to be or not to be... healthy

I was having a discussion with someone the other night and suddenly had an interesting thought. The topic, I believe, was religion, or something similar, and my thought was a bit random, but perhaps related as well. I realized that while growing up, pretty much everyone around me was "health-conscious", vegetarian, and many of them were into the natural cures and all these drinks and vitamins and all kinds of natural healing. The shocking thing that I realized, was that many of those very people were sick a lot, and still are to this day. They do not enjoy the vibrant health that, according to their theories, they should. They may be overweight, or get frequent colds, or suffer from asthma or all kinds of allergies. Although they are proponents of health, they are not themselves healthy.

This realization caused me to stop and think. How does this apply to me? Well, either they had the wrong information - what they thought was healthy was indeed not, or they were missing some other piece of the puzzle. Perhaps it was a combination of both.

We all grow up with a set of beliefs and values, that we develop and personalize, but tend to cling to - anything outside of our beliefs is "wrong", "unhealthy", "bad", or any other number of labels that we pin to it. And yet everyone else also has beliefs, many of them dramatically different from our own. Who's to say who is right? Who is to say that your beliefs are right, and mine are wrong - or vice versa? I was raised in a social community that was very judgmental and rigid in their beliefs - anyone who didn't believe the same was wrong, and going to hell (or something similar). There was little room for being open minded, or for new ideas. Everything was doctrine, the way it had always been done. There was no "better way".

What does this have to do with the health issue? Believe it or not, it all ties in together. We get so stuck in our own beliefs, even when it comes to health, that we think we know what is right, and what will work, and are blind to other options. We do the same thing, over and over. We eat the same food, or if we try a new diet, we don't change our other habits so that it either doesn't "stick", or it doesn't have the affect we want because there is something else contributing to the problem. If we were open minded to trying new options - options beyond a new health product, or a new special diet - we would be far more likely to find something that works. What about emotional and mental blocks? What about a new mindset, where you picture yourself healthy? What about exercise - no, not boring "have to" exercise, but finding something you love doing that gets you moving and working.

More and more I find I am being challenged to open my mind, to be open to new ideas, and to try different things. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. If your health, or your life, isn't the way you want it, why keep doing things the same way? Do you think you'll get different results? Or would you be more likely to see things change if you tried something different, something you haven't done before?

Gasp. What a novel idea!