Giving Yourself a Tune Up

I spent the day doing some work on my long-suffering car.  It's officially 17 this year, and has more than a few miles on it, it recently passed 230 thousand kilometres, and while compared to some vehicles it is in good condition, it has nevertheless reached the stage where it needs regular care and attention to keep it running well.  So today I changed the oil, replaced the oil filter, spark plugs, air filter, and most critically, I changed the fuel filter, as I had a suspicion that it had not been changed since the vehicle was new, and was probably blocked with dirt.  This was probably one of the reasons why I was getting worse fuel economy recently.  Anyhow, to keep short and to the point, afterwards all these little things meant that my previously deteriorating performance had been rectified, and all the lost performance had been restored.  Like all things though I found a few other little jobs I need to do, but that is the nature of things, that fixing one thing often reveals several other issues that will need correcting.

So how does this relate to us as people?  Often we are like a vehicle, working hard for many years with little major maintenance, until we suddenly find ourselves in need of major work, we might find ourselves suddenly getting sick or depressed, our strength failing us and we wonder what is happening as we struggle to figure out where we went wrong.  Often we may face a major crisis that forces us to confront a range of issues that need fixing in our lives, but how many of these are a result of neglecting the warning signs?  Are you stressed, getting more easily irritated, feeling run down etcetera?  Maybe your body and your spirit are trying to warn you that unless you take action now something major will break.  Like in a car how a little noise can rapidly turn into an expensive repair, so ignoring the noises our body and spirit make now by distracting ourselves or drowning out those noises may leave us facing a catastrophic chain of failure and damage in the future.

So as with a car we can invest in regular mechanical work, or in teaching ourselves to perform regular checks of things such as oil and coolant and tyre pressure, and having unusual noises investigated and repaired early, so we can invest in ourselves.  We can take time out to journal and write about what concerns us, what frustrates us, what makes us angry, what brings us joy and happiness, what we dream about and strive for.  We can take time to meditate and enjoy quiet times, by ourselves or with family or loved ones.  We can have regular health checks and eat healthy, while taking in some gentle exercise.  We can take moves to make our working life less stressful and start to question our lifestyle.  Do we want to spend all our life working to possess things?  Do we really need a new car or a bigger house or the latest consumer gadgets?  Will we be better off financially and emotionally with less debt and more time to think without all the distractions that are offered through the television and the internet?  Sometimes it is good to go to the park and let the kids play while you enjoy a good book.  A focus on acquiring less and being happy with what you have is perhaps the best tune up for your soul.