When we hear health many things can pop into our mind. Generally the word ‘health’ comes from the word wholeness. So what does it mean to be healthy and whole then?
To me health means: to have love, energy, vitality, creativity, curiosity and a commitment to life.
When I first started my health and fitness journey I thought that it was about looks, I thought being healthy was a gift given to some people and not to others. What I found as I embarked is that, health is a totality. Not just physical but also mental and spiritual. And I’ll also preface this by saying I wasn’t always on board with the spiritual aspect of life, at all, until I started having experiences that made it undeniable to me.
Health and fitness brushes us up against our limitations. It exposes us to ourselves. Our habits, where we are and where we aren’t and most importantly, I think, who we aren’t yet. Because I’ve noticed in order to make long term changes in health, you must unbecome and through that become. It opens us up to an embodied awareness, a felt experience and I believe through that, it can open us up to realms unknown. What I say is, “Exercise till your heart races, and your mind will be calm.”
As I became healthier, I was able to more fully be present. Ideas flowed through me. My mindset went from neutral and negative to a more positive lens. I became grateful and spoke to myself better. Then in place of weird anxious thoughts, I started having invigorating incendiary ideas that lit fires inside of me. That’s spirituality to me. Carved out of the breath of life itself. It’s not just the apparitions and synchronicities but the flow of creation and awareness in and through us.
All improvement starts with the truth. That can come in the form of a question & answer, a feeling or a measurement of some kind. If you want to lose weight, you have to be honest about how much you weigh. What do you need to quit? What do you need to start? Stand in front of the mirror and look. If you want to lift more weight, how much can you lift now? If you want to learn a skill, you have to test yourself to see where you’re at. This same principle transfers across domains. This is why I sense we are all scientists and artists.
We question, experiment and apply; fail and succeed. This mindset seems essential to me and I feel most people who have achieved any level of self control have this kind of frame, even if it’s not labeled as that. Even if just for moments.
On the road of health there’s the baseline of where we are, or maybe where we’ve been, that’s contrasted by where we feel we ought to or could be. In a way, sickness, disease and seeming inability is a doorway. How could we know pleasure without pain. Gain without loss. How could we know health if we haven’t felt the dredges of fatigue, disgust, and limitations. It’s an urge for a sense of control over the only thing we really can control, our own actions.
Exercise used to be a part of life. We had to walk, chop wood, carry water, hunt, gather, do everything by hand and as things became more convenient we became increasingly more unhealthy. Nutrition was easier to get because, in the void of ultra processed foods, we had to eat what we could make and buy before the corporations took hold. As ‘communication’ becomes more convenient we are already seeing a decline in connection and an increase in depression and addiction. It’s all connected.
Sadly in our society, we’ve been convinced that many of the things we can influence are beyond our influence and it suggests ‘we must outsource our healthcare to be managed by institutions and medications‘ under the guise of these health issues being primarily genetic. And while there are extremes of sudden illness seemingly without reason, and a need for medication, for the vast majority this isn’t the case. What has been really found is an interconnected cyclone of symptoms, sometimes rooted in something as simple as a lack of movement, hydration, sunlight, vitamins, minerals, and even self expression. An accumulation of pollution in the form of poison and in the form of thoughts and emotions. The medicalized narrative is disempowering for so many.
It wasn’t until I saw and experienced it first hand that my eyes were open to this lie. My body rid itself of asthma, when I committed to health, and I’m so grateful for breath, even though the doctors said it wasn’t possible. Whether intentional or not, this has robbed so many of the beauty of health. “The first wealth is health.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Not in the form per se, but of the feeling. The feeling of energy, the feeling of enthusiasm, of wondrous reverence for what the body and mind, Nature, are and let alone to dive to the deeper layers of spirituality through this connection of both. Not just in the words expressed in books, or the clever words of a preacher but in the felt experience.
Like it is said in scripture, “Our body is our temple”. Our home. Like the Earth is a temple and home. Like our mind is a temple and home. We should treat it with love & honor, doing our best to not take it for granted. We should stand at the door and really pay attention to what we let in and out. Really become aware of where ideas come from, what is our food doing to our home, and how our own actions are either growing, maintaining or destroying our homes.
Ignorance isn’t bliss, ignorance makes us sick.
Our bodies are the conduits through which we experience, that house the mind that interprets, and the you that perceives. When in constant, or intermittent pain or sickness, it’s difficult to focus on anything but those sensations. Like hurt animals we can lash out and attempt to control what is outside because we feel out of control inside. When in health and ease, we can walk the road to growth and peace, while still stumbling at times, the excuses of condition and circumstance become less worthy of thought and speech. Once we sense control, it is hard to rely on blame to bandage the damage we can cause. Somewhere in there, we sense the lie that it’s because of someone or something else.
While there are forces acting against our better Nature, it’s our duty to fight, to resist the temptations of our lower nature, the consumptive, inactive force that leads to misery for so many. To in some way become rebellious to a sick society that perpetually profits knowingly on the backs of suffering masses, without truly addressing the root cause and permanently prescribe our brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters, fathers & sons with a list of chemicals and treatments without the empowerment of knowledge and true healing.
Our bodies have the ability to heal themselves.
That in and of itself, spoken and written is an empowering belief. It’s a reminder of the ability within us. It’s one that the father of medicine Hippocrates espoused, who has been bastardized and misrepresented. It’s apparent when you get cut, your body just does what it does to heal. In the same way our bodies can heal from so much, all we have to do, is give it what it needs. There’s so many ways on the path of health and I’ve found the only way to find out what you need, is to step through the door with an open mind, ask a question and pay attention for the truth.