As I describe to patients the life changes they can make to improve their health, I frequently get the impression that I am Dante describing the journey down through the various levels of Hell. Somehow or other the thought of having to change one’s behavior in order to get different results is not embraced by everyone as a joyful opportunity. Most people seem to be fine with taking a pill in order to generate a change in their bodies, but much beyond that appears to be too much to consider. It is asking people to both think and act outside of their box. Our minds love routine. We love doing what we have always done, even when it is not working for us.
For me, knowing that I can change the course of my health by engaging in different behaviors is joyful. It tells me there is hope for improvement and that I can do something myself to achieve that desired outcome. I am very independent by nature – a do it myself kind of guy. I recognize this as a limitation in myself in many areas, but in the area of health, I am the only one that can change the choices and actions necessary to raise my health. Specialists of various sorts can guide me with suggestions, but ultimately I have to put those suggestions into practice. Health is a 24/7 job. Just taking a pill, or even 50 pills every day is not going to do it. Even if I had a health coach follow me around all day telling me what to do and what not to do, it is still me that has to do what I am told.
I believe that this is part of the problem. We like to do what we like to do. We don’t want to give up what does not work, and we don’t want to do something new we might not like. We like the comfort of what we already know. Don’t confuse us with facts or show us how what we like is killing us. That does not make us happy. We want to be told that we need more chocolate, ice cream, and crunchy snacks while binge-watching our favorite shows. I wish that would work, but unfortunately, it doesn’t. The formula for good health is pretty easy – eat healthy food, drink good water, get plenty of fresh clean air and sunshine, exercise, and a good night’s rest every day. It sounds almost attractive. Most people would agree that these are all good things. And yet actually achieving them seems to be so difficult.
Let’s start the descent into hell(th). Dante’s Inferno was on one level a discussion about finding a balance between the powers of reason and embracing the natural order of the universe through faith. This is essentially the same story we have with health. We are trying to find a balance between doing things “our way” or “the way we like” with embracing the natural order of the body. With each circle of hell(th), we get to encounter our own rationalizations and beliefs about what we do and want to do and the consequences that result in the body. Suffering is the option we are offered if we choose to hang on to “our way” instead of aligning with the natural order.
In Dante’s Inferno, each level of hell is typified by a particular sin the residents engaged in. Sin is an old archery term that means missing the mark or not hitting the target. The target in life seems to be aligning with the natural order of things. To the degree that we refuse to do this, we generate imbalances in our bodies that create pain and disability. When we resist this feedback, we suffer. Suffering is the feeling that we should be able to have things be “our way” and that our rights are being withheld from us. Sorry, when it comes to physiology, we have no rights. Our body is the way it is. Rights are temporarily negotiated agreements between humans based on mutual benefit. There is no right to be able to eat or drink poison and have it not affect us. There is no right to be able to skip sleep without disastrous consequences. We don’t get to avoid exercise, breathe toxic air, or hide from the sun without paying the price. We don’t have a right to health. We have to be right with the body if we want health.
So what can we do? We have our reasons for everything we do now. How do we navigate that? From actual science on how to make changes like we are talking about here, the answer is to make tiny steps. We may need a few huge dramatic changes to make a big difference in our health but rarely do those changes last – like almost never. But if we make tiny changes and let ourselves become comfortable with each step, over time we will have made those huge changes without all the stress and inevitable failure. I see the needed changes falling into two general categories – things to stop doing and things to start doing. Stop doing things that decrease your health and start doing things that increase your health.
Stop: eating poisons
drinking poisons
breathing poisons
absorbing poisons
Start: sleeping better
eating better
exercising more
getting more nature time
connecting more positively
Each of these could be a full newsletter (and most of them have been.) Pick one that attracts you and start small making changes in your life.
Consistency is everything when making a change. If you find yourself avoiding the little changes you have chosen then make the effort even smaller. If you decided to do 10 push-ups a day and find you are avoiding doing that then commit to doing just one push-up a day. Find whatever level you can do that produces success. There is no reason to pick a hard one. Start with easy changes first. Maybe you decide to switch from using that toxic non-dairy creamer in your coffee to using real cream. That is a good switch. Go for it. Maybe you switch from using chlorinated tap water to using bottled water. One of my favorites is buying the organic cauliflower at the store instead of the pesticide-covered version. I don’t buy everything organic, but some things I do. I support my choices by informing myself with sources of good advice like EWG (Environmental Working Group). They rate how toxic all sorts of things are so I can make better choices. Anything you want to know about, I can assure you that there are likely dozens of Youtube videos on that subject.
What are my personal choices for change over the last 20 years?
Stop: vegetable oils, excess sugar (more than 20 grams in any day), grains, dairy (except butter), fried foods, nightshade vegetables, packaged foods, sodas, water in plastic bottles, products that contain fragrances, endocrine disrupting skin care ingredients, toxic house cleaning products, toxic body care products, social media, news, television (down to 46 minutes a night).
Start: daily exercise, getting to bed earlier, making all my own food, eating 2 meals a day, cooling down the house at night for better sleep, regular spiritual support circle meetings, weekly zoom calls with family and working less.
This has been a slow process over the last 20 years and I still have a long way to go and that is okay. I still eat too much butter and bacon (yummy), and I need to spend more time just enjoying Ellen for the light she is instead of always working on something. One step at a time – tiny steps. Health issues may catch up with us now and again and we do what is necessary to keep going. That is life. By taking things one bit at a time, we can make great progress. It will sneak up on us and we will be fine. The descent into hell(th) is really an ascent into the skills of health – just learning how to adapt to the reality of life as it is.
Take care,
David