A conversation that has been coming up lately in the practice is that there are different ways to approach your health. From my perspective, there are three ways:

• Reactive: Managing symptoms. Responding to health challenges as they arise using appropriate interventions, therapies, professionals, and coping mechanisms.
• Prevention: Developing habits and using therapies and professional services, to support good health and prevent disease from occurring.
• Wellness: An active, lifelong process of becoming aware of choices, and making decisions towards a more balanced and fulfilling life. Wellness differs from prevention.  Wellness activities focus on maximizing the body’s performance and taking an active approach to health.

When it comes to your health, I can tell you with a great deal of certainty that prevention always works better than reacting, and that wellness is even more rewarding. The reactive approach typically costs more, and it takes longer for healing to occur when there is a crisis.  However, your approach to your health is just that – YOUR approach. My job is to facilitate knowledge, provide you with care, and support you in your choices.

What’s your perspective?

Do you want to react to problems in your body, prevent them from occurring, or pursue exceptional health?  Obviously there is some overlap here. We can consistently behave in ways to prevent illness and optimize our bodies function, and still experience a health crisis that requires more serious intervention. However, what’s the dominant approach you are taking? Does it match the personal philosophy you have?

Once you start thinking about it, you’ll realize your attitude might also be evident in other areas of your life.

Are you being reactive in your relationships? With your finances? With your home? With your career? With your children? Or are you taking preventive measures to ensure they ‘perform’ the way you would like them to? Better yet, are you taking steps to enjoy them in a more fulfilling way? Any form of stress will negatively affect your health. If there are stressors in your life they will continue to challenge you until you take some steps to either accept them, or resolve them.

Hopefully, in thinking about this, you discover that your behaviour is in alignment with your intentions. If there are any incongruencies in what you think, and the actions you are taking – it’s time to change!