If our grandparents and great-grandparents knew how the diet-, food- and pharmaceutical industries have a hold on us, they would surely turn in their graves. There is a pill for everything, there is a diet for everyone and every body style, even every blood type. Today we are bombarded with “shoulds” and “should not’s” and people feel guilty for eating foods in the first place. Some feel that just looking at foods makes them gain an ounce (heavens forbid). What a joke!

One of society’s biggest disease problems comes from stress. Our minds are programmed and hypnotized with information about things we should and should not do. No wonder do we suffer from heart problems, strokes or even get a disease that didn’t exist a couple of decades ago.

Why do we let this happen in today’s society? Why do we let “them” have such a hold on us? And why is it that no one sees that we have become slaves to the diet industry?

Our bodies are meant to be healthy vehicles for us and food was meant to be here to nourish our bodies and for us to enjoy and savor it. Somehow over the past few decades, our bodies have become our enemies that are forever imperfect and need to be molded, reshaped and even go under the knife for corrections. I dare you to regain your freedom and gratitude for your body and to stop putting it through so much torture.

Here are four pointers that will help:

1. Stop looking for answers “out there:” No matter what you’re looking for, you already have all the answers. If you have been diagnosed with a disease, ask your Higher Self for the reasons. You manifested the disease, you allowed it to happen, ask your Higher Self why you manifested whatever it is you’re experiencing and how to heal yourself. Remember that we are never given more than we can handle, and when it seems like we are given too much, there is always a way out. Seek the answer and you will find it.

2. Meditation and Breathing: Accessing our Higher Selves is done easiest through meditation and proper breathing techniques. Start with the full intention to breath deeply and fully when sitting silently. For most people this is very difficult because we have become human doings instead of human beings. Peace and happiness is found in states of being, not states of doing or having.

3. Move your body: You have an amazing purpose to accomplish here on earth and your body was designed to help you with this endeavor. Europeans walk an average of 2 miles per day. Here in the US with at least 1 car per household we barely walk 50 yards per day. Substitute moving your body by finding other ways; go to a fitness center or starting walking for fun; just get yourself moving.

4. Love your body, all of it, and be kind to it: As a society we have come to learn to hate our bodies or at least parts of it. Imagine the leader of our country broadcasting on national television that he hated and disliked us - we would have instantaneous war amongst ourselves. And yet, isn’t that what we are doing to the 70 trillion living cells that make up our body when we tell one part that we don’t like it? How can you expect your body to work in peace and in cooperation with each member when you tell one part that it is defective in some way? Say nice things to your body for the parts that do work and the parts that you do like. Start somewhere, then expand as you start feeling the 70 trillion living cells suddenly work together to help you create a body that is truly at peace within its members. You will be amazed at the difference!