In this blog I would like to share with you some thoughts about health.
State of Health as a precious compass
Health for me is a subtle dynamic balance of my body, mind and spirit. It is my compass which shows me how I’m doing in my life. It shows me what is the state of my mind, how the energy is moving, how am I able I to release tensions and to process and integrate different experiences.
Common definition of Health
Today the word health is predominantly used to describe “the state of being free from physical disease, injury or pain”. Therefore it is not unusual that when you hear a word health instead of thinking about some vibrant and healthy person you think about the absence of illness and disease.
Broader meaning of Health
But if you look at the etymology of the word “health” you will find out that this word of Germanic origin is related to the “whole”. In Old English the meaning of hǣlth was “wholeness, a being whole, sound or well”. And I’m pretty sure that this “whole” didn’t relate only to the wholeness of physical body. In some modern dictionaries you can still find this broader meaning of the word health – “the condition of being sound in body, mind, and spirit”.
So, I will use word “health” in this broader holistic sense. For me “health” includes a physical health, mind clarity and emotional stability. In addition I think that a healthy person is able to create harmonious relationships with others and live in harmony with nature. Healthy person is content and creative. …
I presume that by using this kind of criteria to define a healthy person there would be a pretty small number of people who would fit in the category of healthy people. But this doesn’t mean that we can’t do something to achieve this sort of health and well-being. 🙂 And the purpose of this blog is to offer you a view on a health which differs from the official one and luckily it is spreading fast among the people who come in contact with traditional or modern holistic approaches to health.
Health is inherent
I would say that health in this broader sense is inherent to human beings but also that it changes all the time, to a lesser or greater degree. It is not static and unchangeable. Like everything in this world Health is a constant dance of YinYang energies. If you live in harmony with the energies of Heaven and Earth and you help to maintain this balance you stay healthy, each day a little differently, but healthy.
How the balance is lost
Our Being naturally always leans toward the health. But if the external or internal influences such as food, stress, mental negativity, environmental influences, toxins and injuries… are causing through time and sometimes at once too much tensions and imbalances which can’t be processed, the system starts to decline and if you don’t do anything about finally collapses.
Health is not static
Health as a static state doesn’t exist. We are a huge complex of living cells and organisms which change all the time according to our environment, things that we put in our body and mind, the energy patterns that we create and maintain with our thinking and interactions with the outer world… The body is looking for the best possible dynamic balance in each moment or period of time… A great part of this process happens unconsciously but we can consciously cooperate by choosing the things that help to keep this subtle balance.
People very commonly use the expression “suddenly I’ve got this disease”. There is not such a thing as “lose health suddenly”. The process of losing a balance was going on for a long time. It is only that a person was so occupied with “things to do” and/or completely separate from his/her body and feelings that couldn’t notice what was going on.
Where is my health?!
Majority of people nowadays don’t see how their health and everything they do, think and feel is interwoven and mutually depended.
It sounds ridiculous but a lot of people perceive their health as something separate from their life, work, relationships… In their perception a health is reduced to a mere physical functioning necessary to accomplish, achieve and experience life. Until their body is physically healthy they think of themselves (and they are also medically classified) as healthy. It doesn’t matter if they are frequently without energy, stressed, in a bad mood, discontented, lethargic, angry, without purpose… Or they are hyperactive, working all the day, socially engaged… so much that they have to reduce their sleep and they need strong stimulants to accomplish all these… These are only the opposite extremes of unbalance.
Such people start to do something for their health only when it starts to decline and they are bothered because they are not able to do their everyday race for proving their worthiness to others and to themselves.
And even then they come for a treatment and say: “Fix my health, so that I can continue to live as I have until now.” They don’t see that their health is only the manifestation of the unbalances in their life.
The state of your Health is telling you something
The sign of unbalance in your health shouldn’t be taken as something that you have to eliminate but rather as the message which reminds you that you should change something. Try to perceive the pain as the language of your body which communicates to your mind that there is an energy blockade. Or try to understand that your feeling tells you how much your actions or thinking are in harmony with your true nature, your spirit.
Very often a change of your health state in worse tells you that you should change your way you look at things and your mindset. If you are willing to change something, you will progress also spiritually.
More harmony means more Health
A great factor in maintaining health is cultivating your awareness, which helps you to keep conscious connection between your body, mind and spirit. When you are already unhealthy and you try to re-establish your health this should be the essential part of your rehabilitation. In a long term it will serve you enormously.
By listening to yourself you can know how you are doing in your life. The current state of your health (physical, mental, emotional…) will always remind you that maybe it is time for you to change something. Or you would rather go on the same old path?
You have to find a way (method, practice…) that helps you to become enough sensitive to the constant changes of your health and become able to re-establish your balance as soon as possible. Being sensitive will become advantage.
For me this way is Qigong. But you can find your own way to bring into your life more harmony. When you are in harmony with yourself you are spontaneously led toward the activities, mindset, life style, people… that supports your health. You intuitively start to choose the things which are more in harmony with you and so your health and your life in all aspects become more stable and harmonious.
This is my view, what is yours? I invite you to tell me more about it in a comment section below. 🙂
May the Qi be with you!
Smiljana
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Thank you, Smiljana! This is exactly correct…we must tend to the body, the mind, and to the soul.