Health doesn’t always need to involve medicine
What is ‘health’ to you? Most people seem to think that health has to do with doctors and medicine. When you search for an image using the word “health”, all you get are images of syringes (yuck), nurses, doctors, and hospitals. That really worries me. Is our association with health so intertwined with the modern medical system that we can’t imagine any way to be healthy without it?
I am upset. I am horrified. We are naturally healthy beings. Living in tune with the true nature of our bodies, allowing ourselves to mindfully determine the best choices for our lifestyles, and deep self-care are all real definitions of health — at least to me. If we’re healthy, we won’t need medicine — that’s what we seek when things get out of control. Do you agree?
Health is what happens when we don’t need a doctor.
When you think that you can’t be healthy without a doctor intervening, then you’ve gotten so far away from actual health that you probably forgot what it was. You forgot your own power to heal.
When you allow a doctor to determine the state of your health, and interrupt your body’s functions with medicines and interventions that you don’t understand, you are giving away that power.
You are born with infinite potential, so your first reference for a healthy choice should be within yourself. When things get so out of hand and you get so far from a state of balance that you don’t remember how to get back, you may need a doctor to step in. You may need test results to tell you what’s going on within you. But you innately know when you’re healthy or not, and how to guide yourself back to that state of perfect health. You just need to get back to that state of inner knowing and reclaim your power.
I’ll give you some ideas on how to do this.
Meditation and Inner Knowing
When you’re feeling bad about something, either an internal bodily sensation or a mental one, and someone tells you that this is somehow normal, you should sit down thoughtfully and dive into that. Do you think other people know your health better than you? Do you feel normal? If something doesn’t feel right, you need to think clearly about that and decide for yourself.
Meditation helps me understand my health. I can go with my mind into all corners of my body, understanding how to send healing to any part that needs it. I also try to focus on whatever past memory is bothering me and won’t let me move on. I heal in meditation from both mental and physical ailments.
How do I do it? Well, I imagine the beating of my heart and move its ceaseless energy — the blood flow — to where I need it most. I breathe deeply and guide the lifeforce of my breath in pranayama to places that need healing, too. I deeply know myself, and I trust my own powers to heal.
I also find my past trauma buried inside me and face it. I process the emotions that may have been pushed into a dark corner of my mind. I take time to assure myself that I was doing the best I could do, always.
When these things aren’t working, I move on to consider whether I need a doctor.
Tuning Yourself to Nature — Inside and Out
Nature has a rhythm. Our bodies are part of nature, so they have rhythms too. All you need to do is get back in tune with that. Live according to nature’s intelligence. Fit back into the processes that created you.
Our circadian rhythms — the way in which we live according to the turning of the planet — tell us a lot about how to be healthy. The circadian rhythm tells us when to sleep and when to wake up. Why deny that you need to sleep when the sun goes down and wake when it’s up again?
Sleep cycles are just one part of the puzzle, but a big one. Another part is nutrition, and another is our immediate environment.
Nutrition matters because you should be eating what heals you, simply put. No packaged and processed foods. Natural, whole foods are a good choice for a start, because they hold maximum nutrition — nature’s medicine.
Staying in balance with your environment is also important because we are connected with everything around us to the point that there really can be no discernible boundary. Think about it — we shed skin cells, hair, leave behind excrement, and exhale all the time. We inhale, eat food, and interact with microbes in our vicinity constantly. Therefore, being aware of these things and trying not to work against them is key to health because it helps you get into a natural exchange with the world. It brings you back to the way your body was made to exist. Don’t resist nature; get outside and walk barefoot, embrace dirt, and breathe the fresh air that Mother Earth is providing.
Mindfully Eating and Experiencing
I have been totally changing my eating and relationship with food because, let’s be honest, food that goes in our mouths turns into our bodies. Literally. Do you want to be a chicken fried steak or do you want to be a glass of wheatgrass?
So, I’ve been drinking a lot of wheatgrass juice. And other juices that I make in my new juicer. It has changed so much for me.
You need the microbes in fresh produce. When I start my day with a glass of apple, wheatgrass, and blueberry juice, I am setting my stomach up for the good bacteria it needs to digest for the rest of the day. Your body needs to be reset somehow if you have been consuming a lot of processed, packaged foods.
Mindful eating helps a lot. Pay attention to how you feel after a meal. Sit silently as you begin to digest, thinking deeply about what you just ate, where it came from, and where it’s now going. Food isn’t just something you put in your mouth three times a day. Your body craves the right foods so it can maintain a state of health.
And don’t for a second think that you can eat healthy food and you’re done. No, no. You need to pay attention to your moods. Are you stressed while eating? Are you eating on the run, leaving no time to experience a meal? Are you letting worries and anger build up inside you with nowhere to go? You need to fully digest your thoughts and feelings as much as your food. Stress is a huge factor in many illnesses, so allowing yourself to get stressed without any solution is setting yourself up for disaster. And your digestion needs to happen in a state of calm.
So, be mindful of the food and the thoughts you’re digesting and processing.
Digesting All of This
Your health is multidimensional, and your body already knows how to heal. Pay attention to how you’re feeling and what’s going on within you through deep inner listening and knowledge. Knowing yourself is powerful. Staying in tune with the rhythms of nature is also key because human beings are part of nature. Eating and experiencing mindfulness will get you to a state of proper digestion where you’re able to take food or thoughts and turn them into nourishment.
Your state of health doesn’t need to be associated with doctors and medicine. Health belongs to you, not to a doctor. Health is personal. Don’t overlook your own power to heal.
