WHO, exactly IS responsible for our health? As we have put all of our eggs in the medical basket, so to say, then it is easy to see why pharmaceuticals have become so common….because WE have asked for them! Think about it, with all the information that is out there, how many people do you think research how diet and nutrition could assist their physical malady and how many blindly take the pills?
Who is taking responsibility for their own personal health? We keep thinking “they” should change things, but really nothing is going to get better, for ourselves, or anyone else unless we take personal action in our own individual lives first. For example, we can sit back, moan and complain that it is how it is; I could have accepted the protocol the doctor gave me, for example, or we could have accepted the breakfasts “they” felt were appropriate to give our children, but guess what, we would still be sitting in the same rotten position, or worse. Instead, we took responsibility for where we WANTED to be with our health. We took responsibility for changing our relationship with our food, for educating ourselves, and creating the environment where our children could be successful. Things still aren’t different with “them” but OUR situations have changed tremendously despite that.
No, the even greater problem than the physiological downsides of letting our excuses win is that we use the lack of time, resources, or education as a JUSTIFICATION for how we allow ourselves to be LESSER than we could potentially be. As long as we do this, we take ourselves and our responsibility out of the equation. This creates us as victims waiting for someone else to make change for us so that we can back off in our stressful lives. But we make this justification, blaming time, and it’s acceptable because it is currently the “norm” and going against it to a healthier lifestyle would be “abnormal”. We make this justification because somewhere deep down, we really don’t feel confident in our ability to be any different. We don’t know how to garden and grow our own food. We don’t know what to do with it even if it did grow. We don’t know how to read recipes, perhaps, or what with such confusing and contradicting biases about nutrition, perhaps we don’t even know what nutritious food really consists of.
The greatest thing we can do for ourselves is not even to make changes with time at first, because it won’t last since we really haven’t changed our thoughts about it. It needs to be more than a “kick” or a “fad”. It needs to be something we believe in. The greatest thing we can do is to take away the justification. If you really wanted to eat healthier, you would. What do you do when you don’t know something? You learn. Buy recipe books, go to community kitchens, participate in soup kitchens, take community ed classes, watch cooking shows, find a good coach that has been where you’ve been, and is now where you want to go. The list is endless. I know, I know, you don’t have “time” to add these as well. But by doing so, you are taking part in activities to increase your life and the experience of it. And, when you think about it another way, you really don’t have “time” not to, do you? It is indeed TIME to take responsibility for our selves, for our health, for where we want to be. Especially with the advent of the internet and all the technology that has come with it, we have instant access to any little thing we want right at our fingertips. No the problem does not lie solely with our “justifications”. The problem lies with the fact that these justifications have been good blinders to truth in our chase for the holy grail of “success”. It has come with the breakdown of connection, our greatest disconnection being with our SELVES.