How’s Your Health?

He who has health, has hope. And he who has hope, has everything. – Benjamin Franklin

How ya feeling?

Good I hope. But I want to look at health from a slightly different perspective.

Most people take the question “How’s your health?” to mean: how are you feeling physically and, perhaps, how are you in relation to your long-term “physical prospects” (i.e. bio-markers such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels and weight).

Those are important to be sure, but there’s really more to “health.”

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There are four domains of health, of which physical is but one.

In addition, there’s emotional, mental and spiritual.

I would strongly encourage you to 1) understand that there are these three other domains and 2) to pay closer attention to each.

Why?

Because when you are aware of each you can pay attention to all four.

But what are they?

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Physical

How much energy do you have? And by “energy” I mean the actual capacity to do work, in the physical world. How is your sleep and recovery? Are you getting 7-8 hours every night? (Don’t kid yourself and think you don’t need that… you do.) How are those bio-markers mentioned above? How is your muscle mass? Bone density? Eyesight? Hearing?

Most importantly, how are you fueling your body? Are you eating and drinking in a way that nourishes and fuels you, or are you eating for pleasure and diversion?

Emotional

How’s your emotional health?

What feeling-states do you generally experience?

How often are you agitated, stressed, irritable, defensive, aggressive, depressed, hopeless, dismissive, . . . ?

How often do you feel hopeful, excited, pleased, gratified, optimistic, industrious, content, willing, connected, . . . ?

Our emotional states are habitual and related to 1) our environment and the corresponding stimuli and 2) our conditioned responses to those stimuli.

If you want to feel different things you understand how your emotions work and, one way or the other, create new responses.

Two primary ways to do this are 1) Be More Aware, and choose your responses consciously, more often and 2) Change What Things Mean to you, so you will respond differently.

Mental

Does what you think about support your commitments and goals? Are you clear on what your commitments are (the non-negotiables in your life)? Do you know what your goals are (the things you want to be, do and have)?

What do you ingest mentally each day? Are you paying attention to (sensationalist) news, gossip, reality TV, regular TV, the Woe-is-Me/Us Crowd?

How much do you read? Does it support your development?

What do you listen to? Does it support your development?

Your sub-conscious pays attention to what your conscious mind focuses on – and works feverishly, behind-the-scenes to help make it so.

Your mind is just like your body: junk in, junk out.

Spiritual

Do you feel connected to humanity and something beyond that?

Are you able to have faith in the un-seen or un-proven and act?

I’m not talking about religion here, I’m talking about your connection to the awesome, the mysterious, to the Universe.

Life can be scary at times, and hard, and the ability to weather the inevitable storms comes largely from one’s spirit.

I like to to think of the spiritual realm as being a “place” where an all-encompassing Universal Intelligence resides; something that creates and animates everything.

I take solace in the Truth that so much goes right all the time and that if I can be in alignment with this universal intelligence that there’s little-to-nothing I can’t do, and endure.

What do you take solace in?

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I hope I’m given you something to think about: that health is a multi-faceted thing that needs to attended to all throughout life.

To the extent that you understand and honor the aspects of your health, you will feel, and be, and do, good.