Embrace Health

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Let’s take a look back over our health and what our ancestors lived with, in the 15^th, 16^th and 17^th century many diseases spread rapidly round the countries and the world: black death, small pox’s, the Spanish flue were just a few of them. More people died than lived and these illnesses spread like a forest fire through the population. People said it was a punishment from God or a black magic spell and all people could do was to pray to God. They tried lots of strange things to help, like bloodletting, cold baths, squashed black beetles into the skin and covering their bodies with bitumen. Of course, none of these helped except maybe the power of prayer and the belief that came with it, but that wasn’t guaranteed that was just for a few. Before the 21^st century a third of children never became adults-staggering figures, but now less than 5% die and only 1% in the developed world how amazing is that.

Let’s look at how far we have come healthcare wise, in 1967 smallpox had still infected 15 million and killed 2 million worldwide. By 2014 not a single person was either infected or killed by small pox. How fantastic is that? In under 50 years what a transformation. Even since then we have had other epidemics such as SARS and Ebola both classed as severe public health emergency, but with Ebola in just 18 months it was declared over. Just think if Aids has started in 1881 instead of 1981, would we be alive now? I know aids is still a debilitating illness but with the right medication it can be controlled and doesn’t mean a death sentence anymore.  That’s just 100 years ago and the difference would have been horrendous, but look at what we have achieved since the 1980’s when it was classed as a death sentence and how much we have learnt since then.

Every year we’re moving so quickly with developments and advances in healthcare.  In 2015 doctors announced the amazing discovery of a completely new type of antibiotic called teixobactin to which bacteria has no resistance to as yet. How amazing this could be when this is fully available to fight even those most resistant viruses like MRSA. Everyday thousands of scientists are working to develop vaccines, drugs and revolutionary treatments. Link this with the transformational things happening in our Tech world its mind blowing what could be developed or even being developed over the next few years.

Looking at how we used to live and how we live, now it is time to embrace our health and just how long we are now living. A hundred years ago we lived on average to mid-fifties now its mid 80’s, that’s such a massive change. Not only in how long we live but in how many things we have to support our health, heal disease and take away pain. Of course, there are some people that do suffer and children that do die, which much be horrific for them and their families. But this is a small percentage of people compared to how we used to live only a 100 years ago. This being the case we need to get things in perspective and start to embrace our health and lives. It’s so easy to always look for what’s wrong or what’s not right, instead of looking for the things that are good in our health and lives. If you have ever been thinking about buying a new car or you have just got a new car then you will maybe have experienced this. You see that type of car everywhere so much more than you had ever seen them before, nothing has changed, there are no more cars than before but your awareness and perception have changed. Over focus can blow things out of proportion and stop us seeing things in a true perfective, if you want to understand this more read the blog What Is True Perspective. You know it’s not real, but you still keep seeing them and it does look like there are lots more than ever before. The same is happening if you’re looking at your health in a negative way.  There’s no need, it’s time to change this, why waste your thoughts and time with a negative view of our health it will just have an unhealthy impact on how we think and feel.

Now more than ever we have a chance to change things and take control of our health, we have so much knowledge and many different help and support groups, that can help us gain perspective on many health issues. Also, the worry doesn’t help, so let’s use the power of our minds to strengthen our physical health if you need more motivation read Believe the Impossible. If you feel unfit don’t just moan about it or be complacent about it, do something about it, don’t just rush of and book a marathon but start a daily goals plan to help get you feeling fitter. If you suffer psychical tension, then it might be work trying tai chi, Pilates, stretching, floatation tanks, massage or yoga. Don’t dive in expecting to change instantly as it will take time but regular practice will help you. It’s important to find the approach which suits you so don’t give up straight away keep looking, if something doesn’t work it doesn’t mean nothing will it just means you haven’t found the right approach yet.

This is where the internet can really help, not searching for why, as that will not help you embrace health, it will have an adverse effect and could lead you further down in things like health anxiety.  But look for ways to help your condition, look at health forums, check with your GP or local experts, except the answer might not be the first thing you find and also be open to try new things.

If we have come this far in just 100 years where will we be in just another 5 or 10 years? And what if your answer to help embrace your health is already there? Or maybe it’s just your mind set that needs to change and you need to start looking at all the things you can do and not just at what you can’t.

Whichever way it is, it your life and your body. You need to positively embrace all that you have and work towards being the best version of yourself.

Don’t expect perfection, as none of us are perfect, just strive to be the best you can be.

Thanks for dropping by Sara x