#135 Health
What does it mean to be healthy in our mind, body, and spirit? Health is not limited to our physical wellbeing, but encompasses our mind, body, and spirit. In order to get to optimal health, we have to be willing to look at the unhealthy parts of ourselves.
Bruce Lee pursued not just his physical health, but also his mental and spiritual health.
“Health is an appropriate balance of the coordination of all of what we are. A healthy person has both a good orientation (sensoric system) and ability to act (motoric system). So if there is no balance between sensing and doing, then you are out of gear.”
We all experience the issue where we know in our heads what we should be doing for our health, but avoid acting on it because it is hard or inconvenient.
“Just as the maintaining of good health may require the taking of unpleasant medicine, so the condition of being able to do the things we enjoy often requires the performance of a few we don’t. Remember, my friend, it is not what happens that counts; it is how you react to them. Your mental attitude determines what you make of it, either a stepping stone or a stumbling block.”
We can complain about the tasks that we do not enjoy, but we enjoy the results. Such as not wanting to do laundry, but enjoying having clean clothes, or not wanting to go to the gym, but wanting to be more physically fit.
In order to maintain good health, where good health is the health of the soul, it is going to require us complete the tasks which stepping-stones towards the bigger picture of what we want.
The aesthetics of physical health are heavily influenced by our society, but even though those ideals are what we think health looks like, if it is not total wellbeing of mind, body, and spirit it is not true health. It is important to take stock of how we feel physically, mentally, and spiritually on our health journeys. Be sure to ask yourself, “What is healthy for me?” Find out what works for your individual health instead of following along with what everyone else is doing.
Pay attention to what your body is telling you because it will tell you what it needs. Do not listen to just what your mouth craves, but what your whole being needs.
“Happiness is the synonym of well-being. The better (healthier) the man, the more happiness.”
This health and happiness can be maintained with balance. Happiness can mean ease, contentedness, peace, and joy. The more happiness you have the easier it is for you to return to the balance of your wellbeing.
A healthy person has a good ability to sense.
“Sensitivity is not possible when you are afraid.”
“There can be no initiative if one has fear.”
“Never waste energy on worries and negative thoughts. All problems are brought into existence – drop them.”
“Understanding your fear is the beginning of really seeing.”
Part of the maintenance of our health and wellbeing is to understand our fear, to examine it, so that we can release it. This is so that we can better sense. When we are fearful we are tense, guarding ourselves against everything, and we are unable to sense what is really going on. We are in fight or flight.
It can be uncomfortable to dive into these fears and feelings.
Bruce Lee was very obviously healthy and fit, but his perspective on health was that to be truly healthy our mind, body, and spirit must be healthy. Being a martial artist, Bruce worked on his physical aspect of fighting, but also examined his emotional and mental bodies and how they were in a fight. When you are in a fight, your emotions are being triggered and you are sensing in yourself fears that come up when you are being attacked or attacking. You have to be able to delve deep into what is bothering you when these feelings arise so that you are not hampered by them.
“No one can eat and digest your food for you in order to give you the necessary strength to live.”
You have to do your own work.
In order to sense you have to be present.
“Every emotion expresses itself in the muscular system. Anxiety is tremendous excitement bottled up.”
“Anxiety is the gap between NOW and THEN. If you are in the now, you can’t be anxious because your excitement flows immediately into ongoing activity.”
“One who is possessed of worry not only lacks the poise to solve his own problems, but by his nervousness and irritability created additional problems for those around him.”
What is it that you want? What could you do today that would aid your wellbeing? Pick something to do in a day that makes you feel good in each category of mind, body, and spirit. Note how you feel before and after you do these things.
“Action is a high road to self-confidence and esteem.”
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