To Be Healthy

By: Ashutosh Ghildiyal
Submitted: 2008-07-08 16:15:18
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Health: According to the definition set by the WHO: Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary: the condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit. 

Whole: According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:: free of wound or injury, unhurt; free of defect or impairment, intact; physically sound and healthy; free of disease or deformity; mentally or emotionally sound.

We can see that these two words: “health” and “whole” are quite similar in their meaning. To be healthy also means to be whole.

Human being is a psychosomatic organism. The Body and mind is one unit - interrelated and intertwined. What affects the mind also affects the body and vice versa. Health cannot be said to be exclusively of the mind or of the body. To divide the mind and body as two separate units would be wrong. You are the body and you are the mind.

Health is becoming a problem for most of us because of our daily lifestyle and the environment around us. Stress has become a common thing among both the young and the old. There are prevalent not only many physical illnesses and diseases but also psychological, in many parts of the world. In big cities, the exposure to television and other artificial media, pollution, and a mechanical way of life are one of the major causes of ill health.

Human beings are a part of this planet and whatever happens in the world, economically, sociologically, and environmentally does affect every human being. There are all kinds of influences, both visible and invisible around us - not spiritually, but environmentally, biologically and psychologically, which have an effect on the overall organism. Human beings, whether they live in America or India or any otrher place are basically, constitutionally, the same. If one observes a little closely one would find that psychologically, basically, one’s consciousness is the same as another’s - it is shared by all humanity. So, one can say that oneself is the world.

Human beings, as other life forms, function on energy. To work you need energy, to think you need energy, to eat and digest you need energy. This energy is mostly wasted due to various forms of psychological conflicts, stress, daily problems, habits and overindulgence. When there is a lack of energy, there is a lack of health. When energy is wasted, blocked or suppressed, there manifest various forms of illnesses and diseases.

We have lost the relationship, that touch, that contact with nature. In our daily pursuits and problems, we have isolated ourselves. Each considering himself to be different and separate from each other, each seeking his own security. We may go for a walk on a beach or go to a hill station on a holiday and say “how nice’, “how beautiful” but that is just a verbalization, a superficial response. We do not feel related to nature, even though one may profess to be a “nature lover”, as though one is outside of and separate from nature. To have that relationship with nature, to be related, and to be sensitive towards it brings about a healthy state in itself.

Health also implies simplicity and balance. Simplicity is not merely outward simplicity but more so an inward simplicity of being. We have made our minds complicated; we have acquired too much information about everything; we have cultivated the intellect, thereby bringing about an imbalance. Intellect is only a part of our being and has its own place. Whereas, the human structure also includes observation, perception and the senses. When the senses operate as a whole then the intellect has its right place. To be simple means to be free from accumulation in terms of knowledge, experiences and various repetitive pleasures and habits. To be simple means to be able to laugh, to smile, to look at nature and oneself without the quality of separation.

The body has its own intelligence. If left to itself, it has a tremendous capacity to heal itself. The mind imposes its own pursuits and desires on the body thereby making it insensitive and lacking of energy. When the mind is not imposing itself on the body, then the body, left to itself, can function most healthily and efficiently.

The most important thing in all this is awareness. One needs to be aware of oneself - one’s reactions, responses and sensations. One has to be sensitive. One has to be aware of one’s body, its demands, pursuits and the sensations, the feelings. One has to be able to look at it simply without too much verbalization, which is a distraction. To know about your mind or body by reading about it or by accumulating information about it is different from being actually aware of it. Information is merely words and is not the direct experiencing of one’s own total mechanism. When you are aware, sensitive, then you take care of yourself, then you do not overindulge or eat the wrong foods - not because you have read that it should or should not be done - but because you are aware. When there is intelligence, which comes through sensitivity and awareness, then you do things not out of compulsion but because you understand. Then you have the feeling of responsibility, care. Then you eat the right foods, take the right amount of exercise, drink good amount of water, keep yourself clean, follow hygiene, take right amount of sleep and so on. Then you do it most naturally and instinctively. Without awareness of how one’s body and mind operate, being healthy or whole is not possible. When one is sensitive, aware of oneself - then out of that awareness and sensitivity, the body and mind, as a whole unit can function most simply and intelligently.

Article source: Expert Articles