What Is Health??

Recently our team our practitioners and support staff joined together to try and flesh out a modern and comprehensive definition of the term health. So what is health?? Read below to find out!

 

Health is the natural expression of life.

The body is always trying to be the best version of itself. It is a self regulating organism that requires all of it’s internal and external elements to work in a holistic and synergistic way in order to achieve maximum expression of life and thus health.

There are a countless number of factors that influence our body’s ability to express life which all fit under 2 distinct categories.

1) Requirements- Elements that are required for the ongoing growth of the body and facilitate it’s natural adaptation to the external environment.

2) Toxins/Stressors- Challenge the body and force it to adaption whilst at the same time causing damage at a particular level.

Some factors are easily correlated and identifiable with these categories like poor or good nutrition, inactivity or exercise, whilst others can be harder to associate- like goals and life purpose.

When remembering that health is the natural expression of life, it is important to remember that our values, inspirations and motivations also play a big role in this expression. Living out of congruency with your values will cause mental and emotional stress thus effecting your natural expression of health/life. It is therefore important to remember that life is about living, about expressing our own individuality maximally and remembering this when assessing how healthy our individual actions are.

Something that has possible stress involved (like drinking alcohol) can have positive benefits that considerably supersede the negatives (like social engagement and shared experiences that formulate life long enriching memories). It is therefore imperative to assess the expression of health/life as a journey with different requirements at different stages, based upon an individuals goals + desires.

Health should also never be viewed as the absence of disease or pathology, as degradation to the point of symptoms often takes time. It is especially important to remember that what is common in society doesn’t necessarily correlate with what is optimum for the body and that every person should reflect on the standards that use in order to make decisions, and whether or not they are congruent with them.

If life is a journey and health is the natural expression of life, then health is not an attainable goal, it is an ongoing evolving or devolving process dependent upon our actions.

Eat well. Move well. Think well. Sleep well. And above all, remember to have a good time and smile lots.

 

Love and peace