A Health Lesson from Mumford and Sons

You may be familiar with the band Mumford and Sons; if you’re not, I strongly encourage you to check them out!  One of their popular songs “Awake My Soul” was on my most recent yoga playlist and part of the lyrics have been replaying in my head over the past few days….

In these bodies we will live.  In these bodies we will die.  Where you invest your love, you invest your life…

Awake my soul.  Awake my soul.  You were made to meet your maker.

I’m not sure if this English folk rock band intended to teach their listeners about health and wellness, but I took it as such.  As a person who is concerned with health and wellness, it can become all too easy to pursue health as the end goal, but I don’t believe health is the end goal.  The lyrics from “Awake My Soul” are a good reminder of why I pursue health and encourage my clients to do so as well.

In these bodies we will live.  Yes, we live in our body and thus, it is of utmost importance to take care of our body.  How can live well, love people, enjoy life, and work hard without taking care of the vessel in which we reside?

In these bodies we will die. Yes, one day we will die.  And, our bodies will be of little use to us.  At the end of my life, I’d like to have a healthy body, but I’d also like to have pursued a lot more than health.

Where you invest your love, you invest your life.  I can comfortably invest a lot of love into my health and wellness (and a lot of other things, for that matter), but where will that get me if health is my end goal?  I could have a really nice body, a clean diet, and the ability to hold a handstand for hours.  These are all good things, but ultimately, they are not fulfilling in and of themselves.  Instead, I like to think of health and wellness as a tool which allows me to invest my love and life elsewhere, to awaken my soul and to meet my maker.

Where are you investing your love?  And how is your body helping you do so?  If your body is holding you back from investing love where you desire, what might you need to do differently?