What
Does it Mean to be Truly Healthy?
What
is health? Ask this question of a football player and you’ll
get a very different answer than if you ask a vegetarian. We generally
base our opinion upon whatever belief system we’ve been
indoctrinated into. If you go to your doctor, receive a complete
physical exam including extensive blood tests, and everything
comes back normal, your doctor will say you’re healthy.
You may feel terrible, but that wouldn’t matter. In your
doctor’s opinion, you are still healthy. Someone using a
different system (for example, Chinese medicine or Ayurvedic medicine)
may find an imbalance even if a Western doctor finds none. But
surely, true health involves more than whatever system you happen
to be following throughout your life. This is true, not only of
your physical health, but also of your psychological and spiritual
health.
An
underlying blueprint lies at the basis of your physiology which
includes your physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects.
That blueprint determines your true nature. Physiologists may
think of it as the source of your homeostasis—that which
maintains balance and integrated function of the physiology. Some
may think of it as your essence. Others call it the true Self
or your soul. Whatever you call it, it is the inner intelligence
giving birth to and sustaining harmony and health.
The
process of awakening different aspects of your physiology to that
underlying intelligence is called the self-referral process. To
truly be healthy, that self-referral process must be intact. Natural
healing is, in its truest sense, the art and science of awakening
that self-referral process. Attainment of true health then is,
so to speak, an in/out process. It starts with what dwells within
the depth of your own being and wells up through all levels of
your existence.
Unfortunately,
alternative as well as conventional approaches to health often
do not consider and sometimes even undermine the self-referral
process. They start at the surface and try to impose preconceived
beliefs upon you, attempting to get your physiology, energy system,
or psychology to conform. Psychologists, for example, may tell
you how to think and feel. Exercise coaches may try to get your
body to look and function a certain way. Spiritual teachers may
impose beliefs upon you. In fact the entire process of modern
education is generally the imposition of ideas and approaches.
Of course, all of that has a value. The successes of modern medicine
and scientific perspectives are self-evident. Many of us have
benefited from an exercise program, seen how psychotherapy has
helped ourselves or others, and gained from our education about
health. However, though they may support true health, they are
best viewed as available tools instead of rigid rules. All of
these perspectives are limited because they do not and cannot
fully address the self-referral process. Perspectives, by their
very nature, are limited. For example, it’s generally understood
that if the benefits of exercise could be put into a pill, it
would be the most widely prescribed drug in the world. However,
care must be taken to avoid devoutly following the perspective
of one exercise guru or another. The form of exercise that is
appropriate for you is highly individual.
The
art of cultivating the self-referral process is fundamentally
different. It starts with that place within where you are already
healthy and awakens the rest of you to that level. It imposes
nothing. It only removes the resistances. It is a process of self-discovery,
not only for your mind and heart, but also cellularly, chemically,
and in fact, on every level of your being. The first, if not the
most difficult step in the process, is to explore your relationship
with perspectives in general, particularly your own perspectives.
You may start to recognize how challenging it can be, not only
to move beyond perspectives, but even to simply look beyond them.
Instead
of being enslaved by imposed perspectives, imagine living a life
where what you do and how you do it is consistent with your true
nature. Imagine being born into a home, a society, and a world
that supports that. Discovery of your life’s work and your
life’s purpose would all be a part of that self-referral
process which would bring you to a state of true health. A truly
healthy society would bring that about in every individual and,
in turn, each individual would breathe health back into the society.
Education and the maturation process would bring you into alignment
with your true nature as opposed to potentially hiding it from
you. There’s an ancient Sanskrit term for a life lived consistent
with your true nature. It is “dharma”. To live your
dharma is to be truly healthy. Certainly there are different degrees
and levels of living your dharma. But taken to the greatest degree,
it includes knowing what foods are right uniquely for you as well
as your appropriate lifestyle, profession, and spiritual practice.
Dharma is not a cookie cutter prescription that defines, confines,
or entwines you. It is a process that frees you to rest into your
own true nature.
Sometimes
it is said that you cannot take heaven by storm. Nor can you attain
true health by assaulting it as a regime of prescribed hoops to
jump through or rules to follow. This is something that, by and
large, humanity has yet to learn. Generally, we love Step 1, Step
2 cookbooks for anything and everything, including our health.
In the attainment of true health, there is no such cookbook. Admittedly
this approach to health places the responsibility squarely upon
you. That’s usually not what people want to hear. They would
like to find someone to tell them exactly what they should think
and do. The best thing you can do for yourself is to move beyond
that type of mentality and realize that you must take charge of
your own health, exploring and evaluating all available perspectives
to determine for yourself what is best for you. No one can do
that for you. The best anyone can do is assist you with your discovery.
When you find such a person, you’ve found a qualified and
invaluable helper.
The
art of cultivating true health requires a profound level of understanding
and humility. It is not just a new set of thoughts; it is a whole
new way of thinking, one that is cultivated over time. In the
fast-paced world of today, that very notion is often received
with contempt: “Why can’t you just tell me? Just say
it.” The idea that something cannot be conveyed in a word
or a few sentences is often received as insulting: “Who
do you think you are? I’ve had courses in psychology. I’ve
been reading spiritual books for 20 years. Just give me the bottom
line so I can go about my business.” The honest truth is
it’s just not that simple. The very foundation of such approaches
to health must change. Though the knowledge you’ve gained
will still be of value, the new context will transform it. Take,
for example, the notion of natural healing. A synthetic antibiotic
is clearly unnatural. But at the right moment, it could be just
the thing that best supports your natural healing. Without it,
you might die. With it, the body is given an opportunity to regain
natural balance and heal through the self-referral process. In
that instance, something very unnatural is the best thing available
to assist the natural healing process.
Physical,
psychological, and spiritual indoctrinations do not go away overnight.
Old habits die hard. Over time, you can develop the wisdom necessary
to discern the best approach to attain health in a given situation.
In the process, leave no stone unturned; use your common sense;
listen to advice, but listen carefully; and take care not to get
caught in the loop of simply abandoning one perspective for another.
Instead, find the place within yourself that can intelligently
weigh the potential value contained within any and all perspectives.
Attaining true health is a process of self-referral, the highest
form of self-discovery.
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