A chance conversation in yoga class recently got me thinking about the definition of health. We talked about the misconceptions prevailing today, and how these are fuelled by the life and times that we live in. As the year comes to a close, we can all take a look at our health again and make the right kind of resolutions for the next year.
How frequently have you met people who have decided that some condition is a part of their lives forever now? People who have resigned themselves to living with something such as a chronic back ache, allergies, chronic headaches or migraines, joint pain etc. People who don’t go swimming because of a cervical condition. People who can’t travel for long distances in a train or a car because of backaches. People can’t climb the stairs in their own houses because of ankle/joint pain! And what’s worse is that many people have accepted these problems as a part of their lives instead of issues that must be addressed.
So, if your health gets in the way of going through life pain and medicine free, then you’re not healthy. I have a friend who feeds her kids really well, she’s worried to death about their hygiene and their school work. But every fifteen days I hear that they are running fevers. Both children fall sick around the same time…and when they’re not sick then she is! Now, she’s doing everything she can to maintain good health…but for some reason I feel that if children aren’t climbing trees and running around getting into trouble…then there’s something wrong. Imagine kids who are bundled up under blankets with thermometers when they aren’t doing homework. Will they make for well-rounded adults?
Similarly if every time you have to go on vacation, you think of all kinds of conditions you could get (allergies and the like) and end up taking a bunch of tablets and capsules with you, then you’re not healthy. By all means take along your first aide kit, but if you’re planning on reaching for it daily, then your health is interfering with you having a good time, and being on vacation 100%.
Also, the thin are not necessarily the healthy. How thin you are, or how hot and young you think you look, is not a sign of how healthy you are. Because good health is a combination of many factors. Good health is related to how far you can walk, how long you can move your body to songs you like (and some that you don’t like), how quickly your body recovers from injuries playing sports that you enjoy, how well you sleep after a long day, how much you can smile even when you see your ‘to do’ list increasing, how much of a spring there is in your step, how bright the shine in your eye…you get the drift.
So you may be a 40 yr old who doesn’t look a day above 25, exuding hotness, but if your body is constantly sick, your mind constantly irked, then all that youth and hotness is just gold plating, not real gold.
And so, as the year draws to a close, it’s a good idea to do an appraisal of the state of your health. It’ll help you make the right resolutions for next year.