In this focused and intense interview, Charles Hanna shares with Knowledge for Men host Andrew Ferebee how his accomplishments, success and wealth led him into despair instead of fulfillment. Then he describes how he discovered that self-care is a huge part of our higher purpose.Hanna explains how true serenity comes from realizing that our lives don’t really belong to us.
Listen to the full interview here
“We didn’t pay for our lives,” says Hanna. “We have no control over when or how we are born. We don’t own ourselves. Rather, we are entrusted with life, so we have a cardinal responsibility to take care of ourselves and nurture ourselves. The most important person that you need to help in this world – is yourself. And it is a full-time job.”
What daily habits help with self-care?
Hanna describes how we need to take care of ourselves in many of the same ways we care for our children. We make sure they have enough rest, they eat well, they learn, they do their best. We need to do the same for ourselves too.
The most important way to take care of ourselves is physically. And there are four ways we can do that.
- We need to get enough rest. A lot of us don’t get enough sleep, and sleep is the most important part of removing toxins from your body, repairing damage, balancing hormones.
- The second most important part of our physical self-care is nutrition – what you put in your body. You need to invest the time to really understand and research what is the best nutrition and diet for yourself, and follow a routine for it.
- The third aspect of it is that you have to stay very active – physical activity is something that has been with us through our entire evolution on this planet, and today we drive cars, we ride escalators and elevators and we don’t have to travel very far – we communicate online – and we’re robbed of the opportunity of pushing our bodies the way they need to be pushed to stay healthy.
- And the fourth component of this type of self-care is simply checking on yourself. If something feels wrong, if you hurt somewhere, make sure you pay attention. Especially as you age.
Key Concepts from this Interview
- After taking care of your physical well-being you have to take care of the mental and spiritual aspects of your life. And I think that we’re all born with a deficiency, and to one extent or another we suffer from what I call a ‘perception disorder’. We look at life from a very self-centered perspective. We look at everything in terms of “Is it good or bad for me?”
- And we fail to realize that we are part of something much bigger. There’s a larger perspective, a much bigger universe that we are part of. And we’re just a fleeting second in terms of the span of our existence. When you understand that, you start realizing that you cannot take things as personally as we do.
- The things that are good about us – they’re not to our credit: we were born with them. And our shortcomings our not our fault. They’re not something for us to be ashamed of or to be angry or upset about. To help us to gain that wider perspective, we need to be healthy spiritually. And the way to do that is you have to connect with people a lot. People from all walks of life. With different opinions. Because the more you do that, the more you see the world realistically, and the more you have a prized group of friends that you can share your intimate thoughts with, and aspirations and fears. And they can help you put things in perspective.