What’s Missing from the Health Conversation?
I’ve been watching, studying, and practicing health enhancement for a long time, roughly 15 years. The amount of advice out there about what to do to be healthier is staggering. Guidance on how to be healthier is everywhere, from exercise and eating routines to zillions of health products to countless classes and programs.
Yet during that same time, overall incidence of serious later life disease has increased. Just one example is DALYs (disability-adjusted life years), the measurement used by the World Health Organization for premature death. One DALY represents the loss of the equivalent of one year of full health. Research shows that DALYs from diabetes and dementia have more than doubled since 2000. Another example is that life expectancy is actually going down. Clearly, there is a disconnect between the vast amounts of information on how to be healthy and actually being healthy.
Simply put, many people are not doing what they need to do to stay healthy. And they are still doing too much of what keeps them unhealthy. Most of these practices, healthy and unhealthy, revolve around moving and eating. Almost everyone agrees that these are the two biggest fixes to our health, as well as the best places to start. Not only do they make us healthier, they improve our mood and how we feel about ourselves. So why aren’t more people doing them? What’s missing?
When I was making independent films, I produced a wonderful movie written by Jon Robin Baitz called The Substance of Fire. In one scene a professor of landscape design, played by Timothy Hutton, was showing his students a park designed by the famous landscape architect Frederick Olmsted. The students were asked to look at the immaculately designed park and take notes on their impressions. When he asked them “What’s missing?” the students had no answers. At that point he ran out onto the field of grass in front them, turned around with his arms open and yelled “Us!” He told his students that Olmsted designed parks for people, and that they were incomplete without us. That scene always stuck with me.
And here is my point about what’s missing from the health conversation: US, you and I, each of us. Health comes from inside us, not from the food we eat or the products we buy or the care we get. It is the miracle that comes with being alive, a free gift from the universe. For me, health is not simply a set of rules or advice or routines. It is something that I need to invest in, heart and soul, daily, to achieve the benefits of good health and being alive. Once I answered why I needed to be healthier, the how made itself known to me and fell into place. Once myself and my life became the central subject of my health, all the advice became secondary to my experience of health. The conviction came from a place deep inside me, which has only gotten deeper and more powerful as I reclaimed my health. The answer to the riddle of later life health, and health in general, lies inside each of us.
I encourage you to consider and answer this question: Why do I want or need to be healthier? (Everyone’s answer is specific to them, but usually involves for whom or for what.) Once you identify your why, the how will come to you: how can I move more, eat better and use the advice out there to reclaim my health? The secret ingredient is YOU! We can only fix our general health one person at a time, by each of us finding why being healthy and living longer matters to us in life.
And while you are pondering all this, and hopefully taking it to heart, I will be dong the same, as well as working on more ways to explore these subjects. A very happy, joyous and healthy holiday season to you and yours.
