What is health? In the modern world, our health care system defines health as having the correct test scores and metrics for medicine, disease and healing.
Knowing your test score is important as guidelines for achieving and maintaining the best health possible.
But I believe in a more encompassing definition.
Health is not the absence of disease; it is the sense that one's life is rich, full and vibrant.
I think of a dear friend who lives in a nursing facility and can do very little physically for herself and suffers from Parkinson's disease.
Yet she is a tremendous inspiration and joy to her friends and fellow residents.
She has wisdom and humor that she can share with me and others.
Her western medical prognosis is dire, but her sense of self is that her life is often challenging but also busy and full of life that is fully enjoyed at the moment.
And she receives acupuncture and massage on a regular basis which helps her deal with her condition.
Health is not simply a medical condition We've been conditioned to think of health as being another medical condition.
It's not.
It's the biological capacity to live a full rich life.
Health is a capacity; it is about what each person & their body is capable of doing.
It's a capacity that develops in response to what each person wants from life.
It's a capacity that develops based on what each person learns and knows.
It's a capacity developed in response to the circumstances in which each person finds herself, the circumstances she seeks out and creates on her own and with others.
In other words, health is about power not only to mitigate and care for infirmities but the power to take action that purposely makes life better.
So for 2010 I will be focusing on helping each of my patients to achieve their fullest biological capacity to experience as rich a life as possible.