“For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Shakespeare

If you were at home, or at the office today and the smoke alarm started to sound would you ignore it? It would be difficult wouldn’t it? And once you had checked to see if everything was ok, you could continue with what you were doing right? But what if the smoke alarm continued to go off – you would find it difficult to ignore. I’m guessing you would look for the cause. Smoke alarms don’t generally go off without reason.

And if I go one step further, if you are living in NSW or Queensland, Australia and you see smoke in these very hot, dry conditions I doubt you would ignore it especially if you live in or near dense bushland. Smoke generally signals a fire. We all know the saying, “there is no smoke without fire”.

So why is it that when we experience symptoms such as disordered eating, toxic thinking, addictions etc. we tend to bury our heads and carry on?

We look for bandaid solutions to fix the external problem – the smoke, without addressing the cause – the fire. If we put out the fire, the smoke will go. There is no smoke if there is no fire.

Our mind is influenced by our beliefs which drive our thoughts, our thoughts influence our behaviours and our actions

Our body and our mind work together, they collaborate. Our mind is influenced by our beliefs which drive our thoughts, our thoughts influence our behaviours and our actions. If we address our beliefs and our thoughts, and where we learnt these beliefs, how they were formed then we can take steps to change our actions and behaviours.

If we really try and put out the fire then we have to get to the root

To take this all one step further, I ask a question: is our goal to have no smoke or to have no fire? If we have a symptom, we go to a doctor right? And the doctor generally fixes the physical symptom with a medical intervention. Let’s be honest, today in our fast-paced world, most of us want that quick fix – take a tablet, drink a potion and voila, all gone! But are we all healed? Is that really just getting rid of the smoke or is it putting out the fire? If we really try and put out the fire then we have to get to the root, what caused the fire and not merely fan away the smoke. Freedom from our symptoms is usually only a temporary measure unless we holistically heal both the body and the mind.

Your symptoms are the language of your body. It is your brilliant body’s way of communicating to you, sending you a signal to take heed and notice that something needs paying attention to.