Own It and Act Today
As we continue to move into these uncharted waters with the impending coronavirus at the forefront, we are all living with a new reality. Most all of us are also dealing with altered lifestyles that brings about new challenges to everyone one of us. One thing that I believe to be true, is that we are under-prepared. I am far from equipped to begin to entertain a discussion regarding the health care needs of our nation. However, I do feel I can speak to the lack of preparedness of our own personal health of our society. Let me further say this is NOT a statement of judgement. It is simply a statement of observation that as a society, we have not taken personal accountability for our health and we are now dealing with the consequences.
One statistic that recently came to my attention, was the fact that in the United States, 45% of our society is either obese or morbidly obese. Immediately following this report, I hear how obesity is also considered to be an “underlying compromised health condition.” In other words, obesity was being compared to a compromised upper-respiratory or other cardiovascular issue. This has huge implications when dealing with the growing concerns of coronavirus. Additionally, this speaks to the bigger issue. We as a society, tend to not take personal responsibility for our own health/wellness and fitness. We have grown more and more dependent on the traditional medical professionals to diagnose and treat many problems that we have some control over. Let me be clear, this is not a knock on our medical system, which I have been dependent on many times in my life. It is my belief, that if we need immediate medical attention, we definitely need to lean on our great medical professionals to help make us whole again.
However, for many chronic health issues, such as obesity, we absolutely need to take responsibility. What if we had less attention and resources directed towards life threatening health care such as type two diabetes, cancers, severe cardiovascular issues which are all tied so closely obesity? What if doctors and our health care professionals could focus their attention on other health care concerns that aren’t self-induced? Personally, I am convinced that we have grown way too comfortable handing off our ownership of our personal health care.
There is no question in my mind that we need to continue to take back this ownership of our own health and wellness. With that said, sometimes I believe it is also best to act with a degree of blind faith. As a health and life coach and dealing with personal health clients on a daily basis, I understand many of the concerns of taking action. There is definitely an abundance of confusing and conflicting information pertaining to health. My response is, that we don’t have to understand all the physiology and anatomy of the human body to know that some form of movement or exercise is beneficial. We don’t have to know all the details of all the chemical reactions of food to eat healthy. We don’t have to completely comprehend how meditation works to begin a practice of daily breath-work or meditation. In general, yes a certain level of knowledge is obvious, but only enough knowledge to be motivated to generate some immediate action.
At the end of the day, I would emphasize two things. First, accept a much larger role in controlling your own personal health and wellness. Know that your long term health is dependent on YOU taking this ownership. Secondly, you don’t need all the answers today to begin taking actions to be a healthier you in the future. Start with something simple and gain some momentum. As additional insights and knowledge become more available to you, make the necessary adjustments to your own personal health protocol. The question that we all should ask ourselves is “what can I do today to make a difference in my own health."
In Health,
Mike Hagerty