What does health look like?
When asked what health looks like, most people focus on the aesthetic of a human, but health is so much more than that. Health is all-encompassing. Health is physical, mental, emotional, environmental, social, and existential. As we dive into what deep health is, I would like to create a little framework for the foundation of health and what it means to create deep levels and layers of health as we move through our individual lives.
Using myself as an example: I have had physical health all while my mental and emotional health was suffering. This eventually led to my physical health suffering, but if a person saw me on the street, they would have said that I was healthy because I “looked” it. The hardest part for me was creating a more healthy balance because my historical coping mechanism for being mentally and emotionally distraught was to dive harder into my work, physical exertion, and controlling my appearance. This was definitely a disordered behavior pattern and it was socially isolating. The more I focused only on my physical health because I didn’t want to feel the icky feelings, the more my mental, emotional, and social health suffered.
My solution was to find a therapist who was a good fit for me. I started working on allowing my friends to be social support and I learned to ask for help, even if I didn’t want it. This is still a practice and not completely like breathing yet, but I am making progress. At times, I am still compelled to dive into work or to try to take on everything on my own. The best part of that awareness then is that I have the power to choose how I react to the feelings that I am facing. I recognize my patterns and have the tools and support to work through things.
I have also created routines that nourish all the areas of my health. I like to call my routines, rituals because for me that is what they are. My rituals nourish my soul as well as my mind and my body. I choose to nourish my social health by interacting with mutually balanced relationships (this includes friendships). My therapist is a staple in my mental and emotional health - she has become part of my self-care ritual, but also someone I know I can rely on. My environment supports my health and provides me access to open creative space as well as a space that fosters movement and nourishing food practices.
Where ever you are in your health journey, it is ok. It is also ok to seek greater levels of health for your future.
Navigating health can be complex, but the practices for creating health should be simple. I say navigating health is complex because life involves more than just us as individuals. We are faced with challenges and circumstances that can shake the foundation of our health. The practices for creating better overall health should be simple because simple actions are easy to stick with. Eventually, simple skills turn into habits or behaviors that feel like breathing and that means it’s solidified.
A wise person somewhere said that we eat an elephant one bite at a time. Personally, I don’t want to eat an elephant, but the theory is great because sometimes the task that seems so huge will - in small, intentional, consistent, and incremental practices or “bites” - be attainable.