Wholeness as Foundation

I enjoy making my own kimchi because I can select fresh ingredients - napa cabbage, green onions, garlic, ginger, and red peppers, among others - ensuring the kimchi turns out exactly as I like it. Like all cooks, I insist on using the highest quality ingredients; otherwise, the food simply won't satisfy.

Similarly, a healthy attitude, though it doesn't always come naturally, forms the foundation of our lives. Many of us come from dysfunctional backgrounds, whether from poverty-stricken, abusive, or immigrant families struggling to adapt, or from families coping with illness or loss. The list goes on.

Thankfully, we all possess the Divine gift of free will, allowing us to choose a better way to live. For me, this journey began when my mother died of cancer at age fifty-four. I, too, come from a dysfunctional immigrant family, and without going into detail, I can say that I had no concept of "wholeness" and existed simply in survival mode, day to day.

Just as I'm selective about fresh ingredients for making kimchi, I found that I can be selective about my emotions and thoughts, choosing gratitude, humility, integrity, honesty, candor, beauty, creativity, certainty, honor, humor, patience, and resilience.

These are far better ingredients for a healthy life than self-pity, grudge-holding, unforgiveness, resentment, frustration, judgment, accusing, and blame-shifting.

I have observed that a victim mindset - one that avoids taking mastery over your emotions and thoughts - leads to feelings of powerlessness, hopelessness, and helplessness. This kind of mindset takes you downhill quickly, essentially giving your power away to situations and people.

But when you take accountability for your life, it often feels like an uphill battle. It takes effort to utilize free will and be intensely intentional about cultivating your internal world, just as learning to make really good kimchi takes time and repeated effort.

When kimchi is made with fresh ingredients and years of experience, it's the best kind to enjoy. In much the same way, when you have consistently chosen healthy emotions and thoughts, your life reflects integrity, wisdom, humility, compassion, empathy, and self-mastery. As you can tell a tree by its fruit, you can tell a person by their reactions and responses to people and situations.

I firmly believe that a foundation of wholeness can be applied to every aspect of your life: relationships, finance, mental and physical health, purpose, and happiness.

And enjoy the best kimchi!