What Is Health? (baby don’t hurt me, no more)

What Is Health? (baby don’t hurt me, no more)

As I lay here in bed, on my day home sick, I find myself pondering - what is health?

I think people would often define health as something like, the absence of illness or disease. But I disagree. I tend to consider health as the ability to fight illness, the ability to survive and thrive even with a disease. This can be applied to multiple aspects of life: physical, mental, emotional, even spiritual, relationships, and financial. Nothing functions at 100% all the time, but it is the ability to roll with the punches, to appreciate the good times, and fight through the bad times that constitutes health. Health is not a stagnant state, I see it more like a wave. 

Health is something we take for granted.

Working in the manual therapy field (doing massage therapy for 15 years, and manual osteopathy for just over 2) I’ve observed that many people feel frustrated with pain. We become acutely aware of the problem when its bothersome. It hurts when I sit, it aches when I stand, it pinches when I bend, it pulls when I stretch. But when that pain goes away, we forget about it, something new comes along, and we focus on that. We forget and disregard the work our body did to heal and overcome the previous injury.

When you are sick, how often do you sigh, and curse the stuffy nose? How often do you feel frustration towards the aching head, and  to a scratchy throat? How many of us sit and wish we had the energy to do the thing, but we don’t. But when you are healthy - how often do you take time to appreciate the nice easy inhalation, the smooth exhale, and the energy you have to perform daily tasks?

I don’t bring this up to strike guilt. I bring it up to spark awareness. If you are currently healthy - take a moment to breathe that in, and appreciate your state of being! If you are currently sick, take a moment to appreciate that your body has those defences! Everything it is putting you through, is for your own good, to overcome this stressor, and to build strength.

Health is something we want, but do we work for it?

Everybody wants to be healthy (well many of us do, I assume). But, how many of us work towards it? Do we exercise? Do we eat a majority of fruits and vegetables? Do we sleep 8+ hours every day? Do we give our bodies a consistently predictable routine? Do we avoid unnecessary stressors? Do we maintain healthy relationships and avoid the harmful ones? Do we set healthy boundaries in our work and personal lives? Do we seek professional counselling when we feel overwhelmed (and we don’t)? Do we give our bodies, minds, and hearts adequate time to rest, so that we can be prepared for the next challenge? “Working for it” includes “Resting for it” - and in today’s world, finding true rest is a challenge in itself.

Health is resiliency. Resilience requires rest.

Resiliency: the capacity to withstand or recover quickly from difficulties: toughness.

This definition of resiliency suggests that a stressor comes, we deal with it, recover, and move back into homeostasis; our neutral; our healthy standard. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But when was the last time you spent quality time in your neutral zone? When was the last time you felt healthy, energized, relaxed, aware and in the moment with your health?

Resiliency: the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape: elasticity.

Picture a rubber band, sitting on the counter. It is simply existing. You pick it up, you stretch it, you put it back. It displayed resiliency. But what if you pick it up, you stretch it, and maintain that stretch for 8 hours, add additional stretch for the commute time, add additional stretch for mental strain, additional stretch for societal pressure, and additional stretch for any unresolved emotional bumps throughout the day. Let us also imagine that this band needs proper nutrition to function well, but “just for today” we supplied it with caffeine and granola bars instead. And instead of letting it sit untouched to recover 8 hours, we continually pulled at it throughout the night. How many days do you think it could go on like this before snapping, or morphing into a much different looking band, with much less resiliency?

Find ways to instill healthy habits into your life.

Nobody functions at 100% all the time. We all experience highs and lows. We all get sick. We all get injured. We all need rest. We all have the capacity to recover. Not necessarily to the state we were before, but to a new functional state (and sometimes if we are lucky, a different and improved state). Sometimes the injuries are a blessing in disguise. Sometimes the damage is done early enough to bring awareness to a weakness that we can strengthen. Sometimes if we pay attention to the whispers and nudges life gives us, we can avoid the big falls. Sometimes, someone writes a blurb about instilling resilience and healthy habits into our lives, and we make one small change.

Find ways to get better sleep.

Improve your close relationships

Add a little exercise

Add a little rest

Put the frickin phone down

Choose a more nutritious snack

Drink a bit more water

Enjoy this moment

Appreciate your state of health - wherever it may be.

Welcome resilience into your life.

Instill Health.