If you ask most people whether they are healthy they
will generally say yes. The usual way of defining health is in terms of
the absence of illness - we think that if we're not under the care of a
doctor or taking prescribed medication then we must be healthy. Of course,
in one sense this is absolutely correct, but to look at health purely in
such restrictive terms as the absence of illness is doing ourselves an
injustice and cheating us out of the full potential of what health can
really be.
Health should be viewed as a spectrum, not as
something you either have or haven't got. At the lower end of the spectrum
there is illness, at the top there is total health. Most of us
actually live somewhere in the middle - we might not be sick, but we're not totally healthy either. When we're living around
the middle of the health spectrum, we think it's okay to tolerate all
sorts of symptoms and complaints and we probably think they're just a
normal part of living. Headaches, poor skin, back pain, stiff muscles,
indigestion, constipation, lack of energy, joint pains, arthritis, period
pains, pre-menstrual tension and frequent colds are generally considered
to be part and parcel of life.
All symptoms are the result of toxicity. Because environmental poisons
overwhelm our ability to detoxify them, they slowly accumulate. How high
the total body burden or total load of chemicals gets, determines how fast
our health will go downhill. How much you are exposed to and how strong
your detoxification system is determines how fast and how many of these
unwanted chemicals you can harbor without showing any
symptoms.
We don't get cancer or a heart attack overnight. We spend our whole lives
stockpiling for it. The choices you make every day add to that total
package.
The next time you go shopping, take a look at the
range of over-the-counter medications on offer - there's something for
just about every conceivable type of ache or pain. There are tablets to
make you go to the loo and tablets to stop you going; capsules to stop
your stomach producing too much acid; potions to clear spotty skin; pills
to pep you up and pills to calm you down. The worldwide pharmaceutical
market is big business, accounting for over $300 billion of sales a year
in the year 2000 (and continuing to rise year-on-year). Prescribed medication
may have its place - but do we really
need this many over-the-counter drugs? Do they actually help us or are
they just short-term that suppress symptoms without providing
any proper cure?
Scientists believe the human life span is actually in
the region of 120 rather than the current 80 years, yet if you were to ask
most people if they'd like to live to 120 they'd usually respond with a
definite no. When we're existing in the middle of the health spectrum, we
regard ageing as a totally negative process, we see the later years of
life as just a dire existence with a feeble body and mind. It's no
wonder that the thought of living to 120 fills us with horror. Thankfully
there are plenty of healthy, lively octogenarians and nonagenarians to act
as positive role models, so we know we don't have to be doomed to this
fate.
Full health means that your physical body is
functioning at its peak. You wake up in the morning bright-eyed and ready
to seize the day, and you rarely resort to pills and potions to relieve
the sorts of discomfort described above. Your mind is clear and sharp and
you feel great, you have a good relationship with your body, you enjoy the
full range of sensations it offers. You laugh a lot and are frequently
happy.
Defining health in these terms isn't the full
picture, because you are much more than just a physical body - you
function as an integrated being with emotional, mental and spiritual
dimensions as well. How balanced you are on these other levels impacts on
both your physical health and your overall well-being. Any 'dis-ease' you
experience on an emotional, mental or spiritual level is bound to impact
on the health of the physical body, and vice versa.
To say that you are completely healthy implies that
all levels of your being are working well and are in a dynamic balance. It
means that your emotional life is rich and flowing. This suggests that you
are aware of your feelings and deal with them in a healthy way. It
also means that your mental faculties are functioning well and that you
use them to create a purpose and meaning to your life. It also means that
you feel comfortable with who you are and those around you.
Of course, there are no magic potions that can
inoculate us against illness, nor are there any strategies that
guarantee we will only ever feel positive emotions and never feel
emotional pain - physical and emotional pain are part of the human
condition. (Some pain is unavoidable, but suffering is optional.) To my knowledge, no one lives a perfect life and enjoys perfect
health - in the full definition - all of the time. Change is the one
constant that we all experience. In essence, the health spectrum is a road
that we continually travel along, rather than any particular destination
that we arrive at.
Energy Detox
gives the body the needed boost to start to return integrity to
the body,
enabling it
to reverse the decades of accumulated poisons.
It does not
treat disease.
