Blair Lewis is the creator and spiritual director of the Alive and Healthy Institute in Madison, Wis.
Who/what contributed to your inner strength?
Daily life and my medical clinic became my main teachers in learning how to live. I also sought mentors from all walks of life to share their expertise with me. Eventually, my mentors were limited to the areas of psychology and spirituality. Their living examples of inner strength helped me find my way.
For years, wherever I felt afraid of the world or my own weaknesses, my mentor would say, "Be strong." Over and over, he repeated this simple phrase. But I did not understand the full meaning of his words, and I did not know how to be strong.
Part of the confusion was that my paradigm and his paradigm were very different. His experience was alive with role models who were strong and fully awake. My sleepy mind lived in a very narrow quadrant of limited experience.
As I started to model them and become stronger, the field of my mind became my testing ground for new found strength. Whenever I challenged deep-seeded habits in my mind, I quickly fell from grace. But with a sportsman-like attitude, I learned to confront only the impulses, memories and fears that were well-matched to my inner ability. As I achieved success in the lower ranking areas of my mind, I gradually promoted myself to the arena of more dominating and more unwanted habits. My progression of self-transformation was quickened by testing the advice of others in real life.
Having spent too much of my life trying not to lose, I finally started to play to win.
When in your life was your inner strength particularly tested and how did you deal with the incident?
The ultimate test is not the ultimate test in my opinion. The massive challenge you may face today is only a stepping stone to developing your capacity and earning the privilege of helping others at a greater level tomorrow. This is why you must win. You must succeed. You must endure. It is not about you. It is about all of us and how much will you be able to help the team.
In my personal life and as I continue to sit with patients, the stories of our endurance are a huge source of motivation, power and wisdom.
As I reach out to help others on a more global scale, my inner strength is continually tested at greater levels than in years past. Experiences of human suffering that I have witnessed in recent years would have crushed me completely a decade ago.
I have not had a single incident that challenged my life, but rather an avalanche of change and challenge that have honed my skills on how to live in this world. Every encounter only makes me feel more alive.
What suggestions do you have to help people realize their capabilities?
The natural happiness of the heart does not need a marketing team—it is one of the most powerful truths that our forefathers described as “self evident.”* However, the self-revealing nature of happiness has the single requirement of asking us to adjust and amend our lifestyle in order to feel its presence. I tell my patients that getting well and becoming happy is not difficult, it is just different.
Self-transformation is not a sprint, it is a marathon. If you really want to be happy and have unlimited access to the inner strength radiating from your mind and heart then you must be willing to calm and quiet your body, breath and mind. It is in this quietude that you will find the joy you are seeking. Thus I encourage all of my friends and patients to adjust their lifestyle in a manner conducive to their goals and experiences.
In my book, Happiness: The Real Medicine and How It Works I list the six traits of happy people which are a quiet mind, self-restraint, endurance, disinterest in worldly charms, a congruent mind that is free of conflicts and distractions and a burning desire for happiness itself. Learning to mimic these traits can help many folks adopt them into their daily life.
* “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” –The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
Why is it important to focus on inner strength?
To me inner strength is the fruit of self-esteem. When you start to recognize self-esteem as your greatest wealth, then your entire communication and occupational strategies shift to ensure that the self-esteem of every person you meet is nurtured and never harmed. The inner unity of self-esteem and inner strength cures every form of alienation in a systematic and long lasting manner.
We cannot be ambivalent about the meaning and purpose of life. Taking command of your life is crucial to both your daily experience and to the final conclusions that you will draw at its end.
Our happiness cannot come from sources that damage us. It is only your inner strength that can prevent you from answering every craving and honoring every whim. If these impulses are not controlled they will wreak inner havoc in your heart and in your life.
What are your next goals and what positive thoughts or activities keep you striving toward your goals?
My major focus today is on humanitarian service. Our foundation has put forth programs to help with various projects in developing countries. For instance, India now has a major AIDS crisis. In the early 1990s, India had only a few thousand cases of HIV. Today there are more than 5.1 million cases. Something needs to be done before a complete epidemic takes hold there.
My focus here in America is on writing and teaching. My patients feel over-worked, over-stressed, and over-burdened; my books and techniques help them get their lives back. Everyone seems to have forgotten how to sleep, how to relax, and how to take charge of their health and happiness. I, like may other leaders in holistic health, are re-awakening this powerful knowledge of how to live.
