The power of health - "Health is Wealth"

The power of health – “Health is Wealth”. There are a few people on top who are healthy and happy not because of their wealth and power, but in spite of it.

The World Health Organisation defines health as a state of physical, mental and social well-being; not merely as the absence of disease or infirmity. We need to take a holistic approach towards health. We abuse most that which we receive free and our body is one such outstanding entity. We realise the value of health only after it is lost. Once lost, no amount of our wealth can ever restore our health for if it was so, the wealthiest people would be the healthiest. We need to lead a balanced life but unfortunately; we have raised our standard of living at the cost of our health, leaving ourselves miserable and sick. There are a few people on top who are healthy and happy not because of their wealth and power, but in spite of it.

Possessed by our possessions and ambitions, we become anxious and stressed at the cost of our health. In an attempt to find happiness outside, we increase the complexity of our lives to a point of no return. As can be seen all around us, now it is consumerism that dictates the way we live. Running after money and security, our hearts will never upwind. We need to work to live; not live to work. When we join the rat race, even if we win, we still remain a rat. Maintaining a healthy inner life is as much a necessity for a healthy body as diet and exercise are.

The mind plays a very important role in our health. Mental stress is the root cause of most diseases. Stress in life is unavoidable and a little of it is necessary for healthy growth, but when it goes beyond a certain tolerance level, the system breaks down, resulting in illness. Holistic health is not an easy way of living. It is a difficult path as when we suffer a pain in the head or in our stomach or in our joints, we tend to swallow a pill rather than to change our eating habits or give up the deep-rooted hate or fear.

Holistic health is a programme for activating the body’s own self-renewal process. It may take years to yield results. It is well known that quite a number of modern man’s problems, such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure, which are all killers in the long run, are caused by a sedentary lifestyle and habits. Even a moderate amount of exercise regularly will go a long way in keeping this body healthy and improve the immune system within. It has now been statistically proved that physical inactivity kills more people than even smoking.

Our health depends not only on physical exercise but also on what we eat. It is a balance between input and output. Most of us suffer from the disease of excess. Problems like diabetes and high blood pressure are all considered as rich men’s diseases, created by hurry, worry and curry. Never show your love through the stomach, for by doing this you are causing more harm than good. Mothers who stuff their children with high-calorie, high-fat diet are causing tremendous damage to the health of their children and are sowing seeds of all kinds of diseases early in childhood itself.

It is in early childhood that the parameters or the so-called thermostat is set for our hunger level and quality and quantity of food that is necessary to satisfy us. If we feed a child with all sorts of rich and fatty foods, the child while growing up will crave only for such stuff and later on, no amount of reasoning can get him out of it. In our over-enthusiasm, we kill the child with all the wrong foods when we don’t really have to.

The most important aspect of a holistic health concept is relaxation. In normal conditions of life, sleep itself provides sufficient relaxation, but under stressful conditions of modern life, the mind remains in a tense state; and sleep is just not sufficient to unwind. As long as tension persists, the problem can only tighten. Counter measures against stress include certain spiritual techniques, such as prayer, meditation, self-surrender, acceptance, non-judgement, etc.

The popular saying ‘early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’, makes a lot of sense. For, it is early in the morning that we can be alone and aware, with no phone calls or appointments disturbing our state of mind. Then we can meet our real self and do some introspection and soul searching. As we keep doing this, we will be led and guided on the journey of self-discovery and inner health. We exhaust ourselves by running after illusions. We spend a whole lifetime building castles in the air, get too engrossed in this outer world and entangle ourselves in this web.

We must learn to be in the world without getting pulled down by it; we must keep our balance constantly and maintain inner peace. We must centre ourselves through thick and thin. Balancing entails finding what our real needs are, identifying our man/ interests, and then re-arranging our priorities to reflect on those needs, if we can learn to enjoy whatever, wherever, whoever we are, then situations will not really matter and the struggle will end for us, to begin on a journey of inner peace and harmony.

Never forget that ours is a three-million-years-old human body, which constantly heals the daily wounds of normal existence, only if we allow it do so. Remember, disharmony is the real cause for all illness; harmony is the medicine for all wellness.