What is Health?

What is health?  What is being healthy?  How does wellness relates to being healthy?  Where do disease and/or illness fit in? These are indeed interesting questions, and they are a challenge to answer.  The answers to these questions are personal and it is impossible to establish a specific answer that is applicable to everyone.  Nonetheless, the question remains…is there a universal reference position to look from when evaluating ones state of health?  i think there is…

Being healthy is usually associated with a cessation of illness or disease.  Is it true that one is healthy when there is no apparent illness?  What about those situations when we feel ‘healthy’, unaware of a subtle diagnosable ‘dis-ease’?  Does this mean one is not healthy?  Is one not healthy when they go to the doctor for a routine check up and a slew of laboratory test to discover they have some rare heart condition?  And, is it proper to define health as a negation of illness?  Maybe so, we are at liberty to define things as we deem necessary.  Nonetheless, I think it would behoove us to reevaluate our definition of health. 

Let’s look at the factors that impact our health.  The environment in which we live is a major factor in determining our state of health.  This environment is composed of the internal and external.  The internal is that which is within the physical body.  The external is that which is outside of the body.  The internal includes not only the flow of fluids and the interaction of bio-chemicals, but also the state of mind.  The mind influences the interactions of bio-chemicals via hormones and other messenger molecules.  The external includes not only the physical conditions of the environment, but also the social and cultural dynamics that impact them.  Social and cultural structures are expressions of ideas generated by thinking minds.  Members of these societies are enculturated by the thoughts that maintain these structures.  As can be seen, the cultural and social structures impact both the internal and external environment of the body. 

The next question is who is experiencing the body, the internal and the external.  Who am I?  Are we merely the physical body and the mind that impacts it?  When i speak of mind,

I am not referring to only the brain.  To think that the mind is merely the brain, the central control system of the body, is inadequate in my opinion.  The brain is apart of the physical body.  The body is an expression of ‘Mind’.  At any rate, I think it is important to look at the nature of the mind when evaluating ones state of health because, that which is using the mind for the evaluation of experiences is the one who determines ones state of health.  It is not society and its standards that determine our state of health.  It isn’t the doctor nor the mind itself.  It is you, the one that witnesses life, the one who is truly experiencing life.

Health is determined by how the experiencer relates to the experiences in life.  Some experiences are unpleasant, but that does not mean that the experiencer is unpleasant.   If one is diagnosed with cancer, it does not mean one is automatically deemed unhealthy.  Can one approach the cancer in a ‘healthy’ way?  Can one not suffer in this situation?  I think so.  This doesn’t mean it is easy.  Illness, dis-ease, and pain are a part of life.  I don’t think we can escape it.  We may be able to mitigate it tremendously by way of lifestyle management.  We can modify how we relate to illness.  Ultimately, how we relate to illness and pain determines our state of health.

To sum it up…

So, ones state of health does not suggest that one is without illness.  Yes, illness is a reality!  Yet, we can be healthy!  We don’t have to be defined by illness or disease.  An unhealthy approach to disease would be, “I have been diagnosed with cancer and my life is over.  I am screwed.  My life is ruined.  I give my life over to the medical establishment.  I allow people outside of me to determine and define my well-being.”  A healthy approach would be, “I have been diagnosed with diabetes and I am doing what I can to make peace with it by mitigating harm to myself and by not judging myself or surrendering the life I have to the illness.  I am doing my best with the situation.  I will make the best of it.  I will listen to my body and mind and make peace with life. I will live life to the fullest.  I will take this as an opportunity to dig deep within to become much more aware of who I am and my desires within this life.  I will use whatever health care modalities to support a healthy state of mind in the time of pain and discomfort.  I choose to make the best of my life.  I choose to be healthy in the storm.”

Healthiness is a state of mind.  A healthy being relates to life with equanimity and peace in her heart.   Health is about how we relate to what is transpiring in our lives.  We may ask ourselves: how do I respond to what is going on in my life?  Do I have a healthy relationship with what is happening in my internal and external environment?  Can I be at peace with what is occurring in my life?

OM Shanti

OM Shanti