What is True Health?
- Gill Randall
- Jan 21, 2024
- 3 min read
We like to think that as a nation, we get fitter every generation, from the pestilence of centuries ago with bubonic plague to better health today, surely there has to be an improvement? But as Covid has taught us in recent times, we still don’t have all the answers. During the pandemic there was and still is a huge emphasis on how we need inoculations to give us resistance and this is a controversial subject still in debate. In my own experience, despite being in contact with Covid many times, in hospitals and personally with a very close family member, it was only after a severe bout of food poisoning that I contracted Covid.
So it feels very important to maintain our base level of health that we aim to not drop below, the standard level we can keep by specific activities that we know support the body, such as nutritious food and a gentle consistent level of exercise. It makes sense that how we build our own strength within will support our overall immunity against illness and disease. Our general health is something we can always make simple changes to by the way that we live.
As a child growing up, my mother cooked simple food, my dad grew vegetables in the garden and I didn’t go hungry. There was always fruit on offer between meals, if I was peckish but we were not encouraged to snack and we never ate anything standing up. But habits change, and over the decades came ‘the land of plenty’: more food was imported from abroad, and out of season, sometimes tasteless foods fill the shelves. With the use of pesticides, everything has appeared to stay fresher on the shelves and foreign foods are now available all year round. Now, I have no desire to return to the ‘old days’, I love the varied choices in the shops and I eat imported avacados, but like everything, how do we use the advances wisely?
Generally, we thought our standard of living improved as we have developed, but also so did the waistlines and increased weight. With office jobs, there are many people living more sedentary lives but have increased stress as well. The life expectancy of each generation has been increasing in the past century since statistics started to be collected regularly, but this may not be the case in the past 20 years as the trends are changing. There is a study (1) suggesting that the ‘Millennials’, those born from the year 2000 onwards, may have more chronic diseases, allergies and a lower standard of health despite increased longevity. Our quality of life in UK is registered at No 13 (2) in the world, which implies we have much room for improvement.
We can be logical and sensible about what to do but that only works to a point. The theories of work/life balance can be taught to us all, but it is far more effective when we come from a sense of this from within us, rather than a rule imposed on us by the latest research. From this inner place within, when we connect to it, we can get a sense of ‘Is that something that supports my body?’ It really is that simple. Rather than rules of when to eat or how much to eat, which diet to choose, carbs or no carbs, weighing out a number of grams of protein, it is far simpler to hear the body saying ‘That’s enough for now’.
It is similar with exercise – rather than following the latest trend or craze fed to us of a certain number of steps are required, HIIT exercises work or don’t work, or play a particular sport, have we ever thought to ask the body what it likes? The answer would never be a marathon, an aggressive contact sport or a run, especially if we feel exhausted. Illness and diseases are a message that we are out of kilter with our true health, they give us time out, a pause and a space to recuperate, never as a punishment but always as a correction and opportunity to learn to return back to the true rhythm of the body.
When I search to find …. what is true health? There is so much information on the internet, medical websites, magazines, clinics and advice on supplements but how do I actually feel? True health is said to be a homeostasis, a balance of the physical, mental and emotional states, and much research has been done to find the answer, but can it be as simple as we can find our true health by holding our connection to our essence within us? When we align to that, we are given all the answers.
What if the way we live our lives can bring us to our true health?
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