and not expressed are crucial to be openly discussed.
“constant loathing and rejection of self and life” – this is a hard characterisation of people’s baseline state to read yet it would make sense of our choice to run our bodies down in so many ways
When we have lost connection to ourselves and a harmonious way of living, illness is a great reminder of where we need to come back, to restore the harmony within our bodies.
Your blog highlights the importance of taking a good honest look at how we are choosing to live and start asking ourselves what in heaven’s name are we actually doing to ourselves and, in turn, to each other. As you so rightly point out Joel – we are slowly killing ourselves.
As humans it seems we have little regard for the physical vehicle we reside within and this is because there is a part of us, the human spirit, that knows it is immortal and if this body dies, we will get another. What we don’t bank on in this state is that when we do come to incarnate once more, we carry with us the imprint of all our past choices of every life that has been lived and these choices, under universal law, will then imprint the life that we will live. That is to say, we can never in-truth leave anything behind.
It is a valid point you make about suicide here Joel because whether we take ourselves immediately ‘out’ or make it a long drawn out process, if we are living in disregard to our physical form and not nurturing the love that otherwise expresses through us, we are in effect not only killing ourselves so to speak in this life, but also killing ourselves in the next and the next and the next…. The way to arrest this momentum is simple but will depend on what degree we are willing to live the love that we are and not let temporal indulgences steer us off course. Our physical bodies are a vessel through which our heavenly light, our Soul, can be carried here on Earth but in order for this to happen we need to re-connect to this part of us which we have lost connection to. Our way home is to deeply honour, cherish and adore these earthly vehicles we have been given to express the All of our love through. It begins with a simple choice.
This certainly raises many great points Joel, and calls us to consider what quality of life it is that we are living, or rather existing in. We have as a society come to accept the illness, disease, lethargy, lifelessness, exhaustion, and dullness as our normal way of being and that our emotions are who we are. Even through all the lifestyle choices we make thinking that what we choose give us happiness, excitement, comforts and pleasures we are still increasingly unwell, restless and existing with many dis-eases and illnesses. Would it not be wise pay attention as to where our choices are coming from or honestly feel the energy of the choices we are making? As with every choice we make we take a step to either magnify the energy of love through our bodies, the pulse life, bringing healing and vitality or we magnify the lovelessness that leads us to us harm and experience dis-ease.
“The reality is that we must be carrying a level of sorrow or loss that is so strong that either ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ suicide becomes an option.” So true and yet normalised to the point where this isn’t even seen as being a factor in life for many people.
My best mate from primary school committed suicide and as you say it affects people for a long time but I have also known friends and other people that have slowly killed themselves through lifestyle choices. The difference being that the latter, in the circles I used to run in is totally normal and somehow acceptable.
Joel, so much more needs to be discussed in relation to chronic forms of suicide and the reasons for it. The repercussions of it are just as tragic as the acute form. Yes a certain level of bravery is needed to make changes in our lives, but really, what is more hurtful? Facing our choices and adjusting them where needed, or dying, suffering from a continual abuse to our bodies?
Well before suicide strikes, there is the momentum that has caused the person to get to that place where they feel they have to make this choice. This is where society has failed itself. We lament, as we absolutely should, the untimely deaths of people who have chosen to take their own lives and we lift our hands in the desperation and wonder as to why. But we don’t really let ourselves go there. We don’t trace the steps back because if we were to do this it would expose that our way of living by consensus, passed on from generation to generation, is the ultimate culprit. And hence we keep the enquiry to a certain point, while the suicide rates continue to rise, speaking loudly of something we eventually will have to listen to.
This is just a brilliant point to be made Joel – something that we as a race need to closely attend to. All the trashing, carelessness and abuse around the body is actually leading to exactly the same end point as acute suicide – the annihilation of the body!
Our body is our most precious vehicle and marker of Truth – the truth of the way we live our lives – and when we consider it for just a moment it makes perfect sense to look after it and to not subject it to anything but Love. I found this takes a bit of a process and am continuing to hone that and refine it, but the difference my lifestyle has made to the health and wellbeing of my body is quite spectacular.
It is a horror that lifestyle diseases account for such a high number of deaths. All preventable and all paid for out of economies that cannot afford it. What a waste. We could end world hunger with the money spent on treating lifestyle diseases! Shocking, I hope that inspires change.
I agree, there is a form of body intelligence that seems to be unable to lie and has our well-being at its core.
You don’t hold back here Joel, I can feel the urge to wake us all up and rightly so. Suicide is a choice and for someone to feel this is the only thing for them they must be in a lot of pain either emotionally or mentally. The wake up you bring here is how our everyday choices can be a slow form of suicide!!! This is huge. If we don’t care, don’t love, don’t want to feel, don’t want to commit, don’t want to cherish ourselves, don’t want to take full responsibility for our lives .. all of this and more, including what we consume, yes, depending on the choice, it can be a slow form of suicide and I have never seen it as clearly as you have expressed here. If you were to ask a baby when you grow up do you want to not be everything you gloriously are the answer would be a resounding NO. They would want to feel their gorgeousness, feel love, be love and be loved, be all that they are. But in society we currently are not living or truly supporting this as you say we are not thriving from our choices ‘Looking at lifestyle diseases in this way suggests that there are many more people dying from their own hand (choice) than are thriving from their choices.’ It is definitely a discussion that needs to be had as to why are we not thriving from our own choices. Instead of going round and round in circles with these questions and getting nowhere as we seem to have done for aeons Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine beautifully get to the root cause of everything energetically so this can be truly understood. Which currently I feel is desperately lacking with humanity, maybe if we truly understood everything energetically we would wake up but even then it comes down to our choice! I feel it’s time to choose something differently than what we have been. It’s time to understand and it’s time to truly choose love.
‘ … it might serve to also start a conversation about the anguish that might be behind the levels of ‘chronic’ suicide that could now be considered a global pandemic’. I agree – could this be the real suicide prevention? Addressing all anguish and not just allowing it to slide; both in ourselves and others? Suicide prevention as it stands kicks in way too late – we may wait for a once a year awareness day to remember to check in with someone or we take action when someone voices that they want to end their life. Everyday we can take the time to connect with ourselves and others by asking: ‘How are you feeling today?’.
I agree Sally, there is so much pressure placed on the health system, that is a result of our own lack of responsibility
“So we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves, yet at no point do we ask – “what drives that behaviour?” It is crazy when you think about it isn’t it? I remember when I gave up drinking alcohol, the flurry of people insisting I have a drink “Come on, what’s wrong with you?”and “ One won’t hurt you” was somewhat overwhelming. I can understand how people bow to the pressure and join in again. The sense of un-ease and in fact dis-ease in those who are continuing with behaviours that harm and shorten life can be rather hard to feel when someone makes a choice to stop, hence the exhortations to get you started on the same trajectory again.
It would be shocking for many people to consider that they way they’re living is a form of suicide but the fact is, it is. Sugar alone is a drug that causes havoc in the human body and yet it is normalised and actually ‘hidden’ in a lot of processed foods and a contributor to many diseases such as diabetes and obesity – both in a large proportion of cases, now considered lifestyle diseases.
Reading this makes it very clear that how we choose to live is also the choice of how we choose to die.
This is huge… to rephrase lifestyle diseases as slow suicide gives a jolting wake up call to all of us. Are we choosing to check out of life earlier than our allotted time? That would certainly seem to be the case given how dominant lifestyle diseases are in accounting for deaths these days.
“In the case of ‘chronic’ suicide, not only is it an option, it is considered a normal. In fact it is heralded as the lifestyle all should aspire to.” Yes very true – the danger with it being considered as normal is that no-one questions it, because if we look at it from above it actually does not make sense to live in a way, collectively, that is slowly making us ill and in the end die. When we do stop and observe it tells us that how we are living together, however productive we might be, it is not truly successful or working when we are choosing to live in a way that is making us ill.
We are living in a world that keep getting faster in every aspect, and with our choice of methods to thin out the herd with our slow suicide, it is also moving faster. It is time to choose, to step off the fast lane of life.
If this sort of information were available in schools. .. If people could start considering this at an early age perhaps there would be more youngsters standing up for themselves and making the choices that are beneficial to their bodies and themselves.
It’s huge when you step back and consider it, the leading causes of death globally are preventable, and then to take a further step back as Joel has here and ask what is going on that we as a humanity are in this place? It affects us all, either directly or indirectly through those we know and to feel and understand that people are so overwhelmed or so discomforted in how they live that they feel they need to reach for things which over time actively harm them is a huge wake-up call for all of us. How exactly have we set up this world and its systems so that so many of us are in distress? And what will it take before we truly begin to address this? We are so much more than how we live now, isn’t it time we looked at life and living and how it can be lived in a way that truly supports people.
This is an incredible revealing post Joel, it is so true that so many are slowly killing themselves by the way they choose to live. There is many things that are impacting on us and when we are not truly honest and aware of that we choose to numb, which in turn slowly kills us.
Brilliant Joel. Slow suicide, this is such a great way to get the understanding across that it is our choices that are slowly killing us. I for one made many choices that would lead me to the slow suicide avenue. Thankfully I found Serge Benhayon and The Way of The Livingness, from which I changed my choices and over time, my multiple health problems and life did a U turn, connecting back to me and a true way of living.
Slow suicide is still suicide is a powerful and confronting way to view many life-style choices Joel. Our lack of responsibility and poor decision making in many situations throughout life certainly causes death; a slow suicide within our control, influence and responsibility. Much to ponder here Joel!
Thank you Joel for a very startling article, to realise that through lifestyle choices we are actually killing ourselves, that this is all preventable, should be headline news. If chronic disease was named for what it is – ‘slow suicide’ – would that grab people’s attention to want to change. The cause is so simple – a lack of responsibility for our choices and loss of connection to our inner selves, where our true love lies.
There are people out there that might argue that….
‘Everything kills us, so we might as well have fun till we die’
‘WE only live once’
‘Aren’t we all dying slowly anyway?So what if I speed up the process?’
or ‘Live for fun not for long’.
This is just to name a few of the things I have heard justify lifestyle choices over the years, I have even made or used them myself once upon a time but now I stand to expose them, this is what I have to share.
1. Yes our bodies are on the cycle of a slow decay naturally, that does not mean everything kills us. In fact there are many things that can insure we are vital in body and mind as we age, these choices are not limited to food and exercise; they are also energetic, meaning, our emotions, movements, interactions and relationships. Choosing many or some of these things creates more chance to end up as a role model in later life, for our grandkids etc., and will decrease the likelihood of needing to be put in care facilities.
2. Maybe we have a fantasy about a quick death because we partied hard rock and roll style but in reality, it is usually a drawn out process that takes a toll on family and friends and the quality of your life whilst you are ill.
3. The line ‘We only live once’ is born from the ultimate lack of responsibility, if you never come back, then who cares right?
Well, I am sure that we return again and again, as I feel the issues I have go beyond one life, I know the people I meet I have an unexplained connection with has to mean something but even if you don’t believe that, so what if it is one life only? Why leave the people you love to pick up your messy pieces you leave behind?
This is the wake up call we’ve all needed. There is much to be said for the quality of life we allow – how we almost play games with our bodies and push them to the limits to see how much we can get away with. But this is, as you say – slow suicide that is completely within our control.
‘Looking at lifestyle diseases in this way suggests that there are many more people dying from their own hand (choice) than are thriving from their choices.’ This is so true Joel, and just about sums up the majority of the population!
As mentioned by many before, an alarmingly large proportion of people in the world are living a slow form of suicide as a daily life, with poor choices and as puppets not claiming full responsibility for our health and well being. In many ways just giving our power away to the cravings / desires and emptiness that is felt at times. This also feeds the greed of big business that doesn’t give hoot about humanity’s health, as long as they make a profit selling addictive and harmful poisons as food and for recreation. So then it’s called or marketed as – having a good time,rewarding yourself, living the life or the dream, my time etc. etc., at the expense of the vehicle of expression, the human body. This is a great topic to open up for discussion, thanks Joel for your article.
It does make me wonder why is it that we have a set up or this belief that if something is moving more slowly then it’s ok to accept and live in this lesser, chronic way of killing ourselves and it’s not ok when it is instant and/or acute? It’s like as a society we are more comfortable in living life with the hand brake on and dragging out the misery for as long as we can. Look at old derelict buildings taking up space that could otherwise be regenerated, or laws that take years to be formed, all the while those that could be protected with such laws are allowed to be harmed, or even the simpleness of maintaining that we can’t talk about certain subjects like politics or religion when under both umbrellas massive harm is being caused in humanity. What or who is driving this acceptance in the chronic, painfully drawn out process and have we identified with this process?
There is a game at play here that lets us think it is normal to indulge ourselves in what ever form of pleasure we choose, and as our bodies become ill and deteriorate we accept it as getting older without once considering we are, on a mass scale, slowly killing ourselves, because everyone around us is in on this slow suicide pact we don’t even think about it, so what is it within us that allows us to not only accept this, but to wholeheartedly endorse it in our day to day living? Worth deeply considering I feel.
The most bizarre thing is that the choices we make to slowly kill ourselves (lifestyle disease) are so completely acceptable in different circles we run in or different places we live in, and when you are in a place where these things are acceptable, it’s hard to see the truth or the damage we can do to ourselves. We know that smoking, drinking alcohol and eating unhealthy food slowly kills you, so why oh why do we still do it? You are so right Joel, the amount of disease that is totally avoidable by different choices is huge.
Very true kevmchardy. We have allowed great harm to come to us all by redefining what is normal. True normal is to live the love that we are and nothing less. The ‘less’ that we have made ‘normal’ is not normal at all, merely common in the sense that the vast majority of us are still choosing to not live the fullness of our true selves, hence the mess that we are in.
I feel sorrow and loss is a huge factor in the choices we make. There is often no reasoning as to why I say might make a lifestyle choice that I know is not good for me, I know it is not good but I do it anyway. That for me can only come from a discomfort with how I feel. An unsettled feeling, often feeling things and reacting through poor choices to avoid dealing with it. How much greater it is when I don’t opt for the slow demise but choose instead to confront how I feel.
I would like to say yet again what an awesome article this is Joel – one of the foremost of our age. The point that there is not only the acute form of suicide but also a world-wide chosen form of chronic or slow suicide through the lifestyle choices we make, is revolutionary and evolutionary to say the very least. The fact of chronic suicide shows that there is something deeply unwell at the foundation of our society. We all know the possibility of love and joy, so why are we not choosing this way? Why choose misery and hurt over love and joy? This is the million dollar question for every last one of us to ask.
The figures from the WHO show that ‘People around the world are making a repeated choice to live in a certain way that is so detrimental to their health that it is now the leading cause of death GLOBALLY.’ This is stunning to realise. We are actually choosing to become ill and die, and yet most would say that these are the last two things they would want to happen. And, as you have pointed out Joel, this means that the leading cause of death on our planet is preventable. This should be front-page news.
This is the truth Joel people are slowly and willingly killing themselves, in fact indulging themselves to death in a lot a cases. Numbing and avoiding feeling by employing countless measures from the copious ways that have been designed to consume sugar and salt, to climbing Mount Everest, engaging in extreme sport or taking dangerous poisonous drugs as a form of recreation. All the things we do and the extremes we go to in order to avoid taking responsibility has me think that humanity at large does not want to grow up or you could say we would rather die than take responsibility. . . and to think what it actually means to take responsibility . . . It means to reconnect to our selves, to take care of and be conscious that our every thought, word and deed is not intended to harm another and is in keeping with the harmony that we all so long for. It is not that bad, instead it is all we have been searching for outside of ourselves in all those places that could never ever have fulfilled us.
This is startling what you have so clearly revealed here Kathleen: ‘we would rather die than take responsibility’ That puts it in a way that makes our choice to hide from responsibility patently absurd!
Joel it’s such an interesting way to describe our journey into chronic disease, for which the majority has been caused by our own choices. Slow suicide…this is very true. The after affects too are exactly the same, only also over a much longer period of time – almost in slow motion really. The effects on carers, the grieving (even before death) as a person slowly loses capacity and interest in participating in life. It is actually really devastating to all because we all miss out on the person whose health, wellbeing and life deteriorates before your eyes.
This is graphic to spell it out this way but needed. We miss out on the vibrancy of the life being lived, then grieve the life lost. No one wins.
Its quite shocking to take in that the leading cause of death globally is completely preventable. The way we are choosing to ‘cope’ with life is slowly killing us. I say cope because if life was joyful and harmonious we would not choose to eat foods that numb or drink alcohol that poisons, or all the other things we do that we know are not good for us. A sobering thought and one that makes me take a closer look at the choices I am making on a daily basis.
This blog raises such important questions. In both the acute and chronic situations that you describe, there is a sense to me that life has become ‘too much’ for someone. In the acute case it comes on in an overwhelming sense and an immediate resolution. In the chronic case, it seems that life is too much but there is a desire to not feel the overwhelm. Thus there are coping strategies around how to deal with the overwhelm which come about and which accomplish the same results, but not by such consciously deliberate and dramatic choice.
This blog brings our self responsibility to a whole new level.
“Lifestyle diseases come from the choices people make about what they eat, drink, how they move and even how they think about life. These choices put stress on the body and lead to diseases like diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, to name but a few.”
I was talking with a friend recently about how the reason for our health epidemic cannot be pinned on one thing like, microwaves or over eating meat or pharmaceutical companies or processed foods, it has to also encompass our choices and the way we live, otherwise everyone with a microwave would get cancer & so forth. I feel this blog really sums this up the whole picture of our part in global health issues.
I like how you have broadened the conversation and put a flame to the attempts to find the magic bullet cure or even the single poison pill that causes it all. It starts and finished with personal responsibility across every element in life.
‘This makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable.’ A strong statement but so very true and an absolute eye opener. Why are we slowly killing ourselves? A great question and something very much to discuss and heal.
Great points Joel, and this blog could go even further. That there are many organised bodies around the world who assist in this long-term suicide. As a society, we are only able to comprehend large shocks to become aware of an issue because we are so checked out. We are checked out with our entertainment, food and work. Only the acute illness or the end stage of chronic diseases catch our attention. As long as this societal behaviour continues we will never be able to tame the incessant beast which is the modern day un-health of man.
So true luke, not only do they assist, they make lots and lots of money from it. We legislate medical practitioners from assisting others to die yet, give a free pass to others to do much the same on a global scale.
Hence the testament to the logic we have created.
It is a great point made Joel that we are living in a way that is killing us slowly but surely. The other day I got that it is so wrong to call a heart attack sudden, i.e. he died of a massive sudden heart attack. There is nothing sudden about it, it has been decades in the making, decades of living contracted and protected. If we were more honest about how we come to be ill we would be much more aware of the power of our choices.
I have had a few close friends/boyfriends commit suicide and the utter devastation that is immediately felt by their friends and family is the total shock of such a sudden and drastic move. But, when we allow ourselves to sit with the reality of it, we begin to understand that it was not so sudden at all but more so an accumulation of deep seated grief, despondency and despair (undealt with hurt) in which the person involved feels they have no way out but to ‘end it all’ by taking their life into their own hands….only to find on ‘the other side’ that this does not end the trauma at all, for the pain stays deeply embedded in the human spirit and is carried through into the next incarnation where it will arise again to be healed.
Such is the love we are held in by God/The Universe, that we are given endless opportunities to heal our hurts and take responsibility for our turn away from love. But because we don’t let ourselves feel this beholding love, nor have a deeper understanding of the way things truly are, we lose ourselves in the seeming enormity of the pain, choosing subconsciously in this moment for this to appear bigger than the love we are held in.
Suicide may feel like a big and sudden choice in a grief stricken moment, but it is more so the result of millions of seemingly smaller choices made throughout this life and the many that preceded it, to not live the love that we are. Really no different, as Joel here presents, to a slow burning annihilation of the body through so called lifestyle related illness, just on a different time scale.
This is a great point you make Joel. If we were to class what is currently referred to as ‘lifestyle diseases’ as ‘suicide type 2’, we might sit up and pay more attention to what we are doing to ourselves. That said, deep down we know exactly what we are engaging with when we make choices that do not support the health of our physical bodies. Part of this is arrogance on the human spirit’s part (which we all have) because it knows it is immortal and will get another body next time around, even if the personality attached to the body in its current incarnation does not believe in reincarnation. The other part of what drives these self-destructive behaviours is the deep grief we collectively feel from choosing to live in separation to the light of the Soul. We register the angst, sadness, tension and trauma this causes but we find it very hard to arrest the loveless momentum we are in and make different choices. It’s kind of like eating cake, knowing you will feel wretched afterwards but you are eating it anyway so you may as well continue…or so we tell ourselves. Choosing a more loving way to live is a simple choice but seeming not so when we have made all that is not of this love, the more familiar route to follow.
Suicide type 2 – love it, it would definitely make people stand up and take more notice.
I love this blog Joel as really suicide is serious and very sad for all involved but people really are slowly suiciding all around us all the time with the choices they are making but not many are reaching out a helping hand or stopping to ask our fellow workers, friends, family and acquaintances what is really going on for them. Are we afraid to ask because we don’t want to hear the answers or because we don’t know what to do? Have we not stopped to appreciate that just being aware, giving someone the time of day and being honest and open enough to say something and care is a beautiful gift just in itself? We all do make a difference, in everything we do but more so just by being ourselves and meeting others.
Just reading the title of this blog makes me stop in my tracks and really consider what choices I’m making in my day to day life!
This is a very important question to ask – why do we make choices every day that seriously compromise our health? It’s crazy and heart breaking.
It is our choices that create who we are and if we have had many lives before it is easier to understand that some of our choices could have been repeated over and over to become habits and sometimes quite unhealthy ones. It also makes it easier to understand why it is difficult to change our choices. However changing choices is possible and this is where the study of energy is also very helpful. The presentations of Universal Medicine and in particular Serge Benhayon are extremely supportive in this regard.
I have known a few people that kept crying wolf about killing themselves. It was dealt with, ‘nothing can be that bad’ kind of advice and life moved. But, one did just silently slip away one night. Our lifestyle suicides are no different. We get in a rut in life and then lose our spark; we stop caring for ourselves. These lifestyles have no social, economic barriers. When one of these people check out, the disease is blamed rather than the emptiness that resided in them.
It is true Gill, giving power back to the individual to make and sustain changes in their lives if the key. As is answering the question as to why this is not the norm in the first place, we are the only species on earth than actively sabotages their own bodies.
Joel – the question you ask ‘what is behind this behaviour’ is indeed one we just do not seem to ask. We get to the point where we just look at the end result rather than the build up, and it is so important to see what is going on before we get to the outcome. As we know, there is always a choice – and so to get to the point where someone suicides, the question has to be asked, how does it get to this. Well by simply looking at how we live everyday, we can start to see how lifestyle is a choice, is in our hands, and that to choose to support ourselves from the get-go means we don’t have to wake up one day and wonder why we feel like our lives are a mess.
So true hvmorden, the little incremental choices are the ones that we need to be willing to be honest about because that is the sum total of life. The grand gestures don;t last because the millions of choices that surround them do not align with this.
Slow suicide is a lifestyle of choice that has been promoted as the way of living to aspire too, makes no sense at all? To prolong this lifestyle we have medically found ways to compensate and correct the damage we do to our body’s with transplants and replacement parts that allow us to stay on the treadmill we have created. I am one of those people on ‘Before and After’ and I have chosen what was missing in my life and I have found it where it has always been in me.
love this comment Steve… “Slow suicide is a lifestyle of choice” and the fact that it is promoted and sustained through “medical advances” is truly a waste of some very skilled and dedicated medical professionals energy.
I hadn’t thought of suicide like this before but it is very true – we are slowly killing ourselves. What strikes me and as Joel points out is that our lifestyle of eating, drinking, numbing ourselves etc has become the norm. Thank goodness for Universal Medicine showing me another way supporting me to be and live what is true to me even though I am in the minority.
Beautifully, clearly and succinctly said Joel;
“Lifestyle diseases come from the choices people make about what they eat, drink, how they move and even how they think about life. These choices put stress on the body and lead to diseases like diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, to name but a few”. Diseases that kill us by the choices we make, suicide!
This concept of slow suicide is very thought provoking. The world is suffering from this form of suicide in epidemic proportions, yet Joel you have only just called it out.
What an excellent exposé on the two types of suicide that are both the result of things outside of ourselves that we absorb. The first category could be said to be emotions we bottle up, and the other is things we physically do or put in our bodies. Both are choices.
Nice Steve, I am guessing both have to do with emotions we bottle up, in one instance we say we can’t handle it anymore in the other we say the best way to handle it is to numb, dull, race the body so we are not aware of it…that pressure is wasted energy is what begins to break down the body.
Wow, Joel, I have never looked at it like this before.The fact, as you say that slow suicide is considered normal, if not heralded, is an example of where we have got to as a society and how far humanity is from connecting to the responsibility we all hold for our own health and wellbeing.
Slow suicide…I never considered lifestyle choices like that before but that is exactly what they are. We put all sorts of poisons into our body and expect our bodies to function normally. There is a tremendous amount of arrogance in that.
I agree on the arrogance front, not only arrogance but also a self-loathing / disdain to treat ourselves in this way. We take such great care when it comes to what we feed infants, yet don’t apply the same care to ourselves (note: same care, not same food!)
Is there a knock on effect to our choices Elizabeth? A new report in the US found; in the last 15 years, there has been a 24% increase overall in suicide. The report also states that for women, the highest percent increase in suicide rates was among those ages 10–14 (200% increase), while for men it was 45–64 (43% increase). What is our part in this increase in children not wanting to be part of this world at such a young age? Is there a correlation between the increase of our self, slow suicide through all the methods available to us, that is a reflection of what is waiting for them?
Hmmm, really lifting the lid on how then we consider suicide. Crazy if we really let ourselves to connect to what this revelation is offering then to think how we see suicide as such a waste, but not give equal consideration to the way we live as also to be a waste, especially if as you say we live in such a way that is slowly killing us.
It is amazing just how blind we can be to the obvious and as you say, Joel, to then say it is normal. We are choosing to eat foods and live in a way which is killing us but we just ignore or justify it. This would be great editorial for our newspapers!
It would be a great editorial for the newspaper, I agree, but may take a while to get there as each person reading will probably start considering their own lives and their choices. After reading this life can not be the same again!
It is very confronting to think that I am making choices that will compromise my body, and that i knowingly choose that. We do have the answers and the choice to live in a different way.
What is more, is that not only do we knowingly choose it, but we live through and feel the consequences yet continue to make the same choices repeatedly, again and again!
The teachings of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon has helped me to break this cycle – I am far from perfect but there are definitely behaviours that I thought would be with me forever that are no longer part of my life anymore.
I agree Susan, we can become more refined with our science and understanding but the ‘big rock’ of personal responsibility and dealing with what it is that we are trying to bury beneath poor lifestyle choices, is staring us in the face
Looking at our lives in this way Joel is very confronting and sobering, and maybe this is what we need as a wake up call.
Absolutely brilliant article Joel, I can feel the truth in what you have expressed. I have been contemplating my own level of anguish – that feeling that there is something missing, an abyss of disconnection that layers over my heart which leads to making unsupportive lifestyle choices to fill up this empty hole of dismay. I have found a supportive way to fill this hole of dismay and support me to feel whole again is by looking after my body and accepting that I have always been whole but have been choosing patterns of behaviour to layer over this wholeness.
Why would one choose the hole over the whole? So I can deny that there is a part of me that willingly likes the hole of dismay because it gives it a feeling of being “special”, in charge and individual. Choosing the hole makes me feel – disconnected, flat, small, dull, distracted and in control. Choosing the whole allows me to feel – connected, spherical, expansive, vibrant, present and surrendered.
I am learning that living in a way that supports the whole is the most natural and supportive way to live 🙂
Love the playfulness of this question – Why would one choose the hole over the whole? – there is a blog in that Bianca…can’t wait to read it 🙂
And.. well asked question: ”Could it be that at a fundamental level, regardless of race, creed, colour or religion, we are missing something far more fundamental?”
Yes, to that. Amen , to that. As I know this feeling within me of missing, as I know many more people on this planet.. It is not a jewelry we can buy, or a friend we have to seek.. But the truth within ones heart that makes us complete.
“It is not a jewellery we can buy or a friend we have to seek. But the truth within one’s heart that makes us complete.” – I love this line…thanks Danna
Well said on the last part too – and it is for real , these people have made the choice to find out truly what there were missing. And like you said, they are not special, they just had chosen that is was time to reconnect back to the divine, the connection they missed within themselves.
This is so prevalent: ”That means that there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day.”
You are totally right Joel, we should not see suicide any different, as the lifestyle disease we have been creating for ourselves – as you say; a slow version, is not per se a less important version. I think we are heading the right way with this, if you look at it from a more honest point of view – and clearly look at the effects it is all having (without using necessarily look from an emotional point of view, to determine the urgency).
It feels like that the acceptance of the way most people are living is so, so normal that it could be a while till there are changes. However it is those who have chosen to live another way and are not rife with the same health issues will be asked, “hey how come you’re not slowly dying?” or their vitality and health is felt and people will start choosing differently.
Bringing awareness of lifestyle illness, the major cause of death in the world, as a form of slow suicide may be dramatic but it is also profound and true. The space that makes up our minutes, days, weeks and years are full of choices. The choice to honour and respect our bodies, including listening to what they are telling us about our quality of work, rest and play, can lead to lightness, ease and joy in our daily lives or heaviness, push and drudgery – Our feelings inform us of our choices all the time, well before these choices become illness. We are all sensitive and able to feel this and really by allowing this sensitivity the choice becomes simple.
This is a great line Simon….” Our feelings inform us of our choices all the time, well before these choices become illness.” — we can ignore what we feel for a while, but eventually the truth comes out.
Just re-reading your brilliant blog Joel. Your statement about death from life-style is gob-smacking. ‘This makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable’. We, in general, do not see our health and death as in our own hands, but in fact it is. Yes we will die, but it will be of a whole different order if we care for and love ourselves and others.
That’s it Lyndy, it’s about quality. Sure we will all die, that’s a given, it’s part of the cycle of life, but the quality of our day-to-day is up to us, and I feel contributes greatly to the quality that we pass over in. And as someone who has always felt the truth in reincarnation, how we live and die in this life will set us up for how we incarnate in the next.
So true Sandra, that you have brought in reincarnation and the possibility that any momentum we are in, runs not just for this life but beyond. It takes responsibility to a whole new level.
Having explored this apparently ‘missing link’ in myself, I have come to the realisation that in truth, it was never actually missing at all – but more being ignored and denied. Even now I can feel a reaction in me to the suggestion that what we miss is a deeper connection to ourselves that says ‘no, that can’t be it’. This almost feels like a mockery of the very suggestion – ‘how can I miss myself, don’t be ridiculous?!’ But it is true and it seems we will do almost everything else but look within to find the joy of being who we truly are – maybe until we are desperate enough to consider it a real possibility.
It occurs to me that choosing a life where we numb ourselves in whichever way we do is in itself a form of not being fully present and in the ‘livingness’ of life. When we choose such things are we in fact choosing a ‘living suicide’?
Wow, great point Richard. Living Suicide – pretty much the whole world is in this, with the amount of illness, disease, pain and suffering.
Alcohol is a substance widely accepted as normal in most western societies. How is it that a substance known as a toxin has been packaged up in pretty bottles and cans with fancy names and clever marketing? Isn’t it time we got real about what alcohol is and more importantly what it does to the human body?
And the crazy thing is that it is sometimes referred as good medicine, especially red wine. This is exposing the fact that often we are so numb, that we do not feel any more what is healthy or supportive to our body or we just override its signs. No wonder that illness and desease are increasing.
Our ill life styles are dragging our tombstone with us, that grows over time to the point that it will extinguish us. We can choose to or not to follow this path.
Joel, a very clever yet profound way of looking at lifestyle related illness and disease, and one that forces us to stop and consider the ludicrousness and callousness of the way we often treat our body.
I agree Adam, Joel’s message does really bring home the impact of what we choose to do to ourselves. If we can stop to consider this then at least we have the possibility to open up to asking why we would choose to treat our body in such harmful ways, rather than just accept that is the way life is.
I loved re-reading your blog Joel. The simplicity that you offer should make the headlines of every newspaper. “So we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves, yet at no point do we ask – “what drives that behaviour?”” We need to be willing to be honest about what is going on to then decide if we want to turn things around and rise from the mess we have created for ourselves.
Such a revealing and insightful blog Joel. The idea of a slow form of suicide, bought on by our life-style choice, is confronting but nevertheless so true. A great blog thank you Joel.
I like what you are pointing out here Joel without diminishing any case of committed acute suicide. The lifestyle we have has become so normal to us that we do not want to question it anymore, but it is slowly killing us. We do not live with vitality and full of life every day but our bodies actually have this capacity if we treat them accordingly. So I agree with you there is a form of slow suicide that we ascribe to.
Yes, our bodies have the capacity of living with vitality and full of life – and we are all yearning, longing for it. The sabotaging way of living we find ourselves in is not what we truly want, I am sure. That’s why it hurts so much.
Joel, what you have exposed here is how our focus in society is only on the extremes. We act quickly when we hear about suicide, or we want to put an end to domestic violence and the bashing of women/men and children etc. But then we draw a line and say enough – leaving the so called ‘lesser’ traumas undealt with. This is the irony of the world that we currently live in. But as you have said, it is the slow suicides that are no less important, it is the derogatory comments that precede a violent outburst that need to be nipped in the bud etc etc. In the seemingly small things that happen lies the seed to an escalation of violence and depravity and an need to escape from it all through suicide etc. Hence the importance of addressing things on ALL levels, no matter how big or small. And we will likely find that if we work on the smALL things, the small contains the all (smALL).
I love that Henrietta – the smALL contains the ALL. So let’s work on and be aware of the small things – the smallest tenderest things together make the fertile ground for Brotherhood to flourish.
My goodness Lyndy – words of a true poet! A true poet speaks beauty seemingly unheard of, yet so natural to us all. A true poet speaks from the depths of the heart to the depths of another’s heart and hence in the process offers divine inspiration. Said by a true poet to another true poet 😉
love the insight Henrietta, I can feel a blog coming on about the trickery of the statement that the devil is in the detail when in reality it is where the love lives.
Awesome Joel – and yes to another blog by you! Detail is where love lives, not in the way of control or rigidity, but in the way of loving discipline and order and magic. It is the little things that matter very much so, for the large things are built first from small. No different to the seed that hold the tree within itself all ready to unfold. So small, containing the all, and within which every detail matters.
Thanks Henrietta and Joel. Your words on the love being in the detail is a great and inspirational reminder for today, and every other day for that matter.
From little things big things grow….
Joel I never considered the way that most people live, the normal mostly unhealthy diets and so on as a slow suicide but having read your article it opens up a whole new way of looking at lifestyle choices! Thanks for your article.
This blog reminds me of the saying “I’m here for a good time not a long time” in relation to life. In terms of what drives the ill or unhealthy choices it seems that as a society we are not enjoying the simple things in life in full, and then we need something to reward or treat us. It’s then a false belief that the rewards or treats make us feel ‘good’ when in truth it only feels good because it numbs or buries the fact that we don’t feel good about or enjoy life.
Universal Medicine has inspired me to feel that all that’s missing from life is us, living connected to who we truly are and letting this out in full. Once this is connected to and lived, there is no treat or reward that is better than this feeling. Hence the improvement in health that follows such a connection.
“I’m here for a good time not a long time” – it is amazing what we trade for the so called good time. Abuse, depression, lack of connection and meaning…
That’s so true Joel, it’s basically settling for so so much less than we are all under the banner of ‘better’ – meaning so many justify it by saying ‘there’s people so much worse off than I am so I can’t complain’. This is a great fall for humanity to settle for this.
One of the biggest learnings for me, has been to accept that there is no end point. My life can keep getting better, I don’t have to put a ceiling on what that looks like, nor compare that better to anything or anyone else, even myself in the past.
If we don’t put a cap or ceiling on how amazing we think life can be then we may be surprised what amazing even looks like.
This has certainly been my experience, Danielle. What I thought was possible, is tiny compared to what I feel today, who knows what tomorrow holds…can’t wait.
““I’m here for a good time not a long time” in relation to life” – this is the licence to irresponsibility that so many adopt. A way of leaving the mess behind for others to clean up. Where is the care and brotherhood in that?
I agree Henrietta Chang. It’s totally lacking any care and brotherhood and exposes the level of self identification that is in much of life, ‘me me me, I want I want I want.”
Oh yes, the ME factor, Danielle – so well said! I, myself and me, the trouble trio that thinks they are the only ones on this planet…Even as a threesome, though, it can get very lonely very fast – one day perhaps I, me and myself will look up to see there is only one in the mirror and that the eyes are empty as! Realising first and foremost, that we are all a part of the greater world, that there are others around us, and secondly that we are not separate to everyone else – this is the biggest healing yet.
Inspirational Henrietta!
Inspirational indeed Lyndy! May the threesome unite with the rest of the world and realise there is no time for the ME factor, there is US ALL to live and love.
It is a licence to irresponsibility Henrietta. The other saying is ‘you only live once’ which implies, enjoy it while you’re here, no matter what. This also feels like a huge dose of irresponsibility and a lack of connection to anything beyond the physical here and now.
Sandra I agree…YOLO – or You Only Live Once is an incredibly demeaning and dismissing way of talking and living. It implies a happy go lucky, care-free attitude but in reality comes with the cold and hard emptiness with no respect for human life. It is reptilian in energy and holds no warmth, only a pit of cold and desolateness. When you subscribe to YOLO, you instantly feel the disconnection, the cold and the lack of human and divine connection, but you are too proud to admit what you feel and so you play the game and allow yourself to be fooled into thinking that it is a care-free approach. Did you know there is even a drink that is called YOLO? I think it is a cold drink 😉
I love the simplicity of what you share Danielle, when we re-connect to and accept that we are Divine and that we can express our exquisiteness in every movement, word and thought, we have everything we did not even know we were longing for. Reconnecting to who we truly are is the greatest medicine of all.
“I am here for a good time and not a long time” is a comment that is so loaded with arrogance. It washes the person’s hands of any responsibility, and it is like getting a ‘get out of jail free’ card. The problem is that there is no such thing as a ‘get out of jail free card’ – there is always a consequence to all our choices, and so we cannot live in a way that disrespects others and ourselves without it coming back to bite us in the bum!
Absolutely Henrietta and it usually comes around pretty quickly and bites us in the bum in the same life. Living 10 to 20 years at the end of life in a body that is unhealthy, painful and full of illness and disease and with such an unhealthy and loaded body comes the negative thoughts and mental health issues and depression. As far as I’m concerned this is not a good time at all and so far from who we truly are.
Spot on Danielle – what you have said makes it all very real! Most illness and disease in our society is actually what we could call preventable disease, based on lifestyle choices such as drinking alcohol, smoking and leading lives with little to no quality exercise etc. These are choices that all impact on our health and wellbeing and knowingly so – in other words this is no surprise to us! Yet so many choose to ignore this and then come the illness and disease, they put the expectation and pressures on the public (or private) medical systems to fix them or support them. But how is this living in a responsible way? You make yourself sick and then you ask the taxpayers to pay for your healthcare? Wow – now this is a real reflection of where our society is at…sadly so. I say time to wake up and realise that this is mass suicide, and one that we can prevent, by reaching out and connecting together!
When we truly connect to the love that we are in full there is not one part of us that want’s to leave it, and the more and more we stay here the less likely it is we will walk away. Knowing this fact is inspiring to not back down from consistency.
That is such cop out of a saying Danielle. “I’m here for a good time not a long time” is a totally arrogant, self-disregarding attitude.
I remember the rewards and treats that looking back now they were just like shooting stars, a moment of aha then darkness again.
Yes great point Steve, it’s a way of living where we are bouncing from one stimulating thing to the next, to try not to feel the deep down emptiness and devastation of not living a life that is true to the real us. We think that we are enjoying ourselves and having an amazing life, but the whole time we are telling ourselves this because we need and are addicted to the distractions, stimulations and rewards to not feel the darkness.
So true Steve, in the past we have lived off these tiny glimpses of ‘hope’ that never eventuated into a life lived in love – always keeping us dangling.
Well said Danielle. I can fully understand people choosing a good time in this life, but there comes a point at which many realise that this too is a dead end. I agree with you that living connected to who we truly are is better than any treat or reward we can seek outside of ourselves.
Eventually everyone realises and has to feel that it wasn’t actually a good time after all. Many may not admit that they feel this or only get forced to admit it at the end of their life. I feel so fortunate to have seen through all of this now.
Well said Danielle and the biggest illusion is that the normalized abuse we live is actually having a good time. If we are really honest no reward or treat makes us truly feel good it just numbs us and puts us on the path of striving for more of the same that never satisfies us.
I love this blog, it is awesome, you are just an amazing writer, I am lost for words. I can’t believe that I only just discovered this little nugget of gold, I will be sharing this with everyone I know, as it is just so damn true.
I absolutley agree sarahraynebaldwin. Joel has indeed brought us an absolute ‘nugget of gold’, and it is definitely something that needs to be shared with the world. So simple, yet so true.
Agreed Sarah and Sandra, this blog is indeed a golden nugget that needs to be shared with the world, even if it reminds just one person that their choices are slowly killing them then it is worth it. There are many that are not ready to know this and that is of course okay and for those that do know they have a responsibility to live it to show another way.
I agree, some blogs are too good to be kept for ourselves.
I agree Sarah this is a blog that definitely makes you stop to consider the choices we are making in life that are not supportive of our health and well being. And is absolutely worth sharing as a blog and in conversation.
Totally, this is a blog for everyone and well worth sharing.
Society prefers to keep suicide and something that is alarmist and rare, only happening to those that are depressed and need help. If you asked most people they would happy to support with charity or fundraisers that were to support people in need but start to talk about self responsibility and true health and self love and you are not as popular. Some might even label you as a follower if you listen to someone that is leading the way in this type of self care.
What Joel is exposing here is huge, we are killing ourselves with our choices and we have the cure to this massive health epidemic and we don’t need scientific labs or research, its simple really.
True Gill. To know and to see that there is another way offers us great inspiration to choose otherwise. The ‘Before and After’ shots allow Humanity to trust in Love and the only True way.
I cannot get past this fact. ‘People around the world are making a repeated choice to live in a certain way that is so detrimental to their health that it is now the leading cause of death GLOBALLY.’ and that ‘This makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable.’ This should be on billboards everywhere, asking Humanity to respond.
I absolutely agree Deborah – the biggest of billboards with flashing neon lights to really get humanity’s attention, and then asking the question “do you realise that the way you are choosing to live is slowly killing you?” This statistic is shocking! It’s time for us to get our heads out of the proverbial sand and begin to wake up to the reality of the eventual consequences of our lifestyle choices.
This is true – we all to readily seek the quick fix now and seldom consider the long-term effects of our choices and actions. The figures are in and published – so why does Humanity never hear about them? Why are they not publicly reported for all to see and to know?
I agree Deborah, this is a humdinger of a fact. A real wake up call that needs to be shared.
It makes one wonder if we are shutting our eyes and awareness to the real suicide we are choosing day in and day out by virtue of a host of unloving lifestyle choices, to what level must illness and disease then rise before we are willing and prepared to heed the call that we heard way back at the start and act on our inner wisdom that never ceases to knock on our door?
I shudder to think Deborah, for the stats are already very very scary. The rates of a host of various cancers, heart disease, diabetes and others are off the charts compared to ever before, and they are rising, and we already know they are lifestyle related.
It makes me wonder if people who wind up with a fatal disease face their choices head on and end up realising the ‘slow suicidal’ quality of them, or if they just put it down to bad luck! Bad luck seems to be the back door the spirit uses to camouflage its disregard for human life and evolution.
I think that once the attitude of self-responsibility is embraced and luck is relegated to the pile of other denials we hide behind, then we may have a chance of turning the tide of world health.
Huge wake up call just in the title.
I totally agree with you Deborah.
It is shocking to hear that the leading cause of death GLOBALLY is preventable. People need to be aware of their lifestyle choices that we consider normal which are actually harmful- e.g. alcohol consumption, coffee and sugar, gluten/ wheat intake; emotions not dealt with, working from a drive.
Absolutely – we have been sold a lie and we have gone on to normalise the lie to the point that we can no longer see the poison we have swallowed….in fact, we have become so reliant on the poison we seek it with renewed fervour and throw our hands up in the air with bewilderment when such toxicity to the body takes its inevitable toll.
So very well described Deborah!
I couldn’t agree more Deborah. So why isn’t this on billboards? Why aren’t those that can influence others, such as doctors, saying it how it is? Because they would have to take responsibility – to walk the talk themselves first and lead the way as Serge Benhayon does – leading the way in how he lives, to inspire others to do the same.
Absolutely – we must first obliterate our own comfort which serves as shackles from inspiring needing change. To walk the talk requires one to Live the Truth and then we can’t but bring this to the world.
I get the feeling that people are in a sense resigned to the fact of death and somehow such do not have the will to fight it. What might be more impactful is the awareness that we are not truly living the fullness of our lives when we make these lifestyle choices – i.e. we are choosing not to be alive when we are living. Are we ever truly living if we are not connected to ourselves and the fullness of who we are?
Joel – this is a super piece of writing and the wisdom you bring of the real impact of our lifestyle choices with crystal clarity needs to be shared with the world – that we are busy looking for cures for the diseases that are on the increase and yet unwilling to change our lifestyle choices which result in such ills and are the ‘number one killer globally’ and continue to repeat them endlessly regardless of this fact, is a deeply unwell phenomenon we need to pay close attention to and address.
Expending energy to right an ill yet never checking the energy we are in that has created the ill in the first place.
The words “number one killer globally” is a big wake up call wouldn’t you say?
This is true Shirley. I watch as they raise money to ‘cure’ breast cancer which was not that common when I was young and with all the money raised they are still no where near a cure and the numbers of women getting breast cancer is dramatically on the rise. I have two close friends who have been diagnosed in the last 12 months.
What a subject Joel to bring to the attention of all, acute suicide is always such a shock for everyone, I have lost friends to both forms and the huge shame in it all is that there is another way out. I was heading down the slow road to certain death by the lifestyle choices that I was making, oblivious to the fact that there was another way, before discovering that through Universal Medicine there was another way to live.
Same KevMcHardy – I was heading down the slow road to certain death and mostly through being incredibly driven and hard on myself as well as eating too much and drinking/smoking – lifestyle choices for sure. But I was brave enough to get honest about my life and start to take full responsibility for it and am now off that road and committing fully to life. Wow…writing that was a real moment of appreciation for myself. Nice one ;-).
Agreed ‘Nice one’, Sarah!
Yes, kevmchardy, there is another way and that is what is so powerful about Universal Medicine, which presents that true medicine is the way we live. Choose to live with love and everything, including our health changes.
When someone close commits suicide there is a great deal of pain.
When it comes to ‘slow suicide’ it too comes with a great deal of drawn out pain – it is very hard to watch someone slowly killing themselves.
Jeannettegold I couldn’t agree more with your comment, it makes us consider how, what seems to be the smallest thing that we ingest that we consider quite harmless obviously is not so. As you say, ignoring our bodies first twinge of pain or exhaustion all adds up to not being self nurturing or loving.
This title is very confronting Joel. It makes one think of even the most obvious applications of this concept, like ingesting alcohol and drugs but then it make you think of the seemingly lesser evils like having too much chocolate cake and coffee when you know its not good. Then it continues to spiral you into considering the lesser and lesser realms of the ‘slow suicidal’ style choices like overeating – even if its salad, like rushing, like pushing through when you are exhausted, like not stopping at the slightest signal of pain in our body and disregarding our own knowing, all the way down to not consciously breathing our own breath. Self-love is an all encompassing boundless medicine, it knows no limitations in its application and anything less is suicidal. Like I said – very confronting. But also amazingly inspiring if allowed to be.
Beautifully said Jeanette!
Only confronting if we don’t want to be honest about our choices. As you say, the opportunity for inspiration is equally present.
From denial, there is no confrontation as there is no issue 🙂 … until it becomes untenable, and we act shocked when that happens.
Yes Joel, denial only offers a false sense of security. Best get honest and real and deal with whatever is in the way of us loving and honouring ourselves and also getting in the way of us knowing ourselves and discovering our own amazingness.
I love how you expose things Joel, yes we act shocked when we ‘suddenly’ get sick and ill, the denial of our responsibility for our health is quite huge. Even with the WHO saying 80% are lifestyle related we still bury our head in the sand and keep eating, drinking, doing what we want until the day comes that the body is not so happy and some adjustments need to be made, if your lucky you get a second chance – which most do not take and if not you clear out ready for the next life. Either way we are going around and around and how we arrive at the next point is totally up to us and that is a fact when we choose to see that fact is entirely up to us. The part of us that is the spirit will run the show of denial and ignorance for as long as it can.
I love the depth that you have shared here about the consequences of our choices, right down, or up to not breathing our own breath.
I find that if I am feeling discomfort or pain or anxious, that doing the Gentle Breath Meditation that I learned from Serge Benhayon can help me restore my equilibrium, give me space to feel what the pain is telling me, and so the way we breathe is very good medicine indeed.
Everyday in life we are presented with moments, for us to make a choice. Do we consistently say yes to love, truth and light? or do we choose the other way and try to hide away and remain where we are, small and scared and in the dark? The choice is ultimately very stark. What you show beautifully Joel, is that in these choices that we make we either say yes or no to life. So suicide begins with this accumulation of contracted movements, which block and deny us embracing life. Seen this way how many of us can truly say we are living today? What would this actually be like?
Love it Joseph. What I have also found is that once things get ‘better’ eg: not as bad as they previously were, then that’s where we stop the caring choices. There is this limit, we have placed on ourselves to how vital we can be.
There was a good line on social media today…if you think eating well is expensive try paying the medical costs for not eating well.
Infinitely more costly in the long run.
Although this article may be seen as extreme it is nonetheless true. We are slowly killing ourselves through our choices and lack of care we offer ourselves. We are using harmful fillers like food, alcohol, drugs, excessive TV/internet/game use instead of going back to the thing we miss the most – our connection with the depths of who we are and all other beings.
Great point Fiona. We are used to looking at something extreme like suicide and then comparing our own lives to that and thinking that we are doing well, when in fact we are all living in a certain degree of given-up-ness – the same energy fuel that ends up making the fertile ground for suicide. This is why ‘feeling’ life through clairsentience, in order to know truth, is so important.
So many causes of disease and illness in the current day are completely preventable, as you say Joel. Yet we as a human race do not want to take responsibility for what and how we eat, exercise and spend our time. No wonder obesity, exhaustion and caffeine consumption are going through the roof. We no longer listen to what our body truly needs to sustain itself and instead get seduced by taste and clever marketing ploys.
Well said Sue. It is my lack of responsibility and lack of commitment to myself and everyone else that causes any dis-ease I have in my body. I can do this when I disconnect from my body, become unaware and uncaring of consequences and also needy of fillers in my life.
This is true Sue in regards to food we have forgotten what food is really about and it is there to nourish and support the body rather than being another pleasure, numbing or stimulating part of our day, or for some eating is happening all through the day, so there can be no sense felt of what the body truly needs.
So true. We have certainly warped the way we use food jsnelgrove36. And the way we use food depends on the energy we choose to live by, and the choosing of the energy we love by depends on what hurts, emotions and ideals or not we are carrying in our bodies. To love and care for the body and listen to what feels right for its vitality is one of the most powerful things we can do.
The slow suicide that you expose, Joel, is a modern day plague that requires the vaccination of truth and honesty.
so true Jonathan, it is the only thing that will truly help prevent it.
I agree, great call and expose Joel. What I have found is that some people at this point in time do not want to wake up, do not want to be fully responsible. I am learning to allow and accept peoples choices even though I can see the potential catastrophic consequences.
While we are in a “fix it” society especially in our medical profession, people will choose to be less responsible and thus the rise in the “slow suicide”. You are presenting something here, Joel, which requires a greater level of self responsibility and it makes perfect sense. Let’s share it more widely and allow people to feel the truth of what the majority of us are choosing.
It doesn’t even seem to be ‘fix it’ mode any more. It’s more like a dodgy patch up, so its just good enough to keep going. We are settling for so much less than who we are.
I agree Susan, having had that stuck feeling and wanting so desperately to get out of the illness and depression, I would try anything and did. Needless to say nothing made a real lasting difference to my life until I found Universal Medicine – one thing that stands out is that everything that has come from Universal Medicine and the Ageless Wisdom actually does change your life if we choose, and it does not feel like a bandaid but a true change.
It seems we are a lot like lemmings, those rodents that, en masse, hurtle off cliffs blindly following each other to their deaths. Time to start asking the question, “what drives this behaviour?”
I love the lemming analogy Jeanette. I sometimes think of what I used to hear as a kid. “Would you throw yourself off a cliff because X is doing it?” Common sense would say ‘No’, yet the pull of the ‘norm’ is strong when you are ignoring the pull of your soul.
I love that Fiona, “Yet the pull of the ‘norm’ is strong when you are ignoring the pull of your soul”. So true. Just as it is when we are growing up and trying to fit in rather than just be ourselves.
Joel the idea of lifestyle diseases as slow suicide can be very confronting when offered to others.
“So the only difference between ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ forms of suicide is the timescale.” Well that is a wake up call in a sentence if I ever saw one! Thank you for exposing this phenomenon so sensitively and brilliantly Joel.
I’ve only just realised that what you present is very confronting to many people Joel. Yesterday I was talking to an alternative health practitioner about honouring ourselves and changing our choices to do so and he was adamant that he would find even pondering this too deeply, too confronting. He explained that he doesn’t want to face the music, he doesn’t want to give up his sugar and alcohol even though he knows it is not good for him and could have long term detrimental effects on his health, wellbeing and lifespan. Is this slow suicide? I’m afraid after reading your blog it seems to be.
I have just started studying a Masters in public health and from lecture one it seems I was struck by the lack of personal responsibility being taken for our health. As Joel has said, there are many external factors that contribute to a persons lack of health, but if we acknowledged that we have a choice in the way we breathe, move our bodies, stay connected or not, our health would be in a very different state.
Self-responsibility seems to be a dirty word for many of us. We want to hand over the results of our ill-ways to the doctor to fix it so we can get back to our lives. I herald the day when ‘Life is Medicine’ as Serge Benhayon presents, becomes the mainstream truth and a solid foundation for humanity.
Understanding lifestyle diseases as slow suicide brings home the message that when we make choices that are harmful to our body this is what we are doing.
What a crazy and sad chapter in our history, when choosing to live in a way that doesn’t kill us is seen as abnormal.
When we get to a point that we make self love and its natural follow on ‘love’ our foundation for discussions, it will be a not so hilarious look at those bygone days where people treated themselves with such disdain and disrespect…
‘In the case of ‘chronic’ suicide, not only is it an option, it is considered a normal.’ As someone who is making different lifestyle choices, I can vouch for the truth of this statement, and the reaction and comments from others confirms that living in a way which supports, nourishes the body stands out as abnormal.
What I found intriguing as I changed my choices, was how threatened people around me felt and how much they would invest in trying to ensure I didn’t change.
Such a great point Joel. I discovered this exact thing too. Ultimately it makes them feel the reality of how they view themselves and that is a very uncomfortable feeling so they would rather you weren’t around flagging it for them. I often get called not normal, too thin and anti social for not staying up late. It can be quite intense at times. But when the self love is strong, the steadiness of that is simply loving and supporting for others and not judgemental or reacting.
1. Such a great point Joel. I discovered this exact thing too. Ultimately it makes them feel the reality of how they view themselves and that is a very uncomfortable feeling so they would rather you weren’t around flagging it for them. I often get called not normal, too thin and anti social for not staying up late. It can be quite intense at times. But when the self love is strong, the steadiness of that is simply loving and supporting for others and not judgemental or reacting.
This is such a common behaviour. In general people do not like change, particularly when it is not at their own pace. What is sad is that we do not allow others to freely make changes for themselves without adding some kind of pressure or comment.
so, if we don’t like change going beyond our own pace, we must feel a strong pull to change when presented by someone doing something quite different to us…even if they are not asking us to change, by their mere presence there is a pressure felt on some level
I love this Joel. Thank you for being so bold as to say it as it is – people are making a choice to very slowly poison and kill themselves daily. To present this as two forms of suicide witnessed in the world ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ is a challenging read for many but what would be worse would be to dismiss what you are opening our eyes to.
I have loved reading this blog and its many comments. It reminds me that I am responsible for the way I live and my health. I cannot blame God, or the medical system for letting me down when I cannot get better when I don’t choose to live my own good medicine in every moment of every day. I live in the knowing that I come back to do it all again and that the body I am living with now, the patterns and behaviours, all feed the body I will have in my next life. That may be laughable to some, I see it as responsibility way beyond one life. If I am wrong then so be it, I have not harmed another in the living of this life. If I am right then back to an ever deepening normal that is not slowly killing me but ensuring I can be an engaged citizen of life.
It’s an honest call for what life is for a lot of people, slow suicide.
Very true Joe and I was one of those people slowly killing myself. But I was blessed that my body gave me the big stop that I needed in the way of cancer….which gave me much space and time to change my old ways… and come back to simple living and putting myself first.
What does it say about us as a society when the suicide statistics continue to increase, even very young children committing suicide, and the rest of us are slowly killing ourselves through the unloving daily choices we are making.
In the not so distant past I was slowly committing suicide through drugs and self-abuse. I am someone with so much integrity, but my anguish was so much that to deal with the tension within, drugs were my solution to numb it down.
I stopped taking drugs and started to heal through Universal Medicine. If I had not have come to Universal Medicine, my depression could have become worse and become a disorder. I look back and realised no one had met me for who I am like Serge Benhayon did – this addressed my anguish instantly.
We cry out in anguish and ask what we could have done and why we didn’t see it coming when someone suicides quickly, but why are there no cries of anguish and no questions being asked about the slow death at our own hands that we create each and every day with our with our unloving choices. Is it that chronic suicide is so rampant that we have come to consider it normal living that no one questions it?
Perhaps we become desensitised because of the sheer numbers and regularity just like we have with the weekly murders of women through domestic violence. Each death is shocking and horrendous for the loved ones left behind and on one level make no sense to us at all. Neither do our daily unloving choices make any sense at all and yet they are considered the norm as well.
Perhaps Jenny it could be the desensitising of ourselves firstly that has allowed the violent acts, greed and degradation of society to become epidemic and considered the norm.
Great call Rosemary. And this is why I attend presentations by Serge Benhayon because this is how he reads human existence – and this is the level of awareness I wish to live with. I, like many other individuals, wish to make my life’s purpose about understanding these kinds of questions, and living in a way which supports others to also become aware so they too may consider making different lifestyle choices.
I agree jenny, there can be a sense of overwhelm and ‘where to begin’, that makes it harder to take the first step…which is to be honest about how lost we are.
The title says it all; Slow suicide is still suicide, yes it is and is the correct terminology of how we humans are living today. And that is the point, we are not ‘living’, we are existing, struggling, coping, we are exhausted….and so we need the props, we need our comforts, such as sugar, alcohol, cigarettes and all other drugs, which adds even more stress, tension and strain on our bodies….This was my old life, but I am one of those people who was brave enough to explore what it was I was missing, with the support of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon, and I was more than ready to give up the struggle and the battle that my old life had become.
It is sad though that for many the struggle and battle is how it is thought and accepted life is to be. It is not seen there is a choice and life can be another way. It is truly a lifesaver when we meet someone like Serge Benhayon or anyone who is now choosing to make different lifestyle choices as then we can get to see how we are in life is a choice.
Yes very true Julie, and what a super reminder that all the new choices we make for ourselves in taking more responsibility for our lives, all others including our family get this reflection that they also can make different choices. It becomes so clear that everything we do affects everyone else and that no man is an island.
What I like about this blog is that some points that are needed to be said are said. I know sometimes people are not ready to hear it, and this depends on the platform that is before you however, it comes back to understanding what can be said and ‘what is called for’ to say. Love and truth come hand in hand.
I have heard people say, I didn’t have a choice. I am sure I have at least thought that myself many times in my life. What is the state of mind behind this that can lead to taking one’s life? Obviously one of giving up. What is hugely confronting about Joel’s blog, is that people are giving up many years before the accumulation of all their choices leads to death through lifestyle illness. It is also very telling about where the human race is, that lifestyle illness takes so many lives.
Absolutely exposing Gill of the truth behind the choices we make and of the consequences. Are we slowly killing ourselves or are we choosing love?
This is such a powerful piece of writing Joel and I wonder whether the full impact will be lost on most. The first point is that everything we do is a choice. The second point, that these choices have physical effects on our health and well being. The third is to question what our choices are leading to: are we choosing something that is truly supportive of our health or are we killing ourselves slowly? The responsibility we have is huge.
Three super clear points Lee… and points that would be beneficial for doctors to put to every patient that walks through their door, bringing self-responsibility and ownership back into the equation of the doctor-patient relationship. And in which we might see the huge increase in burn-out and health issues in our medical professionals reduce greatly.
Great points Lee. I am deeply concerned the majority of humans on this planet are so deeply unhappy, that the choice to slowly suicide is our new norm. I wake each day with the purpose to reflect a different way – we can make a difference but this is the level of responsibility I have chosen and it is there as a reflection to support others to understand their responsibility with their own choices.
It is true jacqmcfadden04, we place an enormous amount of pressure on the health system, through our lack of willingness to take personal responsibility.
I love that you have gone to a place many would not dare to go, exposing a truth that many wouldn’t dare to whisper, thanks Joel.
Yes and once we have read this truth it is so obvious that this is what is happening in our lives.
Joel, this would be an ouch blog for many as what truth you uncover would be hard to hear, but reading your blog it’s as clear as the sun shining. While you are on such an ouch topic, it also occurred to me that many parents are slowly making their children ill through life style choices as well, another ouch point. It comes back to; if we have not found the divinity in ourselves then how are we to see it in another, and in turn care for it so.
This is indeed a big ouch point, we would never consciously want to harm or poison our children, but the reality is that is exactly what we do, by modelling a way of living that is not working world wide.
Joel, you have taken our understanding of what is truly suicide to a whole new level. Being reckless with our body in any way is basically saying that we have no respect for life or the body that enhouses us.
Absolutely Adam, to look at it this way and consider any reckless behaviour to be irresponsible towards our bodies, brings us the awareness before it gets to the point of being fatal. The question is, how much are we willing to look at all the things we do, how we live, what we avoid and what true responsibility is? It feels like starting there is the change that is needed to address what ultimately can become suicide.
Yes he has Adam. In my own family four siblings died of lifestyle diseases in a six year period. I wasn’t shocked by what happened, I understood.
I agree, I was at dinner the other night with a friend who lost her father due to fatal disease recently. We were discussing that after experiencing something like that, it can change your perspective on life. When you watch someone fighting to stay alive and try to recover, it seems right to appreciate the healthy body you have and to try and keep it that way. This act honours their life and our own and seems natural.
This is a brilliant observation Joel to write about, so overlooked as “Slow Suicide” is what we are doing to our selves by how we live. The knowing of our choices and the reality of who we really are when connected to is very powerful, and allows the understanding of what is really going on and empowers us all.
And here lies the issue that is how we are living is overlooked and even when a life threatening illness or disease comes along usually everything but how we are living is blamed. Accepting any ill health is simply down to ourselves is a bitter pill to swallow for many of us. However if we do there is the opportunity to turn our lives around in an instant!
Joel – the fact is we pay attention to death and suffering after it has happened. We wait for the most extreme thing to occur and then we reflect on it, rather than speaking up before something like suicide gets the chance to come about. Or in this case, lifestyle related illness and disease where we are slowly and gradually making the choice to poison our bodies. But no one does anything until there are physical effects.
Slow suicide, as you say, is still suicide, and for all the song and dance we can make, nothing will change unless we are prepared for ourselves to take responsibility for our every movement. I have come to understand the importance of this on a minute scale, and that this relates to and affects everything else that happens thereafter. Our bodies are amazing things, and every choice we make is an opportunity to harm or heal. The question is: how much harm will we turn a blind eye too until we are forced to heal in a major way? – which in truth is through the illness and disease we get in order to allow our mind to not take over and our bodies to say ‘enough already’.
“We pay attention to death and suffering after it has happened.”- this is true, it takes a sledgehammer at times to get us to pay attention to what is staring us in the face…”
Sadly this is true – it is as if we have become so used to abuse on a daily basis, that we are almost numb to it until there is a huge stop moment. But why have we walked away from the little signs that eventually lead to the bigger impacts? We seem to not want to face what is staring us in the face. And the only way to open our eyes is for the sledgehammer to come crashing down. So starting to talk about this draws some awareness to this behaviour.
I was talking about this with a group the other day, it is like we don’t know what else to do, so it is easier to ignore what is going on…yet we do know what to do, when we keep it simple and bring it back to what supports the body.
I agree, Joel, it seems to be easier to ignore what is going on. Life is often so complicated, that the simplicity of truth gets lost. Our body shows us the way. It is an instrument and a barometer, a marker which shows us our attitudes and behaviours which are often not supportive.
“Our body shows us the way. It is an instrument and a barometer” – couldn’t agree with this more…
I agree Joel, it takes the extreme to happen before we take notice. I have found people most resistant to the idea of ‘slow suicide,’ it certainly rattles cages.
Maybe it is a cage that needs rattling, because it is holding people prisoner, rather than protecting them
Thank goodness for the intelligence of our bodies hvmorden that will at some point in our lives make us stop our wayward ways either through illness and disease or death. Our bodies can and will make us stop – brings such a humbleness to consider how much we actually take our body for granted…and how very little we know about our physical vehicle and the wisdom it carries and expresses, whether we listen to it or not.
This is true “…and how very little we know about our physical vehicle and the wisdom it carries and expresses, whether we listen to it or not.” However we do know if and when we choose to stop and take notice and this is the turning point of realising and feeling how our lifestyle may be killing us. A great moment to reach, though it usually happens once an illness or disease has set in, as then we can take responsibility and make the necessary changes.
Are we just helping Darwin’s natural selection of species by volunteering to drive the bus that is heading to the cliff?
Like a bunch of Lemmings we are following one after the other over the edge of that cliff, Steve.
‘Slow suicide’ could be considered as a worldwide issue.
Yes it is Karoline, a world wide epidemic.
Joel this is a very powerful to raise. If we were connecting to ourselves, then suicide is impossible….being connected to ourselves, which is a development, brings a sense of value to ourselves and life in a very real way. It brings an inner strength that we begin to feel that we can deal with whatever is in front of us. It brings motivation to self care, to begin to build a nurturing and loving relationship with ourselves, to seek help when needed. Otherwise living disconnected does not support the choices to make for us to live our potential, but choices that can lead to diseases and illness.
I agree Karoline, living connected takes away the feeling that life is meaningless, along with the thoughts of ‘what’s the point?’ Living connected helps us to see the whole picture, that there is more to life than just us and our woes. It makes it easier to see how we as a humanity have arrived at this moment in time, presenting such ill health and like the blog states ‘slow suicide’.
Bina you absolutely nail it with what’s going on and your statement ‘let’s get real this is what needs to be reported and not the latest tattoo on a celebrity bum’ shows clearly the avoidance of what is really going on by staying on the surface…..
Top blog Joel Levin and it sure is a stop moment for anyone reading. This is huge and I love the way you write and open up this discussion for us all. Lifestyle diseases are preventable and it comes down to our own personal choices.
The fact that Lifestyle diseases are the leading cause of death globally according to the World Health Organisation, how come very few are making changes?
More blogs like this and more awareness is needed. Imagine if the media could bring to us this type of news, as let’s get real this is what needs to be reported and not the latest tattoo on a celebrity bum.
The sad thing is our lifestyle which is poison to our bodies is promoted and this is why we are in the mess we are in. Our healthcare systems are facing bankruptcy and radical change is needed. All I know is that by sitting back saying nothing and doing nothing will change nothing. But if I make a choice to take Responsibility for my lifestyle choices then that is one more, like you Joel, going in another direction and this can and will make a difference. In other words, the tides are turning albeit slowly.
Bina I’m just feeling how different the world would be if the news did report subjects as powerful as this. Currently the media helps perpetuate a world of make believe, of unreality that people want to aspire to which brings greater disconnection and emptiness.
And for those that see through the illusion there is little outside this cocoon of media that surrounds us. I looked in many alternative places but beneath the initial buzz that ‘this was it’, I found greater emptiness. I wanted something/someone else to deliver me to me. I never took responsibility for my connection with me and the truth that this brings to all my lifestyle choices. Presenting another way is what changes the world, one connection at a time.
Occam’s razor fits all of this research… our choices are what are killing us!
Lifestyle choices are the No. 1 cause of death…that is a ‘what’s going on?’ statement. Seriously, let’s stop reporting on the cricket and the football, and as you say Bina, the latest celebrity rah rah and report this…put it in the news and in newspapers. As an intelligent species, we are really not very intelligent at all and have our heads in the sand around this largely western world epidemic.
It is interesting how you point out that the researchers have also noted this connection but the research does not seem to be able to translate to changed behaviours and action. For me, this signals the possibility that even the research could be missing the key ingredient…energetic quality.
It’s true Susan, when we use euphemisms, like lifestyle disease, it makes the very thing we should be paying attention to, somehow seem less important. Certainly – slow suicide or chronic suicide makes the conversation very real.
Great point Joel. Calling things for what they truly are asks us to look at what we are doing and slow suicide is a very real name for what is called lifestyle disease at the moment. Thinking about it, even lifestyle disease is already quite appropriate. Like if you would really notice you have a life-style-disease: a disease caused by you life style… is already very obvious what to do to then get healthy. Though the reality is, that it has become such a throw away name that nobody really realizes what it actually is saying.
So true Lieke. We are more interested in the diseases that we can blame others for or get others to fix, but if it is a lifestyle disease…as you say…the answer is already in the name.
It is very true Joel the language we use can deflect or hide the fact that what is happening is not so important whilst at other times very emotional language is used to incite us to sit up and take notice. I wonder does it suggest that we are living in a half awake state where it is easier to not pay attention to the malaise we are in.
I would say yes!
You are so right, Joel. Is making a choice to die younger through the lifestyle choices we make any “better” than someone choosing to take their life in a suicide? We are in comfort with the lifestyle choices, many of which are the norm for our society. How come we are so blind to the obvious??
Its great you are bringing to our attention what you term as slow suicide, the way in which we live as a humanity is so far removed and wayward from how we are supposed to living. We have lost our connection to our body’s, by not listening to the innate wisdom they hold, and the fact that they are always bringing us to a truer way of being.
I agree Jane, there is some interesting public awareness that could come from the concept.
Yes, we are ‘so far removed and wayward from how we are supposed to be living’ that it’s only when things happen suddenly that we take note, as when people decide to take their life in an instant. But with ‘slow suicides’ we all have many opportunities to offer support and reconnect, but first we have to acknowledge the truth of what is going on.
I agree Jane, a worldwide health promotion campaign to wake us up to the reality of the choices we are making in our daily lives that are slowly killing us is definitely called for.
“ In the case of ‘chronic’ suicide, not only is it an option, it is considered a normal. In fact it is heralded as the lifestyle all should aspire to. So we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves, yet at no point do we ask – “what drives that behavior?” Our cultures encourage and reward us for what we achieve, starting as children when we are not truly met for the wondrous beings we are. That wound or hurt then can be carried throughout our adult life, at school or university its about what we achieve, even if its in complete and utter disregard to our body’s pushing them through the night, and fueling them with stimulants to keep going in a disregarding way.
You raise a great question here Thomas. “So we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves, yet at no point do we ask – “what drives that behavior?” ” When you stop and ponder on this, it is incredible that we allow this beahviour to continue, rather than stop and ask ourselves ‘is this actually an ok way to live and what will the consequences be on my body if I allow it to continue?’
By re-learning to deeply appreciate, honor and love ourselves again, treating our body’s and selves the same way we would treat a new born baby, we slowly undo our disregarding, destructive behaviors and ways. Without this foundation of self love and self acceptance, I have in the past been unable to truly change the disregarding and destructive behaviors (slow suicide). With the unwavering love and support from the Benhayon’s and Universal Medicine, I have been able to make choices that love and support me.
I feel this is a very important point you have raised Susan, if we were to start talking honestly about the ways in which we all are ‘slowly killing ourselves’, and ponder on why this is occurring on a massive global scale, to understand what is truly going on that we have fallen so very far from the stupendous beings we originally were, and deep inside are.
Great point Susan – “I wonder if most people would want to change or would many carry on regardless”? I feel the latter would certainly carry on as the norm for some while yet. The prime example of this is the worldwide smoking situation and cancer and related illnesses, one of so many highly publicised ‘dangers to health’ that is more obvious to some but, nonetheless the attitude is they carry on regardless of the consequences. Thousands continue to die from their choice to still smoke, burying their heads in the sand of illusion.
This is an AMAZING blog. It exposes totally the lifestyle related diseases and our irresponsibility as a humanity to deal with life in a responsible way. That is making more loving choices to change the current reality we are living in instead of slowly killing ourselves with unhealthy food and poor care for ourselves. This truly does not need to be the way.
You are so right Lieke. This is an amazing blog which tells it how it is – something we as a society have ignored for centuries. It is quite clear that the way and quality in which we live is ALL. Are we truthful and loving or not?
Absolutely Lieke, and what is most surprising is not only the fact that these deaths are totally preventable but that the very prevention, love, is the very thing we seek most in life and it is also the simplest to live. It is a bit like we are forever chasing our own tails wearing ourselves down until we choose love and then we can truly move forward
Yes it is almost funny if it wouldn’t be such a serious topic. We look for something (love) because we do not give it to ourselves, we then choose substances like unhealthy food, cigarettes, alcohol to not feel we deeply miss that love, which then causes us to become ill and even more miserable! The only true medicine is to choose to love ourselves deeply again.
Absolute madness!
Great point Susan, we tend to shy away from talking about what is really happening in our lives. Many people, including myself for a long time, silently live their lives even when they are not feeling good in it, thinking there is no other way…but there is, I found and expression and talking about it is a great way to start.
Mmm I sense a crisis for a great many government health budgets on the way.
Lucy your senses are spot on, how can it possibly hold strong in such dark times when we keep getting sicker and sicker and no real changes are taking place. Universal Medicine is the missing link that can support with true healing, having the two together will be the only way forward.
The health services will have to wake up soon! If you look at government spending on the military vs healthcare over the last 50 years it is scary. From 1960 to 2010, US healthcare spending went from 5% to 17% of GDP.
It seems to me that it is us who will have to wake up soon Steve, because it is us who are making the demand upon the Health Services by choosing ‘slow suicide’. I read an amazing Interview in the Guardian with health care workers, doctors, admin staff, nurses and the people running the practical day-to-day of the the NHS (such as supplying sheets for the wards in hospitals) and to experience the dedication and love of these people and what they do was mind-blowing.
Oh my word, that is a shocking statistic…at what point does shocking influence change I wonder?
Not just health services, but all of us, its a looming bankruptcy that we are all ignoring.
Great point Lucy. The crisis feels like it has already hit and the full impact is yet to be fully felt and seen for what it is. The public health crisis may also have to go to another extreme before the question of ‘what is going on’ is actually asked.
Gill you make a great point how it is important to not beat ourselves up and to lovingly observe our choices. When we can do this we can see that there is another way of doing things and yes absolutely start making new choices. How Em-Powering is that!
I agree Natalie, adding guilt to the mixture, just clouds the potential learning and healing.
I have certainly lived not respecting the good health I was blessed with and would push the limits of what I could get away with by looking after myself only just enough to get by. In a way I had already given up on life to a degree so from the perspective of Joel’s blog I could have been diagnosed with Mild suicide. Most people live far short of their potential vitality by choice, it is great to have role models to show it does not have to be this way and love can be lived.
I agree Bernard as I was definitely on the slow suicide list before I found Universal Medicine. Being ill, depressed and given up was not a life but an existence and that was all I knew at that time, so I can totally relate to what Joel has written about. Thank God there are others who are willing to be role models and show us life does not have to be an existence.
Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have exposed the illusion around the life that we have been choosing to live and as you have succinctly pointed out Joel – to slowly suicide. It is amazing now to be choosing to be listen to what feels true within me and to start living and responding to that call to true health.
One of the big realizations for me with this blog is that the choice to “slow suicide” is a choice. It is not that we are just not choosing to be healthy, it is that we are actually choosing to poison and harm ourselves. This is a huge eye opener.
Yet we do not perceive all these small unloving choices to be harmful in themselves.
Lee great point with slow suicide we are actively choosing to poison and harm ourselves, by not choosing to be healthy, this is a huge eye opener. We constantly have choices, but we choose to indulge in poison.
This is a great blog to really get us to stop and consider how we are living and what consequences it is having. As you say Joel we don’t have to be special or gifted to make a change, just willing to open up to a different way, instead of slowly killing ourselves!
Yes Fiona, ‘….to stop and consider how we are living and what consequences it is having’ and this requires some honesty to look at this and from we can start to get real about what’s going on. This is very serious issue – slow suicide.
Anyone can change as you say Fiona. For me to start making loving choices I had to first accept that they were choices and then take responsibility for them. After this it has become easier to make loving choices.
This is great Lee, first accept we have a choice, and then be honest enough about our responsibility for them…then be honest enough about why we make them in the first place.
Well said Lee the first step is to understand and accept that we are choosing constantly and that we are not the victims of our surrounding. If we fully accept this we can start taking responsibility for our choices and then start choosing differently.
The consequences of our choices do not just impact ourselves but are impacting others in a multitude of ways, and whether we choose slow suicide or responsible healthy living we are reflecting a way of life to those around us, our loved ones, close friends and work mates…..and therein lies the responsibility to choose wisely, not just for ourselves but for everyone…..the choice for humanity starts with each one of us.
Well said Rosemary, you have so many young people these days, trying to save the world, which is very sweet but the truth is, the change needs to start with us, as each one of us, makes up humanity.
Absolutely Sarah, while we are trying to save the world we are looking outside ourselves for the change, expecting others to change, and with that laying the responsibility on everyone else, pointing to their lack of care to deflect from our own lack of care and responsibility as it is too painful to see the truth of the way we are living. Only through each one of us looking deeply with in and making wiser more loving choices in our own lives can we make sustaining and meaningful changes in the world.
Beautifully put, thank you for expanding this Rosemary.
Absolutely Rosemary, I agree, it is like the rebel without a cause, because of the “way we are living.” People jump up and down without considering the true impact of the energy they are connected to. This most likely happens because what ever our parents delivered for us was never a part of a lived truth or anything our parents did consistently, and as children we can read the lives of our parents. Therefore what we were told to do did not have a Livingness, so we tried to find our own truth without checking the energy we were in first.
Thanks to the presentations by Serge Benhayon there is now a place where there is a shared and lived truth or Livingness from a true energy. Our responsibility is to live in a way that has a true reconnection. A reconnection to our inner-most, so our movements reflect to us and everyone else the love we are from as our lived connection.
“Only through each one of us looking deeply with in and making wiser more loving choices in our own lives can we make sustaining and meaningful changes in the world.” “Looking deeply with in” or reflecting on our inner-most certainly brings about many meaning-full changes!
Joel, I find this an interesting analogy concerning our behaviours seem which often seem to be dead have no heart, no livelihood in them. Often to make them alive we take substitutes like coffee or alcohol in order not to feel the death in our behaviourism.
I was feeling into the notion of ‘assisted suicide’ and how this blog as well as many others on this site reveal the corrections that illness and disease are. With unloving and uncaring lifestyle choices comes these corrections that consequently can be severe or debilitating illness. Choosing to curtail and cut short the correction that the body presents is pushing aside that which is a message to re-correct that which has not been working. What then of the person who chooses this route – are they not setting them selves up for more of the same to follow in the next life and the one after that?
A very interesting point Lee, if we see illness and disease in the way that it is clearing out a way of living that is not in-line with who we truly are, which is love, then what indeed happens when a person chooses, prematurely to end their life? Not completing what they were here to learn this lifetime and or cycle, to them do it all again, so to speak, next life time, or cycle.
The anguish and emotional or physical pain that some people are in where suicide becomes a viable option in terms of seeking relief in the short term is palpable. Yet if we consider as you say Lee that we are here to learn from our choices it makes sense that we would need to revisit old issues unresolved again in our next cycle.
Lee Green I too have been considering ‘assisted suicide’ as it’s been in the news recently. I feel it’s really worth considering how the person maybe robbing themselves of great learning that their body is giving them so they do not have to repeat it in the next life, when things may be not so clear as to the causes of their ailments.
Suffering is never pretty, but there is an element of grace if we are open. This is something I struggle with, but learning to surrender with love to greater awareness and taking responsibility is part of allowing this grace to hold me.
‘Assisted suicide’, what a different take on presenting how people are living their lives if they are not being loving with themselves and developing a way of life that ‘assists’ them to be healthy in mind, body and soul. It is a concept that many will not like, as it fosters ultimate responsibility.
That’s a great point, Lee. And on the other hand, there are many who hold on to their dear life and tube themselves with up with all kinds of things even when their body has already given in and cannot naturally sustain itself.
Is not the encouragement we give each other to sustain behaviours, beliefs and diets that ultimately devitalise the body another form of assisted suicide?
Now that takes it to a whole new level again Joel. This is exactly why it behoves us to lovingly call all ‘what is not’ type energy and behaviour in ourselves and in others. I have found that my discipline of doing this with myself first is then an incredible support to express with others. This is true Love, and, as you say, anything less than that is ‘assisted suicide’.
The statistics of lifestyle related disease are enormous. Most of us are choosing to kill ourselves slowly instead of living a full life.
Yes Abby, that’s the other choice – ‘…living a full life’ But why is it that so many of us are choosing to live ‘kill ourselves slowly’?
This is tragically the truth Abby, the deep giving up on ever having a full life is rife. We settle for those 2 weeks of blissful holiday away to escape, numb ourselves in front of TV and with foods and alcohol that leave us in a a stupor all to avoid us feeling what we actually can feel — hat we are not living the full amazing lives that we were born to very naturally live.
And in slowly poisoning our bodies, dulling our awareness and loading our systems to the brink of illness and disease, we create a lifetime of complexity, struggle and discontent. It is curious that we choose this way over living, breathing and claiming the Love we are, living our days fulfilled, connected and with Joy which is equally available to us 24/7.
Agree Abby it has become normal to slowly deteriorate and everybody is totally aware of the lifestyle choices bringing us to the point. We pride ourselves to live longer, but basically hitting fifty life becomes a serious health struggle and is a mere existence and not a life lived in full.
This is very true. There is such an expectation and acceptance of a gradual (sometimes sudden) deterioration as we get older. While the body does wear down, it seems we have accepted a level of disease as normal that is anything but normal.
Thank you Joel, another departure from so called normal intelligence, which is a huge compliment, for what is considered normal has contributed immensely to this medical situation. Could this be the start of the expression towards true health? When you look at the “Before and After” pages of the Universal Medicine website one cannot but be impressed with the life changes that have simply happened by people making loving choices.
I agree gregbarnes888. The changes that have been made have occurred through loving choices, the realization that it is a choice and from taking responsibility for the choice and the outcome.
Absolutely Lee, Serge Benhayon has presented many time we are all responsible for our own choices and we can only truly heal ourselves!
For more about Serge Benhayon go to;
http://www.unimedliving.com/search?keyword=SERGE+BENHAYON
I agree with all you have said Greg and find this line the absolute stand out in your comment…it is yet “another departure from so called normal intelligence” .. that is the mind-boggling bit…the fact that looking after yourself in a complete way is NOT our normal intelligence.
People are pushing themselves at work to get everything done by a deadline and if we are not careful, that’s exactly what it will be – a dead-line.
This is a great and very apt play with words Carmel. We have accepted a life where pressure, stress and overload of work has become the daily normal, so yes, we are literally and actively pushing ourselves towards a dead line.
love the playfulness Carmel…the topic is serious, but the lightness helps to see the ridiculousness of the situation.
The playful-ness you have shared exposes the craziness people have allowed themselves to get into, constantly being caught in working to deadlines. Thought of deadlines already creates an anxiousness in the body, a start to illness and disease.
Yes…in Australia you see the road signs don’t die for a deadline but that’s exactly what it is that people do.
Love your play on words Carmel. It is so easy to get caught up in deadlines when they are externally imposed rather allowing a task to come to its natural completeness. The drive builds intolerable levels of tension that can feel exhilarating at the time but which exhaust the body after the event.
And where a deed and task is without ‘us’, it is indeed dead for it lacks livingness, vitality and the end result is empty.
Self forgetfulness is a disease (and I’ve been there myself). People literally in their heads focussing only on the task ahead, do so at the expense of themselves, suffer the consequences further down the line. It’s a tragedy that so many routinely neglect and abuse the most precious and beautiful of gifts: our bodies.
This is a great point Carmel Reid. How many people ‘die to themselves’ in order to meet a deadline ignoring what they truly feel, what their body needs – and then we wonder why we become unwell.
Great point Carmel, living by deadlines is basically living towards ones dead-line in terms of losing vitality, being exhausted, getting ill, etc. Deadlines at work have become the justification for stress and unhealthy habits instead of working towards and with a deadline and not getting absorbed and then overthrown by it.
Absolutely Carmel, slow suicide is still suicide!
Yes Susan we definitely need a big shake up to wake us out of our slumber, we are all committing slow suicide in one way or another, to a greater or lesser degree.
Health conditions such as diabetes and obesity lead to many other health conditions and one of the main struggles faced is not from lack of knowledge. The lifestyle choices that reduce the health complications and risks are known. The problem we face is ‘compliance’, that is adhering to the lifestyle recommendations of medical science. So we have medical practitioners feeling helpless as the majority of their patients struggle to make the known healthier lifestyle choices. So yes Joel, it is time to have more conversations ‘about the anguish that might be behind the levels of ‘chronic’ suicide that could now be considered a global pandemic.’ In other words, is the real disease and problem spiritual anguish?
Great point you make here Joel ‘But there is still another form of suicide that goes under the radar. What is this other form? Lifestyle diseases.’
This article Joel reminds us all of the responsibility we have for own health and wellbeing, so that we are able to reflect to others that it is possible to live a vital, fulfilling and inspired life.
This is such a very good point Joel. Every choice we make is either choosing life or choosing death.
Absolutely Rebecca. No half measures!
We all have free will and if someone chooses any form of suicide all we can do is offer understanding and express the love that we are. If the energy they choose can’t be around our love we have to understand and accept their choice of energy.
That is a really interesting argument and I find it makes sense. It would be great to get the conversation going so that people can be aware of that stark choice. I know many people I know were shocked to be told they have a chronic lifestyle illness and changed their choices. So education and having tough conversations has to be part of the medicine to address the issue.
Well said Annie, there is a level of self-suicide in every moment where we do not align with the true choice our body is asking for to grow and expand, and instead actively make a harming choice for whatever reason. And in this choice the next wrong choice is easier to make, as we become familiar with that comfort, and numbness in our body – Until one day the body has to speak very loudly for us to pay attention, and to stop and come back.
This is really quite an interesting slant on the relationship between lifestyle diseases and slow suicide… When described in this way, it certainly brings an element of shock and ‘sit up & take notice’ to how they actually can be paired together. The choices us humans make in regards to illicit drug taking, alcohol consumption, sugar intake, physical inactivity, do, over time degrade and affect and disturb every system within the human body, which eventually does make it sick… a slow but progressive path of poisonous substances to our physiology that contribute to many illnesses and diseases. Associating lifestyle diseases with slow suicide, is a great community public health message.
Joel I agree that slow suicide exists amongst us. This being a lifestyle disease it is one we are all responsible for, through the choices we make in all areas of our lives. We also are responsible to share through our livingness and the Ancient Wisdom that we are all love and never alone, but only need to connect to our innermost self to fill the emptiness we feel.
This is an incredible piece of writing that invites us to stop in our tracks and take a look at the impact of our choices every moment: are we contributing to our death (‘chronic’ suicide) or are we contributing to inspired, responsible and vital life? The choice really is as simple as that…
Well said Matilda, from the looks of it, society is generally choosing a very miserable way to exist, but at least now there is a choice, of choosing responsibility and the aliveness that comes with that, or of continuing the old patterns that never truly worked anyway.
‘The reality is that we must be carrying a level of sorrow or loss that is so strong that either ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ suicide becomes an option.’ It really is a sad state of affairs when get to this stage of not valuing our own lives – surely our awareness of this on a grander scale needs to increase and our ways of living changed.
Yes Michael, I agree understanding is certainly needed here, we have no idea what people have signed up for and how it is to play out in this life time. Acceptance, understanding and the expression and emanation of our love is our responsibility .
Michael the point you make here lets me reflect on the fact that every single person is equal, we are all to be valued, cherished, nourished and loved. To have even one person not value themselves is one person too many. To be in the plague of slow suicide we find ourselves in shows just how far away from truly living the majority of us are. It’s time to get our priorities in order.
I agree David – it can be as easy as starting the conversation…
And to think we allow ourselves and others to live in a way that is killing us, yet as you say, we can start a simple conversation and everything can begin to change.
I don’t think I have ever done anything consciously to harm myself. I have as a child scratched images into my skin to scar deep enough to scar it for many years, tattooed my body, abused alcohol and food, held onto hurts, self-loathing, self-bashing negative thinking life.
I actually think I believed that when I started writing this comment. As I re read it I can feel that I did actually consciously hate myself and want to harm myself as my self-esteem and sense of self-worth was so low I really didn’t think I deserved to exist.
Margaret, so beautifully shared. Showing how the power of expression gave you the space to feel and hence realise underneath those unconscious yet conscious choices was a deep sense of low self worth and lack of deserving.
Very true Laura the power of expression is not to be underestimated the more I express the clearer it becomes too freely express what is there to be expressed through me.
Joel that is a revealing blog! And the following question is really a question we should ask more often : “So we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves, yet at no point do we ask – “what drives that behavior?” I had the belief that doing sport is good for my health but I ignored that the way I was doing the sport was instead self harming. Today I can go so far to say that acting like that was a slow way to suicide myself. It took me a while to get an understanding what I was really doing. Nowadays I love my body and myself and I would never do something consciously to harm myself anymore.
You nailed it Joel – I have witnessed the slow suicide of one of my family members. It was very obvious and also nominated gently with the person to bring understanding – but by the time this was clear to me it was too late really as the mind was set (deeply ingrained habits run their course) and nothing much could be done any longer. It was clear that this person had totally given up and had lost purpose other than to indulge with food, cigarettes and alcohol to let the body deteriorate until it had to give in. It was a cruel death because the body had to be utterly debilitated before years later the end of the suffering in this body finally arrived. The subtle signs were missed years and years beforehand and probably at the time no one was fully understanding and equipped to bring about a change or inspiration to change. And this would apply as a society far and wide.
Are we really paying attention to what is happening to ourselves and everyone around us? Are we reflecting worth and are we inspiring by connecting from and to our essence? To me it became clear that this is the only way to prevent us all from giving up… however I can also still see how frequently I/we are still turning a blind eye to where we see disconnection is happening. Disconnection being the start of the slow demise.
This is an interesting observation Desiree. The fact that slow suicide requires us to put our bodies under enormous stress and strain to be able to succeed.
We do turn a ‘blind eye’ Desiree – this is very exposing, revealing how given up we can still be, even if we have commenced our own life turn-around from a way of self-denigration and giving up, to committing to life and embracing it ourselves… Do we still ‘give up’, when it comes to others?
I’ve also experienced so much learning in this regard with family and people I know – when to offer a word, when to stand back and accept another’s choices…
Yet the strongest thing is, I feel, to acknowledge any giving up or reaction in ourselves if we witness another wilfully contributing to their own demise. Are we capable of holding them in love? Or do we kid ourselves that we do, meanwhile denying how we may not be wanting to see what we see before us…
Yes Victoria, It takes quite a commitment and courage to open one’s eyes to another’s (or our own) willful contribution to their demise. I know in a certain circumstance/ relationship in my life that I can sometimes waver, seeing the all-encompassing, glamorous consciousness that is in operation – personally obviously I do not want to see this person fall, and yet I can see all that is leading up to it. I know that I can keep presenting in my connection and love, as best I can, so that this state is a known for my loved one. Many times I have wanted to turn a blind eye . . . but I can’t, and I am still very much on a learning curve with this.
It’s a constant learning Lyndy, isn’t it… But the key is as you’ve shared – our willingness to not only keep seeing it all, but embrace every last drop of what we see.
We are ever-called to deepen our love and our capacity for love – and this is the greatest blessing, for it is an essential part of our path of return to the true greatness of the love that we actually are.
I’m with you – we cannot turn a blind eye. Our openness is key, and it in turn is a blessing to all, for every single person deserves to be held in the love of God… through us.
It must be considered where we are at as a society that the obvious truths staring us in the face, the obesity, diabetes crises, alcohol, drug and domestic violence problems, are only escalating and yet we have not really stopped and said how have we got ourselves here.
I like to add that the rate of mental diseases are also growing . . . and I am waiting until the health system cannot cope with all these kinds of illness and diseases any more and will not function any more. For me that is unfortunately the only way that we as a society will stop and ask ourselves what is really going on here.
All these things you mention Annie are ‘normal’ today but it has to be asked is it normal to abuse ourselves the way we do or is it just common and hence justifiable. A truly serving front page headline would be – “why are we abusing ourselves – what is really going on?” versus, “Research shows, chocolate, alcohol and etc is good for us”. And why is it that we prefer the 2nd headline over the first?
Thank you Joel, for bringing such clarity and level of self-responsibility to an aspect in our lives with such dire consequences.
a most revealing insight asking us to look more deeply at the way we live.
These lifestyle diseases being completely preventable highlights how no advancements in medicine and science will save us. Only that the simple truth needs to be brought to the fore: our choices determine our health. We only need to live more lovingly with our bodies and our bodies will reflect this.
Annie a strong but true statement to make. “our choices determine our health”. This statement asks for a lot of self-responsibility but from all I have seen the results are worth it.
My form of chronic suicide is eating when I have eaten enough, eating late, not going for a walk when I really need it, not going to bed when I am tired… there are many things, even holding back from expressing something or allowing critical thoughts in. There is a discomfort that my body communicates to tell me something isn’t right and to get honest about what the underlying triggers for all of these behaviours are.
Food is such a big one isn’t it…there are so many ways we can use for to dull, numb, race, stimulate, task the edge off, put an edge on… such a great thing to explore more deeply
Yes to the fact that our bodies communicate with us all the time. Committing to a full, respectful and listening relationship with our bodies is a key to turning the tide on our collective ‘chronic suicide’.
That is really beautiful Joel. We can all relate to the feeling that something is missing in life and seeking it in various pursuits but not finding it. I love how you point out there is nothing special or better about the students of Universal Medicine in the before and after photos – we can all reconnect to what we miss most: ourselves.
It is amazing to realise that all we seek we already have. The care and attention then needs to be on not brutalising ourselves for not realising it sooner, as in, bringing criticism and judgement into the moment we have opened up to the ‘answer’ (truth).
Esoterically speaking, all disease is lifestyle related. This seems far fetched if we only consider life to be one life and life to be only defined by the physicality of existence. But if we considered reincarnation, if we considered consciousness more deeply and what it means, we may be more open to the possibility that illness and disease is ultimately and simply a correction and result of a disharmonious state of being. It is not a random event, and nor is it something to which we are a simple victim of. Such a philosophy may seem judgemental, but it is not. It is actually empowering of the individual to realise that in life they have more say than they like to think over the quality of their being.
I agree, Adam, the possibility that illness and disease can be a correction and as such a healing in itself, of living parts of our lives in resistance to what our bodies are telling us, is such a different way of looking into health and very empowering.
It is this choice of approach that allows us to be open to our responsibility or not. It is not about blame or judgement, but about realising the important part that every one of us plays in the whole, and that it is our choice whether we have our hands on our own steering wheel or not.
A truth that is empowering beyond measure Adam, IF we are willing to reclaim the power in such responsibility for our lives – and accept there is a far grander ongoing life that we lead, than our dominant societal attitudes would like to currently acknowledge.
When you squeeze a multidimensional being into the human form and then only identify yourself as that form. . . well . . you have created a very depressing situation in the first place. Then missing your multidimensionality you may want to medicate or take anything that may make you feel better about yourself in this reduced state. Knowing who you really are is a huge relief to this conundrum!
So true Kathleen, connecting to who we truly are is key here – and everywhere else for that matter.
Yes Doug and yet having reduced ourselves to this state we have quickly forgotten who we are and instead think that we are the sum total of our hurts and unresolved issues; so we wander through life in misery with the occasional high, only to drop back to the misery that is oh so familiar when all the time we are none of the abovementioned things at all. Oh, how we are being played and we have got sucked in hook, line and sinker through our wanting to individualise our self. Time to rejoin the brotherhood and arise out of the misery and back into the light from whence we came.
If each choice we make either harms or heals we can see how chronic suicide evolves.
Joel, it is a different perspective to look at life in this way and when we do it is revealing and shocking to see that actually living in the way many of us do with little if not any regard for our body means, I agree, we are therefore contributing to a slow suicide. It is not though until we can see and feel that this depleted way of being is causing disease and illness in the body that we make the changes because how we are living and feel is what we think is normal, I know I did until I met Universal Medicine.
Thanks for your blog Joel and for putting into perspective the level of irresponsibility that exists when so many deaths could be prevented by making better lifestyle choices.
Before Universal Medicine I was unwittingly on a slow suicidal mission, it really is unbelievable what I used to do to myself in the name of a good time. Some of my friends died and some have carried on doing the same old things but perhaps at an even slower suicidal rate as they get older. The thing is when you are in that way of doing things you don’t know how bad you feel, firstly because you are numbed by it all and secondly because how you feel is the norm and so you are used to it.
Amazing Kevin, I agree, how easy it is to justify doing something we can feel is not good for us just because everyone else seems to be doing it. Just because it is common does not automatically make it right.
Absolutely agree Kevin, as I stated in a previous comment I shudder to think how I would be today if I had continued on my downhill trajectory…..like some of your friends perhaps I may not even have survived!
“Lifestyle diseases come from the choices people make about what they eat, drink, how they move and even how they think about life.” This is so true, the way I use to live and choices I use to make over 5yrs ago, little did I realise at the time the impact it would have on my life. I first got myself into major exhaustion, as well as endometriosis and on top of that an under active thyroid.
When I came across Universal Medicine and began to understand that my choices and movement can change my life and health, I started to make more loving choices. I no longer am exhausted, have no endometriosis, nor do I have under active thyroid. I am back to my ideal weight and I look a lot younger than my age.
Wow Amita. That is an impressive turn-around. It is amazing how lifestyle is such a key ingredient in our health, and at the origin of that, our loving choices.
And these are the sort of turn arounds that we are seeing every day amongst those who work with Universal Medicine. So, at the same time that I acknowledge the trajectory of my first 3 decades as being ‘chronic suicide’, I appreciate hugely the transformations taking place in my life and in the lives of lots of people I know.
Yes Matilda and Amita there are many people, myself included, whose lives have completely turned around with the loving support of Universal Medicine. The transformations that have taken place in my own life have been absolutely huge, and I shudder to think where I would be today without the support and understanding I have gained.
Many here have expressed a common trait of surprise when someone commits suicide and never showed any outward signs of anything wrong. Have you ever, when in a car or on a train, tried to look at one thing close that is going by, panning your head to see, and you lose sight of everything else? Is it possible that the people we miss the signs that they are in trouble… are just the ones we don’t pause to see and feel?
Having a chat with a colleague the other day about the effects of sugar highlighted to me that many may understand the detriment of this in the diet and not choose to part take of sugar. But what happens to our awareness from there when it comes to offering a reflection to others?
Once we decide our glass is half empty… any choice to empty the glass faster becomes a palatable choice.
If the glass is half empty, then who cares if we fully empty it? If the glass is half full then the focus is already on keeping it full…and a choice to empty it can be seen for the loss that it is.
How many people have we all known that have forgotten they have a cup? With the choices they enjoin on themselves to ensure they don’t remember.
Yes Otto, I have seen that and lived that time and time again before I took some responsibility for my choices, I just didn’t care because to care took so much effort. Now, I love taking care and it takes effort to not care, in fact, it actually hurts to not care.
I am asking myself the question … Why would anyone squander this life?
My short answer is … we don’t value or know what we are offered. Through the teachings of Universal Medicine have I come to know we have access to infinitely greater wisdom, understanding and love, when we live from purpose and with full responsibility, life becomes a reflection of these loving choices. Definitely not to be squandered, but valued for the rich qualities a life of commitment delivers.
“Through the teachings of Universal Medicine have I come to know we have access to infinitely greater wisdom, understanding and love, when we live from purpose and with full responsibility, life becomes a reflection of these loving choices. ”
” Definitely not to be squandered, but valued for the rich qualities a life of commitment delivers.”
Such a powerful and true statement merileepettinato
This also means we give up on life at an early age, slowly numbing ourselves and choosing a slow suicide rather than be present to a choice in the quality of life we choose to live. Could this be because we have allowed our world to be corrupted, abused, disregarded, raped and plundered, that we feel this and see it as a reflection in our lives which is not a very bright future for the world or us. Could it be we are all slowly suiciding because we feel powerless to change the path the world is heading, we at some level have given up because it feels too overwhelming.
Joel this way of seeing lifestyle illness as slow suicide and in some cases not so slow suicide sends a very powerful message to the world. Really it is totally crazy we should poison our bodies with how we live. What does this say about our intelligence as a race? Even animals do not override the natural instinct and order as we do, except of course those domesticated by us.
Simon I have to laugh when I was reading your comment – it is so true “Even animals do not override the natural instinct and order as we do, except of course those domesticated by us.” This example showed really how we diminish our intelligence.
Wow Joel another amazing blog, and when you add it all up who dies of old age these days? In the past old people dropped dead while working in the fields! Today they demolish the room when people are too obese to fit through the door. How far do we have to go before it becomes obvious that the way of life of the Students of The Livingness as seen in the “Before and After” pages becomes everyone’s normal.
‘That means that there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day.’ A sobering sentence and a huge wake up call to humanity. I can feel the responsibility here on an individual level and on a global level.
Yes I agree Jane, on reading this the responsibility I felt for my choices was a wake up.
Well said, Jane. What is coming to me is that people making choices which harm themselves are reflecting that they are in some areas of their bodies already dead, that’s to say they do not feel anything anymore. And so how far did we come in our society to think we can do harmful things and have no consequence, in truth we just do not feel the consequence, or do not interpret the effect the behviour has as a consequence.
Yes Kevin. We are choosing to be ignorant of the facts we cannot ignore and by bringing ourselves round to actually feeling what’s going on for us and feeling what is happening in our bodies we can wake up to making those lifestyle changes.
Agreed Jane and this line is well worth repeating “‘That means that there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day.” Until we are prepared to accept this as a truth we will continue to look out side and blame anything else other than our very own choices.
This phrase, ‘a chronic form of suicide’, and all it encompasses, is one that could become familiar in every household if we were to ponder it carefully and choose to take back the responsibility for our health and lives.
This is very exposing of the current situation in the World today. I have seen many people choose a lifestyle that they know is detrimental to their health but even knowing this they still choose to ignore truth , seeing the effort as being just too much to make, and what it comes down to is a lack of care and love for themselves. Surely we are worth it! Thank you Joel for sharing your view on this topic that I absolutely endorse also.
Joel, I think I would feel exactly the same as you if a close friend of mine committed suicide, especially reflecting on moments to see did I miss anything, could I have done something… the ‘what if’s’. But what I really love is that through this reflection and time you have had the insight and love to see that in truth, through how we are living, we are all slowly killing ourselves. This is something that cannot be ignored any longer, it is time for us to be extremely honest.
If I am to be extremely honest I am still choosing to slowly kill myself by not taking full responsibility to be fully with myself 24/7 and often making less than loving choices on a daily basis. I am constantly and consistently bringing myself back to myself and taking responsibility to love but this is still a work in progress.
I have also known a few people who voluntarily chose to opt out on the present game of life and hit the re-set button. I have known way too many that were threatening to opt out, which means they are asking for help. As you have said Vicky, it’s the silent ones that slip by us. The saying that holding hate for someone inside of your self is like drinking poison and waiting for them to die. Could it be that slowly killing yourself is a choice just because we hate the person inside of us?
Steve this is profound, holding hate, upset, misunderstandings, any emotions of any kind, undealt with in the body is a poison in the body that is slowly killing us. Goes to show why it is so important to deal with our issues.
Brilliant to be describing hate as a poison in our bodies. Makes it very accessible. That said, we seem so willing to consume so many poisons (coffee, alcohol, sugar) that even this crystal clear analogy may not wake us up?!
“Could it be that slowly killing yourself is a choice just because we hate the person inside of us?” This is a powerful question, Steve and maybe there is something in this and or that it is the choices we have made we hate and do not like to feel this so we keep making other wreckless choices to not feel what we are continually doing and thus go around and round in circles.
I agree with you Julie about the continuing reckless choices, that if not stopped are a one way downward spiral to a predetermined end.
Huge call Steve, the lack of self-love driving a desire to bludgeon our bodies in so many ways. The ultimate poison then becomes the lack of honesty about how we feel about ourselves.
The picture of a slow suicide is an appropriate one. It very apt to understand that people live in a way that allow them to become less, adjust to becoming less and passing over in that being less instead of living and passing over in our fullness to the best of our ability.
I agree Eduardo and further more most people, and I would have included myself in this, would deny that this is the case. Even though we all know the way we live affects our health, it’s an aspect that until recent years I would not have wanted to look at. Yet when the facts are looked at for what they are, without trying to have a pretty picture, slow suicide is very apt. How empowering to look at things for what they are, then we can make the choice to change.
Agreed David. Thing is, deep within we all do know the path we’ve chosen – the slow suicide was one I was on myself, but I never would have fully admitted it to myself either until I met someone who did not live one iota of such entrenched giving up on true purpose and responsibility in life. That person was Serge Benhayon – meeting him changed the game, my awareness of it, and my willingness to continue to see and feel more of where we’ve so deeply lost ourselves, entirely.
Absolutely Victoria, without someone who has not given up on life, someone who is truly committed instead of pretending to be, everything around says it’s normal to choose a path of slow suicide, in fact everything around showed it was the only way. Thankfully, it’s not.
Hear, hear David. At a deep level, we all know what we are doing to ourselves, but have by and large become accustomed to endemic, entrenched giving up on truly living life. The reflection of someone who does live life in full, and holds back from this not one iota – changes the whole, entire game.
I can still feel the parts of me that are reawakening to life, yet I will never return to the lost state I was in, thanks to Serge Benhayon.
Yes totally. The huge gulf between giving up in life (suicide or slow suicide) and committing to life in no half measures, has been made plainly clear in this amazing blog by Joel. As you say David, it is so easy to deny the fact that one is giving up on life, because each little incremental nudge into giving up is hardly noticed, and it all becomes acceptable and ‘normal’ and we think we are way away from actual suicide. How we have been fooled. Thank heavens for Serge Benhayon.
Something I’d like to share about knowing Serge Benhayon for some 15 years now, is that I have always felt completely understood by him – never, ever judged for anything I may hold onto that in its own way reflects choices of ‘slow suicide’, or anything I held onto and played out in my life in the past.
When at a deep turning point in the year I met him, he was there to meet me. With not one iota of flinching as to the personal pain I was in, he held out a hand that in no way diminished my own capacity to restore myself to living in a way that was true. Yet a hand it still was – one that held me in absolutely equal capacity to reclaim myself. No need, no leaning on anyone, no dependency, but the absoluteness of a holding love that knew I had it all within me.
I feel like this with Serge to this day.
What a beautiful contribution Victoria. Serge does hold out a hand that in no way diminishes our own capacity to restore ourselves to living in a way that is true. His hand communicates to us the strength, truth, and enormous love that we actually are. Such a quality and ability is well worth mastering, until the whole world is holding out a hand for every next one who comes along and responds to the call – like a stairway to heaven.
Absolutely Lyndy. It is not our role to sympathise and take on the issues of others, but we can most certainly ‘be there’, holding all in a love that knows to the bone that we are all one and the same – that each and every one of us is capable in full of reclaiming our own love, strength and the innate power of who we are.
It is a far greater gift to say to someone, “I know you know your way home”, than to hold them as incapable and lesser. I learn more about this truth every single day, by way of all that Serge Benhayon so masterfully lives and reflects.
So well expressed, Eduardo. I was definitely one of those people who ‘…..live in a way that allow them to become less, adjust to becoming less…..’ I adjusted very well to being less, to fitting in, to living a life of slow suicide as Joel calls it out to be. The day I attended my first workshop with Serge Benhayon was the day I made the conscious choice to step off the merry-go-round of slow suicide and do something about it. Taking responsibility has never felt so good!
Death will inevitably come. What Joel Levin asks us to consider here, is the quality in which it comes – determined by our every step until that point.
If the truth of life is that it is ongoing – that we reincarnate, coming back to the momentums we have left ‘behind’ us – then I most surely do not want to end this life following a slow suicide of self-abuse and degradation, for the seeming ‘end’ will not be the actual end of it. I will come back to either choose it again, or not – likely having to haul myself over quite some coals in order to deal with such an entrenched momentum of self-harm…
Your blog Joel, calls us to get our house in order here and now, lovingly and nurturingly so. Thank-you. A super awesome wake-up call.
I love the responsibility that Joel is calling for. A “slow suicide” means many will come back to do it all again. The challenge is to turn around life choices that many consider normal. That is why Universal Medicine is here, to reflect a different but more loving way to live as individuals and as a community.
Well said Anne. And that it – i.e. Universal Medicine – does in spades. I have learnt so much that makes the deepest sense here in this regards, and continue to do so with every single presentation/workshop/course that I attend. That in itself is truly remarkable. The answers are most definitely here, and there are many now listening…
Agreed Anne, Universal Medicine is at the forefront to present humanity that there is a different way to live where self-responsibility, love and appreciation for self and others is the key in daily living.
Well said, Victoria. If we think we can abuse ourselves to the end and then get a clean sheet next time round, we are under an illusion. This blog graciously calls us back to ourselves and to the ultimate responsibility we have in every moment to either heal or harm.
How big does the wake up call need to be to make humanity realise, that we are responsible for everything, absolutely everything. We seem to be missing the obvious already.
Absolutely Janet. God’s love is such that it never condones or panders to our abuse and waywardness and says ‘that’s okay, have a clean slate and go back and do that again if you like’ but rather lovingly brings us to responsibility through a law of love known as karma. We ourselves must choose to come back to living from our essence.
Deep illusion indeed Janet. And the deepest negation of the truth of who we are.
So true Janet and Victoria, living in a way that doesn’t care about the consequences of our choices or actions because we are getting a clean sheet next time round is such arrogance. it explains the pain and suffering we can inflict on ourselves and others again and again through choice.
Agreed Lucy. Is it any wonder that the truth of reincarnation has been so denied in many parts of the world, and distorted in many others?
For it calls us to be responsible in the deepest measure. Our every way impacts upon the whole, always and for all time.
Nice addition Victoria, our motivation should not be the fear of death, but the quality of our life.
The fear of death, and the actual want for it – the perpetuation of a life that is not truly about ‘living’ – is a prime motivator for so many, for sure Joel.
The teachings and presentations of Serge Benhayon have supported me to reawaken to the truth that it is all ‘one life’ – and stop ignoring the truth of the old ‘what goes around comes around’… 🙂
And so, yes, what quality of life and truly living do we want to come ‘back round’?
A life not truly about living and a behaviour that speaks to a desire to hasten death, certainly suggest that there is a cycle at play that people are not happy with.
It has always been said the only two things in life that you can’t avoid are death and taxes. That leaves everything else up to our choices.
And love and appreciation of ourselves – living our true worth and divinity.
The circle of life brings a whole new meaning with our momentums with the same ill choices we continue to make with re-incarnation! How many life times have we started and ended the same? You are right Victoria, it is long past time to wake-up.
We may complain about the ‘familiar’ same-old – the issues, the problems – that ensue again and again… The ‘familiar’ becomes the ‘comfortable’ (even though we may well complain about it all…), and so we stay where we are.
Until we make the choice at a deep level of our Will to align to the love of the soul – which would never have us remain in a familiar quagmire, however ‘comfortable’… but calls us to heal what has bound us and ever-deepen our love. A love that is not about self, but all…
Running the same patterns life after life, is undoubtedly purely self-driven – there is great comfort and a sense of ‘security’ in the familiar, however much we may complain about it. Thing is, do we truly want to take the responsibility to step out of the loop?
The quality of how we are in life affects not only us, but all those around us too. If we knew by making choices to harm ourselves, we were allowing that to be available more easily for another, would this wake us up to starting to make more supportive choices? When we see our lives as linear and finite, with no regard for what has happened before or what will happen after us/this life, responsibility can easily be avoided. The bigger ‘ouch’ (for some), and actual blessing is that responsibility is constantly offered to us, life after life – until it is chosen as the living way.
As you say so wisely Amelia, by seeing the way we live as a linear progression we avoid the responsibility of the choices we make, not only to ourselves but to others. If we were taught from an early age that life is most definitely not linear, and the consequences of our choices will always be waiting to be healed, in this life or our lives to come, responsibility for ourselves and our behaviours will simply be something that is accepted as normal, and not the overwhelming burden that most today perceive it to be.
Agreed Amelia. Knowing how our choices affect not only ourselves but others, makes it more uncomfortable to harm ourselves.
What you’ve brought to the conversation here Amelia is the actual key. We have been so intent on making it (life) all about ourselves… fulfilling our own needs, whether by the disregarding choices of the ‘slow suicide’ as Joel has so aptly described our predominant way of living, or seeking the bettering of our own position… it’s still all largely, about the self, all ‘about me’…
To stop for one moment and TRULY consider the impact something we’ve just done has upon another – smoked a joint, eaten 4 x what we need, been disregarding or rude to someone… would be a life-changing moment, if we really felt the implications of our irresponsibility.
Do we really want our children to see the extent to which we’ve normalised so many behaviours that are self-abusive and harming?
‘determined by our every step until that point.’ I love this Victoria as it feel so empowering to know that with any step we take we can choose to change the quality of our lives and it can be one step at a time with each one being a choice to do so.
I love it too Michael, so simple yet so profound.
Absolutely “one step at a time can change our quality of life”, there is no need to rush or force, the quality of my life has changed so much in the last 5yrs, I feel like a new person, full of vitality, energy and lots of love.
Love it Michael, it is as simple as that ‘one step at a time’. I can honestly say that all those little steps over the last ten years have all added up to changing my life beyond recognition, and the lives of many others I know.
The ‘steps’ can also be very clearly there before us – one at a time – if we are willing to acknowledge them, can’t they Michael… Nothing need feel overwhelming. The key I’ve found, is truly listening to my body – it will let me know if I’m making choices that are causing symptoms, self-harming, and where I can make steps to change the way in which I look after myself.
By choosing to ignore that fact of re-incarnation people are then enabled to lead a life of slow suicide. “You gotta die of something” is an expression oft used to avoid any responsibility of the choices that we make.
Awareness of the fact of reincarnation, karma and responsibility is so vital for our health and well-being in our sojourn here on earth. An awareness of our purpose too. The misery in that statement ‘You gotta die of something’ is so palpable.
I agree Lyndy. And in many people it does come from an absolute misery and devastation at the world. But there are also a huge percentage of people who use that type of expression who are absolutely 100% aware of what they are doing and are actively, consciously and willingly avoiding all responsibility for the choices that they are making.
And a further thought. I am also very aware of a whole consciousness whereby this kind of attitude is actually considered to be cool / funny / edgey / individual / non-conformist etc…And taking it back to the misery and devastation that you talk of Lyndy, there are these various suicide sites on-line where young people discuss suicide in an equally flippant way as to how you might discuss the latest fashion…an horrific state of affairs that should rock us all out of our slumber.
Exactly Otto. It is an indulgent flirting with death, and not the ‘true’ death where the body has come to its use-by date after a life well-lived. The same indulgent use of a word describing an ill state of affairs is ‘addiction ‘. There is a new lipstick out in a world-famous brand called ‘Addict’ – being marketed as a very sexy way to be – half in love and drunk with oblivion.
So true Otto – and in full on denial is the saying ‘you only live once’. Denial of the truth and again refusing responsibility.
It is such a cop-out Otto, it is an expression that I hear often too and one that takes us away from being responsible and honest about the way we as a society are slowly killing ourselves under the illusion that we are progressing more than ever before?
“You gotta die of something” also reveals the depth of giving up on life – already deeply entrenched, to the point of normalisation. This is horrendous, that we can hold such attitudes and they not truly be shocking when uttered and/or exposed Otto. Agreed.
Responsibility, lovingly applied, from here on in – yes please.
Yes well said Victoria, it is ultimate responsibility but with so much love of self and others. Why would we want to live and die in poor quality when we don’t have to? When the quality that we can experience could be so different? It is so worth asking about these logical questions to unearth the illogical answers we have been living by that lead to chronic and life ending lifestyle illnesses.
Exactly Lucy. We are ‘living illogicality’ – experts at it, and exceedingly comfortable in its nest. Playing it so exceedingly well, that we keep the true love we all deeply crave at bay – ‘God forbid’ we say yes to it, expose the endless illogicalities and ridiculous ways in which we harm and abuse ourselves, and each other, and actually let real love into our lives…
The thing is, the ‘turn-around’ in terms of embracing the real deal of love, and dropping all that simply hasn’t made one iota of sense – well, it’s already occurring. Thanks to the work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine – inspiring beyond measure in terms of addressing what is really going on in the world…
Wow Victoria, spot on. Thank you for you comment calling us to “get our house in order here and now” – both Joel’s blog and your comment are a super awesome wake-up call.
Yes Victoria I can feel the “super awesome wake-up call” that Joel has given us in every part of my body. It has certainly woken me up, bringing a welcome light into those areas in my life that still require some loving attention, so that the life I live until my last breath is one of self love and a deep honouring of my body. Until then, in every moment the quality of my life will be the result of the level of responsibility I take for the way I live and love.
Beautiful point Victoria ‘Death will inevitably come’. The quality of every step defines the quality of that passing and indeed the quality of the next birthing. This ancient wisdom is known by us all and yet so deeply cloaked it is in some that it appears that it is new far fetched and just for those in the East…The truth is we are all on the same turning cycle of life – we cannot leave until we all do so, together. And so it is purely the quality that we are to be with in every step of the way.
Great point Lee – this truth is known by us all. Every single one of us that perpetuates our own ‘slow suicide’ and degradation in life knows this, and to whatever extent we live in denial of this truth, we are wilfully denying the responsibility for what we bring and reflect to others in this life, the next, and so on…
Joel’s blog is about this deepest of responsibilities that we all hold. It is worth revisiting to remind ourselves… but then, we DO know…
Humanity is clearly in need of the deepest inspiration.
As you’ve shared here Joel, many have through the work and inspiration of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, come to address the depth of giving up on ourselves that lays at the root of this endemic self-harm. This deserves to be known far and wide – that the global (increasing) trends in diabetes and the rest, can indeed not only be reversed, but that many can discover themselves actually thriving. I count myself in this – more energetic, healthy, vital and vibrant in my later forties than when in my twenties… Yes, many lifestyle choices have contributed to this – but underlying all of it has been the rediscovered inner connection with the truth of who I am. From the foundation of loving myself and holding myself as truly valuable, the ensuing changes in lifestyle are a given.
Lifestyle changes are common sense and simple once the inner connection is reestablished and nurtured; things then start making sense and are not done in an effort to improve oneself or get somewhere which takes a lot of the anguish as well as the striving and trying and doing away.
Spot on Gabriele. It has been my experience that if I make a change to improve something, than rarely does it work out this way. But if I accept who I am, the delicateness and fragility I hold, and then honour my body in that quality, I am naturally more delicate with my actions, so change is really confirmation of who I am and not done to be something. There is huge wisdom offered here about what true self worth and health is, and how we all have an opportunity to be fully responsible for where we are. And how we live does not have to become ‘the norm’ or sickness and illness, but rather of vitality and health based on us living who we are.
Absolutely Gabriele and hvmorden. It’s about reconnecting to ourselves, our inner essence first and foremost – from there we can be open to what may have once been ‘unthinkable’ or impossible-seeming changes in our lives and the choices we make. I’m still astounded as to the degree of change – for the far, far ‘better’ in terms of my health and deeply caring for myself and others – I’ve been able to make. Knowing the deepest, bottomless wellspring of joy within has been the essential key.
A strong statement of the facts of the matter Joel Levin, which I deeply appreciate. We are basically killing ourselves, and saying it’s ok. Fundamentally, this shows what you’ve outlined, that we are not only missing true connection with ourselves, and thus each other, but we have given up on this connection to such a degree that we have the current situation in which we stand.
We have indeed ‘normalised’ many behaviours that are not normal, let alone natural at all whilst trying ever harder and harder to numb ourselves just that bit more lest we feel what is really going on.
I also had a ticket on a full bus that was racing toward the cliff edge… but pushed the stop button and got off the bus, which was almost 10 years ago. I am 62 years young today and have no plans to stop the way I now live… and there are no cliffs in sight where I am going now.
Now that Steve is an absolute case in point. It matters not where we are on the slow or fast route to the edge of the cliff, for at any point we can stop, and address the ‘slow suicide’ of which Joel has written so well. We needn’t remain in the state of giving up on ourselves and attendant self-harm, in perpetuity.
Steve that is all that needs to happen, stop the bus and get off… Once the choice is made then we have the space, clarity and freedom to choose what we know will not get us back on the bus racing towards the cliffs!
What a brilliant reflection to others Steve. By pushing the stop button and getting off the bus, it is possible to turn one’s life around completely to live a life of wellbeing and vitality, that is our truly natural way of being.
I can so relate to what you have written Steve. Way too many in society live in a way that they repeatedly hurtle towards that cliff edge, don’t stop, but keep on going expecting an “ambulance” to be there to catch them at the bottom and to fix them so they can begin the hurtling all over again. Like you I got off the bus and every day I appreciate that I made the choice to do so.
Isn’t it interesting that the conductor cares not who is on the bus just that there are people always on the bus. I had bought an ‘around the world’ bus ticket and merrily sat with everyone else waiting for life to deliver – thrills and pills. It did. Relentlessly and without nearly getting completely KO’ed by the bus – I would still be hanging on to the back seat. I ejected myself some ten years ago too Steve and can relate entirely. Life, the way I live, breathe, walk and talk has completely changed. Yet I still see a crowded bus whizzing by with so many on it.
Perfect analogy!!! and the comment about the bus conductor just needing people on the bus … gold as well. We are going to need to be the ones that get honest about the purpose of this bus that races towards the cliff edge because it has become normal. Having been on the bus as well, not many people on the bus were talking about the fact that something wasn’t right. It was seeing the people off the bus that made me see being on the bus was my choice and not compulsory. So being seen off the bus is important and a gift back to those who let themselves be seen by us.
Powerfully said Lucy. Being seen as one who is not on ‘the bus’ to self-destruction is to be a great light to this world – a light that is deeply needed.
Love it Steve, we are looking at the scenery passing by, thinking we are making progress and not seeing (or being honest) about the cliff we are driving towards.
Yes Joel, Driving or being driven prevents our surrender into stillness which gives the possibility of hearing the truth, the ceaseless communication from an intelligence that far surpasses the driven mind which will sooner or later take us over that cliff.
And then there are the drivers… that are asleep at the wheel!
great point Steve…we are not helpless passengers day dreaming and not looking at where we are going, but rather, we are the drivers asleep at the wheel!
It is this ‘given up ness’ that makes the world as it currently is, very true Victoria and we have made this our ‘new’ normal. I say ‘new’ normal because we all know deep inside that there is an old and ancient normal we can align to, as this wisdom is in us all.
Annelies, your words here strike the deepest chord of inner knowing…
We all have the opportunity to restore a ‘true normal’ way – a natural way and rhythm to our lives that IS known in the depths of our beings. It is this that we crave in our ‘given-up-ness’ – caught in the illusionary web that this true and natural way is ever-outside of us, when it’s actually not, as you rightly say.
We, by and large, live starved of our natural connection to the essence of who we are – our true essential natures being something Serge Benhayon has brought back to humanity at great length in his teachings, and continues to do so. What if, we say yes to the grandness within and admit in full that this way we’ve allowed and actively fuelled for so long – the normalised ‘given-up-ness’, is not it, and will never bring the deep joy of reconnection to who we are?
Clearly, many are making the choice to say ‘yes’. And there is a long, long way to go. For myself, having reached the point of knowing without a doubt I will never return to the endemic given-up-ness, I also know without a doubt that this is possible for all.
And hence, such conversations as this awesome blog raises are valuable beyond measure – we simply can’t have enough of them, can we…
”This makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable”. Wow Joel this is very revealing and exposing of a culture where chronic suicide is regarded as normal.
Thank you for exposing and for shining a light on this insidious indictment on our society.
‘…it might serve to also start a conversation about the anguish that might be behind the levels of ‘chronic’ suicide that could now be considered a global pandemic.’ This is so well said, the problem is that the ‘chronic suicide’ has become so ‘normal’ and in many cases vehemently protected by those engaging in it (aka most of the world), that this conversation would be difficult to set up.
Katemaroney1 this is so true. There is so much dis-ease in every day life that what is considered medical diseases are common place as a result of people’s attempts to cure the dis-ease they feel – relief through drinking, smoking, excessive exercise, no exercise, hardening up one’s protective layers, etc. All of which have physical ill effects that, over time, people are in effect slowly suiciding.
Though people can be very protective of their ways of coping and herald many as pleasures to offset the travails of life, when people see people living with true vitality, they may well feel there is another way and see it is for real, can be trusted.
With the current state of things… the only way is via true inspiration, I agree Karin.
There are many who are living with not only awesome vitality, but a depth of consistent joy in having rediscovered their inner connection to who they truly are – I count myself amongst these people, and am deeply thankful to Universal Medicine for offering the constant teachings and inspiration to keep going deeper in this relationship with self, that more of me is able to truly meet others in life. Most especially when the dominant ‘way of the world’ asks me ever to ‘be more’, and does not treasure the being that I am first and foremost.
I once would have thought myself to be ‘doing ok’ – but in truth was slowly suiciding as Joel has described… having long given up on living with such joy, engagement in life and purpose. Such a turnaround is possible for all.
Yes Karin, I agree – people are very protective about their coping mechanisms as they believe they have served them well, but are unwilling to see the harm being caused in their bodies. As you say, how the Universal Medicine student body is bucking the trends and living with true vitality will one day be explored in earnest as an alternative to the collective self abuse that is currently the norm.
I agree Karin, we hold those coping mechanisms very tightly lest they show us the truth of what we have chosen. Yet ironically, these very choices hurt us more than the truth.
Karin great point that really there has not been any true role models that with out artificial stimulants are living Vital, Joyful and Active lives. I certainly had not seen any until meeting Serge Benhayon. When we only know one way then that becomes our normal and accepted way of life. Breaking those constraints and taking responsibility for our own lives is a massive step to turning those tides of epidemic, devastating realities that are being lived by so many. We are the ones that decides what our ‘normal’ is.
A great point you make here Karin, that people defend their chosen ‘pastimes and hobbies’ as the things they do to enjoy themselves, to relax or have fun, are in fact acitivites that take them away from feeling things they don’t want to feel, which in truth are harming them. There will come a day when those who are choosing to live a life of love and truth, who are living with a vitality that is unheard of in ‘normal’ society, thanks to the inspirational teachings of the Ageless Wisdom and Serge Benhayon, will be noticed, and questions will be asked and answers sought.
Very true Karin, when people are living with true vitality it stands out and makes one question the so guarded and protected behaviours. It opens up the possibility that there is life outside of and completely free of these guards. This is the reality I have come to know through Universal Medicine and by though those that live the teachings and my own questions and experience. These ill ways are so tightly protected as the world is set up to have us believe that we are and there is nothing outside this way of life. But Universal Medicine and the Student Body have exposed that for the lie it is.
Joel, you’re spot on. We are not only choosing a slow death through our lifestyle choices but we are actually heralding these choices as ‘good’ (in one respect or another) and encouraging others to follow our example – This is crazy. What’s more crazy, is the fact that we, as a humanity, can’t even see this because suicide by lifestyle has become so commonplace.
We do encourage others to also follow poor lifestyle choices – somehow strength in numbers makes us feel superficially better even though we might well know at heart that we are living a lie and that things are not as they seem.
Very true Gabriele, when we think that because another is doing what we are doing it somehow makes it right or okay is a huge illusion. As a society we have an arrogance that does not let us stop and consider how we are actually living and if in fact our choices are harming us.
It’s true Gabriele, there is a quite a lot of pressure that gets directed at people when you change the contract, even more so, when the strength of numbers makes the change seem ‘not normal’.
Too true Kate: ” We are not only choosing a slow death through our lifestyle choices but we are actually heralding these choices as ‘good’”. That is what is so unfathomable: that we are in some cases celebrating these life threatening choices, and then we encourage others to do the same, and it is considered normal. That is one destructive “normal” that I would love to see rapidly dismantled!
Agreed Kate, we as a society hold such an arrogance about the lifestyle choices we make and don’t like to be honest that they are slowly killing us as admitting this truth would mean taking responsibility of our lives and admitting that we have been wrong all along, and that is too much to take for a lot of people.
The point Joel introduces here is worth understanding in detail, what we hold as ‘good’ and asking what the unhealthy behaviours that are encouraged between people could be. Who dare question the box of chocolates or bottle of wine given as gift? Who dare question the parent giving sweetened beverages to their child every day or the regular birthday cakes in the workplace to celebrate another? It is not giving a gift or the celebrating of another that is being questioned, but one may be accused of this, if the truth be spoken of the small but countless ways we encourage another to negate their health.
We all know these little harms are harming, what gets accused is the fact that we don’t want to feel that we do know the answer and have done nothing with it. What would happen if instead of protecting a bruised pride that is not so intelligent (because if it was everything would it not of acted on the obvious?) we accepted and focused on that we do know and can change?
This statement is huge –”This makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable”. As a society it is imperative that we take this information seriously. We have a responsibility not only for ourselves but also for others.
Indeed! The responsibility we have to others is one that we often don’t want to acknowledge. Our responsibility is to live in a way that reflects choices that are true to our being as well as our body. If we are making choices that dishonour the being or the body, we are, by reflection, telling others that it is ok for them to do the same.
It’s funny how that responsibility to live with vitality, to show it is possible, is somehow seen as a threat. You’ve got to wonder what is at play, when the answer you are looking for is pushed away.
Absolutely. It exposes the ridiculousness when put like that Joel, but it’s true. People crave vitality and living their truth in the world but also don’t want to be the first one to step out of the measured half life they’ve chosen for a long time. So we then become jealous of the people who choose to take the brave first steps and try to bring them down in order to stop them reflecting to us a choice that we too could be making.
love it Kate and ouch — “try to bring them down in order to stop them reflecting to us a choice that we too could be making. “
You’re right, Elizabeth, this statement is a game changer, and we need to keep saying it until we are collectively ready to accept that it is actually true.
Janet and Elizabeth, well said. We need to keep saying this so we begin to understand the mess that we are actually in. And Elizabeth I love what you say that we have a responsibility also for others…it is not just the world you live in, we share this world with many others and have a responsibility to live in way that honours that. And that is sorely lacking in this world today.
It is absolutely massive what Joel has shared that the death globally completely is preventable. So where does that leave us, do we keep going and ignoring that this is an immutable truth because our bodies that are scientific evidence of our choices as showing us so. Or do we start to listen a little closely to our bodies and connect to the early signs of what it is telling us and then make changes as opposed to waiting for a big monster to take us out to listen more carefully. Everything we choose has come out. We are our own creators of our future.
Yes Natalie, a great question and one that many of us ignore, because the little signs we get from our bodies telling us something has changed or does not feel quite right are often seen as an “inconvenience”. The ridiculous thing is that if we continue to ignore them, then the ‘inconvenience’ gets a whole lot bigger…it all comes down to a choice at the end of the day, and that is, do we want to take loving care of ourselves so that our lives and those around us will benefit enormously, or do we want to end up getting really sick and blaming everything around us as being the reason for it? As you so rightly say, “We are our own creators of our future.”
A huge statement which underlies the fact that we are killing ourselves by our lifestyle choices… This is the kind of news that ‘should’ be making headline news, and to replace the same news that heralds these same lifestyle choices without any hint of indicating that they are in fact slowly killing us…
Joel’s way of describing our accepted self-abuse has revealed a proverbial elephant in the room previously hidden in plain sight. Are we ready to admit the truth of ‘death by lifestyle choices’ in our headline news? Showing the reader there is a true way that can be lived (because it is being lived) gives them a choice they may not know they had.
I absolutely agree with you Elizabeth, and what comes to mind is how bad does it have to get before we take notice and realise something has gone terribly wrong here. Will we have to go into even more distraction in order to not see and feel what is going on.
I agree Elizabeth it is imperative that we take this information seriously and also stop to ask the question why so many of us are choosing to essentially make ourselves sick. Often we know when we are choosing to do something that is harming to us (e.g. smoking, drinking alcohol or eating/ drinking things we know aren’t good for us) but we do it anyway… So the next question has to be why – what is behind the drive to self-harm in this way and avoid being fully responsible for our health?
The drive to self-harm is enormous… yes, Fiona asking ‘why’ is key if we are to change the momentum of our choices and begin to take responsibility for them.
Yes, Elizabeth, this statement is so exposing of our lack of self responsibility when it comes to how we are living. Scientists and researchers spend billions of dollars to find answers to the rise in these diseases but they are largely looking in the wrong places.
There is much sadness and I would say anger is mixed in with that, when close friends realise that the reason the person they are sad about not being here any more could have chosen a different way of living that would have prevented the situation they now find themselves all in.
There is sadness and anger Lucy, I also feel that if this understanding was global then the guilt and blame so many inflict upon themselves would no longer happen. Each person may then choose to take more responsibility for their own way of living in the world because that is the energetic responsibility each of us have as part of Humanity.
Yea it really is so important to understand this bigger picture. It gives a freedom to those left behind in cases like this and an opportunity for us all to take more responsibility for the choices we are making
I agree Elizabeth, it is imperative that we take this information seriously, most of society is in the throes of chronic suicide, and as we live this momentum we are reflecting this way of being to our children…..the next generation…..and so on it goes.
Well noted Elizabeth – we do have a huge responsibility.
Continuing on the path of slow suicide will not only see society becoming more and more ill, our medical systems will become bankrupt and our social service systems will fall apart under the pressure, they will not be able to handle the enormous numbers of chronically ill people……as you say Ellzabeth it is imperative that we bring these issues out in the open and start to discuss them seriously.
Wow thank you Joel I had never looked at this way before. This blog powerfully reminding us of the responsibility that we all have for our own health and wellbeing.
When so many of us are slowly committing suicide by their lifestyle choices, what does this say about the amount of love we have for ourselves? Today it is Valentine’s Day, celebrated by many of us where we express our love and spend all together millions of dollars. What a fake day this is then when so many of us abuse their bodies on a daily basis.
I fully agree with the viewpoint of this blog. What is very sad is the fact the pretty much most of the world is killing itself, showing us the deep misery with which everybody is living.
As a world, we are slowing suiciding ourselves. This is happening everywhere, even within our own homes, with our close friends, family, work colleagues. Allowing ourselves to truly feel the scope of this is something deeply vulnerable, as we have all been there before, we have all felt this anguish, whether strongly or subtly. This calls us to live a deeper level of responsibility than ever before, as being born to check out and wait for death, is never the true way.
You always amaze me Joel with the seemingly buried truth that is so very clear once you have pointed it out. This blog is contentious, as it ought to be, because nothing is as contentious as the fact that we are the only species killing itself with food, drink and deliberately consumed and inhaled poisons.
Medicine has been so great as to shield us from the full impact of this awful truth. But it really is time for us to wake up to it.
This is true Rachel, Medicine in all its forms has been doing all it can to ease the suffering but there is a deeper responsibility that we need to be looking at.
Horrible to say that it is in our suffering that our awakening to truth lies.
Wow Joel this is so important and clear that our choices of our life styles really are the major case of illness disease and slow suicide. Put this way really makes one see it from a different perspective and brings the responsibility for our choices. A brilliant revelation that needs to be seen and felt by all humanity.
It is a very sobering thought to consider that lifestyles that are promoted and perceived as healthy are in fact forms of ‘chronic’ suicide. This understanding deserves to be broadcast as widely as possible as it is a paradigm shift of attitude to suicide.
Joel this is a great insight that opens an extremely important conversation. ‘Looking at lifestyle diseases in this way suggests that there are many more people dying from their own hand (choice) than are thriving from their choices.’ How else can we explain the fact that humanity is getting less happy and healthy and dying from preventable non communicable diseases despite the fantastic advancements in treatments.
Joel this is such an excellent point it amazes me that it has not been made before. It is so true that we are living with people committing suicide everywhere. I constantly meet people who I can clearly see are killing themselves and very often they know it and admit it but seem unwilling to make different choices. Just this week at a networking event I met someone who was very overworked, never took a lunch break, had to eat chocolate in the afternoon to keep going, was gaining weight and feeling awful. This person also had a child and I posed to them that if they continued like that they were killing themselves and their child would miss having a father. They agreed but said every time they tried to have a break the phone rang and so forth. People are so caught in the spin and it does not have to be this way at all.
Serge Benhayon so clearly lives and has demonstrated to us another way. That way is called The Way of The Livingness and it is super simple and available to everyone all we need to do is make a choice to be responsible and live lovingly.
Yes Nicola, I feel we all meet people like this everyday and it is the spin, that keeps people in its hold, hence why we need illnesses and accidents to stop us to pause and consider another way… or self awareness.
Wow, this is a strong statement but I can only say it is very true. It shows how much our health and well-being lies in our own hands.
Joel, there is such a poignancy to this blog as I can feel and consider what you offer us here that people are making choices which ultimately kill them and that we do not question the behaviours which feed that. We spend a lot of time trying to mitigate our lifestyle diseases and while this is very necessary, we also need to look at the behaviours feeding it and consider and understand these, and actually support people to see and understand what and how they may not be supporting themselves. And all of us whether we have a lifestyle disease or not need to consider what we support in our societies that may actually feed lifestyle diseases – it’s as simple as how we live, and where we put our time and energy, how and when we speak and the impact on all of us of the decisions we make and allow on a societal level. We are in this together, and I love what you raise here and can feel it’s a huge call out for us all and gives us much to consider.
If we heard someone was actively suicidal then it is likely we would do everything within our power to stop this process. Are we doing this with everyone we know who are actively making choices to harm themselves? And ourselves?
It is like we are only going into action when things reach a certain point of calamity, as long as things stay in moderation we classify it as ok/normal/this can happen/its not too bad etc. It very much shows how very misleading and detrimental moderation is.
Wow, to put it bluntly Joel, if “Lifestyle diseases come from the choices people make about what they eat, drink, how they move and even how they think about life”, then it means we are not only masters of our own health, but are also therefore, choosing how and what we pass over with.
This is a blog everyone can relate to – killing ourselves slowly with our choices! You can’t say it any plainer than that.
It does make you think of the staggering amount of hospital hours which could be avoided if we made different choices when it comes to taking responsibility for our own health and looking at our lifestyle choices.
Jesus Joel what you have exposed is huge! A world whose population is choosing a slow painful death. Over and over and over again. Lord have mercy.
I sometimes feel that people not going to bed when they are tired is a lifestyle disease that is more serious than generally seen.
Yes I agree – we have so many ways we can override what we feel – meeting deadlines, eating, TV to name just three.
I agree Felix because in doing so the ramifications can be huge and I feel, it is a cause for depression amongst other maladies.
It is not how long we live, but the quality of life lived. A new Public Health England (PHE) report 1. ‘finds that life expectancy at older ages in England has risen to its highest ever level’ The report states ‘Our current evidence shows that people are living longer but many are doing so in poor health. This report is an opportunity to remind people that, even during mid-life, it is not too late to improve your health’. Few people or organisations exist devoted to raising awareness of life-style diseases and offer people dedicated support back to true health and vitality. The exception is Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and this is the reason why hundreds of people inspired by his example and teachings have moved away from sleep walking and slow suicide and have completely transformed their lives.
1. PHE ‘Recent Trends in Life Expectancy at Older Ages February 2016’
Well said Kehinde2012. I certainly was sleep walking to slow suicide until I ‘chanced’ upon Serge Benhayon, and have turned my life around … however there is still much refinement needed, so I am thankful for the active inspiration and promotion of healthy lifetstyle from Universal Medicine and my fellow students.
This is true hartanne60, there is no one-fix-for-all-time pill, but a daily commitment to self, by making loving lifestyle choices. Refinement is the beauty of it all. As the body evolves, so must we, if we are to truly give it the support it needs.
Yes Kehinde, once again showing how much Serge Benhayon works for all of us, for humanity as a whole and not for mere self gain.
Yes, Medicine holds us ‘alive’ – but what do we use this life for? To function or to find out how truly, healthy living works? It is one point to bring support to this body to survive, and Western Medicine does a great job here, but we need a Universal Medicine to make sure that this surviving does not stop here, but offer a healing that goes deeper into the choices we make – to bring a true change. Surviving is not enough!
The one who commits to suicide is despaired, does not know how to go on. If it is so that we as a society are all more or less on a slow suicide mode – it is time to look for another way of being/living. And maybe it is not about ‘to go on’ but ‘to go back’. Back to our natural way of being, back to honesty and truth, back to an equal lived love.
Isn’t it so: From a medical point of view is every choice not done in harmony an attack on our living.
Joel if this line doesn’t make it a show stopper then what will –
“This makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable.”
That fact that we are responsible for our own choices and how those choices will play out in our lives is ultimately the key point here.
Wow-Natalie, it is shocking to know that lifestyle illnesses are now the leading cause for death globally as they are indeed preventable. I have been so inspired by the before and after shots taken of students of Universal Medicine who clearly have shown that a more loving and vital way of living is possible, by reconnecting to our divine essence within which is what we all miss and long for.
Yes Loretta. We tend to take a very fatalistic view that it is inevitable to be getting progressively less healthy, less vital and less joyful in life. I too subscribed to that thought before I came across Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, and the before and after photographs http://www.universalmedicine.net/before–after.html do indeed turn that thinking on its head.
‘“This makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable.”
I agree Natalie, this is for us all, the bitter pill to swallow.
We are used to call it surviving life but it is really the chronic form of suicide, slowly dying because of the choices we make and this is our so called ‘normal.’ What in earth are we doing, we treat everything and or everyone with more care than ourselves and we also champion this fact, ‘life is there to enjoy’ and ‘we will all die in the end so why bother’. Becoming honest about our way of living is the only way to true change.
“There is rightly much effort placed on understanding and preventing suicide, but what is unclear to me is why these efforts focus on only one form of suicide.” I find it useful to consider the parallel between the ‘acute’ and ‘long drawn out’ suicide as Joel out lines here. Because when we see the harming lifestyle choices that are killing us – just more slowly – for what they are, we realise in this case too we need “much effort placed on understanding and preventing the suicide”.
Reading your comment Sylvia made me realise (again) how sad it actually is that the world is suffering on such a tremendous large scale. Millions of people would (instantly!!!) die if we take away medicine. How arrogant are we that when we’re offered cancer to make us stop and reflect on our life, that after the treatment we go back to the same lifestyle with the same choices. What is it about us human beings that are so strong in denial? Why is it that we don’t just admit and share along our families, friend and collegaes what is Truly going on inside of us. That we’re indeed all suffering from the fact that we’re not making (self)loving and (self)caring choices.
Often we judge the success of medicine based on the quantity of life it gives and not necessarily the quality. Medicine is sometimes viewed as a way to prolong our time to do the things that we didn’t do when our health was at its peak, because we were busy doing the things that got us sick. Or sometimes it is viewed as a way to continue doing the things that got us sick, and then blamed when it no longer works. We have a responsibility to the life we live and as best we can expressing as much as what it has the potential to be. Medicine is a great tool to help us to correct our trajectory along our path of life, but why do we expect it to be our continual life-preserver as we toss ourselves into stormy seas over and over?
Yes Jane, a lot of pressure on our health care system. Both psychological as well as moneywise. We’re all together paying the bill of allowing people all around us to make these choices that are against everything that we are. We are to grow naturally, according to life – where as we are fighting our natural growth. What is a life in a care home worth when we feel misery and can hardly move anymore. Is this how we want our elderly to live? Waiting to die? Is this how we want to end our lives?
Dear Naren, the massive support Western Medicine is giving us in dealing with our illnesses and diseases is phenomenal. It’s a system that deserves a lot of appreciation if you would ask me. It is the industry that is actually dealing with all of our (non-loving) choices. Without any judgement! It is doing such a great job.
How would it be if we would treat alongside this system all the root causes that brought us into the situation that we actually needed medical support. That would simply be so so amazing and deeply caring. And everyone would benefit on a scale that is hard to imagine for most of us, for now.
So true Floris. Western Medicine is giving us huge support with the after effects of our unloving choices. I have recently experienced this with my broken foot and am amazed with all the things that are in place for people with broken bones in the Fracture Clinic I attended – and all for free financially. It is amazing. I agree with you that this incredible support alongside knowing and understanding the root cause of what has led up to the event is a vital part of the huge healing our Soul has to offer. The two medicines hand in hand is the way to go!
Very true, Floris, the medical systems around the world are so stuck in crisis management mode, they do not have the space to even be able to look at root causes of why everyone is falling ill. Just the tip of the iceberg as a population we are looking at increasing rates of obesity, cancer of nearly all kinds, diabetes, along with unexplainable multi symptomatic conditions which often defy diagnosis, top this off with pop-up pandemics like ebola and the zika virus and medical staff around the world have more than enough on their plate.
It is up to us to alleviate the pressure upon them by living a life where we do not require them to fix us, and when we do need their help we are prepared to heal what our body is showing us. This to me is respect for the medical system.
Wow Lindy, when reading your sharing I cannot help but feel the naturalness of the 2 working together. How wonderful is the appreciation for both the care for both the conventional doctors and carers as well as the ones supporting with healing the root (energetic) cause. How rich will the world be when the 2 will join and work gracefully together.
Amen Floris!
Yes Naren, and on top of that research is showing us that burn-out under doctors is around 50% right now. So something’s wrong. It’s also incredible arrogant to put all the pressure of the rise in illness and disease on the shoulders of the people working in the health-care industry. To me this is actually absurd. We’re to appreciate them for doing a great job alongside the fact that we are to talk and address that we as each and every individual are to take much more responsibility for our own wellbeing. Not by any rules, but by making more and more loving choices. Which is our right and our responsibility to do so. And if this would be common and acknowledged by society than we could have a laughter about it rather than hiding our vulnerability and the true state that we’re in.
I am reading a counselling book at the moment on addictions, and learned that it is commonly accepted in the profession that most people self harm in some way, and that there is actually a term for it – CASHA, ‘culturally accepted self-harming activities’.
Wow Janet! I do wonder if when a behaviour becomes common amongst people, it gets given a label, a term or is deemed a condition. But this is missing the point entirely. If something that is deterimental to our health and wellbeing is becoming common then surely we should be asking why, what’s going on and see this as a growing trend towards epidemic levels, and not settle for it as being something acceptable.
Yes indeed, giving it a name is condoning abuse and irresponsibility.
And saying ‘it’s too hard to find out why this is the case, so let’s give it a label and treat the symptoms…not the cause.
‘Culturally accepted self-harming activities’ –this just goes to show that as a society we tolerate abuse and imagine that because it is culturally accepted that it is okay. Abuse of any kind can never be tolerated if we are to have a society based on love.
Goodness me… this is an indication that as a society we are accepting and tolerating abuse… This is not ok…
If I choose to not accept these self-harming choices – be it in me or others around me – it is quite a challenge. I then do not numb myself to not feel the suffering all over and I have to deal with that. Only if I know who I am, if I live a life based on love I can handle that, but how to do so? All around me, all my models are living more or less in self-abuse.
For me personally, my self-abuse was huge and only the model of Serge Benhayon and other Students of Universal Medicine did open up a way of living to me that reflected a truly self-loving way of being. If all the world around you do ‘so and so’, it is quite hard to live differently. It is in our all responsibility to offer another way of living, by living love every moment…and not accepting abuse any longer.
This is astonishing Janet. Where is the love, if we see self harm as culturally acceptable. It is good to have a name to decribe the craziness of this, but is it about making it a complex, a condition or anything other than a choice.
That is certainly reflecting to society how lost and separated we have become – when self harming becomes a way of life that is acceptable. A sad moment for humanity.
Wow. A serious condition, given it’s own acronym to completely separate us from what is actually going on: a person is choosing to damage themselves physically because they loathe themselves and cannot feel. But call it ‘culturally accepted’ and we can move on to other things.
That is quite shocking in fact… one has to wonder if those in the know about CASHA are not doing anything about it as by doing so, it may affect the CASH flow.
It’s actually amazing that the counselling profession has recognised that there are culturally acceptable self-harming activities, but have they just kept this to themselves or are they bringing this to the attention of the public and their clients?
It was the moment when I chose that I want to live instead of just existing any longer when I said ‘yes’ to the Way of the Livingness and with that I said ‘yes’ to responsibility. This choice is since then challenged again and again and I have to re-do my choice every day, every moment. Life on earth currently is supporting ‘suicide-thinking-and-choices’ much more than honesty and true, alive living. To turn around this normal everyday lifestyle, what is in fact an abnormal dying existing, is the responsibility of all of us. First step is to recognize what we are doing and this blog offers a great realization here.
I agree Jane, there is a fading away, that is implied by slow suicide which comes from existing and that existence not being enough
It is a staggering admission of where we are at as a humanity when these kind of facts are exposed for what they truly mean. So many of us are killing ourselves on a daily basis, and it is celebrated as “living a good life”. Yes, there are extremes such as obesity (although that is no longer extreme and is becoming normal as well), but we are suffering from a chronic lack of self-awareness which is leading us to the misplaced idea that a good life is one of indulgence in excess. For, the majority of lifestyle diseases are indulgences in things in an excessive way, and obviously indulgence in some things which are simply poison to us, but take away our feelings of being responsible for ourselves for a little while.
How bizarre is that we are shocked when someone we know takes their own life, from what we see is no apparent reason… but the self slow death method is OK and just a part of life?
This is a great point you make here Steve, we are shocked when someone takes their own life yet cannot see that the daily choices we make are causing a slower but same result.
More that just being part of life, we would criticize someone that would make a choice not to follow this path… we all want everyone in the same boat even though it is sinking!
This is so important what you have written Joel ‘Lifestyle diseases come from the choices people make about what they eat, drink, how they move and even how they think about life. These choices put stress on the body and lead to diseases like diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, to name but a few.’ Particularly the part about how we move and think can affect our well being. This is something that should be discussed way more than it currently is.
Yes, Vicky this should be discussed way more than it currently is. ‘How we move’ is something that is not even on the radar of our consciousness. Until I attended a Universal Medicine presentation I had not understood that how we move will determine the thoughts we have, which will determine the choices that we make, which will determine the health and well being of our body. This is HUGE! We think that health and wellbeing starts in the mind, but it makes sense that it starts in the body…it makes sense to pay attention to how we move; this not insignificant but an enormous consciousness shift to keeping ourselves healthy and vital.
“So we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves, yet at no point do we ask – “what drives that behaviour?”” And we all have to come to the honesty of asking that question Joel. Because as long as we avoid to look at our lifestyle as the possible cause of the health issues we are facing in our societies, we allow this abusive behaviour to continue, a behaviour that in fact is self chosen from our free will but that we do not want to feel responsible for.
Joel you certainly can’t hide when reading this fantastic blog. This is one that needs to go viral and for us all to read, stop and ponder on what you are sharing. I know for me it feels to be the complete and utter truth of what is going on, I have played this game for a very long time until meeting Serge Benhayon and being presented with another way to live. Bring honesty, truth and love to all that I do – as much as I can find this difficult, I am realising more and more that it is only a choice which has a massive impact on my body and how I feel.
It is really interesting to explore our daily choices and the quality of life they offer us. For example, sugar is consumed for the taste but also because it feels stimulating. Yet the stimulation, where the body is becoming racy, is the body’s attempt to get rid of the excess sugar from the blood stream. What effect is seen as desirable by our taste buds and mind, is actually our body having to work hard (become racy) to clear because it is undesirable for it to function harmoniously. Within this example is the dishonesty in simple choices we make and highlights the choice to die slowly by abusing our own bodies. Honouring the sensitivity of our bodies and choosing awareness over ignorance is the choice to live life to the fullest.
There also seems to be a chronic low self worth pandemic globally. I have watched many people drink alcohol, use drugs, eat very poorly, and self neglect to extreme levels, and not one had an inkling of their worth in this world. There is certainly something terrible going on Joel, and as you write it’s more than everyone making poor lifestyle choices, it’s more a question of “Why are they making these poor lifestyle choices?” – especially since we have more information available to us than ever before about a healthy lifestyle. There is something huge humanity is missing, and as someone who has benefited tremendously from the work of Serge Benhayon I know it is the “deeper connection” to ourselves. Your blog here Joel highlights how critically important the work of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon is to what the world needs right now.
I agree Melinda – I have never felt this so apparent as it is today, as I walk down the street and see and feel the deep sadness that everyone is carrying within, and yet are unaware of. It certainly is amazing to be able to access blogs such as Joel’s – as you say ‘Your blog here Joel highlights how critically important the work of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon is to what the world needs right now’.
What you say Melinda is very true. And the devastation that is occurring is because the choices that people make in that lack of self worth just make the situation even worse. It is an inevitable slide down the slope towards the truth of Joel’s blog and it is that lack of self worth that enables people to make these deeply un-loving choices. Serge Benhayon and the teachings of the Way of the Livingness are a beacon amongst this devastation, re-connecting thousands of people with the power and love that they innately are.
So true Melinda. I was there once, on the ‘lack of self worth self destruct’ cycle until I came to Universal Medicine. Even before Universal Medicine, I’d made more loving choices for myself in how I was living particularly around what I was eating because I could feel how it was affecting me, and how much better I felt when I didn’t have those foods. And that in itself allows awareness to grow and it is a small investment in building our self worth.
This is a document that the world needs to read as it battles with health care systems that cannot cope with the rising tide of chronic disease. We all have to look at how we are living and even more importantly why we are making the choices that we are making.
So very true Elizabeth. We need to get very real about the choices being made, and the actual effect they are having our our health. This of course feeds into the health system and economy, which feeds back to placing pressure on individuals that creates more stress and thus disease. We as humans are largely living in a ‘vicious cycle’ that allows us to continue perpetuating the damage we choose, and not take full responsibility for our choices. How much more calamity do we need to come to before we start to take true prevention into account?
It is definitely something everyone needs to read Elizabeth, we cannot go on like this, people hang on their lives but they are treating themselves so badly and ask for a fix in the healthcare and they are not taking responsibility for their own health/life.
Well said Elizabeth, the responsibility lies with each of us individually and collectively to look at the status quo and ask if it is really working.
Indeed, this is a document that the world needs Elizabeth, and what I want to add to that is the fact that we all have to take our individual responsibility in that what we collectively are creating.
Agree with both of you, Elizabeth and Nico. This document both delicately and firmly presents the illusion we are living under as a race of beings, and is the very reason why the health systems are groaning under the weight of our slow and acute suicide.
So very true Elizabeth. It comes down to accountability and responsibility. If we had to pay for our medical treatment when it was clear that the condition was from our own doing, then it would be a different story. But currently in Australia, there is no accountability. I could go out and binge drink or do drugs and need emergency care to save my life because I’ve gone too far, and it is there. Following an incident like this, we should be asking some very serious questions and supporting the person to deal with whatever it is that has led them to take this path but because our medical system is so stretched to the max in reactive ‘fix it’ treatment, there is no space for a more proactive and supportive services. It may sound harsh, but making people more accountable for how they live and their choices is something I see as necessary.
Thank you for bringing this in Sandra, and I must agree that making people aware of the fact that how they conduct themselves is in fact defining their wellbeing, and with that their call on our social health systems that are currently overstressed due to the high demands people are putting on it because of their irresponsible behaviour i.e. for not feeling personally accountable for the whole system as it is.
Such a great point Joel and one that deserves very careful attention being put towards addressing it – “In the case of ‘chronic’ suicide, not only is it an option, it is considered a normal. In fact it is heralded as the lifestyle all should aspire to. So we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves, yet at no point do we ask – “what drives that behaviour?” This is one of the great questions that we have to answers in this 21-century and the truth of the matter is that Universal Medicine students have answered it. Thanks to the teachings of Universal Medicine they have come off the treadmill of slow suicide and embraced life in full simply because of the choices they are making to make life about love which requires us to take responsibility for how we live and be with ourselves and others.
This is such an important awareness Joel – one that people every where can feel the truth of when it is presented with love and understanding. When we feel the truth for our selves then we can start to choose differently.
So interesting that many of us would not consider this, but the truth is many of us are making choices that will lead to and be the major cause of our own death. I once lived this way, not caring about the consequences of my choices due to the overriding desire to be numb to myself and the world. I feel that many know what they are doing when they are choosing what they are choosing but feel they have no choice. The Ageless Wisdom has shown me there is another way, and this has changed the entire course of my life and that of those around me.
It is empowering to feel how much we can influence how we feel each day but we measure this. We all know what certain foods and drinks do in our bodies…we do know, we just don’t want to acknowledge it in all instances. Dairy is huge one. I see so many people with hayfever, sinisitis and allergies in my every day life, and when I suggest they might want to look at dairy as the culprit or contributor, I am often met with ‘Oh no, I’m not giving up milk/cheese/ice cream’. And so the choice is made to suffer and manage the symptoms, but not give up something that provides a comfort in life.
Since reading your blog Joel, I’ve been noticing more and more how not looking after oneself is often seen as humorous and something almost to be proud of, as strange as this sounds. I’m observing people laughing and almost championing doing no exercise, eating unhealthy food and drinking alcohol and coffee – it’s as if, that’s the way…just enjoy life now and don’t worry about the future. It’s a bastardisation of the true way of living in the present and being responsible. It’s saying ‘just enjoy life now, be irresponsible, don’t worry about getting sick because you’re going to die from something and if I get sick, I’ll go get fixed’.
Wow, this is an insight and it is true, we laugh, joke, take pride in the choices that do us the most harm. I wonder if on some level we do this as a way of brushing off what we are feeling when we make that choice.
Absolutely. ‘Humour’ is the biggest of masks – a pretence that we don’t care – yet underneath that mask is someone who has given up on themselves and knows it….the laughter is very close to tears….hence the truth of this blog and the fact that are millions of us who are slow suiciding.
I know this one well Otto, I can remember the faces of friends in the playground or sport field when the comment would get cutting and hard and all you could do is say “I don’t care” but their faces, their bodies showed a very different picture.
Yes Joel and ottobathurst, humour is a cover up for what we are truly feeling and it takes us further away from the truth of it – I know this from experience. It is a cover up for the hurt we are truly feeling. It feels more honest to indulge in something to excess and be a visible mess from it, as opposed to indulging in something in a more minor way that is deemed acceptable in our society today (e.g. with alcohol). An alcoholic will be seen as someone with problems, and yet someone who drinks less yet often, or who binges now and again is seen as just being normal…and it is these latter behaviours that tend to get the jokes and stories.
True Sandra and Joel, we laugh and we joke about the harm we inflict on ourselves as a cover for the deep sadness we feel – it is a reaction to giving up on the possibility that there could be another way.
Oh Gosh yes Joel. The smile that is literally forced on to the face, whilst the eyes water with tears. I’ve done that many times. And I see it in one of my sons. He hates crying in front of his friends – that pack energy is so strong and it takes real courage to show your true feelings of tenderness and fragility amongst that.
Ouch…I feel and remember that one well
This is so true Sandra, I was like this once and part of a crew that would go to the pub every day after work and stick two fingers up to anything mildly healthy. Smoking, drinking and sneering at anyone jogging past our debauchery. My old crew still does exactly the same thing and I now am the one they sneer at – nothing verbal or physical – but I can just feel the energy when I refuse another invitation back to the pub.
Wow kevmchardy…are you celebrating the massive shift you’ve made from where you were to where you are now?
Sandra this is a great point that this championing and humour that we can go into to avoid the fact that we don’t want to be self-loving and look after ourselves is actually very disturbing. Which only feeds this cycle even more and then before you know it, it has become an ingrained behaviour that you don’t know or feel is possible to get out of. Then this vicious cycle of abusing ourselves keeps being ingrained even further and it becomes our normal and who we think we are. Where in actual fact we couldn’t be further away from out natural, vibrant and gorgeous selves.
It’s true Natalie. When I look at small children, I simply melt because of their gorgeous and natural way, but it isn’t long – maybe 10 or so years before many of them are writing themselves off with booze and maybe drugs. What happens in those years? And why is it seen as either amusing or as a phase they will grow out of. Actually no. I know many 50+ year olds who still write themselves off with booze, so it clearly isn’t a phase, and it definitely isn’t funny. It’s very sad to see someone doing this to themselves.
Great point Joel – ‘ there is still another form of suicide that goes under the radar. What is this other form? Lifestyle diseases.
Lifestyle diseases come from the choices people make about what they eat, drink, how they move and even how they think about life. These choices put stress on the body and lead to diseases like diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, to name but a few.’
Jenny viewing lifestyle diseases as another form of suicide is the wake up call that many of us need to look at the way we choose to live our lives. Its shocking as many people would say they would never “suicide” yet most of us are choosing slow suicide.
Super apt David. There are so many of us who would denounce suicide and consider it to be only for those who are desperately unhappy, yet so many of us are not honest in calling out what our choices in lifestyle are leading to.
Michelle I agree fully, it is a big wake up call to the fact we choose to see things how we want and not allow ourselves the grace of being honest that our deep seated unhappiness and choices are simply a slower form of suicide than the shock taking of one’s life that can occur.
Yes it is shocking David, and I feel this has everything to do with the fact that as a race we have not fully realised that there are only two available energies that we can choose from . . . fire or prana. There is no neutral ground. I remember being ‘shocked’ by this when I first came to a Universal Medicine presentation – there was an absoluteness about it that shocked me and I realised that every choice I made either healed or harmed me. The slow suicide is dependant upon ignoring this truth.
So true Joel, I see people killing themselves slowly – through poor health and lifestyle choices, but also through not appreciating and loving themselves…killing themselves by being hard on themselves, negative and self critical. This in itself kills your joy and your willingness to live!
Marianna, your words, this blog, and its thread of comments show just how much work there is to do to support our fellow human beings.
Marianna – a super point. I feel that it is actually the lack of appreciation and lack of self love that is the real killer. When we can deeply appreciate ourselves and be understanding of the choices we make and why we make them then the desire to self abuse through lifestyle choices diminishes. Appreciation leads to so much vitality and joy.
It is so true that making the choices that we know will harm us is a slow suicide. We make those choices because we do not want to live. We do not want to feel what life is presenting to us. The truth has to be that we did not love ourselves enough to ask the simple question…is this healing or harming me?
Every choice choice we make has a consequence. Sometimes those consequences are clear sometimes we choose to not have them so clear. Sometimes I stand back and marvel at how something has unfolded, it makes me realise we are all connected.
That we are committing slow suicide and playing Russian roulette with our health is very exposing but very true Joel. Each choice that we make has an impact on our body, we may not recognise or want to accept this, but over time our disharmonious choices build up in our body and eventually lead to illness and disease. When you call it chronic suicide it makes absolute sense to me, it is something we choose for ourselves we can not blame anyone or anything for how we live, we are the sum total of our choices.
Well said Alison, and very true – our disregarding choices can build up overtime and if we continue to avoid looking at them then it can get to a point where the body has to send a strong message, via illness or disease, to flag up what’s going on. Unfortunately often our arrogance is so strong that we CONTINUE to avoid looking at our relationship with self and our choices, and thus a cycle of ‘make choices – avoid – get sick – find cure – make choices – avoid’ can continue for a very long time.
Agree Susie. Which is why Joel’s blog is so important. It is when we start calling things for what they truly are that it becomes much less easy to hide our behaviours. Of course many still will, and that is OK. But the truth of these words offers people an opportunity to look much deeper at what they are playing out. It has certainly made me look much deeper.
This is a brilliant blog. What I have noticed in many, many people when I talk to them about lifestyle choices is an already present strong suicidal energy. What I mean is that it is not just that they absolutely know that what they are doing or eating, is killing them…it is more…there is a part of them that actually ‘wants’ that. They are so given up that they actually don’t care. I’m not talking about the more obvious super-depressed, ‘suicidal’ people, from which one would understand such thoughts, I’m talking about people whose lives, on the surface, look OK – but there is definitely a part of them that is saying “yeah, I know, but stuff it, who cares, life’s not worth it anyway…” So what I am saying is that the gap between the text book suicide-committers and what Joel is presenting is, in my experience, often not as big as one might expect. This blog is 100% spot on.
This is worth considering Otto…”the gap between the text book suicide-committers and what Joel is presenting is, in my experience, often not as big as one might expect.” There is certainly a given-up-ness in both – perhaps the only difference is that one takes immediate action and the other doesnt?
Very well said Otto. If we look at any disregarding behaviour we can see that it has to stem from the fact we have no regard for ourselves. And if you have no regard for yourself, then the choice to do something reckless, or destructive, and the choice to commit suicide, is simply a case of extremes.
It’s interesting this Paula. You could say that those that take immediate action are in fact the ones that are being more honest. Whereas the ‘slow suiciders’ that Joel talks about can hide in their ‘normal’ behaviour and so don’t get that wake up call. And then even when the life-threatening illness occurs they can keep hiding because they can deny having done anything ‘abnormal’ to their bodies. Whereas the person who cut themselves, took pills or jumped off a building can not deny that they made that choice.
So true Otto, it is quite shocking but very accurate. The “yeah, I know, but stuff it, who cares, life’s not worth it anyway…” attitude is extremely prevalent. I know, I lived like that for many years because I felt so hurt and wounded by life and other people. Thank God that I came across Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon, a man who restored my faith in people and thereby supported me to restore my faith in me. It has taken some courage to face, feel and heal the hurts that fed the “stuff it” attitude, but it has worked miracles and it has led me to truly realise that the hurts I experienced have arisen 100% from my choices in the first place. We are all worth so much more, all we need is a true reflection to remind us to not give up, but to deeply cherish ourselves and one another, it transforms our lives beyond recognition.
The point you are making here is very valid Otto. I can understand that many many of us live in a very given up way and so the choices we make reflect that. When pointed out this gap you talk of doesn’t seem that huge and yet how many of us who do live in that given up quality really honestly admit that we have given up on life and that really we are on the same trajectory as those who do commit suicide?
This is so true Otto, ‘What I have noticed in many, many people when I talk to them about lifestyle choices is an already present strong suicidal energy. What I mean is that it is not just that they absolutely know that what they are doing or eating, is killing them’, I find this too, it is common knowledge that smoking, drinking, eating too much sugar etc.. is harmful and yet a huge percent of the population continue to choose these despite the harm they cause.
Yes, Otto, this is a great observation and one that I too have experienced. The message I get from many is, ‘we are all going to die anyway’ or ‘YOLO,’ which I hear a lot from young people which translates to ‘you only live once.’ They use this as an expression when they are not bothered about the consequence of a poor choice.
I hear what you say Otto. Seemingly ‘extreme’ or not, it’s all the same choice. And we’ve all been there. The most fundamental change that has occurred in my life since coming to the work of Universal Medicine, is that I’ve been inspired to the point of realising I no longer needed to ‘be there’.
Am I perfect in my choices? No way. But by far these days, those choices that actually reflect my commitment to living a full, rich and purposeful life, far outweigh the choices that say ‘get me outa here, I’ve had enough’.
This fundamental shift that has now occurred for so very many people needs to be known far and wide. I see it occurring nowhere else on the planet – such a depth of inner connection and committedness to truly being here, and loving ourselves and all others so deeply. A fundamental shift in one’s Will.
Thank you Joel, reading your blog opened my eyes to the fact that how we are living and the choices we make can be actually slow suicide. It seems extreme but it is a great wake up call because in truth it is slow suicide to constantly eat foods that do not support the body or drink alcohol which is officially a poison.
This is again a thought provoking blog Joel. Taking responsibility for the choices we make in life every day is paramount to our wellbeing on this earth plane. To be aware of this is so important and means we again take responsibility for these decisions, not blame outside influences.
Thank you Joel, once again. We definitely need to look at our world in these terms. Why is it that the majority are choosing to slowly kill themselves, or allow themselves to suffer? There are a myriad of hurts, ideals and beliefs that underlie the choices to consume foods and not move in a way that truly supports the body. These need healing and addressing, not the external quick fixes that abound. Much of the education and media about what is healthy comes laced with untruth, or are blatant lies driven by greed and self agenda. There needs to be more responsibility taken in this, and self moved out of the way, if we are to truly work towards true health and vitality for all.
You have deepened the conversation nicely, to identifying the hurt and ideal that lead to those hurts, that may well be behind the cravings, that we have. Maybe we can’t really change the psyche until we find a way to be different with the energetic
That is the key really Joel, finding the way to be with the energetic is vital. It was the turning point for me, locked on a slow suicide trajectory that would have inevitably resulted in diabetes and heart disease. Being shown how to feel and deal with the energy behind my self destructive lifestyle has resulted in a miraculous shift in health, well-being and awareness. I am not alone and not a special case, so many of us have experienced these miracles. It is possible and not only possible but entirely sustainable. The more we feel, heal and release the energy inside us that does not belong to us, the easier the self harming habits fall away.
Thank you Joel and Amelia, could it be we have to first come to the truth of “everything being energy” as presented by Serge Benhayon?
For more about the truth of the two energies go to – http://truthaboutuniversalmedicine.com/2016/02/11/appreciation-appreciation-appreciation/comment-page-6/#comment-113813
Yes Amelia , all patch up band-aids aimed to fix us, in an attempt to cover up our hurt and trauma, so that we don’t take responsibility and discovery that we are in fact, amazing.
We shoot our self in the foot, put a band-aid on it and ask who did that?
ha ha Steve that is so true…. we also sometimes ask why did that happen to me?
Until we get to considering the energetic, we are only administering
band-aids…. it’s time to get real, we are too precious to allow the truth to be kept from our fellow man any longer.
I agree Amelia, we need to get really honest with ourselves because we all have the power to change the ways of the world and return to a more true way of being. It is inside of us.
And we need to be honest about the systems we live in that propagate self neglect on such a wide reaching level. Education for instance has the power to support children and adults to feel their self worth, to feel valued for who they are (and not what they do), and to put self care above all else (but they often do the opposite). Workplaces could also integrate many principles of self care and put people first in their lists of priorities. Then there is politics and legislature, and so on. I could continue adding to this list of the systems in place that seriously contribute to the communication of the worthlessness of human beings.
Wow Melinda so true. The systems in place that contribute to the ‘slow suicide’ epidemic are far and wide. Education. Politics. Work. Religion. Families.
Even listing them brings the extent of our contribution to ‘the communication of the worthlessness of human beings.’ No wonder we have a self-worth issue. It can all seem too big yet we all have the capacity to make changes just by being honest and expressing.
It’s clear, isn’t it Melinda, that a fundamental paradigm shift is what is called for – and that whilst we are a long way off this coming about on a larger scale, if we continue ourselves to contribute to the endemic giving up and self-harm Joel describes, we remain a part of the problem. It’s our call.
No true paradigm shift ever occurred without firstly a group of people living and making a true difference – something I see and am immensely inspired by with the student body of Universal Medicine, where so many of these trends are not only being reversed, they’re being blown right out of the water.
Absolutely Amelia. We can’t start choosing to lovingly support ourselves until those hurts are healed and we can change the quality or energy of how we are with ourselves. I know that most of the quick fixes that you talk of rely on the will power of the participant, but will power alone does not change the lack of self worth or heal the hurts that lie underneath the choices we make. When we start to reject those quick fixes and resort to previous behaviours we feel like we have failed and can often feel worse about ourselves than we did before… There is no success or failure however, simply loving or unloving and an openness to feeling honestly into the hurts we carry.
I appreciate the way you put ‘acute’ suicide next to the slow and steady suicide that we inflict upon ourselves by our lifestyle choices; it might at first seem radical when we take into account the shock and severity of someone taking their own life, but the parallel needs to be drawn and brought out into the open. It might just shake us up and out of our resignation and lethargy.
I felt this was really poignant as well Gabriele, Joel really gets the point across in doing this; and as you say ‘the parallel being drawn and brought out not the open’. It is needed. The wake up call is needed.
Yes well said Gabriele. “It might just shake us up and out of our resignation and lethargy.” If we start to look at ‘slow’ suicide it may reveal more about the ‘acute’ suicide as well because many people are on the ‘slow’ suicide track and this does not always create a harmonious, loving world to live in. This can result in people so much not liking their life that they choose to end it acutely. If we all would live in a more self-loving way the whole way life is would change.
I agree that the ‘parallel needs to be drawn and brought out into the open’. We seem to be living in a stupor; a numbing tactic to not feel the intensity of life, but in so doing we make choices that are a slow suicide. I think I heard it said that this is the first generation that won’t generally out live their parents. This is a stocking statement to the truth of the way we are choosing to live and the effects this has on our health.
Wow Rachel – that is some statement! The first generation that won’t outlive their parents.. What more evidence could we possibly need that says the way we are living is wayward?
I too have heard that prediction Rachel, and I see the evidence of how our youngsters are making unhealthy choice every day in the foods they eat and the repercussions of their lifestyles. Many come into school late having had very little sleep because of being on their computers all night, and often for breakfast it will be a packet of biscuits and an energy drink.
True Rachel. That is an enormous and very bitter pill to swallow. Parents living through the death of an adult child is not what we ever expect to happen. The tragedy is that this anomaly is man made, and it affects only man – no other species seals its own demise in such a committed and effective way.
You are so right Rachel. Suicide and slow suicide are a man-made condition – something the animals never do. What is that bitter ingredient in us that would cause us to damage the very vehicle we inhabit and that we need to live our life on earth. What pain is so dire that we need to cancel out our bodies? There is huge hurt and carelessness and lack of love operating here . . . against ourselves!
” the first generation that won’t generally out live their parents.” Is an indictment of the foundations we as parents and generations before have laid and allowed. We have contributed to the demise of our next generation … That’s tragic and a bitter pill to swallow!!
Lyndy, this is something that we do not consider – we are “cancelling out our bodies” with every thing we do that goes against what it would choose. How strange these human lives of ours are! We live in absolute contrariness to the body we need to live in!
And we do desperately need shaking up Gabriele, I agree. The way Joel has presented the reality of our situation is truly remarkable. It provides us with a whole new awareness of how seemingly innocent daily choices are in fact slowly but surely killing us. Where is our self regard and self love? It is not in the bottle of wine, the finely ground roasted coffee beans or that ever so tempting slice of chocolate cake, that I now know beyond doubt. Nor does it lie in pounding the pavement to burn the calories. Until I studied Universal Medicine I had never fully appreciated just how delicate, sensitive and responsive my body is and learning to honour, care for and nourish myself has restored me to a level of health never previously experienced in my life to date. The choices we make everyday really do matter, everything we do either heals or harms us and each choice is at the bottom line, based on how much we want to live or die.
Yes I love the new awareness that Joel has offered. It is groundbreaking in its presentation and the severity of its message really makes me stop and ponder. I also really appreciate where you share our self love isn’t and how our choices do not take into account the deep sensitivity we are. I have also come to appreciate this about myself, and to bury it under punishing the body with substances, going into hardness and overriding what I know t be true, feels incredibly abusive now.
True Gabriele, we need to begin to make these realities clearer and ‘shake us up’. What Joel presents is so true and what is worse, slowly killing myself or getting it over and done with in a second? Do we pull the Bandaid off slowly or with one swift action? We need more of these conversations.
I agree Bernadette…we do need more open and honest conversations about how we as a society are truthfully living – it is not pretty, but can’t be avoided as it is all around us if we are willing to open our eyes and truly see what is going on and the choices we are making on a daily basis.
Yes Paula and it is getting behind what is happening before these choices are made. Is it possible that the lack of self worth is also a choice, when in truth we are all so precious and equal in our amazingness, just because we exist, not because of any achievement or attainment?
You are right Bernadette, we need these real conversations. Lifestyle diseases are not just a trending phrase. They are people spending years in pain, hobbling and finally limited to walking frames and scooters because they cannot walk properly. They are people who are unable to breathe properly because their lungs do not function. Without breath you cannot do much. They are people spending years living with chest pains that limit how far they can walk, and impair the vivacity of playing with family for fear of attacks of angina….the list could go on forever of how life style diseases make life a misery…no life at all.
Thank you Gabriele. Yes it has become the norm that people get sick and we generally just see it as something that happens as we age – oh we get forgetful, our knees breakdown, we lose our hair and our teeth, we have to take a multitude of tablets, we put on weight, etc, etc. But all of this is not actually a pre-requisite to getting older and the way that we live (our lifestyles) actually have a huge part to play in this. It is really worth us looking at this more closely and to have continued discussions of this nature.
I agree Gabriele. There does seem to be an acceptance that as we get older, it’s inevitable that we are going to get sick. We have got used to people dying from cancer, whereas in the past it was quite rare. We do need to look at how our lifestyle choices are affecting our health and take steps to play our part in our own well-being.
I agree Gabriele, at times things need to be put very bluntly to make us see what we avoid to see.
When I was in my teens and 20s, I often used to pose the question “is their life before death?” so it is not just that so many are slowly committing suicide but that at times people are already living as the living dead so to speak. I clearly must have felt like that myself in my teens and 20s to be regularly pondering that question. Thanks to Serge Benhayon I now am not only full of life but know there is no death!
Thank you Nicola. I still see the ‘living dead’ amongst us every day and it’s not just the slow paced bodies, it’s the rush and sadness I feel in people that are checked out. Every cell in their bodies are crying out for care and consideration and yet they are ignored… And when we consider that there is no death then we wonder…how many times have we all lived like this and will continue to … until we choose differently?
Wouldn’t that be a revelation for all to know we are full of life, complete in every way and wonderful things are there for us to experience as we go through the phases life after life. Whereas life with beginning and an end, death takes away the responsibility in the way we live here and now. Clearly we have it all wrong and slow suicide is the only option to getting through life as we know it…. for now!
When things happen fast we get a shock. A huge oil tanker sinking with its spilt contents choking the ocean pushes us to outrage. The slow trickles of oil that pollute it just as badly but stretched over 50-100 years barely raise an eyebrow. Same result, but the time compression makes the shocking impact. We accommodate things more than we know…get so used to people being sick that it is normal to us.
Well said Rachel… the slow poison, yet it’s still a poison.
And yet, to view it all in another light also – go back 5, 10, 20 years, and the changes occurring in our global health trends are not slow at all, they are alarmingly and endemically on the rise.
And still, do we yet peer over the rim of our take-away triple shot long black coffee? Nope. I’d rather stay viewing my own neighbourhood, and accept the decline of my vitality and wellbeing as ‘normal’, thank-you very much…
The slowness and rapidity are relative things Victoria in our perception of time. As a child time drags out for an eternity, 10 minutes feels like 10 years. But in the hectic pace of modern adult life, 20 years seems to pass in a moment. Even though we talk about the passage of time being too fast, we do not see that such an increase in disease in this time frame is terrifying. Slow suicide is not so slow.
It shows us how desensitised we are, only when something comes with full force are we willing to see it as not normal/good.
Not so slow at all Rachel. We are hurtling ourselves into rates of obesity, diabetes and the rest at lightning speed…
This is relativity Victoria. When love is the reference point, the speed we are going into the hole of disease is unbearably fast.
Resignation, lethargy and the deepest giving up and apathy… Agreed in full Gabriele. This is where the conversation needs to be taken.
Absolutely Gabriele, you are stating the obvious to me, when suggesting “It might just shake us up and out of our resignation and lethargy,” and also our comfort zone, which according to some must be left undisturbed at all cost! So why are we resisting the simple fact that when we, “look at the ‘Before and After’ pages on the Universal Medicine website and you will see people making different choices. They are not better people, nor special people, but they have been brave enough to explore what it was they were missing, which turned out to be a deeper connection to themselves”?
Could it be there are two energies – one driving us to suicide and the other to a deeper connection to the light of our soul? If this is true, and when we look at the “Before and After” pages, there should be no doubt about there being two choices, it means that the presentations by Serge Benhayon that “ everything is because of energy” should become a scientific truth!
Every choice we make can either reflect our appreciation of our bodies and commitment to life or push us away from truly living.
Our choices are killing us and yet we ignore this fact every day. We could ask ourselves ….is this healing me or harming me?…. and with the truth of this just go from there.
We’re so addicted as a race to ‘getting’ love first before we choose to show our love. This game seemingly protect us, but takes away the complete joy in life. We do have a choice – in every moment and in every encounter to connect to the astonishing, delicate, fragile and powerful Love in ourselves and others.
Now that’s a different way to live and approach life – to ask – ‘Is this healing me or harming me?’ How would our day to day choices differ if we considered this before we made any decisions?
It becomes a total game changer to live that way.
Absolutely Steve and Shevon. To live by the plan ‘is it healing or harming me?’ is a sure-Fire way back to Heaven and to assisting all to come back. We could reverse the downhill slide into both slow and acute suicide with the simple act of choosing lovingly.
Agree. And we all know the answer to that question, so ignorance is definitely not an excuse.
Yes, Shevon, if this one question was asked the world would be a different place, as there would be a level of self responsibility that is sadly lacking and avoided by the majority.
I agree Shevon and we could also simply ask “is it healing or harming” because our choices affect everyone whether we choose to be aware of it or not. So there is no “me” really in the equation as we harm everyone including ourselves with non loving choices.
Nicola, there is such power in the truth of your expression here ‘there is no me’…
Yes, and what you are actually asking yourself is: is this slowly killing me or not…?
That’s exactly it Mariette. Do we dare to be that honest with our choices?
So kathrynfortuna, after reading Joel’s blog and your comment, I reckon that simply living in sustained misery is part of the slow suicide.
I know people who eat well, exercise, and so on, but they are so very unhappy that they are living on antidepressants to get through the day. They hate their lives, and would not end them in a violent act – but is it living when you can’t bear to open your eyes every morning?
And if we are not living, then what are we doing.
Just existing Rachel. Why would we keep on choosing that?
Well said Rachel Mascord. I remember attending a workshop about 23 years ago (yep..), in which I wrote the words to myself that I wanted “to live”. I was acutely aware at the time that there was a richer, more connected way ‘to live’ and also aware of how divorced I felt from it – Thoreau’s quote about people living “lives of quiet desperation” had been with me from my teens…
It was not until coming to the work of Universal Medicine that the way to actually live started to not only make sense, but become a reality – the parts of me that had so deeply given up started to come alive again, and I started taking far greater of myself in the process. What an AMAZINGLY TRANSFORMATIONAL time and association it has been…
Today, I know that I do indeed “live”, and, that there is no end point to the consistency and depth of joy, love and purpose that can be lived and embraced in life. The choice to reconnect to ourselves and choose life over an existence of misery that confirms nothing but our wont to get out of it, is actually here, now, for us all.
It seems we are all making choices that are slowly killing us and yes, death is inevitable for us all but do we have to cause ourselves more pain and grief than we need to at the end. Choosing to listen to our bodies and make more loving and supportive choices is definitely the way to go for a more joyful and healthy life
Yes Julie, and quality of death is so important – we do not need to give up and fade away. We can be vital to the end.
Yes, we do not have control over the fact that we will one day die, but we can control the quality of life we have simply through the choices we make.
Thinking in this way really does allow a level of responsibility we are naturally meant to be living, seeing how easily we fall for all the distractions that are all around us such as work, family issues, relationship issues, naming just a few it makes even the understanding of death something we do not consider whatsoever. So the simplicity of each day and making each day about the quality we are choosing to do all our jobs makes this development a JOYFUL experience to understand and by no means drain.
well said Kate, it is all about the quality of life we live in that counts so we can be all the love, joy and harmony that is our innate right to live with and enjoy with all.
Great point, it comes down to being responsible In the choices we make. We can make more loving and supportive choices for a joyful and healthier life, then there is no space for giving up energy to creep in.
Joel, this is absolutely brilliant! “That means that there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day.” – to look at this from this perspective is very very exposing! It makes us realise that every choice we make is either one that support us and allows us to grow, or one that holds us back and is a slow suicide. Some might see this as a bit extreme, but the reality is that there are no choices that don’t lead to one or the other option, like it or not.
Absolutely Henrietta. It puts emotions in a totally different light when considered this way
Hi Henrietta – The consideration of beginning to chronic suicide from birth has stopped me in my tracks – this is possible first by unaware parenting and then by choices we make as we enter the years when it is up to us to choose how we live our lives. What is also so powerful is that we can all choose differently ‘in a moment’ – it is up to us. Now that’s not complicated – it’s simple. Thanks Joel for the lightening bolt.
Agreed Henrietta. Anything that does not truly support us comes from the deepest giving up on life – it’s a confirmation that we don’t want to be here.
This doesn’t sound ‘extreme’ at all – just the plain and simple truth, as Serge Benhayon has been basically teaching and sharing since day one. A wake-up call most deeply needed.
“The reality is that we must be carrying a level of sorrow or loss that is so strong that either ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ suicide becomes an option.” – true words Joel. If we were living with a fullness and joy then this wouldn’t even be an option. And so, any form of suicide is an indicator of a level of despair.
The slow suicide path affects many people as does acute suicide…neither affect just the person making the lifestyle choices. A friend’s mother, an ex-smoker, has recently had a lung transplant. He, his father and his sisters are now living through seeing her very slow recovery. The impacts to them and other family members is huge.
What amazes me is that what we consider as ‘having a good time’ is often the total opposite – drinking alcohol, eating lots, taking drug and partying hard etc. It is very hard to see through this self-feeding, self-sustaining trap – because those who are in it actually think they are having a great time living it large, and would only consider taking it to even more extreme. We have completely got it wrong.
There is so much to deeply ponder on in this blog Joel. What you share is quite startling in its perspective. The two points that leap out of course are that through our lifestyle choices most of us are committing suicide (albeit slowly it is suicide nonetheless), and that two because these lifestyle choices are considered normal we are actually encouraging one another to die prematurely. Asking the fundamental question of what drives us to do this is huge and rather than dismissing it and carrying on we need to stop and consider the point raised that it is actually the connection to ourselves and to something grander that we are missing the most.
Yes, I am sitting up after reading this from Joel. We have the power to change if we live or die and we have the power to live well or unwell lives.
Joel, I was making choices that were slowly killing me before I met Serge Benhayon. It was then that my choices began to change. Your article has got me to stop and consider what choices do I still make that may cause ill health…… as I am up for continually improving my health and well being.
Great point Sally. It’s great we make very supportive healthy choices and commit to these. But here we may rest with a sense of that’s enough. However I can feel that there are subtle ways of living and thinking that aren’t totally healthy and these are worth becoming honest about as well. Ill thoughts or ill body are still harmful to ourselves and others.
Beautiful Sally!
A big call Joel but a very true one, thank you for starting this conversation.
Joel another powerful blog thank you, you raise a very confronting point for many… but it is absolutely true. As a society we are killing ourselves slowly with our lifestyle choices… and if we spoke that way about it, many more might take the opportunity to stop and consider more deeply what you have shared.
This blog shines a great deal of light on the truth of our behaviour and the fact that many of us simply do not care. It is very easy to hand responsibility to the medical system for all the lousy choices we have made and continue to live in this irresponsibility. The angle that has been presented here regarding suicide gives us the choice to approach it differently. With every choice that we make we could potentially ask ourselves “Am I choosing to die or am I choosing to live”?
Joel, I use these same World Health Organisation statistics as an introduction to a life-style and health session I present, and it is always a shocker. You’ve taken this to a whole new level in the way you relate the number of deaths from chronic (and preventable) diseases to life-style choices. The language you’ve used ‘slow suicide’ and ‘life-style disease’ is graphic and powerful. People devastated by an ‘acute’ suicide, are more accepting when a person is diagnosed with a chronic disease: they are more common, normalised and have an air of inevitability about them. Sometimes, it’s necessary to shock people out of complacency and deep sleep mentality, if only to gain their attention and get them reflect on how they’re really living.
This is a very important blog. It gives us all a reflection of what is truly going on in the world and what causes the diseases leading up to as I would say ‘living dead’ – being in a suffering body, which leads to a slow death. It is our choices. I can tell you that is true. End of my teens I reached a point to not-want-to-be-here. I never made it to suicide, but I guess with me there are 1000s of acute near suicides who stay under the radar of statistics. Just acute cries for help after years of small non-loving choices. I found out already at 14 I made a conscious choice that I did not want to live anymore. What did I do from then on? Give up, not put effort in loving myself, disregard, withdrawal – and yes on an everyday level. Culminating into a unbearable situation when I was 19. I was so not-at-ease with myself that the only choice left was to step out of life. I couldn’t practically. What saved me? Another choice: to stop thinking of death and start a life. That was my turning point – to start other lifestyle choices. And here I am loving life and deeply loving myself.
The old saying when ordering a drink was ‘what is your poison’ from the bar tender.
Yes Steve – we reveal so much of what we actually know in these kinds of sayings, ‘What’s your poison?’ We do at some level know exactly what we are doing to our selves.
Beautiful Jane!
Joel I so love this. Hard hitting, to the point and laid out for all to see. “…to end their life in an abrupt way.” Adding abrupt in there was a great point – we are all doing the same thing, but just doing it slowly. I went to a talk about cancer and preventable diseases and realised exactly what you have said – that by our choices we are all killing ourselves. It dumbfounded me. I love what you said about encouraging each other to do so as well… But what was super awesome, was the reason behind all of this. We miss the deeper connection with ourselves.
You write that “… there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day”. So true and quite astonishing really (to put it mildly) that the apparently most intelligent species on this planet consider it normal to bludgeon and slowly kill themselves with food, drinks, drugs and by other choices, slow and steady one at a time. And what does that really say about our intelligence?
It says a lot Gabriele. It’s particularly interesting that both chronic and acute suicide affects people from all backgrounds, and there are statistics that show Doctors themselves having high rates of acute suicide. But moreso, medical professionals who know the affects of alcohol and cigarettes as an example, but choose to partake in consuming them. This is not intended as a judgement of them, but just an observation that highly skilled and intelligent people who are trained in medicine, make lifestyle choices the same as someone who may be considered less intelligent by way of education and training, with the same results.
I could not have said that in better words Gabriele – what kind of an “intelligence” are we really talking about here, if it is one that kills us every day? Would not REAL intelligence ensure that we did not damage nor kill ourselves nor each other?
Good point. Gabriele. What it says about our intelligence is that we are sourcing and aligning to an intelligence that does not care about the very body it inhabits. This does not make sense and cannot be called intelligence. True intelligence would, for starters, care for and love the body so that it can support our life on earth. So self-care would be one of the most intelligent choices we can make.
A really valid point you have made Joel. It brings to question, well how honest are we? And I would say with what you have shared, not very honest at all.
Totally agree Jane – this article does make you sit up and realise just how much choice we have in our daily lives and the impacts of those choices. And great how you said that actually this can be an empowering thing to realise, not something we need to run away from.
Joel, gosh when you write it like this it really is crazy, ‘That means that there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day.’ I can feel how important it us for us all to be honest about our lifestyle choices and the consequences of them, such as alcohol, and smoking being considered ‘acceptable’, when they can both lead to illness and disease; it’s time to really look at our choices and the impact they have on our health.
It can feel challenging to understand that we are actually literally making choices in daily life that are making us sick. But it is actually very empowering to understand this as just as we can choose ourselves ill we can choose ourselves well, as the before and after photographs that you mention Joel showcase.
Yes Andrew it can be confronting to fully take on that we’re ‘making choices in daily life that are making us sick.’ In group work I sometimes meet real resistance when this truth is presented. It is my responsibility to continue to present truth as an education and act of love. As you say it is empowering to understand, then we can make informed choices.
Enter mass suicide – the aggregate of all those individual chronic suicides happening under an illusory global umbrella of perceived normal lifestyle behaviour.
It’s interesting and astonishing how much we don’t want to see it all and don’t want to change.
Yes, Cathy, this blog invites us to look at the bigger picture and have a major reality check about what we have accepted as the norm.
Strong words Cathy, but ones that are very true.
I agree Joel it makes no sense that many of us choose to do things that impair our health and wellbeing and eventually will kill us, unless there is something underlying these behaviours – a deep dis-ease, dis-content, and emptiness that we will do almost anything to distract ourselves from, even if it means harming our own bodies and our health.
When we think of self-harm we tend to think of teenagers cutting their wrists or overdosing on drugs but if we extend this definition to mean anything we deliberately do that impairs our health and wellbeing, than most of the planet would fall into the category of self-harmers. Now this is not alarmist or negative but if the reality was actually broadcast on the media perhaps we would take notice and ask why?
It seems to me that lifestyle diseases and the self-harming behaviours that cause them have become so normalised and accepted as inevitable in our society that we have glossed over the fact that they are actually based on a deliberate choice to harm ourselves or not. If we became more honest about this and started questioning why this is occurring we may just get closer to discovering why it is that a large proportion of the population of the world are essentially choosing a slow death over a full life.
Yes, Andrew, we know that we are harming ourselves at every turn, so it is certainly time to stop trying to kid ourselves and each other that illness and disease just ‘happens’ to us.
Great perspective here Joel. It is easy to be shocked and appalled by a sudden suicide of someone choosing to end their life in one single act, and yes so we should be rightly shocked by this. The pain and hurt of those left behind is very palpable for a long time afterwards. But as you say is it any less shocking that many of us are slowly killing ourselves with certain obviously self-harming behaviour? When we do this we also put our own lives at risk and this also affects everyone around us whom we leave behind through a premature and unnecessary death.
The slow suicide of our self-abusive lifestyle is very revealing of how most people in the world feel about themselves. This article is without judgment pointing out that the widespread self-abuse is common and normalized even glorified in our homes and society and this is like a disease affecting us all not just those who take their own lives ‘all of a sudden’.
Very true Bernard. If preventable diseases wasn’t a thing, we would all get to enjoy each other for a little bit longer.
It is easy to see your point Joel, and it highlights that for someone to commit suicide there has to be mental health issues, and the majority of people in the world who are miserable, or self-harm with Alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, violence, or other abusive lifestyle choices must have similar mental health issues albeit less intense.
This paints lifestyle diseases in a different light Joel. They are the leading cause of not only death but illness as well let alone looking at the cost of these to society. I feel like the missing link is that it is a choice. Each and everyday some people are choosing to kill themselves, albeit slowly, and others are not. What drives these choices and why do some feel that they do not have a choice? Is there something underlying that we are missing? Is there something that is not being addressed?
Yes great questions Lee, it would appear from the ‘Before and After’ pages Joel has referenced, that there is definitely something not being addressed. Who, in their right mind (as the saying goes) would knowingly make these sort of self-harming choices. It would seem it is all in the connection we choose, whether we are in fact in ‘right mind’ or not. Still a choice, interestingly enough.
Slow suicide is still suicide – that is a strong, but after reading this blog I realise a very true, statement. So what is it we are avoiding feeling, that we choose to live in ways that are so destructive to our health that we end up with some form of disease that was entirely preventable? For if we are willing to be honest with ourselves, we all know when we are doing things that are detrimental to our health. Whether it is through diet, emotional reactions, or even competitive sports, to name but a few. It’s well worth taking a stop moment (this could even be considered a responsibility we have towards ourselves and towards each other) for us to consider the patterns we have become entrenched in that can lead down this road of destruction, and then are we willing to change these behaviours. Some have already begun taking more responsible loving steps towards self-care and care for others.
I often hear people say ‘Ah well, you’re going to die of something’ or ‘everything in moderation is ok’ and are dismissive of a healthier way to live and continue to smoke, eat foods that are causing obesity (and potentially many related conditions) and drink alcohol. But what they’re really saying is ‘don’t take away my only pleasures, the sweetener in my life, the thing that gets me through my day/week – for without it, I don’t know how I’d cope’. And that’s the level of honesty that is needed before any kind of lifestyle change can occur, as without the honesty, one habit gets replaced by another one, even a seemingly healthier one.
Beautifully nailed Sandra. Honesty is the key to moving to true health and well being, We are not encouraged to be honest (in the true sense) right from the time we are very young. When a young child voices the truth, they are often dismissed, ignored or even put down. We stop being honest and start holding back or even lying to fit in and protect ourselves. Here teachers can play an invaluable and amazing role with supporting children in their honest expression. This will literally be saving lives further down the track.
Love this comment Sandra.
It’s a great comment Sandra and proves how spot on Joel’s blog is. For in essence what these people are saying is “without this ‘pleasure’ my life isn’t worth living”. Pretty easy to see the suicidal tendencies already running rampant.
Symptoms such as headaches, skin conditions, period pain, digestive issues, joint pain to name just a few are seen as ‘normal’ these days, and can be managed with over the counter medication – pop a pill and it goes away. But if feeling vital and joyful is our natural way of being, then anything less is dis-ease.
To consider what kind of anguish so many people across countries and cultures are suffering, is an eye-opening question in itself. To walk past bars in the streets and not just see people who drink alcohol, but to feel that there is something deeper going on, is worth a try. Thanks for the inspiration to connect to much more than the eye can see.
I so agree with you Felix. it’s a huge eye opener to let ourselves feel the quiet suffering people choose all around us. Even more of an inspiration to reflect the truth back, that we can absolutely live with huge joy and love in our lives.
Well said Felix. What’s going on under it all is the real eye opener. Brings so much understanding. Being open to feeling how sad we are can help bring about a change.
Joel, reading this today and in particular ‘Lifestyle diseases come from the choices people make about what they eat, drink, how they move and even how they think about life’ stopped me as I considered how I think, and then how I move, it’s not always the obvious ways that we ‘disease’ ourselves, it’s those moments where we choose to say beat ourselves up (one of my favourites, which I’m beginning to drop), and understanding that it’s part of a long line to how we abuse ourselves and we don’t have to do that, we can lovingly address it and begin to live in a way where that is not part of who we are; and that’s the irony actually – ‘not being love’ isn’t part of who we are truly, we have gotten into habits and ways which choose it.
Very true Joel – a lot of people are not aware of the fact that they kill themselves by loveless lifestyle choices. It is a very slow process and most people don’t know how to escape the vicious circle of exhaustion, stress and pain. We learn by reflection, so it is really important to go out into the community and to show people, there is another way – the Way of the Livingness.
True Alexander. A lot of people don’t realise they are in a detrimental cycle until it get brought to a stop. Usually because what out there is all the same. If we have something different, why not bring it.
Yes Alexander1207 it would appear people are not aware of the fact they kill themselves by loveless lifestyle choices continuously, however the choice to be unaware… is exactly that too. At the end of the day, there is absolutely no excuse, it is all choice.
Joel,
Your blog and many of the following comments have supported me to ponder deeply the level of care I have been choosing for myself. As I care deeply for my body, yet at times make choices that I know cause me to feel uncomfortable, or out of wack. The level of refinement in how I look at these choices has been given a tickle up, thank you.
Leigh, that’s exactly it, I too had the same feeling this morning as I feel my body and some recent choices I’ve made and I can feel in me the horror that I might be on a ‘slow suicide’ yet if we are to begin to address this in us all, we need to come back to those simple choices in each and every moment and refine them, so reading Joel’s blog today and your comment reminds me to stop right now and feel my next choice, and to understand that nothing is pre-determined – I just come back any moment I’m out of whack, be honest about it and feel my next step.
Great point you make, Leigh, we can keep refining the choices we make. The details of what we do and choose for our body matter and make the difference.
So much so Monika, to be honest, it has shocked me at times just how sensitive my body is, and how I lived most of my life without any true connection with this. This simple fact supports me now with understanding the choices of others and also my own choices. I learn so much now when my body reacts, as it shows me clearly what it needs, in truth, to support it fully.
That is exactly why it is so great to take responsibility for our choices – there is always more and deeper to go and it never gets boring or stale.
That is so true Gabriele. It is never boring and stale because the deeper we go the more we contact the well-spring of life that forever refreshes and renews. It is in fact ‘quality’ of life that is so inspiring and the thing we all crave.
Very true Leigh. It does ask us to look at ourselves and where we are in this also.
Thank you Joel another amazing Blog, my focus is all inclusive of not only the ‘before and after’ pages but also the amazing Students of The Livingness that comment on these web pages, and have a dedicated responsibility to the truth. One look at the students’ photos makes my day, their lived love, which exudes from the comments pages, is plainly there for all to see!
This is a very important comment Greg. And illustrates the whole secondary damage that lifestyle suicide causes. It kills our brothers to see each other throwing our lives away. As proven by your comment about the contrary to this – i.e. looking at the before and after photos – “they make my day”. This is a perfect illustration of our responsibility.
Basically we have a sliding scale of what is considered acceptable “giving up on this life”. We can choose to view the many tragedies we see around us that clearly show us this or that person has given up on this life but what a great distraction this can be from looking in the mirror and with fine detail see where I have also been doing this albeit discretely. It has only been recently in my deepening understanding of the Way of the Livingness how I have been doing everything but taking responsibility for the glorious value I bring simply from being me in every movement … And oh how joyful and exquisite it feels.
My feeling is that, because it’s slow, we don’t think of it as suicide – there is always another day – ‘I’ll start my diet after Christmas’ or – ‘Well, I’m on holiday’. In truth our bodies never take a holiday – they are working to support us 24/7, but we have a mental way of overriding obvious signals that tell us all is not well. Our bodies can cope with a lot and it’s easy to think that we can ‘get away’ with the ‘occasional’ drink or cigarette.
You hit the nail on the head, Carmel. We think we can get away with what we do to our bodies and there are a lot of ‘later’ or ‘tomorrows’ for healthy choices. I love your: “In truth our bodies never take a holiday – they are working to support us 24/7, but we have a mental way of overriding obvious signals that tell us all is not well.”
This is great Carmel, our bodies are amazingly adaptable and it is that adaptivity that hides a myriad of harms we inflict on it.
Fabulous blog Joel, the statistics speak for themselves. How horrifying that “lifestyle diseases are now the leading cause of death globally”. This should be plastered on the front page of every newspaper around the world. But it isn’t, why? Is it that humanity have become so comfortable, so lethargic in how they operate, function in life and totally irresponsible to their own evolution? Short answer….YES!!
Yes Raegankcarirney and yet they have forgotten how deeply powerful they are and what their actual purpose is, just like I did before my wake up call.. Being Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
To make the distinction between ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ forms of suicide by timescale is a complete game changer in how one perceives suicide and lifestyle choices that are harmful yet accepted as normal and even condoned and championed as being healthy.
It definitely is a reality check when our everyday choices are described as a slow suicide, quite sobering really – it brings in the severity of our choices.
Joel when we call a spade a spade, it makes sense. Why have I not heard lifestyle choices being akin to suicide before, or perhaps I have and brushed it off. Yet the fact is there is no difference between the rapid/acute suicide and slow long term suicide. Although its challenging to read this as it brings a reality to the choices we make each day.
The health systems around the world, and the press are slowly waking up to the fact that a large proportion of disease is down to lifestyle choices and totally preventable, but most of us don’t want, or consciously make a decision to kill ourselves it’s the things we do not to feel, or things we erroneously do to make ourselves feel better so we don’t have to face the underlining hurts which are the cause of all ills in the first place.
I have had two close friends take their own lives, one acute, he was my best mate from childhood, the other was chronic, a drinking buddy who literally drank himself to death both cases utterly preventible and both cases I did beat myself up about for not seeing the signs. Two beautiful men with hurts so deep they couldn’t see another way out.
The bottom line is that if we choosing true responsibility in life, we are choosing to live life in-full, where as not choosing responsibility is actually choosing to not ‘be here’ on earth and essentially we are choosing to not live, we are choosing to exist, function and just get by. Huge when wholly considered
Joshua, very beautifully said. And responsibility for many has become a dirty word, whereas really responsibility is love, it is claiming your life back for you, and knowing that everything you do, say and even think has an impact on everything else.
It is as though responsibility is this scary huge thing that spells the end of us, when the reality is that life only just begins when we start taking responsibility for our choices.
So true Katerina, when one talks about responsibility, for many it conjures up a very superficial meaning. In fact what some call responsibility still smacks of irresponsibility. It is just the lens through which they choose to look at things. As you say, everything you do, say and even think, ‘does’ impact on everything else. Humanity is far far away from acknowledging this, let alone understanding it.
I love this Katerina. Responsibility is claiming our life back for us in full not just for everyone else. Shows that when we are irresponsible there is a part of life that is not being embraced in full
A common saying for smoking was that every cigarette you smoked was just another nail in your coffin. Once the choice is made too start down that self-destructive path that leads to an ineffable destination and when we arrive we question how this happened! As you have stated Joel the ‘Before and After’ photos are a statement that it is never late to make new choices and we are never locked on to the final destination of bad choices in the past.
Wow Steve… those flippant remarks are said so often. ‘I’m addicted to coffee’, ‘I’m addicted to sugar’…. ‘I know this is killing me’. We choose our own slow death sentence, our own slow suicide having completely give up on life. Which is why i so love the before and afters, for you see how it is so possible, so natural in fact when you choose love for a complete turnaround to take place. Vitality and true joy can absolutely be how we live.
This is the point Steve and Katerina – we know EXACTLY what we are doing. (which is why I concur with Rowena Stewart’s suggestion above that perhaps we should be paying for our own health care in the case of these lifestyle diseases)
Joel here in the UK the headlines this morning read “Record rise in NHS dissatisfaction levels – survey says”. There has been a sharp rise in people complaining about waiting times and lack of medical staff within the National Health Service. The irresponsibility is giant, for how can we possibly point the finger of blame when lifestyle diseases are now the leading cause of death globally?
I think the real shame about the headline you’ve highlighted is the pressure we have put the medical system under to fix it all for us. In some regards it may need to crumble so that we can rebuild it in a way that looks after practitioners and patients, which can only be through self responsibility.
Lucindag as you say the ‘irresponsibility is giant’. My perception is of people sleep-walking to their graves, through ignorance in some cases, defiance in others and choice. It takes self love, a huge level of commitment to self and humanity to not become a victim of ‘lifestyle diseases’. If I hadn’t met Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine complementary health practitioners, perhaps I would still be trapped in the same cycle of irresponsible living.
Great point Lucinda, ‘how can we possibly point the finger of blame when lifestyle diseases are now the leading cause of death globally?’ I hear so much blaming of doctors and nurses and hospitals and very little responsibility taken, it feels like as a society we need to start taking responsibility, the NHS cannot cope with the demand placed on it and the fact that, ‘according to the World Health Organisation, lifestyle diseases are now the leading cause of death globally[1].’ Means that we can no longer blame others for our illness and disease.
Yes lucindag, such a good point… our irresponsibility when it comes to the choices we’ve made, and the expectation that the medical and health systems should be on demand to rescue us from killing ourselves sooner, is quite astonishing. Given the fact this research is not new, that lifestyle-related illnesses are entirely preventable… we, as a society, still have our heads well and truly in the sand.
Precisely Lucindag, we as a nation are completely failing in our ability to add two and two together here. The arrogance is so immense that we think we can do what ever we like to our bodies and expect our National Health System to pick up the pieces. I wonder if paying for our own medical care based on our lifestyle choices would have any impact on this consciousness?
Agree 100% Rowena. The UK’s National health Service is heralded all over the world as the bastion of a democratic and fair society. But, as you say, is it in fact a huge catalyst of irresponsibility? If you put a tax on cigarettes, why not put a tax on lung cancer care….Some might call it a harsh measure, but society is showing very, very clearly that it abjectly refuses to take responsibility – so perhaps harsh (but fair) is what is needed.
Interesting Lucinda, it’s as though it is much easier to complain about the state of the health services – which is but a symptom – rather than getting to the root of the disease, ie how we are living, how we are taking care of ourselves (or not) and how we relate with one another.
These words ‘life style disease’ should be enough to make each person on the planet stop and re-consider what exactly we are all doing. But if there is one thing that I have learnt, it is to give myself and everyone the time we all need to come to these realisations for ourselves, because then, when it is a lived experience, the learning is that much more profound and therefore is something that can be easily lived forever.
Yes Shami, perhaps using the term ‘life style diseases’ will make people stop in their tracks and recognise they are killing themselves.
I agree with the lived experience Shami. The effect is profound once you have felt something and lived it for yourself as the changes are in your body. We each have a responsibility for the choices we make, not only for ourselves but also for the reflection this offers to others.
Yes, yes, yes, Shami. Life Style Diseases. Such a stark and truthful title for what is going on. Seconded by a newspaper article that I read recently in the UK which stated that 90% of cancers are now being related to lifestyle choices rather than genetics.
“there are many more people dying from their own hand (choice) than are thriving from their choices.” Ouch………and we call this evolution.
It is a big OUCH lucindag. The statistics speak for themselves…illness and disease caused by everyday choices, particularly around food, alcohol and drugs are causing a long slow, possibly premature death.
And a quality of life that is in truth bereft of quality. That is a big pill for us to swallow, and what can keep us in a vicious cycle of numbing ourselves from the reality of what we are actually choosing, every day.
Yes Lucinda, it appears many are making choices in direct opposition to evolution.
But iPhones are getting slimmer so we must be doing good…no?
A great blog Joel that cannot but stop you in your tracks.
For the world is fumbling around in solutions, throwing ever more money at the problem yet truly it is simple – the answers lie at our feet, accountability and responsibility for our choices is the medicine that will alter the face of illness and disease today.
So true Lucinda. So much money in so many situations is being thrown around but the answers lie at our feet indeed. Accountability and responsibility are they way forward. But we need to shake off the heaviness that we feel responsibility comes with and see it as our civic duty.
Well said Lucinda
Absolutely lucindag. Throwing money at these health issues is not the answer and this has been shown time and time again. Responsibility and accountability are the keys as you highlight. Health will only change with individuals making choices and taking responsibility for those choices and the reflection that these choices offer others.
Agreed. Instead of looking for answers outside ourselves, we all know deep down what is true.
I LOVE this Joel, the raw honesty of what is really going on and how the ball is always in our court. Wow staggering that the lifestyle diseases is the globally no#1. Power to the people is what this blog brings our awareness to and that it is always down to us. We are at a fork in the road with this blog because it so clearly spells out what is going on and we all, each and every single one of us needs to decide which road we are going to take.
I agree Natalie, and the way you have put it here as has Joel, you can see there are no victims. We’re all masters of our own choices, and the truth is the disease rates are ultimately the results of the choices we make. So it’s up to us to make different choices, to claim the quality of our life back in our hands and reverse the trends around, which can be done much easier than we might think when that loving choice is eventually made.
I agree Natalie. This is power to the people, each of us has the power to choose in each and every moment. As more start to make loving choices that support their health and vitality this provides a reflection and support for others to also make loving choices.
Great point Natalie and we can always change the road we have decided to travel, at any time……
Absolutely Natalie. I read recently that 90% of cancers are now relatable to life-style choices rather than genetics. The truth is there for us to choose to see.
This is a great pick up Joel. One that most people would not link together – suicide and the way we live. A very important connection as you have clearly shown here. What strikes me as odd is why we haven’t connected the dots before? Is it because we don’t want to see the truth? I suspect it is.
Powerful question you have posed Robyn and one that I have never considered. It will be supportive to ponder the meaning as I feel it will expose much about how we see our lives in a linear way, which begin with birth and ends with old age and a lack of true connection or understanding of the opportunities in between. Loved the blog – Thanks Joel.
If the dots were connected it calls for a much deeper level of responsibility in how we live and the choices we make. By keeping the distance between the dots we can stay in comfort. Thanks Joel for connecting the dots.
It is gorgeous that you are going to explore further what is there for you to feel in relation to the question posed. I too have been pondering further on it because I hadn’t connected the dots the way Joel has here.
What I have been able to feel is my lack of responsibility in how I feed myself sometimes and how there is a part of me that thinks it can get away with it (as with other things such as sleep and exercise). But clearly this is not the case as presented here in this blog. Our choices, every choice that is, has an impact on us. They either heal or they harm. This is a sobering revelation I must say.
So true, Donna. To stay ‘ignorant’ keeps us in the comfort of not being responsible for our own health and well-being. What would happen if we all, at some point in our lives, stepped up and took responsibility for ourselves? The world would certainly be different to how it is today.
I expect Robyn that we have not connected the dots because we have “normalised ” how we live and it seems that when we normalise things we stop taking personal responsibility for our actions and just do what others do even if it does not make sense. We have done the same thing with alcohol.
‘Normal’ does indeed seem to be the catch cry for all sorts of behaviours and actions that are definitely not natural and a lot of the time outright detrimental to our well-being and our health.
It is true that when we normalise things we stop asking questions, which allows us to sit in our irresponsible ways. This blog really supports us to ‘blow the gunk out’ so-to-speak and see the situation in a different light so we can choose to make changes in how we are in our lives.
Not joining the dots is a convenient way of staying in comfort and to keep our bodies numb to what we’re feeling – the fact we miss the connection with our essence and everyday life is mundane and painful without this connection. But then when an illness comes along to wake us up, after many gentle nudges (symptoms), we cry ‘why me?’.
So true, Sandra. It’s like the illness comes along to snap us out of the trance we have been in thinking all is well when it certainly is not. To challenge the status quo as is done in this blog helps to support us out of the fog so we can see the truth and end the misery we have found ourselves to be in.
Agreed Sandra, our lack of responsibility will enable the comfort to continue, but our body is always communicating with us, but we know how to numb those feelings – why do we wait until we get the big nudge when we could have prevented it all along?
So true Sandra. We cry ‘why me’ yet every choice leading up to the disharmony in our bodies has been a choice that we have chosen to make. We are in the drivers seat, if only we would claim this. Slow suicide is often a lifestyle choice? Ouch.
Agreed Sandra. I would add that most do join the dots, do know exactly what they are doing, but THEN choose the comfort of doing nothing. What I can sense from this is that this is even more damaging. Because you are even more actively saying ‘no’ to your body, to your self.
This is true Sandra, but many of us do not know another way. We all know which of our choices do not truly serve but do not know how or have the support to deal with the hurts, ideals and beliefs that are driving our need to live in comfort.
True Robyn. We don’t want to see the truth and we don’t want to take responsibility for our actions. Another aspect of these choices and taking responsibility is that every single choice has an effect. The one cigarette here or chocolate bar there that makes no difference actually does make a difference. It all counts and all has an effect. This is the fullness of responsibility, we don’t get a day off from responsibility.
Yep, that is true Lee, we don’t get a day off from responsibility, even if we think we do. Every choice has an effect on us, good or bad. Here we are given an example of how our choices impact on us on a daily basis, which can accumulate to ill health and a slow death.
I agree Robyn. Joel has made a striking connection here with the way we choose to live and suicide. It seems so obvious now he has pointed it out, but it’s so true. Drip feeding yourself with sugar or caffeine is equal to drip feeding yourself with nicotine, alcohol or drugs, all of which are a poison and have the potential to lead to chronic disease and eventual death. Along with how we move and how we think, this makes a toxic cocktail for the body to ingest if not done with any consideration for the consequences. Ultimately it comes down to a choice – to take one’s own life quickly, or slowly…or, to wake up and take responsibility for what we are doing to our bodies and how we live on a daily basis.
It’s true, Sandra, every move we make can either be harmful or healing. Unfortunately, most of us are not aware of this fact. This blog really brings this truth home in a way that makes sense. And even though I have been taking responsibility for myself and the choices I make on a daily basis in recent times, there is still so much more for me to look at.
It is fascinating Robyn that we are often blinded by the truth and choose not to connect the dots, and yet when the dots are made visible by someone willing to stand up and show us, it is like we arise from a heavy fog, unsure of how we got into the fog in the first place?
Mmmm… very true Sally. The fog that we allow ourselves to live in needs to be questioned, doesn’t it?!!
To understand making unhealthy choices as a form of suicide might help to shake off the stupor that keeps such normalized way of living immune to statistics and actually our better knowing. The stupor or haze that sustains a numbness around realizing how absurd and self-destructive choices are that lead to lifestyle deseases is part of the problem or can we say the self-chosen creation of such life.
Common sense and care for people at its best.
I have to agree with your take on ‘slow suicide’ Joel, and it shows that just because one person actually commits the act of suicide there are thousands of others that have developed an almost equal level of self-loathing and lack of purpose or reason to live in the world, but are merely dragging themselves along by self-medicating with alcohol, drugs, food, hobbies, etc., just to not feel that deep lack of connection to themselves that you mentioned at the end of your blog. I have seen this given up look in the eyes of people all over, from the cashier in the check out line at the local grocery to the director of operations at work. There are many people asking for another way, and Universal Medicine has provided that way for thousands of people around the globe.
Suicide is the highest cause of death for young and middle aged men in Australia. But if we extended Joel’s definition to include death by willful choices of disregarding behavior – such as alcohol abuse, smoking, reckless driving etc, where we knew the potential ramifications of our behavior but did nothing did not act upon it, this statistic would most likely be higher. We do not, after all, see diabetes as akin to suicide, even though it is as a result in most cases of self abusive behavior over many years. We can say this is an extreme way of seeing things, but we actually have words in our daily vocabulary for expressing such sentiments. We say to a young man about to do something reckless, or to someone about to skull a bottle of vodka – that would be suicidal, and so it is not that great a stretch to suggest we are aware that there are many lifestyle choices that result in leading to us killing ourselves before our time is naturally due.
Another powerful blog Joel which calls us to deepen our level of awareness and subsequently be responsible for the choices that we make and how we live.
What a reality check, thank you Joel. This honest conversation is vital to begin in order to ever turn our state of well-being as a society around. We certainly have as a society adopted suicidal behaviours as a ‘normal’ way of life. We even champion these lifestyles as an achievement and consider these choices the way to cope and manage the level of sorrow and disillusionment we live with. But rarely do we consider the effect it is having on us all. We are desperately in search of that which we are missing and seem to grasp for any instant relief regardless of these lifestyle choices leading us to our demise. Even when we know this we find is difficult to not continue making these choices. How is this possible? How do we lose appreciating the value of our life? We need to begin addressing that which drives us to behave in such a self-destructive way. It is true, the anguish we must be existing with must be huge so much so that we choose drive ourselves to numb feeling it even if it kills us and encourage others to do the same. Universal Medicine presents another way of living, of making choices that supports life and living life with vitality. Through being honest and being willing to explore what in truth was missing I too as have many others discovered that there is another far more joyful and honoring way to live, through developing with a deeper connection to who we are within.
Joel – you have really grasped the nettle here and allowed us to feel the reality of the way we have been living – as you say a life of slow suicide. While we become distracted by extremes we can avoid being honest with ourselves and connecting to the truth of how life can be when we are truly loving and respectful.
How often do we stop and consider the extent we may ‘egg each other on’ to partake in the so-called good and pleasurable life style choices’ that are damaging to our well-being? Then add the justification ‘they mean well’. Is it possible they really mean stay with me so my choices aren’t exposed?
I was at the Women in Livingness workshop in Melbourne on the weekend, and Natalie Benhayon presented that, if she were to drink herself so silly that she ended up in hospital having her stomach pumped – give her the bill for this. She would certainly learn her lesson and not do it again. Yet, our health system pays for it. As I was reading this article I was thinking – imagine if the bill was given to all of us affected by lifestyle illnesses. What would we do differently? What choices would we make? And then I was feeling, why are we not all making those choices already?
A super powerful article Joel and so confronting. When it is put like this, it’s hard to ignore the fact that as a society, we are slowly killing ourselves. It brings a new level of responsibility to self-care. I also couldn’t ignore the fact that these preventable diseases are totally exhausting and draining our health care system. It would actually serve us all well to look at why society is living like this, but also why it’s being allowed (and as you say, heralded the ‘way’ to live).
“This makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable” – imagine this as front page news. If we were seeing that the leading cause of death in our pets was completely preventable, I’m guessing it would be.
What you’ve shared here Joel is a global epidemic that appears to be under the radar of the everyday person on the street, and would be seen by many as an extreme, over the top view. However, facts are facts and if our illness and disease statistics are going up rather than coming down then there is something here for every person to consider and ask ‘what’s going on?’. Brilliant writing Joel – thank you.
‘this makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable’. This needs to be talked about everywhere. So many of us all desperately trying to avoid responsibility when it is the elephant in the room for every single one of us.
… and at the same time, we hope and expect to be spared from the suffering we cause ourselves. The level of irresponsibility, denial and ignorance is even bigger than a horde of elephants in a tiny room.
So true Alex. When put so clearly the attitude of ‘it won’t happen to me’ is almost funny. I am the first to hold my hand up to this ‘head in the sand’ approach to life so I understand that a diagnosis of some serious illness or disease, or even suffering on any level, is a huge shock for most. But why are we shocked when many of us have made so little effort to support ourselves to life a healthy and vital life? It’s really the other way around – NOT suffering should be the shock if we are living with so little regard for ourselves.
Haha, you turn the general and ‘normalized’ reality topsy turvy – that is shocking as it shakes the pillars of comfort we have built on and hold on to with ignorance for what is truly going on.
The statement by WHO you share that “lifestyle diseases are now the leading cause of death globally..” highlights that it is no longer communicable diseases, but preventable diseases that are a direct result from choices we make about the way we live. Have we got too comfortable eating our ice cream and cake, and lost the compass in finding our purpose in life is?
How far does the blindness have to go? Everybody can see that the world isn’t currently working in a true harmonious state. All the statistacs about illness, disease and engaging with each other are indicating that we’re not well as a species! There’s so much shame about feelings and doing things ‘wrong’ that a lot of people are hiding. When are we gonna call for True Change?
You’ve opened up such an important subject Joel and dealt with it very sensitively and honestly, thankyou. And yes, death by lifestyle choices seems to be a growing trend in our society and one that can only be helped by an amazingly effective medicine known as LOVE.
Well said Tim. Love certainly is the antidote to self-destruction.
All forms of suicide come with an arrogance with the ‘acute’ cases the arrogance of thinking the pain they feel will be over quickly and forever if they commit suicide. I know for me I always knew the way I was living and eating was not good for me but arrogantly thought I would not get sick as a result of it. Fortunately for me I learnt that my chronic suicidal behaviours were a result of my self-loathing and lack of self-love. My choice to reconnect with my essence and deepen my love for myself, my lifestyle and dietary choices naturally become more loving and nurturing for my body.
Joel this is a huge wake up call for us all. When our daily choices can be referred to as a slow suicide, we really do get a reality check. By calling it as it is this asks us to be much more honest with what is going on rather than using the mountains of excuses that we can turn to. The first one that comes to mind is that ‘moderation is key’. If we re-phrased this it would be saying “I am choosing to harm myself but I am keeping it in moderation today.” It makes no sense when we call it for what it is.
Yes Vicky, ‘everything in moderation’ is a commonly used slogan when it comes to drinking alcohol and eating foods that don’t offer much, if any nutrition for our body. Another way of looking at this is to say that we are poisioning ourselves slowly and in a way that has become acceptable within our communities. A hangover is a classic example of this…headaches, vomiting, nausea, shivers to name a few of the hangover symptoms. If we had these symptoms from not drinking alcohol, we’d say we were sick, but to get them and know ahead of time that we’ll probably feel this way after drinking alcohol is self abuse and is an indicator that there is something else going on for someone when they choose this.
“I am choosing to harm myself but I am keeping it in moderation today” that is a great point about moderation Vicky. We could even say “I am committing suicide but I am keeping it in moderation today so drawing it out over a longer period.” Our blase attitude and choice is quite shocking when you really spell out what it actually means.
BOOM. So very well said Vicky. Straight to the point. And honesty feels to be key here. As a society we are so busy trying to make it look like we have it together, that the conversations we have – particularly the ‘moderation is key’ ones – rarely get to the point of the matter – even a little bit of this and a little bit of that is harming us, but why do we feel we need it? What’s going on for us?
Totally agree Vicky, well said. When it is said plain and simple as you have presented it, it is a wake-up call and one that asks us to take an honest look at the choices we are making and why..
So very well said Vicky. And as Brooke so eloquently said “BOOM” that is a bullseye between the eyes, and a very needed one.
Well said Vicky, we measure our choices by the moderation of our self harm.
so true Vicky, I remember championing the phrase = “everything in moderation, even excess” — how’s that for a commitment to a slow demise!
You raise some extremely important points Joel. This line is a groundbreaker, ‘this makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable’, and although this fact is not necessarily ‘hidden’ by health companies, it is certainly not making front page news, and we are certainly not acting on it in the way we should be. Thank you for your expose.
This is a ‘stop me in my tracks’ blog Joel. To know that lifestyle related disease is now the number one cause of death is staggering, and when you frame it as you have, as a slow form of suicide, deserves a long stop moment to feel what that means.
It is scary to consider that the leading cause of death is by choice. That we are, as a society, choosing to live in a way that is killing us. Slowly. Joel you unearth a great truth here – and to me it asks the question – why is it OK to give up and check out and allow thoughts that are not us? Hands up I did all of these things in the past, it was and is considered normal, but if we don’t start asking ‘why is this normal’ we are left with a society that stands back and watches it happen.
So true hvmorden. Now that we all know exactly what is happening to stay silent is completely loveless.
We are creating lifestyle diseases to enjoy and get through life which are in fact a slow form of suicide when we could be choosing love and who we are and living a full life of purpose, commitment and joy. Very powerful and inspirational blog!
This is a very powerful and exposing blog and offers so much to see about suicide and how we choose to live and really does highlight our own living choices heralded to kill our selves championed as the good way to live. What are we really doing to ourselves and what a difference Universal Medicine students are reflecting as a different way to live, simply connecting to who they are and living that love daily.
As the before and after photos illustrate on the Universal Medicine website, anybody can change their life for the better, it comes down to choice and having access to the truth on what harms and what heals.
A powerful appraisal of the true state of humanity. Those taking drugs are playing Russian roulette with their lives, it may or may not kill them, sooner or later and so it is with many other lifestyle choices that are an attempt to blot out feeling the misery they are in that results in increased misery for them and those around them. Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine are showing that there is a way of living that allows us to make different choices to understand the cause of the misery, let go of it and live with love and harmony with ourselves and the world.
I saw on a news programme yesterday that obesity kills more people and costs more than all the conflicts that are going on in the world right now. This is jaw dropping stuff but true. Just by taking sugar out of the equation or seriously reducing the amount that goes into our food so many people could be saved from a shortened life of misery.
That is jaw-dropping kevmchardy, and so pertinent. Sugar is one of the potent slow-suicide pills.
That is a staggering statistic Kev and although so many people are suffering from such unhealthy choices and lifestyles we carry on without wanting to look too deeply for the true cause.
Yes, sugar can be described as a slow release suicide pill. Certainly in light of what has been presented in this blog here!
huge kevmachardy….a hidden cost effecting families and budgets all over the world
I would imagine many people reading this would consider it to be scaremongering and and an exaggeration to proclaim we are suiciding ourselves on our lifestyles. Yet the element of self destruct in how we live and also how we treat one another is rather obvious, it only requires that we look honestly at what we are doing and see that what we have created as normal is in fact not what our normal could and should be.
Self destruction has become a normal and accepted way to live, and yes it is suicide, but yes many people would still argue this point, purely to escape the reality of it.
Whilst working on a mental health ward in the field of nursing, it was interesting to see the categorising of patients dependent on their voice or active want to die / commit suicide and those that were not of ‘high risk’ on the particular day and yet remained completely depressed and stuck in their own mental unwellness. What I was able to observe was the acute and chronic predicaments that people are in and how they really weren’t any different to each other in the end. What we need to support people with is encouragement and empowerment with their own choices once again, to know that their previous choices aren’t at all who they are in the end.
The facts presented here are confronting and staggering, which means that it is not something that we may voluntarily want to know or seek to know in our life nor community. But this is very important as more people in the world are actively making choices to abuse themselves and their bodies than those that don’t ..so we have much more to uncover, observe and take a serious look at.
This is a great point Cherise. As it seems that we are caught up in this cycle of existence through our choice to not be honest with how we are truly feeling, and so we cover it up which more choices that numb us which continues to allow us to exist in a convenient ‘ignorance is bliss’ state, regardless of it slowing deforming and killing us.
It is staggering what you have presented here Joel, we all need to start thinking like this, seeing and feeling what is actually going on in the world and within ourselves.
Very true.
How do we start thinking like this when we don´t care and lack the love for oneself and people to face the reasons that make us deny and postpone changing what we all underneath actually know and feel? Presenting the facts doesn´t seem to rock it, similar to everyone knowing that smoking is unhealthy, not even by printing shocking photos of illnesses on the cigarette boxes.
The spark of love needs to be ignited, the blaze rekindled that suffocates under the giving-upness.
The shocking photos appear to have no effect whatsoever, except to incite guilt perhaps. I wonder what would happen if instead of the shocking photos of illness on the cigarette packets they put photos of vibrant people living and loving life without cigarettes?
Reversed psychology – inspire instead of repel.
Wow that is true “we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves”. We all experience this when we make a choice to do something more loving for ourselves. It is a curious phenomenon that others have commented on to me. Last week I was talking to a lady I hadnt seen for a while who was looking amazing, very different from how she usually is. When I commented she said “I gave up the drink!” . She looked at the large number of bottles in her weekly recycle bin and thought “This cant be right, what am I doing to myself?” She also said that after giving up “people were on me like a ton of bricks, “Come on have one, just a little one”, “Don’t be silly, what is wrong with you?”, “One won’t kill you” etc.” She said she feels wonderful and has become enthusiastic about life again. She has gotten off the slow suicide laneway.
I had the same experience when I chose to stop drinking alcohol. This was about 15 years ago now so no-one I know ever offers me a drink anymore or tries to persuade me with ‘go on, one won’t hurt you’, however when I was still vulnerable in the early days of my decision, the force with which I was ‘encouraged’ to have a drink was huge – all so the people I was with wouldn’t have to face the reality of the harmful choices they were making for themselves.
Me too Lucy I even had a doctor once say to me that I must have a very boring life as I am not drinking, smoking and indulging in food. If you decide to jump off the abusive lifestyle norm cycle it is hilarious what comes towards you as a defence to go on with the abuse (the doctor was overweight and a heavy drinker). When I stopped being defined by what I do, eat or drink, etc. I felt life becoming normal.
What an amazing story Jeanette! Thanks for sharing. That sentence ‘One won’t kill you’ is an archetypal voice of astral temptation which has quite a large circulation everywhere in this world. It is so often used and so sneaky re peer pressure. It is a line that passes through my head sometimes too. Your highlighting of this here Jeanette is a great warning.
This sentence already says it all “one won’t kill you” as it shows the focus we have in life. This sentence talks of existence and not of living and a quality to life. Any kind of abuse is accepted as it won’t kill you……… but it distorts you and your awareness for the world, it makes you stop feeling and discerning, it makes you racy and dense at the same time. It alters who we are and makes us live in a lesser state of being.
I completely agree Rachel, and yet we also have the phrase “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” which is tantamount to supporting someone to abuse themselves in whatever way they wish because if they survive the abuse they will be stronger (and by implication ‘better’) for it. There is untold power in the words we use to describe life.
There is a vital word missing from the “One won’t kill you” catch-cry, “One won’t kill you”… …yet.
Love this example Jeanette – it shows we can get comfortable with living in a way that is not honouring our bodies and then when we see someone who is, we do not like this reflection and so we try and persuade them to go back to their old ways. Which as you say, is killing us. We’ve become numb to the harm we are causing our bodies – thinking it is escape and relaxation when this is so far from the truth. For if we were living who we truly are, we would not need escape or relaxation, we would constantly be all of us in our fullness.
The line; “This makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable.” Should make front page news all around the world and yet we have scientists preaching the merits of alcohol, chocolate, dairy and etc… This does make headlines, especially around Easter and Christmas time – the agenda of this science clear. Sell more alcohol, dairy and chocolate for the profits of a few at the expense of the all.
Brilliant as always Joel. There were so many revelations in such a short blog that I will need to sit with each of them and allow them to totally sink in. A very confronting but very needed piece of writing. Thank you.
So well said Doug! We have indeed had our head in the sand.
The title says it all in this blog. Suicide is still suicide not matter what means you go about it. Very powerful to read.
When it is expressed like this, it is exposing of the given-upness and active choices to abuse and self-harm ourselves that are actually in motion every single day, and the question arises about why we (as a seemingly intelligent species) would want to treat ourselves this way?
Superb question to raise Joel and a very vital one to address if we are to stem the rising tide of illness and disease that we are creating by our lifestyle choices. Surely it is time for us to wake up to the fact that “people around the world are making a repeated choice to live in a certain way that is so detrimental to their health that it is now the leading cause of death GLOBALLY.” Personally I know that I lived with an immense amount of sadness and depression that arose from a lack of connection with my inner self and all my lifestyle choices reflected with awful level of despair. I was very slowly but very definitely killing myself with how I lived. Once I was shown how to re-connect, making nurturing, loving lifestyle choices became so much easier. I found that over quite a short period of time it turned into a positive feedback loop, whereby the more loving the choice, the better I felt, which ramped up the desire to make even more loving choices. We are all such beautiful people and there is so much life to live, a life full of love, vigour and purpose. The “Before and After” gallery is full of normal everyday folk who have made the decision to stop, connect and feel what lies behind the self destructive choices we are so very used to making and deciding to choose another way. I can see now how so many of my choices arose from a desperate attempt to escape life because I could not deal with how I felt, but I now know that there is a very tangible way to restore our inner strength and it can arise from a simple connection to the delicate quality within ourselves and cherishing this above all else.
Well said Rowena, so much of what you have written has been typical of my life and the choices I was making. I was under the illusion that I was doing better than everyone else, due to the fact that I didn’t have a serious illness, but I had multiple lesser illnesses which were affecting my life, and I just couldn’t see a way out. Being in pain, depressed, dulling the misery with food and giving up on my life to me describes slow suicide.
Like you I was shown how to connect to myself and make self loving choices, and actually get to know myself. Due to these choices my health has improved beyond anything I could have wished for and my life has taken on new meaning – no longer the drudgery I once saw it as, but something to embrace and learn from.
Beautifully shared, Rowena. I have also benefitted from the ‘positive feedback loop’ of making more loving choices for myself over time. Universal Medicine has supported me consistently in turning my life around to the point where my depression and despair is non-existent, and I now live, eat, move etc embracing life, not trying to escape it.
Feels so important to start using the term ‘chronic suicide’. It says it how it is rather than softening the truth with terms like chronic disease, unhealthy lifestyle, couch potato etc. It’s the same way ‘slavery’ has been renamed ‘human trafficking’ so we can live in the illusion that slavery was abolished, and not have to look at the appalling rot we are accepting in this world.
Yes, it is an interesting phrase to ‘coin’ as it were. It does change the focus of our inquiry from how do we prevent it to what is behind it and triggering it.
We really do need to see the ‘appalling rot’ we have created in our world and it is important that we don’t sugar coat or play down the importance and severity of topics such as these. What is the rot that we are fuelling our bodies with, continually and daily by the choices that we make (in full responsibility) to do so?
Good call Lucy…let’s call things out for what they are.
Very true Lucy, we are accustomed to words being changed in their meaning and phraseology to make life more palatable, and so in general, we don’t blink an eye, because we don’t want to see. But what in fact this is, is to cover that rot, normalise it, pave a way for deeper corruption…and hope that no one will expose the truth of it. “Human trafficking’ is a great example.
Spot on Rosanna, ‘But what in fact this is, is to cover that rot, normalise it, pave a way for deeper corruption…’. Our reference point, or marker for what is ‘normal’ and therefore accepted sinks lower on the sliding scale of abuse. We see it as our basic right to commit ‘chronic suicide’ or actual suicide for that matter, and whilst we can always argue this is to be a fundamental right for all – to determine our own fate – and whilst we do indeed have free will to do this which cannot and should not be taken away from anyone, focusing on this aspect is to not look at what actual needs to be called out in our society. It is the chronic lovelessness that has become ‘normal’ that needs to be called out. Standing up and saying no to abuse in any form is what will open or collective eyes to the harm we are meting out to ourselves and others and one by one we will start to care for ourselves more tenderly and deeply. It only took one person to offer the reflection to the rest of us for the balance of love to shift in favour of love and brotherhood.
And how powerful that one reflection has been of what love is and how brotherhood is possible. The way we communicate and the words we use can reveal the truth in more ways than one.
I agree Lucy. We soften and lose the real meaning of what we choose to do to ourselves with words. If we used the term slavery still for the fact that slavery is still going on, it would be a humbling wake-up call. That no, we have not progressed anywhere near as much as we would like to think we have. Similarly, if we really were honest about the fact that we slowly kill ourselves and wish our lives away instead of coining what is happening with a flippant description such as couch potato, or coffee addict — again, we’d have a much needed wake-up call.
Yes, well said Lucy we developed a way of masking what is happening and by calling it chronic disease or unhealthy lifestyle we depersonalize it and put it on the outside as it was something we can choose and it is an accepted lifestyle, but just an unhealthy one or as a chronic disease something that hits us and we are a victim of it. We have to bring the responsibility back to how we communicate with each other. It is irresponsible of any medical professional to protect someone with politeness when this person is committing a chronic suicide. On the other hand we have a whole food industry who encourages people to kill themselves slowly. Its all interlinked and we bought into it.
Great expansion here Rachel – the depersonalisation and externalisation of our choices by the language we use, and the irresponsibility of us all in being polite and not calling this out when needed.
Great point Lucy – very often we tend to use nice words to describe something, to not rock the boat. We don’t want to get too much attention. But it is time to give the society another reflection, and to say – there is another way, you don’t have to suffer for the rest of your life, you can start to take responsibility for your own choices and your life will change.
Yes Alexander. The ONLY way we are going to bring an end to the appalling self-abuse and irresponsibility is by cutting the niceties and calling things out for what they are.
You present a very honest and clear perspective here Joel, and one I had not considered before. I was aware of the detrimental lifestyle choices and the staggering chronic disease statistics but to say it as it is…a slow suicide is indeed the truth of it.
It is so easy to see how this slow suicide can play out through our choices, and I watched someone do exactly this…feeling life is missing something and starting to smoke at a young age to fill that emptiness, which continued until they died; eventually the blood pressure went up, then high cholesterol, episodes of angina, a heart attack, more angina, until the heart could not function anymore. This is certainly slow suicide, however there is always a choice, a moment then another moment, and another… to choose something different.
Yes, presenting our lifestyle choices as a way of us slowing committing suicide is a great way to frame what the majority of us are doing to ourselves. It really is confronting when presented in this way. What are we doing to ourselves on a daily basis, let alone a moment to moment basis??!!
Awesome blog Joel…a great reality check of how we as a society are choosing to live our lives = it is not a healthy nor vital one, and yet as can be seen in the ‘before and afters’ photos it is possible to make different, more loving choices and turn your life around – these photos are a joy to see and very inspiring!
Choosing to be irresponsible with how we live our life is basically saying we don’t care about ourselves and as you say Joel it is the same as suicide, but much much slower.
Beautiful Harry, we could then say that responsibility is supreme and enormous love in action.
Agreed Harry – well said. The choice is simply the same as suicide, only the action is carried out differently.
Well said Harry we trick ourselves by pretending that we are having a good life while indulging in abuse and calling it normal. Every time we choose abuse we say “I don’t care” and not to care is absolute irresponsibility.
I agree Harry, there is an element of giving up and not caring anymore. It makes me wonder how many areas of life do we give up on and what impact that then has on the quality of our life – slow suicide describes it perfectly.
Hard hitting Joel, and something that people do not consider. You have said it amazingly, The way people live as a whole is irresponsible and causing the illness in their body. It’s a form of disregard that we know we are making choices but are not making the ones from our hearts, and instead want to settle for a comfortable life, with pleasure and not live as fully vital and committed human being. How rare is it to see this?
Very very rare Harryjwhite, but also absolutely possible. It’s rare but it is happening, as you and I have been witness to and have experienced for ourselves by making loving choices in how we live.
“Look at the ‘Before and After’ pages on the Universal Medicine website and you will see people making different choices. They are not better people, nor special people, but they have been brave enough to explore what it was they were missing, which turned out to be a deeper connection to themselves.” I love looking at the before and after pictures on the Universal Medicine website to see healthy and vibrating people that connect deeper to themselves.
Amazing sensitivity with which you have written such a powerful piece on this topic Joel. I can feel the importance of this awareness becoming the norm in our societies and in humanity so that we start to ask the same questions en mass, as you have posed in this blog.
‘In fact it is heralded as the lifestyle all should aspire to. So we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves..’ This is the reality- that we aspire to lifestyle choices which devastate us and then we reflect that back to one another. The reason that I stopped drinking alcohol was that I had met someone who valued themselves enough to not drink. This gave me a reflection and opened my eyes to the truth that it was harming me and that I was worth more than that. So when we make lifestyle choices based on self-care then we reflect to people that they are worth much much more.
Absolutely Simone, as a society we have entrenched some terrible self harming habits and then champion them as the only way to live. I too have been inspired to make fundamental and lasting changes to what I eat and drink because I met someone who valued their health, well being and vitality so much that they simply glowed with life. It’s a powerful reflection and all the more so because it has never been imposed, just presented as a choice. At some point the mass will roll over, those who are choosing to care deeply for themselves are multiplying the reflections, so that in time humanity will be staring at a new way to live and championing truly nurturing lifestyles.
Great point Simone, we do seem to surround ourselves with like minded people, until things start to go wrong with the body and then want to feel well again. It was only when I started to attend the courses run by Universal Medicine that I got a reflection from people who were living without alcohol, had a healthy diet, slept well and looked vital, then and only then did I take notice and have a desire to make some changes to my own way of living.
Thank you for sharing this Simone. It’s incredible the impact that one person can have on other people through making choices that they feel truly support their body, which is different to today’s norm. We underestimate the power of standing out and being confident in choosing what feels right for our body, even when we don’t ‘fit in’ and look like everyone else.
‘we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves’…. wow Joel. You couldn’t have hit the nail on the head with more precision. If we are to be really honest, it is devastating what we encourage and hail as normal in society today. Existing on time we wish is spent elsewhere, the faraway ideal island is the respite as we go about the doldrum of daily life, believing this is just the way it is. But it is not, as you have mentioned, you only have to look at the before and afters of the many students of Universal medicine to see that there is a very different full way of living that anyone of us, all of us can claim for ourselves. The ideal we think is ‘out there’ is within, and when we re-claim that, every day can be lived with real joy and fulfilment.
Yes Katerina, this is true and from experience it can be a idea that can feel impossible to achieve, depending on what our choices have been and how we have been living, but the more we make adjustments and let ourselves be really honest about what we are choosing on a daily basis that may not be supportive of living, the more we are able to get a step closer to living truly joyfully.
Beautifully said Katerina.
Yes it is quite a powerful and sobering statement exploring a sobering stat that the leading cause of death is preventable. That is a global tragedy.
Beautifully said Katerina, there is almost this way of life most adopt that is a dangling carrot out front of them, always seeking and searching for something better, more exciting, challenging each other for a better, richer life. Encouraging each other to be more, strive and do more all the time. This is not the answer. I agree with Joel, one just has to look at the before and after photos of a lot of the Universal Medicine students, they speak for themselves.
I agree Katerina – when we re-claim ourselves, every day can be very joyful. There are no coincidences, our lifestyle choices determine how much joy we have in our life. I like the fact, that we can empower ourselves – we have put ourselves into the mess, and we are ones, to get us out of there.
Chronic suicide Joel, as you have so aptly termed our current state of affairs as a humanity, is a pandemic and in dire need of addressing by every one of us, as existing with these behaviours need not be our way in life.
Very true Giselle. As existing in this way, with these chronic self-destructive behaviours, it is clearly not our natural way in life. We can see this is the case through the increasing state of physical and mental illness and lack of general well-being reflected in our society. It is through being honest with ourselves that we can begin to accept responsibility for the choices we make, and as such begin to make the choices that do support us living naturally in honor of ourselves, with the vitality that we are all born to live with.
Precisely, sadly we so often see life is an existence rather than one of truly living, it has become a normal way of life, however most definitely Carola as you say, not our natural way!
Well said Giselle, I agree – ‘sadly we so often see life is an existence rather than one of truly living’. With this outlook, that life is something to merely get through or to be identified by, we miss living All the greatness that is possible to live, if we simply were to begin to look within.
By the very fact that this possibility is available for each and every one of us, it must be that until we each accept it for ourselves and choose to truly live, nothing changes but continues in the ill momentum.
Wise words Giselle – thank you.
If I were to hazard a guess it would be at how many people even consider there is a deeper connection to be had with ourselves? I for one have most definitely recognised the chronic suicidal behaviours I once lived with, and too that I were only able to recognise these as result of making the choice to deepen my relationship with me, as for a long time it was close to non existent.
This is indeed crucial Giselle. People often think that they live themselves… They’ve got no clue when they are actually in Truth expressing themselves and when not. As for a long time, I didn’t know. Without this inner knowing, we are at the mercy of life, the recipient – rather then the one choosing and impulsing life forth.
Yes Floris, I know what you are talking about. For a long time I chose the victim role and I had no clue, how to get out of that, until I met Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon. Since I connect more and more to myself, my life is becoming beautiful.
I know what you mean Floris, I remember the moments in my life where I would feel like I were a puppet on a string, as if being moved by something else beyond my control, a marker that showed me consequently by the choices I were making, led to being at the mercy of something other than what I would otherwise consciously choose.
The victim role is a great tool to make ourselves small, isn’t it. Well for me it also has been for a long time, and I can still go into that modus – closing off my heart and holding the world to ransom. But at the same time I understand that if you don’t know the difference, that it’s hard to distinguish Truth from no Truth. It’s been challenging for me too for a long long time. Which doesn’t take away the responsibility to lovingly start the process of distinguishing the two completely different people that we are. One connected, observing and non imposing and the other one, disconnected, absorbing and imposing.
It’s quite astonishing if I look back Giselle. I totally believed that I was completely fine where in fact I was completely lost… Well, maybe not completely as there’s always been a kind of inner compass. From a young age allready very curious and asking many, many questions. But nevertheless did I during my teenage years and early twenties know little about self care, let alone true love. Thank God that I’ve chosen the inspiration of Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and all the other Students that have been offering amazing reflections! Would I have continued, I certainly would have been on the path of slow suicide!
Yes, that is so true Giselle. And the deeper we go with our relationship with ourselves the more we see how even the smallest of choices can be harming to our body and detrimental to our health. I was reading a blog yesterday – (https://truthaboutsergebenhayon.com/2016/02/05/my-handwriting-and-me/) – about a woman altering her handwriting so it looked better, which resulted in pain and discomfort for most of her life. These are the types of things we tend to ignore or not even realise.
An insightful blog, agreed Brooke, I also could relate to what the author was sharing, reflecting how often we can assume positions or postures with our body simply through for instance, the way we’re thinking, that then has a flow on affect to the rest of our body. It truly is great medicine to consciously choose what and how we feed our body.
“the only difference between ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ forms of suicide is the timescale. Both come from choices made by the individual.” So when do we as individuals own up to that?
A great point Monika, having the courage to stop and truly consider what is here presented in this article is an enormous healing for everyone, whether you have a known illness or not, we are still and will always be in this together.
True: we are and will always be in this together and every individual has to make their own choices and choose the responsibility for the effect they have on others.
I agree Monika and Amina. Choosing to be honest with ourselves is the first and very self-loving step to bring about the healing change needed, not only for ourselves but for us all. As the more we choose this for ourselves the more we can live and share the joy of our vitality and as such light that way for all others.
“there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day.” I never looked at it in that way even though I am aware of the effects of the choices I make on my health. Very confronting and at the same time empowering to put it like this.
I agree confronting Monika! As I was reading I could feel all of the big lifestyle choices I used to partake in daily – alcohol, caffeine, heavy food, over exercising – and how these affected me… but I was also able to feel the ‘smaller’ choices that I am still making that affect me and my body.
Great point, Brooke, the ‘smaller’ choices are just as important as the big lifestyle choices. For if I don’t drink coffee, but still push myself too hard and get anxious over things, these choices do have a negative effect on my health.
Evening Doug and it has certainly woke more of me up. We can’t rely on ‘others getting it’ or even hope for change. What Joel is saying is spot on the mark and if collectively we are still blind to this, then that includes us all. Those that share Joel’s awareness would need to keep going deeper with what he is saying, deeper and deeper until the point where we all see the same. No time to waste or to look sideways for cues as there is work to be done. ‘We’ are vertically torturing ourselves slowly, like a slow roast with how we are living with ourselves. No one is better or more advanced as we are all in together, simply if you see it then lead it.
Hello Doug and it’s not very often I’m wrong, thanks for noticing. Seriously though and this is like many things of this quality. Put it out there for everyone to see and or read. It’s not about bringing anyone to anything but more about those that feel this depth of quality to share it more and more with the world.
‘… we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves…’ What a powerful and sobering line this is but it is spot on. In championing our toxic lifestyles we in effect assisting our own and each other’s suicides. When you see and feel what is playing out here, one cannot help but realise we’re being played. There are dark forces at work here, more than happy to encourage us to self-destruct. There’s no need to wage any direct war against the human race, we’re expert at doing it ourselves.
‘… we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves…’ I’m hearing countless stories of this. Someone I know, now in her eighties, shared her devastation of not knowing that regularly buying cigarettes for a close relative for those ‘special’ occasions and after every holiday trip would contribute to his death (lung cancer), and his wife’s two years later (passive smoking). I was guilty of the same before I saw the light and gave up smoking. Knowingly, governments and powerful cigarette lobbyists continue to put wealth and profit before the health of the people. It’s an openly criminal act that’s neither condemned nor punished at its source.
You have reminded me Victoria of other ways we embrace our lemming run to the cliff; all you can eat restaurants, Happy Hour and the bar, buy one get one free and the bliss formula in food with the perfect blend of sugar salt and fat that allows us not to stop eating. We are in a war and the face of the enemy looks back at us every morning in the mirror.
Precisely Victoria, we are experts at self destruction and one can only wonder where the source of this madness arises from, particularly as we claim to be an intelligent species! It is very shocking how much we actually encourage one another to over load our bodies with toxic substances. One only has to take a long honest look at our marketing and advertising industries to see the madness of it all. Why on earth do we glamourise alcohol consumption and permit the sale of cigarettes? There certainly are some very dark forces at play who care little for humanity but thoroughly enjoys playing with us.
Yes Victoria – we actually don’t need enemies, we kill ourselves and the more people give up, the more they are being played with. I’m very grateful, that we have this platform, where we can express truth and show other people, that there is another way to live.
We are in a war and the face of the enemy looks back at us every morning in the mirror.’ Yes Steve, and to be totally unaware we’re at war with ourselves is a tragedy. Let us not forget the power of behind the scenes puppeteers that deliberately manipulate a nation of people to believing they have no power and easily seduced to actively self destruct. With love in our hearts and self responsibility, the opposite is true: the face we see in the mirror smiles back in self appreciation, acceptance and gratitude
Joel you highlight such an important fact of current everyday life, it’s like an elephant in the room that so often gets ignored or swept under the carpet – that so much of our current ill health is derived from our lifestyle choices. It is very loving to ask what is going on that so many people are slowly killing themselves.
The link you have made between lifestyle diseases and suicide is an interesting one, because we do choose to live in a way that produces poor health, which creates poor thoughts, which leads to depression and decline, simply because we are terrified of feeling the spaciousness that is there beyond the uncomfortable feelings. Instead we choose comfort, every time. Until, we realize that it is in fact so uncomfortable really to keep doing this and we deserve so much more care. Universal Medicine offers the support we all need to pull out of this decline.
This is so true Joel, I can relate to falling for a way of eating, drinking and thinking that is considered completely normal and yet was preventing a deeper connection with myself. Finally being brave enough to step into life without allowing that picture to dominate, I am amazed at how much lighter and more confident I feel. If I had continued down that path, it would have become entrenched and ultimately led to poor health – being overweight, sluggish & depressed, and yet the foods I was eating are widely considered to be ‘healthy’!
Awesome blog Joel. I have often thought that the way people are living is a slow suicide, killing us softly. I used to live that way too, no awareness, and I didn’t want any, as I didn’t want to have to deal with anything or change anything as I couldn’t be bothered because I didn’t care or think I was worth it and because I thought how I was living was normal and that was just the way it is…. But… now I know from my own experience that there is another way and I feel so much appreciation to Serge Benhayon and the teachings that he shares for inspiring me to love and care for myself.
One thing you have said has really stood out and that is we encourage each other to slowly kill ourselves through our behaviours. So not only are we choosing behaviours that affect our health so much that we end up with a disease that will take out life, but the behaviours that we choose are very much supported and considered to be ‘normal’ by the community at large and encouraged in some circles. Given that our health care costs are skyrocketing, how can we realistically sustain this?
Joel this is very true. I have nursed many people over and over with the same but deteriorating condition. Like suicide it affects the same people, who love and care for them. Except it happens over a very long period of time and the cost to the community is huge.
It’s an odd thing. We came to this planet out of a desire to experience an individuated, physical life then spend our lives as humans missing who we truly are. It will be a grand day when we have mastered human life to the degree that indulgence – or its opposites on the spectrum of consumption, denial and lack – hold no sway and we are living in harmony with our physical frame and our divine nature.
The point Joel makes about missing ourselves is hugely pertinent. When I contemplate our addiction to the consumption of foods and beverages and other substances well beyond that which we actually need to sustain ourselves, I can feel the sadness and desperation behind it… It’s as if we have a huge emptiness we’re desperately trying to fill, an emptiness that can only be realised by endlessly comforting and distracting ourselves with stuff we put in our mouths. There’s a painfulness to this that is hard to bear – and I’m feeling it for myself as much as anything. Rarely in developed nations do we eat purely for sustenance. Then when you consider a good portion of the planet is at the other end of the spectrum it would seem we are, globally, suffering from a massive imbalance when it comes to what we imbibe, and I don’t only mean in terms of economic inequity, but in the way all of us have a distorted relationship with food; with over-abundance or lack.
Wow Joel. This is a powerful way of showing the grossly abusive nature of choices that lead to illness and disease : A slow drawn-out suicide. And the irresponsibility of us toward another when we actually sanction or support someone in such choices : helping them to kill themselves. Huge!
Thank you Joel for stating it as it is, the numbers are mind blowing if we but stop and truly let your message sink in: We are slowly killing ourselves by the choices we make.
We have a massive problem with addiction. We are chronically addicted to medicating ourselves – via everyday substances such as sugar, chocolate, caffeine, gluten, carbohydrates, fast foods, and the like – that kill us. Add to this the slow suicide we are committing on a daily basis as outlined here. Addiction and suicide… who would have thought these were, quite literally, everyday occurrences. We like to think they are the preserve of people on the fringes of society but it turns out we are – and with no disrespect to people struggling with the acute versions of these diseases – addicted and suicidal en masse.
Absolutely phenomenal blog Joel Levin, very well questions are asked and revelations are given. Like you have shared, our health stats are out of the roof, and we have so much more to discover. That it is time to face our own responsibility and to be aware of our own body. We have been body-dismissive, as is proven to us by these stats. And so by this amazing revelation of the WHO (that most deaths are caused by life style choices) shows us that we can shift things around and better the way we live. Then Universal Medicine comes along and shows us another way, perfect match!
On reading this blog this is so glaringly obvious, yet this is not something society is willing to be this honest about. Be it smoking, alcohol, food choices, lifestyle choices…many are making choices that are slowly killing themselves. To admit this is massive – both as an individual and as a society.
I agree Joel it does, “serve to also start a conversation about the anguish that might be behind the levels of ‘chronic’ suicide that could now be considered a global pandemic.” I did not look at it in this light before, but you are so true when you share that our life style choices are a slow suicide. These deaths are completely preventable. Thanks for beginning the conversation.
A lot of people might be shocked at what you present here Joel but the truth is as you say – we are dying by our own hands, whether that be suddenly or over a few decades. It seems odd, in the case of the latter and with the WHO statistics backing it, we are not hearing more about preventable disease, and that the industries producing goods that assist preventable disease – alcohol, tobacco, fast food, sugar and so on – are not done away with in the name of public good. If our governments won’t step in (all the while bearing the costs of preventable illnesses, be it through burdening public health systems or unproductive citizens or both and no doubt more) it will be down to us voting with our wallets. When enough people stop purchasing substances that harm them, these industries will have no choice but to shut up shop or turn their attentions to more healthful ventures.
A very confronting topic you have chosen here Joel, but something that I have always asked myself especially in regards to Diabetes. Diabetes in itself is manageable and you do not die of it straight away, it is more a slow decay that happens to your body, you can watch how it rots away, you may lose limbs, you may lose your eye sight, you may suffer heart disease, etc. And all of this is preventable if you change your diet and exercise regime even at the onset of Diabetes – I even know a few people that were able to reverse it completely. So yes in one sense it is a very slow and painful form of committing suicide, but it is not as deliberate, to me it feels more like a humongous from of disregard and self neglect, not caring enough to look after one’s body.
Superb Joel and staggering all at the same time. We are killing ourselves by our lifestyle choices. We have a world invested in purposefully harming rather than embracing ourselves. Illness and dis-eases that are preventable through our own choices and an alarmingly suicide rate both abrupt and chronic. This is the staggering reality of a world in dis-connect to the deeper connection within.
Suicide is a very delicate subject as it leaves far stronger shock waves due to its sudden happening. But imagine if we could feel the shock waves from our own choices that bring on premature death and ill health, would we not make different choices? I know that since I’ve allowed myself to feel the effect of my choices on my body (rather than ignoring my body so as not to be aware of the result) I am making very different choices with lifestyle, food and exercise.
I worked for several years with kids who were basically on suicide watch. This just goes to show that this emptiness and loss is not something that can come with age, but affects us at any time in our life. What I would ask is how a child so young, with so much enthusiasm for life, can then give up on themselves? What is that affects them, and where does it comes from? There also has to be another factor alongside the choices we make. I know when I have been depressed, I am not myself, it’s almost like there is another person following me around, that there is something else has been feeding it, like I have let something in, I don’t like the feeling of it and want it out of my body. Hence the self harming and abusive ways that can come with depression or the unloving choices we make.
” The reality is that we must be carrying a level of sorrow or loss that is so strong that either ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ suicide becomes an option.” I would agree Joel, and this sorrow, deep sadness and loss we carry around is missing ourselves. We are so lost as a society from the truth and deep love we really are and come from. That this emptiness drives us in a constant and incessant need to fill ourselves, to be in permanent motion or seek some form of indulgence or distraction. Basically we are all running away from the sadness and emptiness at walking away from God and with that ourselves. That is the one thing we all miss the most.
I suffered from depression growing up into my adult years and remember having a conversion with a doctor sharing I didn’t need medication ( I am not saying this is the way to go for everyone, as for some medication is great support) – but what I had realised and shared with her, was it was down to the choices I was making, and that making different choices was the only thing that would ever change this.
We are actually choosing to kill ourselves each day by every single unloving choice we make.
This article ought to be published in medical journals for health professionals to read, be a topic of discussion on the news, and in homes everywhere. The fact is deep down we all know this, but it’s easier to blame than to take responsibility and feel the lack of love, care and emptiness we have chosen for ourselves and our body.
“That means that there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day.” this is the absolute truth, a very sobering read.
Hello Gyllian, I agree and it seems funny we haven’t linked this up before. It makes total sense and one we can take into our day and into our relationships. I don’t think I fully see the impact of what this article presents yet, it’s almost like I read this, it makes sense but I’m not shocked. I feel it is the responsibility that is being shown to us in the quote you have selected. Our choices in each moment, I see the effect suicide has and think I’m better because I would never do that but if you take it into the things Joel has said then it does come back home to me, responsibility.
Joel, what an insightful and thought provoking blog, that many of us are effectively choosing to ‘slowly kill ourselves’ with our lifestyle choices is shocking and that we consider this normal and actively encourage this even more so; so much so that those who choose to take real care of themselves stand out and are often considered strange – how did we come this this? It’s both poignant and crazy, and shows how our ways of living do not support the vast majority even while we cling to those ways of living as being it.
You also flag something we often use in our societies, ‘everything in moderation’ and show the lie of this approach, if what you take in moderation is not true or good for you, no moderation changes that, it just hides the effects initially and spreads them over a longer period of time and more importantly it hides the lie of how we’re living, we are less clear on cause and effect, as we can attempt to fool ourselves that that thing in moderation hasn’t been truly affecting us when it has. Self care requires dedication and attention to detail and that detail is those small signs along the way that we need to address, otherwise eventually we can end up with a lifestyle disease.
The question I have here is why we avoid what we know, that how we’re eating say might be affecting us? What is it that allows us to over years continue with damaging and self destructive behaviours? Why do we need that major shock to the system of a serious illness or accident before we consider things and even then often we don’t? And I can feel how in my own life there is much to consider how there are subtle ways I am with me that don’t support me and as I write this, I wonder why do I keep them? Thanks Joel, for shining a light on how we are and giving me much to ponder.
Self destruct is a form of behaviour unique to humans, you never see an animal in the wild make a choice that will make its body perform to a lesser standard. This article should make us question what it is we consider to be intelligent about our behaviour as human beings, if an animal in the wild is looking after itself and not overeating or smoking or drinking or abusing another animal for its own satisfaction, then who is it that is truly intelligent and what does it mean to actually be intelligent?
That is so truly well asked Stephen, you make ridiculous action by our human beings exposed for what it is – we are not being really intelligent when we have behavior that destroys ourselves, right? Agree – animals seem to know their body well and know what they can and cannot do – they have no need to overdo anything. We should study them closer and find what true intelligence is. I am forever inspired.
A very good topic, Joel. It seems that there is only one difference in ‘abrupt’ and ‘chronic’ suicide – and that is the time frame which is set.
You make some utterly poignant and crucial points Joel, the biggest one for me being how such a huge number of us are literally gradually killing ourselves by way of our own lifestyle choices. If I was visiting from another planet and studying the human race, I would be scratching my head right now and thinking what the hell is going on down there…
I agree Dean, watching that situation from the outside makes you wonder what is wrong with our human race, it does not seem very intelligent to kill off our own kind – on one end through wars and violence in the name of God and ‘good’ and on the other end through lifestyle choices, under the premise of ‘having a good time’. It simply does not make sense.
We can send a rocket past Jupiter but cant seem to stop help ourselves from killing each other… That’s not so intelligent.
Imagine if everyone took responsibility for this, how that would impact on our medical systems. We can no longer carry the burden of such irresponsibility – in 2020 it is predicted medical systems all around the world will be bankrupt – then what will we do?
Our medical systems all over the world are definitely under enormous pressure and it will be interesting to see what happens in 2020 and beyond. If the predications are accurate we are going to see some very drastic shortfalls in medical support across the board.
You really drive the point home Joel, what is the difference?
Isn’t it crazy how the leading causes of death throughout the world are largely preventable? And that this simple, yet very impacting, fact is probably not widely known. It just shows how much we are still living in a state of illusion, and how far we have come from the glorious love that we are and the amazingness that we are capable of.
I agree, Eleanor, it is crazy to not have this on the front page of the news again and again. And like you put it perfectly: “It just shows how much we are still living in a state of illusion, and how far we have come from the glorious love that we are and the amazingness that we are capable of.”
A wonderful blog Joel that puts a very important understanding on how our lifestyle choices, choices being the big word here to consider, are in fact slowly killing us. But because most of these choice are the norm, no one blinks an eyelid at them. When discussing this topic with people there is often a view that everyone needs some vices (alcohol, or coffee, or sugar, or whatever), and that without it life is dull. This is such a massive belief in society and one that I also held for most of my life, but now I have discovered a way of living that actually allows me to thrive and feel vital. I do wonder how I could have been conning myself for so long that I was doing well back in that days when non loving choices were also a norm for me.
Yes Eleanor Cooper, the ideal is that big things matter more than small things. But if we do not value and notice the small things, how can we see and appreciate the big things, right? They are seemingly overvalued and the small things undervalued. If we see that these everyday choices matter equally as for example an earthquake (just as example), it all deserves our equal attention. Either being it a direct cause of death or a slow silent one – we need to be on top of everything!
Lifestyle diseases are irrefutably a slow suicide. Who cares enough to do something about it ?
This is a great article Joel. When I read the title of the blog I had to think of how many people are not living as their true self, not as the joyful little ball of light they were as a child. You could see this as well as a slow form of suicide happening in the teenage and adolescence years and maybe even throughout our whole life, because the true person is slowly retreating inside.
Absolutely well said Lieke, so true! These balls of light , needs to be lighting themselves up again, as this shutting down of our light has caused a form of ‘slow suicide’ indeed, if you look at it that way. How beautiful news that we can all shift things around and make ourselves healthy (in whatever form that is possible).
Yes Danna, and as you say when we become aware of the fact we are slowly suiciding, there is the option to choose to stop that. Especially now I am aware I can live a joyful, vital life and that that is a in fact a choice I can make and not luck or faith. The way forward is very clear.
I agree Lieke, once we see we can act, a beautiful way forward.
Whether it is an acute one or a slow one, for us to be making the choices that are against our body and our innateness, there is something that is saying no to what is, saying ‘I cannot cope any more’. A bad news is even though we may think we are bringing an end to it by making those choices, it doesn’t quite let us off the hook.
Exactly Fumiyo, if this was the consideration made then watch the turn around of statistics!
This article should be front page news. It is not hard to see that most people are killing themselves in one way or another. Death is natural but living in a way that reduces our quality/quantity of life is downright strange.
Agree Leonne, this is front page news, an article that needs to be taken out wider.
Hello Leonne and I agree it should be ‘front page news’ and that would be another reflection for us all that it’s not. In other words if some of us are aware of the truth of what Joel is saying then they would need to be taking this further. The fact that such an article sits here for only a few would seem like a crime in a way. So while I get that this should be front page news, the reason it’s not possibly sits at the feet of those that share this view. Sure you could say that people aren’t ready to hear things like this in their news while equally you would need to say that the depth these things are shared would need to adjust or change. In more words there is work to be done in all areas.
Here here Leonne, outright ridiculousness! And beyond when we look at what is making news.
So true Giselle – to think we dedicate millions of dollars to producing newspapers and magazines that dissect the outfits and personal lives of celebrities when this is going on and affecting all of us every day. Pure craziness.
Absolutely agree Leonne. Joel offers a loving wake-up call that is very needed.
I totally agree Leonne. Front page news. We have to look at the slow suicide first in order to heal the acute suicide.
Great point Lyndy. The acute suicide is just a more extreme reaction to the same underlying issue as Joel so beautifully explains here.
What a wake up call for humanity – we are slowly killing ourselves. No point spending millions exploring space when we are not flourishing healthily down here on Earth. Heart disease, diabetes, strokes – all these can be avoided in many cases, if we took more care of ourselves.
But the exploration of space provides us with something grand so that we can distract ourselves and continue as though this is not what we are doing to ourselves on the most basic level. We are not flourishing down here on Earth – but are we really ready to take an honest look at that?
Hello Carmel and I agree, what a wake up call for us all. If this is true which I agree it is, then collectively we are missing the mark. It’s great that Joel has lifted part of the lid on this and he has done this beautifully and it would seem he will need some support to blow the lid off this thing. What better way to wake people up then to have many people exposing what Joel is saying in their everyday life. It would seem we are easily able to cope with shock, in other words we can be shocked but unmoved at the same time. Shock is so sudden and possibly what is needed is a more consistent, long term approach, an everyday living approach perhaps.
I agree Carmel. This is very humbling for humanity to hear and receive. It means stopping a momentum that has been going on for so long — but eventually this will have to happen, because as long as we continue with the same behaviours, the illness and disease rates will keep getting higher and higher.
Indeed Carmel a massive wake up call for humanity. We can no longer avoid the fact that we are responsible for all our ills, it is time to start to question why? If a baby was born wanting alcohol (crazy I know but let’s imagine) we would all be shocked and ask why, yet when we hit an age that it is considered ‘normal’ to drink, no one questions that.
Powerful blog, Joel and it confirms what I have always felt, that we are making choices that are knowingly diminishing our lives. There’s too much knowledge around these health issues to not be aware of the detriment certain lifestyle factors have on the body. So what we are dealing with here is not only the heartache and confusion that goes along with witnessing others making abusive choices, but the stubbornness and resistance of those who refuse to return to a more naturally healthy, loving and supportive way. For me, this smacks of selfishness and arrogance and it has a very negative flow on effect upon those who live with them.
A very insightful and clear blog, Joel, written with deep respect for all who know or have experienced suicide in their families, friendships, schools, towns, countries – all of us.
Yes, many have experienced the sadness and shock of the fast form of suicide and that is massive in itself yet what this blog is offering us is to consider the more hidden, ‘normal’, slow form of suicide that is going on all around us all the time. A choice that many may be making without even being aware that it is a choice that they are indeed making.
On some level Rosie, I think that people do know the harm they are causing themselves. What makes it difficult to stop these behaviours is society’s stance that they are ok, in moderation. It is this mind set that I feel needs to be challenged.
I agree Leigh. The mind-set that damaging behaviour is okay in moderation is such a strong presence in the fabric of the status quo. The human spirit has created it and then leans on it as if it is a ‘truth’.
I think you may be spot on here.. on some level people know its not a good idea but do it anyway as its considered normal.
Agreed Lyndy, though a truth that actually holds no substance, by being present in our communities, and living from the fullness of our hearts, we lead the way. As substance is held in our presence and our living way and the normal that many live by begins to get a shake up.
Thank you Joel this certainly opens our eyes to how else we may be suiciding. Lifestyle choices are exactly that ‘choices’ so if one is knowingly making an ill choice it is obvious after reading this that it is contributory to death, albeit a slower one but still suicide, as we are aware of what the outcome can be.
Thank you for starting this much needed conversation Joel, which many will find challenging, but if we are to address the staggering fact that lifestyle diseases are the leading cause of death globally and are preventable we need to understand why chronic suicide has become the choice of the majority and accept the impact this has on us all and the responsibility we all have not just for maintaining our own health but on speaking up about the current accepted norms that have led to this global epidemic.
‘The reality is that we must be carrying a level of sorrow or loss that is so strong that either ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ suicide becomes an option’, the devastation caused by these options is the most urgent problem humanity needs to address, ignoring it is not possible as medical systems near collapse around the world.
The Before and After pages on the Universal Medicine site demonstrate so clearly the amazing turnaround that is possible, once people choose to reconnect with themselves and take responsibility for how they are living and this option is available to all.
This is a powerful observational observation that you have brought to our awareness, Joel, and I deeply appreciate it as I feel it has given me a paradigm shift of how to talk to people about health and well being, particularly those who are reluctant to, or do not feel capable of, taking responsibility for their own health.
Absolutely Jonathan, the lead here that Joel has taken in stepping out and giving voice to an all important topic of discussion, is one that inspires the importance of saying it as it is, no more is it acceptable for me to shy away from speaking what it blazingly obvious.
And suicide is a dreadful thing. I was watching a documentary on how Men are becoming obsessed with body image and there was a very sad story of a 20 year old who had died of a heart attack because of his abuse of anabolic steroids. The shocking thing was that it was his third heart attack, meaning he had had two previous ‘wake up’ calls… but each time could not stop himself from going back into the gym, continuing the choices that were evidently going to kill him.
Great point Simon and where would we be as a community if we had someone like this around us. Do we wash our hands and say well it’s horrible and we are deeply sorry but it was his choice after all. While this is true, in the end it does come down to an individual choice, can our hands be really that clean? I remember growing up in a small town and we had a young man suicide and the town was in shock. The statements made were that ‘we could have done more’, in other words people knew that they could have made a difference in how they were both around this young man and around the town. No one at that time had the answers to what that ‘more’ was but there was a collective thought there was more that could have been done. We can individually and collectively always look at what we are putting into the world, what is the quality of our interactions and how we live. If, as you say a very young man is dying like this we have much to see.
You make a good point here Raymond, about your community knowing they could do more, but not knowing what that more is. I too grew up in a small community, that always rallied and cared for whoever was in need, but his care was always after a devastating trauma, and always ended after the initial shock, as no one knew what to do next, or how to continue the caring, as and when needed. As in all of the care offered there was a feeling of being unsure if you were imposing, a holding back of truly allowing love to guide what was needed and when.
Thank you Leigh and it would seem at this point there is still care there in the community but it’s coming after the fact. We all tend to rally when there is something devastating going on but once it’s over seem to retreat back into our own worlds. It’s like in the moment of a devastation we know how to be, just get in and do what’s needed no matter who’s beside you or who it involves. But once it’s over we are uncomfortable to continue this. For ‘us’ to return to know how to be outside of a devastating moment there would need to be a strong lead from people living that way, an example to show us all what is possible.
Agreed Raymond,
That strong lead is there in each of us that chooses to live from the impulses of our inner hearts. Personally, I feel that trust in these impulses and letting them lead how we live and be with others is the key to a loving and caring community that works together to support everyone.
Hello Leigh, there is much in what you are saying. Simply truly supporting ourselves and each other in the relationships that are in and around us. Community can be defined as a group of people all living in the same area and it can also be people living together deeply caring for each other. It is about saying hello, knowing each others name and equally knowing each other through a quality. If that quality changes having a depth of relationship where you support that person straight away, not leave them to sort it out or wait and see what happens, truly caring knowing that if anyone person in the community is suffering then we all are.
Very wise words Raymond, “not leave them to sort it out or wait and see what happens, truly caring knowing that if anyone person in the community is suffering then we all are.”
I am humbled and inspired by these words. Thank you.
Thank you Leigh, there is power in words I agree and true power comes from the living action of what you are saying. So I do agree, “Very wise words” and words alone don’t change our current view. So I could say it’s time to hit the streets but I will say time to look at how I am.
The understanding I am coming to from our communication here Raymond is very profound. It is not about going out there, hitting the streets, so to speak, in a flurry of fixing and helping others. What I am feeling from deep within is that it is about me accepting, fully, my beauty, grace and steadiness. That living from this space I simply am the support another needs, whether they are looking for or needing support or not. What I, and I feel deeply you too offer is a space for others to stop, to reevaluate and to consider their circumstances. From this space, all then have the opportunity to choose to live in a way that brings the same steadiness into their lives, and those around them. My feeling is that this is true support in our families, circle of friends and our community as a whole.
I am reminded by that comment of ‘we could have done more’. It’s hauntingly familiar and very much like the feeling when someone points something out and you know that you clocked it but said or did nothing. It’s time to act on what we feel, and not allow the lovelessness we witness to continue.
Hello Simon, I agree and there is a reason why, “you clocked it but said or did nothing” and it comes down to the way we move. Everything from the way we step out of bed, to showering, to driving the car, are we supporting ourselves to be able to ‘do something’ or are we driving ourselves straight past what we are always feeling. If we feel everything, it would makes sense to move ourselves in a way that is able to give you the space to action what we feel. Movement, it’s not just a thing to get from one point to another, it’s a science and well worth appreciating the power you have.
Wow Simon and Ray, I love the way you guys have, in true Pythagorean style, harmoniously built on the truth of each other – the pinpointing of the moment where something is clocked and what could have been expressed was not, to the fact that there is a deep science in ‘movement’, in the way we move, that constantly nurtures the moment and at the same time prepares for the future. I love it!
Hello Lyndy and thank you. There was a way we were in life and with these things that supported everyone in their expression. True conversation with a purpose for us all to ‘get’ what is being said. I have a real love for this and look forward to seeing it more often, thank you again.
I read the article Joel… eye opening stuff. All we are talking about is our eating, exercise, and the unregulated over consumption of alcohol and cigarettes. One would think that these are not complicated issues, but their abuse is just normal. The lack of consistency and personal responsibility is just normal. The developing world in particular looks to its wealthier, ‘more advanced’ counterparts and decides it wants the same normal… so ultimately we are all responsible in how we live and the example we set for others.
Agree Simon Williams, you would think it is a few simple choices that one can make. But the fact that so many people struggle with that choice and cannot be consistent with it, shows that there is something else going on that has not been addressed.
And as Joel says we are actually encouraging ourselves to kill ourselves. Those who make healthier lifestyle choices can cop a fair amount of flack. Look at what happens when someone chooses to stop drinking, not because they have a problem, simply because they choose to – it is often not well received.
Hello Simon and isn’t ‘normal’ an interesting word we use. You put normal with anything and it seems to bring a relief, whether in business and you are at the industry norm or personally your heart rate is considered normal, your weight normal. It would seem put normal with anything and we think we are ok. So who ever controls the normal would appear to control the masses. What if normal keeps stepping away from what is truly normal. So what if each year instead of the normal holding a constant terminal it moves to where ever we have gone and hence normal is just the sum total of where we are all at and not anything to truly gauge how we are living. To me normal hides so much and who knows what could be considered normal in another 5 years.
And Ray, isn’t ‘developing’ an interesting word to use too? – as in ‘developing world’ as simonwilliams8 has stated. What development actually means in the context of aspiring to be ‘normal’ or to have what others have, because those others seem better off?
Hello Simon and I agree. The way we use certain words seems to set the scene on what’s to come.
Very good point Raymond, if normal is our platform that we build on, then what is it about this ‘normal’ that we have accepted that continues to get worse and worse without ever stopping to question if this is actually normal? Because without deep down knowing what is and what isn’t abuse, would we not register the rising illness and disease rates as something of concern if not major alarm bells? On some level we know the rising figures are not good and need addressing, but what is it about our ‘normal’ that subdues, supresses and overrides our truth? When I was a kid ‘sexting’ was not normal, now it is. This is just a small example as a platform of what is normal today – what is going to be built upon such foundations?
Thank you Leigh and don’t get me started, when I was a boy…..kidding and you make a great point. How many adults look back and feel and see things are becoming worse from when they grew up. What about the pressures of the HSC. When I went through school there was pressure but nothing like it is today, but again this is ‘normal’. It is a plain word but it seems to put a lid on so many things when we use it. But the lid is not looking at what is underneath it just putting another layer on top so things can’t be seen or overflow. At some point the ‘when I was a boy’ need to be actioned. Meaning we need to stop and look at where we have stepped to and regardless of the ‘norm’ be willing to put our hand up and say no. Thanks again Leigh.
If living in a society where “there are many more people dying from their own hand (choice) than are thriving from their choices.”
is called advanced then it begs the question, what have we been up to for the last 200,000 years?
“So we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves.” – A strong and much needed statement as to the state of the world today. And what if the acute cases of suicide came from those who felt they couldn’t keep up with the game of slow suicide? Rather than seeking another way in life, the way we are currently living only directs them down the path of ‘just don’t live at all’. I am not saying those who commit suicide are the victims, because it is a choice they make and place over their bodies, but are we contributing to the world that is saying ‘This poison or this poison?’. What if we didn’t have to poison ourselves? Universal Medicine and the student body are living examples that we need not kill ourselves to live in this world.
Thank you Joel.
So agree Leigh Matson, life is so very enjoyable if we get a few choices right and commit to taking care of our bodies.
Great comment Leigh, how absurd that we even have the question, ‘what if we didn’t have to poison ourselves?’ or further still that we are not asking it!
Living in a world where “there are many more people dying from their own hand (choice) than are thriving from their choices.” can never be a place that confirms and celebrates you for who you are.
Very good point and thank you Lucindag. It really brings it back home to self-care, self-love and self-responsibility. The world we live in today en masse is not supporting us or each other to confirm and celebrate who we naturally are and can be if nurtured to make such loving choices. The world may not support this level of care, but then just as well we have Universal Medicine in the world to help. And the fact that this level of love and support is available to us just goes to show that we are greater than this world and the choices and energy that has formed it.
A very thought-provoking and powerful blog Joel. A wake-up call to us all. Many people fear death, still often a taboo subject for discussion, yet we ‘happily’ drink or smoke etc ourselves to an early grave. Yet no-one would consider themselves to be choosing a chronic form of suicide. Claiming back responsibility and making other more healthy life-style choices makes such a huge difference to life, as many Universal Medicine students know.
It is interesting how differently we would look at these illnesses if we looked at them in this way. There is both responsibility and compassion for understanding what might be driving that behaviour.
“What drives this behaviour?” great question Joel. This global scale of how bad the situation really is, is quite staggering. It feels like we all get in the queue of irresponsibility passing the buck of responsibility onto situations in life, the pressures of, finances, failed relationships, work, family history, illnesses, food, alcohol, drugs etc. The list is endless but, in truth ‘lifestyle choices’ sums up the speed – the time scale into which catorgory we fall into. Acute or chronic forms of suicide. Another amazing sharing with us all Joel. When, I read this I did sit a little more upright in my chair which had felt quite comfortable!
“Lifestyle diseases come from the choices people make about what they eat, drink, how they move and even how they think about life. These choices put stress on the body and lead to diseases like diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, to name but a few.” Yes and because we like our ‘comforts’ and habits we don’t wake up until confronted by some horrible disease – and call it bad luck or ‘our genes’.
Yes Sue and what is more shocking that a lot of people confronted with a diagnosis like Diabetes, Heart Disease or Obesity are still not ready to change their so called comfortable way of life even though the reality is it becomes a lot less comfortable every day to live with these diseases.
Yes Sue, these are the choices Humanity (we) are making and the term ‘Chronic Suicide’ is drawing the attention needed for us to begin to consider the choices we are making. As Joel has commented – ‘That means that there is a chronic form of suicide where people around the world are slowly dying from the choices they are making each day’.
So true sueq2012- what is missing is taking responsibility for our state of health instead of blaming our genes or giving up and stating it is bad luck. Do we need to get cancer to make us stop in our tracks and really ponder as to why we have attracted this?
I Love the simplicity of how you share so deeply and present such truth that so many are choosing to live. I had not considered that ill lifestyle choices are in fact a form of slow suicide but I absolutely agree with you Joel and see that in the past this is what I was doing to myself.
From the point of being introduced to the presentations of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I began to build a loving relationship with myself, and from this point the self-destructive (slow suicidal) behaviour began to change.
The reality is, if I am taking loving care of myself, then to harm myself with food, substances, a harmful way of life along with highly emotional behaviour just does not make sense anymore.
I have found it truly empowering to know that I am in control of this change and that it is possible to leave an old way of being behind and make different choices that truly support my body.
This is a great point you make Joel, our choice of lifestyle that is accepted to be the norm has a detrimental effect, a slow suicide is definitely the way to call it out. For that is what it truly is, it is based on the level of sorrow people feel in their lives, missing something that I have come to find is so close, love for ourself.
Great point Benkt, a slow suicide to not feel the pain of lacking love in our lives. So easily rectified if one is willing to take the necessary steps.
I would class many, if not all of the extreme sports suicidal in the context of this blog. There are sports that people climb mountains without the aid of safety ropes, base jump at very low altitudes or participate in a cage fight, beating each other to knock out, these are just a few examples. Many people die or are permanently incapacitated and or brain damaged. So choosing these sports knowing that with one tiny slip or drop of a hand your life ends in a very messy way. To me, these choices are suicidal.
The inexorable fact of death, and the denial of reincarnation, feeds irresponsibility in human beings. Since it will happen anyway, why should I deprive myself from doing whatever I feel like doing if this will allow me to be happy in the meantime? So, we choose how to move towards death. Should I run towards it? Should I walk towards it? Should I get there on shape? Should I get there as a wreck? All of us, choose our own version of how to get there and what quality is going to be there when the time comes.
Our life-style choices become our death-style choices. This is worth repeating.
It is interesting that human beings made a point of calling suicide something very specific, a one-action moment where a person wilfully ends their life through the means of choice. Yet, if you kill yourself day after day, this will be called natural death. What is natural about it if you triggered it through your choices? It is another form of suicide.
That’s an interesting point you raise here, how we have categorized death and with this how we have blinded ourselves for the way we are living. Looking at it from this perspective, it looks like life is organized around the different forms of killing us slowly, fast or consistently…. That’s pretty contradictory as most humans fear nothing more than death, although living in a way that destroys the body and with this our connection to our divine origins. “The body is the marker of all truth” – what an amazing wisdom from Serge Benhayon.
That is a great point to make Rachel – that humans mostly hugely fear death and yet act in a way that is slowly killing them. Such contradictory and senseless behaviour is the hallmark of the human spirit and shows how much misery and pain we are in that we would employ such methods to cope with it. Thank heavens for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, which has brought to light the way we can choose to come back home to the love and joy that we are – this is uber-medicine.
Joel, you have truly began a conversation that so needs to be had. I had never before looked at the lifestyle choices made, that are not in line with what our body’s feel is natural, as a form of suicide, but it is. As there has to be a level of given up inside to abuse the body in this way.
So basically most of us are living in a way that slowly kills us and most of us describe this kind of lifestyle as normal. Where is the love for ourselves?
A great point here Mariette, and this article denotes the enormity of this issue and the statistics are simply growing. Self harm is huge in society, often we may have a feeling to care for ourselves but this gets taken over by the momentum we have been living that is the opposite to this, caring for ourselves in simple and basic ways have been lost to the majority, so much so that we don’t even talk about these subjects when we meet with each other. It therefore is great to have these types of articles and discussions happening.
And calling it normal makes it even more insidious. What does this indeed say about the way we accept and are living as a human race?
It says a lot and sometimes I feel it gets more insidious every day. We are as a human race slowly digging our own grave and I am wondering what we need to wake up to stop the digging..
How did we start so far from what is so natural?
How indeed Dean? I understand it now as being fooled by a big fat lie and an illusion that appears to be the real deal in life – that in fact is like a heavy-duty shroud keeping us apart from our natural way. And we choose it until someone can show us another way. Ouch!
Thank you Serge Benhayon for living a natural way for us all to remember who we are when not stuck in this illusion.
I think the illusion, the ‘heavy-duty shroud’ we have lived under for millennia has been so deep and wide that only now, as we reawaken from our long sleep, have we begun to realise how unnatural in our way we have been.
For example, the fact that so many of us have been conflicted by the words Religion and God is a strong example of how disconnected from our deepest essence we have been.
With our lifestyle choices being a way to us contributing to us killing ourselves slowly, it is one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves, and with it being the number 1 cause of death globally, does this not show us the extent of misery with which most people live?
Agreed Michelle, this is exactly what it shows us. The same misery that I too used to live with. Being who I am now, and reading Joel’s sharing, deepens my knowing that my tenderness and love is needed in this world. Walking me has never been so poignant.
We have so much to offer don’t we, each and every one of us.
Only very recently I too had this understanding and I very much agree with your point of view Joel. And this is not to diminish the pain that people are in when a loved one has committed the act of ‘acute’ suicide. If we are not living joyfully and lovingly and using substances , we are slowly killing ourselves. If we take alcohol for example….We know that it is harmful to us when we drink it, we know the effect it can have on the liver, but we still choose it. Therefore, we can say that we have contributed to killing ourselves slowly.
The before and after pages at the Universal Medicine site are great evidence of how responsibility looks like. It is not about being better, looking better, being slimmer, etc. it is a question of responsibility. Yes we have the responsibility as human beings to not bankrupt our health system by living in a slow suicidal way, but first and foremost we have a responsibility to treat our vessel of expression with love and care so it serves its true purpose and works in line with the energy of evolution and not retardation.
You sum up our responsibility to ourselves Rachel in very simple terms. There is a very clear purpose to life, learning to constantly express love because it is what we are made of.
Powerfully spoken Rachel – ‘cleaning up our act’ and bringing true responsibility to the way we live our life is paramount as energetically everything we do, how we move and what we say affects everyone worldwide. I love how you speak of our vehicle of expression.
“Yes we have the responsibility as human beings to not bankrupt our health system by living in a slow suicidal way, but first and foremost we have a responsibility to treat our vessel of expression with love and care so it serves its true purpose and works in line with the energy of evolution and not retardation”.
This is a very much needed blog Joel, great topic and claim for absolute responsibility. We always look at the tragic side of people suiciding and of course there is a massive tragedy to it, but we also have to look at responsibility. I know a couple of people who suicided and the devastation they left behind was massive. The same with the slow suicide you describe as a consequence of lifestyle choices. The devastation with an immediate suicide is very abrupt and shocking, but the slow suicide is like a consistent torturing of the people living with you and is void of love. It is irresponsible and should be called for what it is and medical professions could be much more straight forward in communicating this to their patients, as sometimes medication and surgery support the irresponsible choices.
Well said Rachel. We no longer want to ‘protect’ this truth about slow suicide from being ‘outed’. Responsibility is the way we will all arise from this misery.
Joel, it is so easy for me to relate to what you are sharing so clearly here. I know that I was slowly “killing” myself with the lifestyles choices I was making, from eating foods that were not good for me, drinking too much, living on my emotions (anger, sadness frustration etc), not exercising enough, the list goes on. There were moments when I realised what I was doing to myself so I would begin to make more loving choices, but that never lasted too long; that was until I met Serge Benhayon and from what he presented I couldn’t ignore any longer the impact of my un-loving choices on my long suffering body anymore. My body is my responsibility, and to live a life of true vitality and joy my choices can only be self-loving, responsible ones.
It’s an interesting point Ingrid. The WHO report picks out the physical issues, but there are emotional issues that we live with which are also very normal. If unchecked over many years these grow and generate just as many health issues being the primary cause to a secondary physical manifestation.
Agree Simon, there is so much focus on the physical issues and with this on the body, but the body in its functioning way, leaving out that we are a part of a whole. A focus on the body that does not honor its grandness and just sees it as a spare parts warehouse. We actually care very much for the body, but from the wrong angle, as we have made ourselves dependent on the body as our identity of who we are. Our focus is to maintain this vessel of expression from our dependency to be alive on earth, instead of accepting it as the amazing vessel of divine expression it is, but knowing that it is replaceable and needs to be replaced when we move on in our evolution.
I find remarkable the extent of ourselves pulling the rope to see how far can we go and still continue being alive. We pull and pull and since we are still around we keep pulling. Of course, the moment something goes wrong, we are the first one demanding the health system to do all it can for us to fix what we have worked so hard to damage. Total irresponsibility.
It is deeply concerning that what you refer to as chronic suicide through lifestyle choices is not only a global issue but is so common it is considered a normal and encouraged way of being. There is something seriously wrong with why we have allowed ourselves to get to this point, seemingly either so lost to not care or so arrogant to think that our choices won’t have serious consequences to our health. Thank goodness for Universal Medicine showing us there can be another way and a new normal that is deeply loving in choice and action.
Living in a way that slowly kills ourselves and being propped up artificially by medicine. Our health systems are broken and will get to a point where they will not be able to support us (if they are not there already). Our Mental and Physical health is in dire straits, we are living with a lower quality of health, with things like diabetes, arthritis, endocrine issues, adrenal exhaustion, cholesterol issues, cardiovascular disease and cancer in some form as a part of the norm. Our bodies are physical vehicles – we are responsible for what goes in and what comes out.
It is important to make clear that the options are not just slowly killing ourselves or doing it fast. There is a third option that is to live in a way that heals us to the best of our ability.
Thank you Eduardo – “the third option is to live in way that heals us to the best of our ability”. When I first saw this presented at Universal Medicine, it was a massive wake up call, as I could see that all the choices that I was making up until that point were going to end up creating health issues.
Joel the term ‘life style diseases’ connects illness and disease right back to where it belongs: the way we live our lives. This same subject is a central theme of a course I present. The course introduces preventative medicine and asks the group what this means to them. Most have not deeply considered the relationship between life-style choices and the onset of chronic ill-ness and disease. In your words ‘So the only difference between ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ forms of suicide is the timescale’ powerfully captures the essence of how people are slowly choosing to kill themeselves. The concept of slow suicide is certainly one to share with groups in the future.
Awesome that you are in a position Kehinde to start this debate with groups who have not generally made the connection ‘between life-style choices and the onset of chronic ill-ness and disease.’
I can imagine Joel, that what you have posted in this blog will not been understood by many in our society and that they can put it aside as with “you have to die from something” in one way or another. And in a way that is true, our bodies will all die in one way or another because of something, but what we forget, when we think like that, is the path towards that inescapable end, do we live in full appreciation to what a human life actually entails or are we living the lesser form, hidden in the shadows and ignoring the grandness that we are.
This blog is absolutely brilliant with a very important message for individuals, health care organizations and governments. There needs to be much greater responsibility and accountability taken for the way that we choose to live.
And no-one is outside of this Elizabeth. Every human being has the power to make healthier lifestyle choices irrespective of their backgrounds.
This is a huge revelation, Joel and one that we all know about on a deeper level. To make choices that are going to hasten our death is of course a form of suicide, but even more shocking is the fact that as a society we support it in so many ways. We produce food that is “bad” for us, we have created technology which is amazing but has created generations of couch potatoes, we promote alcohol as being good for us, and all of this is supported by endless advertising telling us that these things are okay. The “before and afters” are amazing as they show us what choosing a different way of living can achieve.
Yes Anne, the before and after photos are total confirmation of the ill choices that ‘we wear’ on our bodies and faces for everyone to see or the complete opposite with true vitality shining through. Universal Medicine certainly presents and supports another way we can choose to live, if we want to!
This is an awesome blog, that really makes us sit up and take notice about our lifestyle choices. These are definitely 2 very clear choices being made in our society today when you look at disease rates going through the roof. It’s food for thought. Or more rightly put ” food for feeling”.
Suicide be it ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ as Joel presents is ultimately a rejection of the way things are, what we have chosen and of all possibilities of life. The ultimate in saying I can’t be bothered with going through this any more. The notion that we as individuals are making that decision every single moment of every single day is devastating. Simply devastating to feel.
I mirror your devastation Lee, because what Joel is presenting is that people are suiciding all around us, they are our friends and our family, and it is not restricted to the few acute cases we had imagined.
It is Lee and Simone, and since reading Joel’s revealing blog I’m seeing more clearly the ‘chronic’ cases everywhere. Thank you Joel for presenting this and giving everyone an opportunity to open our eyes to what are we actually choosing.
Totally agree Simon – and the hardest pill to swallow is that everyone we walk past in a supermarket in some form or another is doing this to themselves. The problem is ultra huge.
Elizabeth a wise friend told me that giving up is happening because no one commits to life – this is obvious yet most of us, and I am still learning, what it means to commit to all of life. Without this generational ‘passing down’ and ‘seen and felt’ inspiration we have gotten the world into an unruly mess where most literally want to give up.
This is brilliant. When I started reading this article, I immediately started thinking about smoking, drinking alcohol, taking drugs… things that are obviously known to have a detrimental effect on our body yet many accept and choose, but here what you are presenting actually refers to any choice that would get in the way of us living our true potential. That is huge, and so true. It just goes to show how much we have undermined the kind of life we deserve for ourselves.
Such an important conversation to be having Joel in this time where most are choosing something that will kill them… suddenly or eventually. The thing is as a humanity we use excuses like ‘well I’m gonna die one day’ and ‘live like it’s your last’ and we don’t flutter an eyelid. It’s calling out the many ways in which we champion just functioning or just getting through life. I agree with you Joel looking at the before and after photos are a great indicator of what we are all capable of choosing, a life of joy and flourishing in our relationships, work and inspiring others.
Yes Aimee that call of the younger generations ‘YOLO’ – You only live once – is admission that we as a people are satisfied with killing ourselves because what else is there to do?
Until and unless humanity accepts the reality of reincarnation and the responsibility that comes with it this will, unfortunately, continue to be the way some choose to think is an acceptable way to live life. And yet there is a true purpose – to return to who we innately are and in so doing inspire others to do the same.
Totally Deborah. Knowing and having the perspective of re-incarnation radically changes how we view life and its purpose. Without the perspective of reincarnation it is much easier for a person to wilfully damage their own body and live waywardly – a ‘so what!’ attitude can prevail. But once we deeply understand our purpose to return to Soul and where we came from, and that this generally requires more than one lifetime, makes a real difference.
The key is that connection to purpose and realising that we are here to inspire another to connect to their own purpose – which is the same – and not build the biggest building or fastest computer.
And it exposes the need for thrills, excitement and reward that runs along side ‘what else is there to do?’. Showing there is a consciousness of irresponsibility in not committing to life and how we either support and feed this more or walk steps the other way reflecting true purpose.
Gulp! Thanks Aimee for this unearthed something for me – in those moments of disconnection then that ‘what else is there to do?’ becomes almost a fixation which overrides and runs everything in it’s favour. So you can imagine for all of us that prolonged disconnection perpetuates this rampant need for distraction to confirm an ‘aliveness’ which is really just existence.
I see this a lot now with children and teenagers, a constant stress or desperation of what can they distract themselves with next. Whereas what we are most missing is connection with ourselves and being connected to by others. It’s like we have one foot in something else just incase we need to escape.
It is so interesting then to just observe young people and ask myself the question – what am I confirming in them that says that this constant ‘leapfrog of distraction’ is okay?
Powerful and responsible question Lee… love it! For me it is when I get sucked into something on my computer, or in truth getting something out of what I’m doing on my computer, and putting myself second. Time to change this up.
The ‘before and afters’ are incredible, we can clearly see these incredible changes in people and the stories they share are always deeply inspiring. When we feel our life is not where it could be we have the ability and power to change it at any moment. Sometimes we do require some support and inspiration to get us started but this support is always available for anyone and everyone and the inspiration is already here also readily available.
Thank you Joel, a brilliant blog in exposing the fact that we are ultimately slowly killing ourselves with our many irresponsible choices. By choosing to allow ourselves to be honest and willing to face what we are avoiding (responsibility) and missing (connection) in our lives will hugely assist us to live in harmony with our health/body, people and our world.
I have to add, I hadn’t considered that by making such lifestyle choices we are essentially choosing a slow suicide. It is quite shocking when we see our choices expressed in this way.
It is shocking to hear our lifestyle choices described as a slow form of suicide, yet what will shock and wake us up to what we have accepted as normal part of life. Until we make the link that our choices regarding how we live affect our health and well-being, many of us will not take responsibility and continue this ill path.
I agree it is shocking and a wake up. The message though is clear and simple.
This is a really powerful read Joel because what you write explores the fact that through our choices and in many times lack of self-love or self-responsibility we are essentially signing our own death warrant. It is our choices that have led to the staggering statistics you have quoted, the fact that preventable diseases are now the leading cause of death is truly shocking and should be making front page news! This is definitely an article that makes you stop and truly consider the choices we are each making daily and that perhaps we need to be looking a lot deeper at how we are choosing to live every day.
I had not put suicide in the same bracket as diabetes Joel but as you show in your blog one is a slow suicide and the other is immediate but both are choices we have made for our selves.
Yes this is an incredibly crucial point.
Joel, this is fantastic, and offers a very real if not controversial perspective on the type of lifestyle choices we all make. We have never been so educated, and so we cannot claim in ignorance that we “do not know.” We do know. It reminds me of a conversation with a former partner of mine. Her mum was in her early sixties, and by her own admission was happily smoking herself to death, biding time while she was simply waiting to die. Now, if she ends up dying from lung cancer, no one will call it suicide, and yet the giving up on life that leads to her health condition will be in principle no different to the person who gave up and chose to end their life by hanging themselves with a rope.
So True Adam, the fact is the statistically these choices don’t register on the system in this way and as such, it gets accepted as normal…because so many people are dying in this way.
I agree with that view Adam, there is absolutely no difference between someone who chooses for hanging themselves with a rope or someone who choses to smoke themselves to death, except from the time scale which makes it difficult to consider it as equal.
Good point Nico – there are many forms that suicide takes – smoking is not considered one of them usually.
Agree Adam, there is a certain ignorance played out by most people of not knowing about dietary aspects, etc. but in truth everybody knows and when I talk to people they absolutely know just find it very difficult to let go of the comforting feeling that we get from all those processed foods, sugar, drinking alcohol, overeating, smoking and all kind of unhealthy habits. It’s a clear “yes, but…” and when then the health condition occurs it is hard to assume responsibility as it is very exposing that it relates to previously made choices. This is when everything is watered down and the denial of responsibility negates the relationship between these” little daily sins” and the massive disease that now occurred out of the blue.
‘We have never been so educated, and so we cannot claim in ignorance that we “do not know.” This is so true Adam, this point cannot be argued with.
Wow Joel, this article certainly packs a punch, delivered in such a clear relatable way that you cannot miss the truths which are presented. Yes, we live in a world where behaviours and lifestyle choices which harm our bodies are considered normal and even encouraged. It’s really disturbing to see in black and white that in actual fact this “normal” is now “the leading cause of death globally”. It makes sense that something has to be going on for not only increasing numbers of people to be making these choices, but for the fact that it is somehow protected under the guise of being “normal”. What don’t we want to see, what don’t we want to feel that we would rather slowly kill ourselves? I think you’re on the money and that it actually is that excruciating pain from missing that deep connection with ourselves.
“In the case of ‘chronic’ suicide, not only is it an option, it is considered a normal. In fact it is heralded as the lifestyle all should aspire to. So we actually encourage each other to kill ourselves, yet at no point do we ask – “what drives that behaviour?” ” – yes what is behind a lifestyle behaviour is hardly if ever looked at, glossed over, even congratulated to give permission to continue in the same vein…typically because of the seen or outer trappings of success like wealth, cars, second homes etc. etc. These are fine when there is no cost (‘suiciding’) to the physical health, vitality and wellbeing of the one producing them.
Insightful post Joel. “Looking at lifestyle diseases in this way suggests that there are many more people dying from their own hand (choice) than are thriving from their choices” – Staggering to think this non-thriving and more so dying effect of one’s own hand. The time and also the quality of death or passing is determined by the way we live life, and the choices that make up a life.
Food for thought here Joel! The question is why we (humanity) are in such disregard around what we feed our bodies that we can’t see what we are doing to ourselves or don’t care? We push our bodies past their endurance levels (to achieve accolades from others), and then wonder why we break down! The fact that we are so out of touch with our innermost heart and the voice of our bodies, allows us to treat ourselves this way in many cases. Those of us who have been fortunate to connect to Universal Medicine and the teachings of Serge Benhayon are realising it is our responsibility to self nurture and care for and listen to our bodies and not just our minds and through example encourage others to do the same. The only way we will eliminate suicide in all its forms is through Love. Thank you for your sharing Joel.
Our world in general has made it normal to encourage each other in making lifestyle choices that kill us quicker and we call it enjoying life and having freedom to do what we want. This happens every day in people close to us and that we care about. It is true that everyone has their choice in how they choose, but what if the choices we think we enjoy are actually chosen for us?
I know the sorrow you have mentioned Joel that is carried and felt throughout life that I have also been looking for ways most of my life to address it, and I see this sorrow acted out in many ways in reaction in our world. I can’t tell anyone what they are choosing is not right, and if anyone told me there is a better choice in the past I would probably not listen either.
In knowing how painful it is to live life always feeling a fundamental part of myself is missing, and in understanding this is why I have chosen to live in a destructive way in the past, what changed for me was when I started to take responsibility for my own choices.
Wow, Joel, this hit me right between the eyes! What an amazing presentation of the harm we are doing to ourselves through lifestyle choices, and treating it as the norm. This is a powerful wake up call for everyone.
I had never before considered ‘lifestyle’ disease to be a form of chronic suicide. Not dealing with our hurts and issues leads us to eat, drink and smoke to numb and protect – resulting in a slow and not so pleasant (in many cases) death. Even if it seems otherwise there is always a choice.
Thank you Joel for a thought provoking blog. I agree with what you have written but I can imagine there would initially be quite a reaction from many people who wouldn’t like to consider that maybe they are on the slow suicide path. I have noticed that people are often quite fearful of talking about ‘acute’ suicide yet I am aware that it’s not uncommon that people have thoughts of dying as a way to escape their problems. What would be very helpful would be if both ‘chronic’ and ‘acute’ forms of suicide were more openly discussed in a holistic way. There is a lot of work and research done in the area of prevention but the vast majority of it is focused on helping people change just a small portion of their lives by doing or thinking something different. Yet, as you suggest, laying it all out and looking at what is fundamentally and universally missing ie self love, could move mountains.
Indeed, in general we are not going to the root cause of the longing to be dead while you are alive, instead we only treat outer the symptoms. This longing to death actually does not make sense to me when you consider life as a gift from God and that to me is the actual problem, that we have walked away that far from who we are that we have forgotten that we are divine and can live our life in joy and harmony with all our fellow brothers.
This is a gorgeous blog Joel. You are uprooting the whole misguided way we live as a race. Amazing that this observation is now out there on the Internet for all to feel, even if they never see it.
I agree Lyndy. This blog has uprooted the ideas we as a society have about ‘suicide’. Beautifully uncovering the way we view this topic.
A very powerful perspective Joel, life style choices are key to the quality and longevity of our lives.
It is bizarre, on one hand we seem to fear death most of all, yet as you rightly say Joel when you look at our lives, its like we are slowly killing ourselves. The most obvious place to see this might be with smoking or drinking where we actively ingest something designed to harm our health. But what I have been feeling the last couple of days is that any choice that is less than loving and kind is a form of abuse and a drive to diminish the fact that we are divine. Seen in this light suicide does not begin and start with a rope, drugs, a gun or a knife but with the choices we make every day of our life.
Very true, Joseph, the big rocks, food, alcohol, exercise are critical and many still struggle to get it right, but it’s in the weed of the smallest details that we see the true level of disregard that we live with.
Exactly Joseph, it is a slow proces of choices on choices that does bring us to that point, choices made not coming from love but from self instead.
Agree Joseph there is a strange contradiction in how we are living and the massive fear of death and illness and disease. Illness and disease and death is the biggest threat for most people but nevertheless we choose to live in such an abusive way provoking both to occur. It’s like playing Russian roulette; instead of stopping it there is this bizarre hope that the next round will not be the lethal bullet.
Even more so for those that get a warning shot.. a heart attack, or bout of cancer, but who then return to living the life they were leading and carrying on with the next round of Russian roulette, fully aware of the consequences.
Simon, I enjoyed your description of someone returning after illness to their old patterns, momentums and way of living as ‘the next round of Russian Roulette’. Very apt. Yes, to live irresponsibly and ignore the clear messages from the body, ensures that there will be a live bullet that will hit at some point in the chaos of the daily round. Why give our power away to gambling our lives?
When we make choice to be less than the love we are, we are in fact self-abusing and causing ourselves harm. This is the majority of us. What are we doing?
So true Joseph. The rope, drugs, gun or knife are the end-point not the point of the cause of the suicide, which is moment by moment choices leading to complete vacation of the body to hand it over to a destructive force acting against us. As you say, any choice that is less than loving is investing in the ticket on the train to ill-health and ultimately destruction. This means we are all partaking in the slow suicide. What an enormous opportunity for us to choose well and lovingly and turn this around.
Joel, thank you for exposing this global epidemic, so true. I observe everyday how what is considered normal behaviour contributes directly to disease, e.g. diabetes as just one example. The amount of sugar in all processed foods is glaringly obvious as sugar is one of the foods that directly impacts the pancreas and insulin distribution in the body. I have found that by not consuming any sugars/fruits/processed food that my body can at least come to rest properly and not be run by continuous nervous energy.
I agree Susan Wilson – following that old sugar craving, the ensuing sugar-rush and the inevitable drop of energy before the cycle starts all over again is lethal to the body from a long term health perspective as the nervous system is running so fast from sugar intake.
This is very revealing and exposing Joel, and simplifies everything, and I feel cannot be disputed. Putting it this way round, rather than the usual push to convince people that their ailments and diseases are due to life-style choices, it brings them right up with the reality of their situation in a clear picture in front of their eyes and from their bodies, and the responsibility they have, and the opportunity to change their choices. It is literally “You are killing yourself”. I am often aware of that looking back at the way I have lived my life, but knowing what I know now, having met Universal Medicine, I am beginning to change, and don’t feel I am heading so fast in that direction any more, in fact, despite various symptoms I am really very healthy and feel much younger than I have for a long time.
Slow suicide described in this blog reminded me of the frog in the pot of water coming to a slow boil. It kills you by desensitising you and sneaking up on you rather than you jumping in at the last moment, which may be likened to acute suicide. The many students of Universal Medicine who have chosen to be alerted to the heat being turned up, have a very important role in sharing with the world, no need to stay in the pot!
Brilliant point Simon. It is the desensitization that takes us slowly.
Great analogy Simon. We are desensitizing aka normalizing a suicidal way of life and with this accepting to live in a lesser quality. We choose misery over joy and vitality and have accepted that due to the heat being turned up our vitality and health is affected and we just settle for less. And the most shocking part is that nobody has forced us into the pot and it is no external force turning the heat up, but we ourselves choosing so. The increasing warmth (lifestyle choices) is numbing us and we are sitting in the comfort of it accepting that it is killing us slowly. What a waste.
Well said rachelandras – how shocking the truth is – we are CHOOSING to beliving in a lesser quality through ‘desensitizing aka normalizing a suicidal way of life’.
This is a great analogy Simon. And yes, for students of Universal Medicine that know differently due to being alerted by the heat being turned up, do indeed have an important role to play as far as sharing what they are now aware of with the rest of the world.
Yes, excellent point Simon. And it’s desensitisation by choice by using any manner of the numbing behaviours available.
‘Lifestyle diseases come from the choices people make about what they eat, drink, how they move and even how they think about life. These choices put stress on the body and lead to diseases like diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, to name but a few.’ It is now well known that what we eat and drink impacts our health and well being and that smoking contributes to many illnesses and disease but do we ever ask ourselves if the way we move and think about life contributes to our well being?
A very thought provoking blog Joel. The way of life that we champion is killing us slowly, but are we as one humanity listening?
If lifestyle diseases are the leading cause of death globally, then we seriously have to start asking why we are so intent on harming ourselves from our daily choices that in many cases it leads to death or in other words a slow form of suicide.
Yes ch1956 the question is definitely why we are heading down this destructive path and it is a question that needs to be asked endlessly until we get an answer that will stop this “slow suicide”.
It begs the question what part of our being drives the body to have a lifestyle that harms and kills the very thing that allow it to express and be.
Your Blog invites honesty and responsibility regarding the way we choose to live. The statement – ‘So the only difference between ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ forms of suicide is the timescale’, is very powerful and reminds me of the comment I have heard many times – ‘You have to die of something’, often made by people choosing to not take responsibility for the way they are choosing to live their life. It feels like comfort and indulgence around food and drink, stimulants and blockers are treated as rewards for surviving life. Time to look deeper and to in-joy living life connected to ours hearts and being all the love we truly are. Thanks Joel.
Yes ch1956 l agree. To see it as a “reward for surviving life”, puts a whole new light on what is happening really. Time to face up to the truth and get real.
‘This makes the leading cause of death globally completely preventable.’ Huge statement, and I know many would not accept it. But by not accepting it, we wash our hands of responsibility and maintain the belief that we can’t control our life’s path.
Great point Elodie, we are indeed at the mercy of life when we don’t look at and take responsibility for the misery that we are living in.
Yes, firstly, we must allow ourselves to see that it is actually “misery”. We use all manner of foods, beverages and activities to numb us out of feeling it.
What a conversation starter Joel. If we all ‘went there’ with this conversation we’d instantly increase the level of support for each other and in turn be inspired to make different choices. We just need to get real about what’s going on.
“A conversation starter” this sure is Elodie, but it is one conversation that the majority of humanity are not prepared to begin, and in the meanwhile they are making themselves ill, and in some cases killing themselves, as a result of the lifestyle choices they are making. But, and it’s a big but, just because the majority don’t want to begin the conversation doesn’t mean that we hold back from continuing what Joel has begun, as this conversation holds in its grasp such huge implications for the health of the population of the world.
This is true Ingrid. Health authorities are beginning to have these conversations to highlight our most obvious choices. But are we really listening? We often do not associate our own choices with that of the worldwide health news, unless our behaviours are excessive. Until we begin to having these conversations and start to be more honest with ourselves, nothing will change.
Ingrid, its sad but true to see these lifestyle choices being made daily by people who do not know another way and are stuck and so lost to make a simple loving choice towards themselves. I was the same. Choosing to love yourself is through inspiration from another who is truly choosing it or, you asking the question yourself – “is there another way?”. The thing is though when you do ask these questions and begin to feel the anguish of your choices, there is no true support around to guide and love you while you feel the pain and you quickly fall back into old habits again and again.
Thank you Universal Medicine for all the practitioners and modalities that are there to support you with choices to love yourself.
Wow Joel, great point.
Your statement and explanation Joel are staggering to me. I can feel how there’s resistance in me feeling the impact and sad lives (millions and millions) that are behind the words that you’re writing here. I’m that kind of person that loves to jump to the solution as you’ve written in the end “they have been brave enough to explore what it was they were missing, which turned out to be a deeper connection to themselves.”, talking about people connecting and letting in True Love and in doing so, letting go of sadness, grief, anxiousness, hardness, drives, anger, hate, etc.
The simplicity of this is enormous, yet I also want to pose the question: If the answer is simple, why are we not choosing it? What is needed in order to support people to re-connect to the innate beauty that lies within? Are we as a society lost enough to ask our policy makers and politicians for a True change? I don’t know is the honest answer for now. Personally I see in my life that people Love the Truth, but often take a distance after being presented the Truth. So what’s going on? We’re not alone, no one has to do it alone, no one has to be ashamed. We’ve all (ALL!!) made lots and lots of choices that do not support us. But we’re also able to let them go, all we need to do is re-connect and starting to love ourselves again. And especially let go of perfectionism and the having-to-do-it-on-my-own-mentality.
Love the honesty here, Floris. And it’s awesome to ask ourselves these questions – or share them in conversation. It takes things deeper and helps us to further understand life and our purpose.
WOW! What a deeply powerful wake-up call Joel to the detrimental affects of how we are living on a daily basis that is considered normal.
“While we might be missing certain behaviours, the term ‘missing’ more accurately refers to something we miss. The reality is that we must be carrying a level of sorrow or loss that is so strong that either ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’ suicide becomes an option”.
So true, I thoroughly agree.
Even to this day I still feel pockets of sadness that surface in my life intermittently. I have been working on clearing sadness from my life for many years. lt wasn’t until Universal Medicine workshops that I truly felt I began to undertake a deep change through deep self-acceptance and appreciation of myself.
Indeed Stephanie there must be something missing in our lives that causes a devastation that we frantically try to self-medicate with all the excesses in life.
I agree Stephanie – while I am aware that lifestyle choices are often not supportive of health and well-being, having it described in this way as ‘slow suicide’ is definitely a wake-up call. We certainly need to begin looking at the behaviours we are normalising, and ask honestly… ‘how’ and ‘why’ in order to address this…
I agree Angela – I would have never considered understanding my ill choices as ‘slow suicide’ before reading this blog – ouch! It is true.
Its true Angela, the marker of health I now have from attending Universal Medicine is only increasing more in vitality and absolute clarity in my mind with thoughts on things. Not having this awareness on how to truly love yourself you unfortunately are on a path of slow suicide. There is no two ways about it, health and vitality or slow suicide.