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The other day I broke not one, but two glasses on the same day in two separate incidents. The first glass I broke I kind of saw happening even before it happened. I knew I shouldn’t have placed the glass where I did. I knew I was risking knocking it over. And sure enough, I did.

When I dropped that second glass, I felt even worse.

But then one of the receptionists at my clinic came in with a broom and she told me that breaking a glass in her culture (East Indian) means that someone is thinking of you or that someone unexpected will come to visit. That made me feel a lot better!

I had no visitors and I don’t know if someone was thinking of me at those two times, but it didn’t really matter. Her comment made me get out of my “oh that sucks!” mind frame.

Sometimes we get sick or injured or are suffering from some unwelcomed symptom. It’s easy to dwell in that misery and feeling of misfortune. Is there something else you can learn from your state of feeling unwell?

From the glass breaking I learned that I should listen to my internal voice. I knew I should not have left that glass where I did. Sometimes my internal voice tells me to eat more of one food and less of another. I enjoy one little piece of dark chocolate every night after dinner. But not more. After four separate tries of eating quinoa, I came to the final realization that my body does not like it. I must eat breakfast. I need to eat small frequent meals. And so on. If I ignore these things that I know work for me, I sometimes suffer the consequences.

The same happens with exercise. The right exercises with the right balance of challenge and easing off makes the difference between fitness and injury. If I don’t stay focused when doing yoga; if my mind is off wandering while I do the movements; if I don’t listen to my body and push too hard; then I find I’m more likely to hurt myself. With the second glass, I was very distracted and not paying attention to what I was doing.

Aside from sudden injuries like those from car accidents or sports injuries, we often have at least one warning that the things we are doing may be harming our health.

So, think about this now…is your body or mind telling you something that you would be best to change in order to prevent your glass from breaking? Is there something that you could do or not do to keep your body healthy and strong or improve your current health challenges? Use the negatives as a way to prompt yourself to make the changes that will bring you to more positives.