The Outlier
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The Outlier
Religion, Philosophy and Science – The Way of The Livingness brings all aspects of life together into one cohesive whole. And while Religion, Philosophy and Science are often ideologically pitted against each other, in The Way of The Livingness these three major pillars of life are understood for their harmonious interdependence.
Many people who practise The Way of the Livingness find that they experience positive changes in their physical health as a direct result of being inspired by a greater care, love and religious connection to themselves. Here is one such story.
Hello, I am an outlier, a statistical anomaly that does not exist in today’s approach to science.
In a world where normal is defined by the number of people that experience a certain behaviour, condition or lifestyle, it would seem that there are many things in the world that we consider normal but point to a world that is not doing well.
Being overweight or even obese is becoming normal.
Being dependent on sugar or caffeine is normal.
Using alcohol or other ‘recreational’ drugs is normal.
Yet based on the above I am an outlier, as none of these things are part of my life:
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I live without eating or craving sugar, caffeine, refined carbohydrate, salt or alcohol
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I am on the lower side of the normal weight range for my height
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I wake up without an alarm early in the morning, ready for the day after a solid night’s sleep
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I work with consistent energy throughout the day around the house and in my job.
This was not my experience of life 12 years ago. In fact, 12 years ago I was pre-diabetic, overweight, using caffeine, sugar, alcohol and not particularly happy in my job or within myself.
So my NORMAL has changed, which means this is not a story of someone with a genetic predisposition to a certain mode of health. Any genuine scientific researcher would look at this change and want to study it, because the changes I made were not ‘rocket science’ but observable, repeatable changes.
The changes were founded on the principles of The Way of The Livingness, a uniquely and truly holistic approach to life that presents a combination of science, religion and personal responsibility that is, in my experience, both profound and unique in the world.
The science part – involves studying the science of my body more closely and observing the repeatable experiences I would have with certain foods, moods and lifestyle choices and how they affected me. It also involves respecting and working with my GP and other health practitioners to monitor my health to ensure I am not deluding myself.
The religion part – involves appreciating the fact that while my life has a practical quality, it has an energetic quality as well. This energetic quality is about the way in which I define my relationship with God (even denial is a relationship). Over time I began to accept the fact that I can and do have a very personal and real relationship with Divinity, and that life has a sacredness that is worthy of respecting and honouring in my movement and actions. I learnt that I did not need to be beholden to a particular person or congregation, but rather defined success as the honesty of my personal relationship with God, as it defines everything else.
The personal responsibility part – involved knowing that if I was choosing to eat or live in a way that was harmful to me or others, I needed to look at why. It makes little sense that we would choose to ingest poisons (alcohol), smoke, overeat or do a myriad of other things that modern science knows leads to poor health, but we do. The fact is, I matter in the world and my choices affect both myself and others. So personal responsibility is looking at the choice and the reason for it. In essence it is a perpetual choice to either respond to or ignore the Science and Religion I am still discovering.
And while science is consumed with trying to cope with the ever increasing rates of obesity and other lifestyle diseases, here I am, the outlier, feeling very normal, but hardly a blip on the radar of science.
If you visit the other before and after stories on this site, you will see that I am not alone. In fact, people from around the world have begun to replicate these changes, across gender, age, race and income demographics.
Hello, I am an outlier, why don’t you join me?
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