What IS Intentional Health??

[Chris Oldham]

It is more than saying to yourself, "Gee, I'd really like to be healthy and have a great life." I don't know of anyone who doesn't have that same wish, but it takes more than wishing to achieve. It involves having a mindset that supports your goals--or even thinking about good health AS a goal.

In my mind, there are two schools of healthcare existing in our global society. One of them basically puts the responsibility for maintaining and healing our physical/mental/spiritual health outside ourselves. This is a predominantly Western ideology, and Preventive Medicine plays a big role in fostering this mindset--after all, if we go for an annual checkup, and the docs find nothing wrong, then we can keep doing what we're doing until they DO find something, right? Even our doctors think they know more about our bodies than we do, and routinely ignore or downplay symptoms or concerns we put before them. (I had pre-diabetic symptoms 20 years ago no one would investigate, putting them off to something else). We buy into this by accepting what they tell us without questioning or pursuing it--in most cases.

The second school of thought is that we are the caretakers of our own temples, and are solely responsible for seeing to its well-being. This includes being aware of what we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, exercising, keeping our mind and spirit in a healthy state through prayer, meditation and life-balance. When we DO have to access medical professionals, we don't accept an answer that isn't an answer. We learn alternative health practices for prevention and healing of most minor issues, and shun Fast Food in favor of healthier, less toxic nutrition, and reduce our reliance on processed foods in our pantry. Their is an INTENTION to BE and REMAIN healthy.

This is what I call Intentional Health, and why I created this network. It is up to US to attain and maintain our optimum levels of health, at all levels of our being. Does that mean we don't get help--NO. It means that when we do ask for help, we are more aggressive about making sure we get it--just as aggressively as we care for ourselves on a daily basis. We are also very aggressive about making sure that any pharmaceuticals we take don't have risks that outweigh the benefits. It's taken me a long time to get to this point, and I am on the opposite side of the fence from many of my girlfriends in healthcare on many issues, but this is where I believe we all need to be, AND where healthcare is headed in the future, as traditional Western medicine's costs and effectiveness make it a less and less viable option for more and more of us.

I'm in my fifties, and plan on being around quite awhile longer. That won't happen if I continue to follow the path I've been on for the first part of my life. I also know that my ability to pay for traditional care may be diminished by less adequate insurance in the future, so I am finding ways to limit the necessity of those expenses.

I know my mind plays a LARGE part in the state of my body at any given time, as does my spiritual frame of reference. That's why you will find discussions investigating all aspects of what makes us tick on this board!!

What do you do to manifest YOUR Healthful Intentions?