Your Wellness Lifestyle Starts Here
Today’s healthcare system is not about health. It’s about selling a never-ending series of tests, drugs, and procedures to people. “Alternative health” is about selling different tests, supplements, and procedures to people. In order to maximize sales, tests and treatments need to be marketed to the general population, with no consideration about whether or not most people are actually candidates for or can benefit from the services promoted.
I am in the middle of reading "the Myth of Normal, Trama, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture" by Gabor Mate (Ma-tay). He confirms what I already have learned and teach, and his insights into the state of our current healthcare system is far encompassing. He writes "I have come to believe that behind the entire epidemic of chronic afflictions, mental and physical, that beset our current moment, something is amiss in our culture itself, generating both the rash of ailments we are suffering and. crucially, the ideological blind spots that keep us from seeing our predicament clearly."
If you have attended my Emotional Eating class, you learned how trauma affects our health in body, mind, and spirit. Mate explores this area in depth, citing numerous studies going back to the 1930s. He also includes case studies from real people proving the effects of trauma experiences and disease.
In the United States, the richest country in history and the epicenter of the globalized economic system, 60 percent of adults have a chronic disorder such as high blood pressure or diabetes, and over 40 percent have two or more such conditions. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. These are the people who are stuck in the "medical mill" and have accepted their disease because "it runs in the family".
When asked, most people state that they want to be lean and healthy. So why aren’t most people lean and healthy? One factor is misinformation – most of what people hear, read, or are told about diet, health, and medicine is either incorrect or incomplete. But even after being provided with access to accurate and complete information, many people remain overweight and unhealthy. Why? These thinking and behavior patterns are difficult to change. Most of the time we are not aware of these patterns, which results in both confusion and frustration when they have the same unwanted experience (failure to lose weight and/or improve health) again and again.
How do we recognize and change these patterns? First, we must realize the connection between body, mind, and spirit. If one of these areas is not functioning properly, it affects the others. We are a complete being. "What happens in our cells, happens in our souls". Empower yourself to make changes and learn how to be an informed consumer when it comes to health care.
Start with acknowledgement. Admit that you are not moving forward because of your internal dialog and perceptions, not external forces beyond your control.
Become more aware of your thought patterns and change them. Your goal is to change your outlook to one of positive expectation. Remember that for things to change, you’ve got to change. In the absence of significant internal change, things will most likely remain the same.
Figure out the things you need in order to change your outcomes and then relentlessly pursue them. This can include therapy, a support system, reading books, gaining knowledge, finding new doctors, spending less time with some people, and changing your mindset.
Notice when you are starting to resist. Then remind yourself that resistance to doing things differently is what keeps you stuck where you are.
Work on motivation. Identify the reasons you want things to be different than they are now. People with strong reasons for change are more successful in achieving almost any goal than people who have not identified specifically why they want to change. Inadequate motivation leads to failure.
Start practicing self-control. Remind yourself that you really can think differently, change your mindset, make different decisions, and have different outcomes if you choose to do so.
Evaluate yourself and take responsibility for fixing things if necessary. If 90 days from now things are still the same, figure out why and then do something about it.
Decide to live a deliberate life, not a life that happens by default. In the absence of a specific plan for yourself, including a plan for your health, you will be forced to settle for whatever happens to you by chance. Most of the time this does not work out so well. So design your life according to what you want, and then do the things necessary to have it.
Liz Fattore
Nurture Your Health
Licensed Food Over Medicine Professional
Sources: Gabor Mate, Pam Popper
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