Every year many people make their New Year’s Resolution around diets and fitness regimens. However, statistics show that by February few will keep their resolution. Why is that? Can it be that we are expecting the resolution in and of itself to be the miracle cure?
This month’s topic on Health is a broad one and I believe that understanding our definition and what it represents to us and how it shows up in our lives is an important consideration when we take a closer look at what we are experiencing in our lives.
According to the WHO, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” In a 2008 BMJ article, researchers proposed a new definition of health as “the ability to adapt and self-manage in the face of social, physical, and emotional challenges.”
Why is this important to our health? Because if we accept the WHO’s definition formulated in 1948, we are basically agreeing that to be healthy we must be in a state of “complete” physical, mental, and social well-being. In addition to the concern here of how “complete” health is measured, has any human being ever been healthy in all three of these aspects? Has this definition contributed to the current focus of the healthcare system on disease and not well-being? When did our own awareness and understanding of our bodies become unimportant to our health?
As we begin the new year of 2024, I challenge us all to look at our own definition of health and take personal responsibility for it. Question yourself and be clear about what you are willing or not willing to do, and remember that the best way to begin is one step at a time. Whatever the change you wish to make, decide how long you will do it for and how you will track it, so that at the end of that time you’ll have a better understanding of your own health and the needs of your own body.
Our current healthcare system has become focused on disease management and research. When things are researched, they are dissected and understood from this point of singularity. Too often the result of this focus on singularity creates a distortion of our understanding especially when singularity is not considered as part of whole health.
When we take responsibility for our health, it does not mean we discard the knowledge of professionals, but it puts us in the driver’s seat and we do our own research by reading books, listening to experts, experiencing different ways to nurture our bodies, and most importantly, working with our own body systems to understand what our temple/body requires so that we can live our life to the fullest, whatever the state of our immediate physical health.
Make 2024 the year you choose to own your health. Cheers to you!!!