Friday 4th July 2008 - HEALTH is the New Religion

That is not exactly true but I wish it was. Because inside these religious temples we seek guidance, we offer praise and make sacrifices.

We give and get love spiritually and are often advised to become more accepting. Accepting of our faults, of our sins, and of ourselves through levels of forgiveness.

We recognise this as a "higher power" and make commitments to do, and be, the best person we can be by finding a relationship with a divine entity. So, why can't we use those same principles of forgiveness, commitment, love and acceptance for our health and create a relationship with our bodies. Imagine if we truly treated our bodies like temples and gave them the same respect and adoration that we do other temples and their beliefs.

Now I often tell my friends, clients, and anyone who gets cornered by me (*smiles), that the outward aspect of our lives is what we think indicates our health. But anyone who knows me and who has read through my blogs will also be aware that my position has markedly changed from the outside "awareness and judgement" of the body to the inside with good reason. You see, when you look at your body in the mirror, it's mostly a negative experience. Rarely do we see our positive physical traits but dwell on our less attractive aspects which is not in anyway a true reflection of the people we are.

So what you don't like you will hide, cover and occassionally change.
But what is happening on the inside that YOU can't see or judge. Because this is where "change" really needs to occur. Deep within your Human ECO System.

You see when I developed this path of learning it occurred to me that most people really have no relationship or love awareness of the "inside" of their body. Mostly we think about how we present ourselves outwardly and that is our "self esteem monitor" for the day and can make us happy, sad or indifferent, but this doesn't indicate how the war on obesity and disease is being fought (won or lost) on the inside underneath the clothes, underneath our skin.

Sadly, you don't often find out you have a disease until the condition presents itself with a symptom and then you will have to start to be pro-active and most likely take preventative steps to minimize the ongoing damage or the ultimate cost is death.

Once you have a disease you go into "management" phases with either strategies involving activity, nutrition or medications. Now the last one is definitely not designed to fix the situation but rather slow down the advancement and keep you requiring a medical dose, as that makes the Pharma companies money. The activity and nutrition will involve you trying to "regain" what you lost through neglect but what is really happening on the inside ?

The Human ECO System strategy I developed is all about PROTECTION.

You see PREVENTION is about the "management" of the disease through a series of steps either prescription or protocol. Where as PROTECTION is all about defence. It is what we need to teach young children who need to be armed with knowledge and then begin to reprogram ourselves before there are "too many symptoms". This is now becoming the "new research" prognosis and outlook for dealing with our current unhealthy status of the masses.

It all begins on the inside and deep within your Human ECO System.
You concentrate and focus on protecting the human cell and to do that you "arm and load" it up with not just the necessary ratio of carbs, proteins and fats, and not just with vitamins and minerals but with all that is required.

Because to function at your best, your Human ECO System requires much more.
It constantly needs water (H2o) on a regular basis and more than a few glasses.
It needs regular physical acivity to make use of the energy you are supplying and support optimal cardiovascular functioning.

AND of equal importance as the others - it needs a good and rich supply of Phyto-chemicals which are nutrients that come from not only fruits and vegetables but also certain beverages (think green tea) and also certain spices. The word comes from the Greek phyto, or plant, and that in itself should indicate a relationship with your Human ECO System.

A combination of ALL of these essential nutrients should come from your eating habits, diet, whatever you call it. If not, then YOU are personally responsible for being less effective in dealing with health strategies that make up and support your human defence network.

Then we need to nurture that human eco system with love and caring through both attitude and action. This is what is required.

So how can HEALTH become a Religion.
Please don't think that I am trying to make light of the religious beliefs of anyone but rather I want to find a connection with you and your body that religion seems able to create.

I need to find and help you appreciate this or as with any health strategy we will fail. We already are failing on a massive basis - obesity and disease are everywhere in our society.

Fitness can't seem to crack through the barrier. Nutrition awareness is a confusing series of "health messages" that are then complicated and prostituted by food companies to create sales through marketing that create even greater levels of confusion until it becomes too hard for the normal person.

Well religion seems to offer some form of help, some form of salvation that many seek.
With the current fitness and health paradigms we can only offer "panel beating or bodywork for the outside of the body" and if that continues to fail as has been happening for many years, our clients then seek salvation from the medical community and medications that cause harm to our human eco systems.

The different forms of activity like Yoga (or Pilates) try to breach and bridge this gap by offering another way to be more silent and learn how your Mind is the strongest and most powerful muscle in the body. No additional noise to add to our daily lives allows us to "listen" to what our bodies are saying and hopefully then act on it.

In my experience with children I have learned that quality knowledge in a format they understand is purely like nutrition for their brains; FUEL them up on effective strategies and they become able to achieve an almost zealot like quality of commitment; almost fanatical in their actions to succeed; and almost adopt a religious fever like attitude about their bodies.

So why does this work with them ?
Is it that they appreciate how important the problem is?

I'm not sure of those answers but I know for a fact that we can make a difference.
We can create a better world health status if we could start to appreciate and love ourselves a little more. BUT it will take commitment, it will take effective strategies, it will take us starting to adopt PROTECTION of our Human ECO System and doing what needs to be done.