America has reached a threshold that will permit us to cross over and reach a state of higher health. We have more than enough proof that prevention should be based on positive lifestyle changes. Compliance remains a problem, with far too few people taking the good advice that surrounds us. We need to overcome the gap between what's good for us and how we actually live. Yet leaving compliance aside, the real breakthrough to higher health doesn't lie with prevention.
It lies with a conception of wellness that turns around long-held assumptions that must be challenged. These assumptions include the following:
• Drugs and surgery are the chief ways to combat illness.
• The mind-body connection is interesting but too fickle to rely upon.
• Unique treatment for unique diseases is an illusion; diseases follow a normal course in most people.
• The intelligence of the body is a speculative, marginal idea.
• The human body is a structure made up of many complex smaller structures.
• Disease and health are essentially materialistic.
• Spontaneous remissions and the placebo effect are curious phenomena, while "real" medicine is a numbers game.
All of these assumptions are hidden just beneath the surface in medical education, the attitudes of physicians, and the common public discourse about illness. They have been slow to change, yet for 30 years the possibility of a new set of assumptions has been expanding. What would wellness look like if we tossed out -- or at least challenged -- the standard accepted notions in this list? We would look on each person as the author of sickness and wellness. Every treatment would be tailored to the individual. The body's intelligence would be the first line of information about how sick or well a person is, long before serious symptoms arise. And arching over all these ideas, consciousness would be the control center for both mind and body.
I promised practical guidelines to higher health in this installment, but I needed to lay out these new goals first. If you don't know where you're heading, you will approach wellness in a haphazard, piecemeal, usually emotional way. Here we know that we want to become the authors of our own wellness. That's the biggest goal, the one that all practical matters must serve.
So the practical matters that make the most sense fall into two categories, things to do and things to avoid.
Things to do:
1. Practice prevention -- you already know what this means in terms of diet, exercise, and not smoking.
2. Keep in mind a vision of living an active, healthy life well into your 80s.
3. Work first and foremost on your inner sense of well-being.
4. Actively take measures to reduce stress. This includes getting eight hours of sleep a night without fail.
5. Find out who you really are -- a secure, flexible sense of self is a great preventive of illness.
6. Be easy about diet but head toward less fat, red meat, processed food, refined sugar and carbohydrates, along with a balance of food groups that favors fruits and vegetables.
7. Learn to meditate. If that's not possible, take two breaks a day where you sit silently and alone to collect yourself.
8. Associate with people who share your positive outlook, uphold your spiritual ideals, and delve into the world's wisdom traditions.
9. Express and share your emotions. Take steps to get rid of toxic emotions.
10. Find an outlet for love, which means both being loved and showing love.
Things to avoid:
1. Don't obsess about diet and exercise.
2. Don't wait for others to cure you after you've failed to practice prevention.
3. Don't attach hope to miracle cures as a reason to avoid lifestyle changes.
4. Don't do what you know to be wrong.
5. On the whole, don't bother with vitamins and supplements unless there is a good medical reason behind what you're taking.
6. Don't take unneeded medications, and reduce those you must take to a sensible minimum.
7. Don't wait to correct hypertension and overweight, which cause long-term damage even though they are slow-acting.
8. Don't haunt the doctor's office.
9. Don't fall for medical scares and fad disorders.
10. Don't put yourself in high-stress situations thinking that you can handle them. In the same vein, don't fool yourself that you can go short on sleep for more than two nights.
None of these measures is surprising, yet surveys indicate that few among us are close to perfect about them. The main surprise, if there is one, has to do with consciousness, putting your inner sense of well-being first and foremost. But the body's intelligence always goes back to the feedback loops that sustain every cell, tissue, and organ. These loops are in process; they aren't material structures like the liver and kidneys. You don't have direct control over invisible processes like liver enzymes and the rise and fall of hormones. Yet if you are secure in being the author of your own existence, your body gets the message, and then you can have confidence that it will reflect your positive awareness through a state of wellness.
I am sorry to paint with such a broad brush. Many people want a specific answer about cancer or Alzheimer's; already pressured by ill health, they want an alternative to conventional drugs and surgery, which means for most that the goal is immediate, painless healing. Such healing does exist, but it is elusive, unpredictable, and quite variable. One day the higher health will encompass healing treatments that today exist on the fringes. Our understanding isn't there yet, which is why so much remains to explore in the world's traditional healing systems, East and West. What I've offered here seems general, but it is powerful nonetheless. Becoming the author of your own life is a high spiritual goal, but the body shouldn't be left behind on the journey. In the end, the body benefits from the path to higher consciousness as much as the mind and spirit.
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In particular, what resonated with me was:
"Don't wait for others to cure you after you've failed to practice prevention."
I work in a hospital and I am constantly disturbed by people who don't seem at all concerned about their health problems (i.e. diabetes, high blood pressure, etc) because they just figure they can take a pill and keep it under control. Even when I try and encourage people that they can reduce such problems by changing lifestyle habits, they're more content to rely on a pharmaceutical than just treating their bodies better.
Unfortunately, taking care of yourself requires more time, thought, (and sometimes money) - and it's just easier for people not to... not to mention the immediate reward from eating those Doritos is stronger then the distant consequence of poorer health "somewhere down the line." (I studied Public Health = Behavior Change is difficult to accomplish).
I haven't convinced my mother to take better care of herself, either :( ... and I worry about her...
A new breed of health professional – wellness coaches – appeared on the healthcare scene about a decade ago. Thousands of wellness coaches now serve as partners with patients to elicit agendas and co-discover solutions. With the help of wellness coaches, they can learn how to lose weight, exercise more, and change their lifestyles with lasting results. Wellness coaches differ from life coaches, personal trainers, or therapists because they use science-based techniques to enhance motivation, self-confidence, and self-regulation. Studies show wellness coaches help instill long-lasting habits that, over time, become part of the brain’s hardwiring.
I know for a fact that Omega 3 will help brain function, so I eat nuts, seeds, and fish. Water is essential, but green tea doesn't dehydrate and has numerous health benefits, so I drink that. Yoga is a wonderful low-impact full-body (and mind) exercise, so I do it whenever I can. Tomatoes are anti-angiogenic and prevent cancer, I eat lots! Make it fun, and it becomes this simple. Being on top of your health can be incredibly empowering, and it will never not be rewarding.
So much of our culture, is aimed at avoiding how your feel, rather than how to effectively cope with how you feel. Many families actively pass this along to the kids.
Mastering the ability to stay present with yourself, even when its uncomfortable, is a key skill. I am glad I have finally figured this out, though I have a ways to go toward optimal health. This is also something I am trying to teach my kids, but it is not easy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AECYId2n32c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AECYId2n32c
I think that the compliance issue might be best addressed according to age. While all of your ideas are excellent for aging baby boomers, we still remember (and long for) being young and indestructible. Most of your ideas are related to subtle energy, but young people have boundless energy and much less sensitivity to anything subtle. The things that young people do define their individuality, and the energy of youth is an innate part of our existence.
So everything really is energy. The recited ideas relate to building and maintaining internal energy flow and good energetic connections. And the treatments certainly do need to be individually tailored, at least according to each person's energy.
However, as noted repeatedly, "compliance" with these types of guidelines is hardly widespread. This should not be surprising; people do not, understandably, like being told what to eat. Food is probably the major way in which we "reward" ourselves in this society, and it doesn't really matter if what we think is our prize is really our destruction; it's what we perceive it as that counts.
The good news is that we all have the ability to know exactly what will bring us to optimum health; our bodies, if cared for sufficiently in other ways (sleep, exercise, meditation), and if we take the time to stop and listen to them, will give us the right answer every time. Unfortunately, when you are working five days out of every seven from morning till night, "little" things like enough sleep and exercise and time to listen to your body get relegated to the "would be nice someday" category. As does having the time to prepare the meals that we really want.
Any campaign to truly make us well must include a reduction in the amount of time we have to spend just earning enough to live on. It's not impossible to implement some of these changes while working full time, but true balance simply isn't going to happen when one activity co-ops such a massive percentage of our time.
The mind/body connection exists; stress is a culprit in manifesting gastrointestinal conditions as well as high blood pressure and the resulting strokes and heart problems. It may contribute to the conditions that promote cancer--which are mainly environmental, chemical and radiative pollution, or genetic. Reducing stress may keep the immune system strong and prevent such horrific diseases from taking root in the body.
My hat's off to you for this balanced article.