ANDREW HEIMANN

Surviving does not necessarily mean thriving.

I had a patient yesterday with whom this conversation arose: Surviving is doing enough to continue living. Thriving is growing and expanding. It's flourishing.

There are times in life where surviving is really the only option, and the ability to survive, given the difficulty, is nothing short of remarkable. For those in that situation, keep up the good work. You are amazing! But today I’d like to talk to the people who are surviving, but not thriving, when there's an option for something different.

Thriving requires an evaluation of what it is that you want or need to grow. It requires examining what would help you cultivate and actualize those things. It equally requires an evaluation of what's obstructing the pathway to thriving.

By definition, thriving implies growth. Growth is change and change is suffering. The difference between empowered suffering and disempowered suffering is choice. When you have an intention to grow, you instigate the growing pains and change. When you survive, you adjust to the changing world and try to maintain. You have power only in your ability to keep changing and adapting to maintain the status quo. Surviving is the absence of growth and a disempowered suffering.

When clients come to me with realities that just require them to survive, we access their system and find out what it is lacking to survive. What information to communicate or what nourishment do the organs require to function and survive?

When people come to see me with the desire to thrive, I help them evaluate their system, help them optimally tune it and, then, we figure out what impacts that system negatively and adjust those variables. We also figure out what their goals are and how the obstacles to that goal impact their body.

One of the greatest human powers is free will—the choice to set and cultivate an intention. This power is to cultivate your own reality and instigate the consequences that follow. So, please tell me: are your intentions set to survive or thrive?