By Vagdevi Meunier, Psy.D.
Health is not a negative.
Health is NOT the absence of disease. To be healthy does not mean to survive or make it through life, with average daily living skills. Health is not measured in symptoms, signs, or charts. Health is not the functional measure of specific organs or body parts.
Health is about Body, Mind, AND Spirit! Health is about finding the harmony in the space inside so we can live in harmony with theworld outside. Sometimes this means enjoying everything life has to offer in the form of material, social, economic, or sensory pleasures. But sometimes health means not getting lost in all these temporary pleasures but instead seeking and finding a lasting peace and grounded wisdom at the simplest level.
Health is not about eliminating pain, disability, or suffering. Sometimes we need to feel pain and suffering to be inspired to reach for our highest selves.
Health is about knowing and accepting ourselves in all our uniqueness as well as our limits. It is about not fooling ourselves with fantasies that say “reach for the stars” or “you can be anything you want to be if you try hard enough”. Health is about knowing where we are outstanding and where we are challenged (without feeling shame about it).
Health is about caring, compassion, acceptance, and forgiveness. It is about enjoying every moment of it to the best of our ability. Health means accepting life just as it is, without resisting the present reality or living in the past or future.
Health is about knowing ourselves deeply enough so that we can create a balance between striving and living, reaching and resting, and achieving and accepting. Health is when the mind, heart, and spirit (along with the intuition, the soul, and any other parts of our integrated whole) are humming in unison, awake and open to new experience, learning from the past, not grasping for the future, and appreciating every passing moment as an opportunity and a beginning.