The Unstoppable Power of Your Health: The Surprisingly Simple Journey to Your Best Life
Health is the most overlooked AND the valuable thing each of us owns.
When we have health, we do not notice.
But, when we lose it, we quickly despair.
The greatest wealth is health. — Virgil
Without health, nothing else in our lives can work.
- Family life falls apart
- Careers are destroyed
- Personal growth halts
- Financial success grinds to a stop (not to mention the drains of our savings accounts)
- Relationships are stressed to the brink
Nothing else works because our health is the anchor point of everything.
“Health is like money. We never have a true idea of the value of it until we lose it.” — Josh Billings
So, why don’t we value health?
a) We take health for granted. Our culture teaches us to do this.
b) When we are young, our body is so good at keeping up FEELING healthy that we become misled and dis-incentivised to take care of ourselves.
c) We are not sure what health is anyway.
d) We get LOADS of confusing and contradictory information about what to do to BE healthy.
e) We believe that modern medicine will have a solution for whatever ails us.
What happens when we lose our health?
Our quality of life is built on the quality of our relationships and connections. And when we are pain, suffering and trying to simply function, we cannot connect in a deep or sustainable way.
I remember the seemingly unbearable suffering of loss of health during my pregnancies. I had terrible pregnancy sickness (I don’t know why people insist on calling it morning sickness when it lasted all day every day.) I experienced intense nausea all day long. I would vomit at least 20 times every day and carry around little ziplock bags so I could easily contain and discard my mess. It was NOT delightful.
When I am not experiencing the suffering of pregnancy sickness I am a different person. I like to exercise. I love to spend time chatting with people, (especially strangers). I am creative and love to make things. I am optimistic and brimming with energy and ideas for projects. I am very involved in my community.
When pregnant and experiencing the utter despondency of pregnancy sickness, I almost felt like I had had a personality transplant.
Beyond feeling physically terrible most of the time, I was also experiencing stress and frustration. I had no energy. I wanted to lay on the floor and cry (and sometimes I did. Usually the bathroom floor.) I felt like I smelled bad (probably did) and I could not focus to pay attention to anyone but myself. Simple tasks like taking out the trash felt like an hour’s work. Car rides were torture. Simple errands felt like a marathon. I cried. A lot. I was not a fun person. I wasn’t even me. I was this huddled primal creature, just trying to get through each day and waiting for the suffering to lift.
Each pregnancy I would spend three months in depression and deep frustration. I could not wait to recover from the fog of pregnancy hormones and begin to “be me” again.
The loss of health is devastating. It changes everything. It robs us not just the ability to do things like our jobs and our projects, but also robs us of joy and connection.
Your health is fundamental to your quality of life.
And yet, so many of us pay very little attention to our health — that is, until we lose it.
Yes, we LOSE it.
It is seldom taken from us. Our health is MUCH more under our control than we have been taught to believe.
This series will explore:
- What health is.
- What health is not.
- Where health comes from.
- How we can change our understanding of health in order to optimize our quality of life in every way.
Hi, I’m Mary Lucus Flannery. I am a chiropractor and a personal development coach. I’m working on a book and this publication is the way I work on sections of the book.
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