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.
© Michael Mamas, 3/05 |
