Review the health secrets of this chapter.
Reflect on what concessions you have made in life due to pain or injury, temporary or otherwise. Make a list of the physical limitations, pain, conditions or injuries that are holding you back today from moving well. Keep this list nearby as you continue to read the book. The list will become your immediate context to which the principles I teach you can be applied.
Write down the names of 2-3 people you trust with your health. They could be a professional, family member or injury ‘veteran’. Why do you trust them? Has their advice proven reliable and beneficial? Share this book with them.
Make a commitment today to take some action as a result of what you read in each chapter of this book. You don’t have to do everything, but be cautious about just digesting information. Do something, however small, with what you learn.
Chapter 2:
HEALTH IS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION
The Wellness Paradigm
There seems to be some confusion as to the meaning of “wellness”. Feeling okay isn’t the equivalent to being well. A lack of pain or symptoms doesn’t equate to good health. As a society, we’ve come to accept the absence of disease, injury or pain as a sign that we’re healthy. We’re wrong.
This is a myth we need to confront.
True health and wellness is the positive condition in which we are not just devoid of visible symptoms, but are actually living an optimised physical lifestyle. This means we are fueling our bodies with the right foods, getting a reasonable amount of physical activity and engaging in positive habits and behaviours that contribute to overall well-being. Wellness is about performing at our best.
However, most people perceive ‘wellness’ to be that transient stage between illnesses, injuries and pain. Some liken it to living in a ‘safe zone’ or neutral state, albeit for a fleeting period. Sadly, these paradigms are tragically insufficient when compared with the ideal. Think about how often you can honestly say you feel vibrant and strong. For many, these feelings are brief, sporadic or, at best, may last only weeks. Rarely has anyone learned how to enjoy wellness as a long-term experience.
Instead, we accept “not being sick” as a synonym for wellness. With this approach, it’s only a matter of time until people are once again succumbing to the underlying compromise in their substandard health habits and negative patterns of physical movement. According to our most recent National Health Survey, more than sixteen million Australians have at least one chronic condition1. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that chronic disease is a major cause of death and disability worldwide2, and accounts for approximately 80 percent of the deaths in Australia3. In 2011, it was reported that as many as 1 in 3 Australians experience episodes of chronic pain at some stage throughout their life. A staggering 92% of our population is in some way impacted by this, with 61% knowing someone who has a chronic condition and another 20% living with suffers from chronic pain4. Almost 900,000 of our fellow neighbours have diabetes, which is leading to an increase in chronic kidney disease. Obesity has become an epidemic ‘Down Under’, with 61 percent of adults and 25 percent of children being classified as overweight or obese. WHO has stated that, globally, at least 80 percent of premature heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, as well as 40 percent of cancer cases, could be prevented through better nutrition, regular exercise and avoiding tobacco5. Healthcare costs in Australia are estimated to represent 10 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, and in 2010 alone, this figure reached $121.4 billion6.
These problems aren’t just national issues, they are global ones. The fast-paced lifestyles of our western culture have a lot to do with it. Countless hours are spent sitting in front of a computer or TV screen every day. Chemical pollutants invade us through the foods we eat and the air we breathe. Our sleep is disturbed because our brains can’t turn off. Put simply; our new modern way of life threatens our health every day.
I’m not suggesting ‘wellness’ is a nice idea if you want a happier life. I believe it’s a ‘life or death’ choice that cannot remain unchallenged. As a nation, we are living longer lives but not better ones. We are adding years with the use of pharmaceuticals and medical intervention rather than assuming personal responsibility for the daily decisions that have direct impact on our lifelong physical health.
“…we are living longer lives but not better ones.”
As a nation, we need to re-think how we spend our healthcare dollar. Let’s challenge the policy that affords lives healthcare services only to prevent specific sickness or treat those with injury and pain. This is proven to be a narrow and ineffective strategy in isolation. Instead, we need to proactively shift our resources and attention to promoting a full scale change in lifestyle activities that encourage the pursuit of true wellness, and so ensure emerging generations will perform at their peak.
Beat the Escalator I’ve often shared with my clients that their state of physical well-being can be likened to riding a downward-moving escalator. Generally speaking, all things organically move from a state of health to a state of disorder (2nd Law of Thermodynamics). If you intentionally eat a lousy diet, refuse to exercise, smoke tobacco, drink excessive amounts of alcohol and form other obvious high-risk habits —then it only gets worse. It’s like actively walking down the steps, at a speed that outpaces the natural rhythm of the escalator, to reach the bottom more quickly where your health is in accelerated decline. Most people would acknowledge this lifestyle choice is a form of self-destruction, however subtle it may feel or look at the time. What is less intuitive, however, is that if you stand still on the same escalator and do nothing - adopting the passive approach to health - then you will still slowly regress to the same end point because the escalator is moving downward. This is the great deception for many.
Unfortunately, true wellness can only be achieved by persistently walking (jogging, skipping, hopping, jumping, running, sprinting, cycling, swimming, dancing) up the escalator at a speed that at least matches, if not outpaces, its inherent downward momentum. It takes discipline and intent to ‘beat the escalator’ - two attributes that deter most of us immediately. However, it can be done.
I’ve watched my 3 boys literally beat the escalator. At the local shopping centre, they raced from me and leaped and giggled all the way to the top of a downward moving belt, only to turn around in preparation to do it all over again. I recall fondly the great horror of the elderly bystanders who muttered something about ‘neglectful parenting’ on the kids’ third lap. I would have probably intervened, but I was too pre-occupied mentally rehearsing my own ascent.
The truth is, a healthy lifestyle is meant to be fun. Make the paradigm shift today and achieve wellness for the long term by actively pursuing it. I will teach you that beating the escalator is much easier than you think, and it doesn’t have to feel like work. Let’s not wait until a medical problem arises to think about your health. Consider it every day from now on. Live with positive intent to move well. It will prevent injury, minimise sickness, reduce lifestyle risks, gear-shift you out of passive health and catapult you onto the journey toward optimal wellness.
The Deception of pain In our busy lives, we learn to selectively ignore many things. Rude drivers. Lazy co-workers. Traffic jams. Telemarketers. Sometimes even our own screeching children! But we can’t ignore nagging pain. It’s too personal. As much as you try to focus on something else, it’s still there. Nudging, poking or viciously stabbing. When the pain gets unbearable or starts to compromise their lifestyle, generally people seek professional help. This is when our practice telephones start to ring.
“The danger with using pain alone as a reliable indicator of injury or sickness, (is that) more often than not it’s a