Weekend Wellness: Tsunami

Recently I took a vacation to the Hawaiian Islands and on one of the days in Molokai’i we decided to take the Kalaupapa trail to the bottom, see the old Leper Colony and hike back out. Now, let me impress you for a moment…the hike down is just under 1700 vertical feet…and then back up is the same (no other way out). After we hiked down, toured the colony (impressing ourselves with our steps taken on our “iwatch”) we sat on the ocean’s beach to have a snack marveling at the beauty. In our relaxed state, a tsunami warning siren went off…for what felt like several minutes. We didn’t see anyone running, but my heart was pounding! We figured ultimately it was a routine siren. Then it went off again…for longer. I started to imagine running up the trail…straight up; sprinting. I also was eyeballing the mules by the trail wondering if I can go faster or if the mules could. In the back of my mind knowing if there truly was a tsunami, I probably wouldn’t survive it.

After finding (tackling) a ranger in a panic, we found out this is a typical routinely ritual done on the first of every month. Gosh…would have been nice if someone would have told us!

It got me thinking though of our tsunamis in “life” . You see, had this been a real life situation, I suspect the tsunami would have been detected as a threat a little before the actual tidal wave hit the Island (maybe half hour?) maybe longer? Would that give us a head start in avoiding it? In life, let’s say our health, we have these tidal waves which can pull us under and take us down. But…if we look closely, we see the warning signs often way ahead of time, however, so often we choose to turn the other way. We see signs of gaining weight, slowing down, head aches, becoming more sedentary, eating unhealthy foods, drinking more, taking medications, etc. It creeps up on us like the tide…slowly…but we see it if we look closely. A tsunami happens when we close our eyes completely and let something take us down and pull us under.

I realize life’s tragedies sometimes doesn’t warn us … but many times we are given red flags over and over, however they are so subtle, we don’t pay attention much too often.

What if we did? What if we noticed when the scale crept up 2 pounds and we did something immediately about it? What if we noticed we were sitting twice a long each day than we would have 6 months ago and got up and moved? What if we caught ourselves saying to others and to ourselves negative things and we, instead, spoke in positive, loving tones. Could we be more joyful? Could the tsunami be avoided? Would we, could we reverse the tides?

I think in most cases, we can avoid extreme tragedy…not always…but often. We can self correct and relax on the beach, enjoying our day if we know to catch the warning signs as they happen, instead of waiting for the storm.

Tammy Parkinson

Tammy Parkinson, CLC CNC
Body Firm Nutrition and Lifestyle Coaching
408 896 2639
www.mybodyfirm.com
tammy@mybodyfirm.com