The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as a state of physical, mental and social well-being, not just the absence of symptoms.
In our contemporary life, we seem to relate health to the lack of symptoms or ill health to the presence of symptoms. Our wellbeing is more related to the way our body functions in our daily lives than to the symptoms or pain we may feel on any given day.
For example, we tend to think of pain as something to be eliminated, while thinking that pain itself is the body’s way of communicating with us about something that is going wrong. Our body is asking us to change the way we are doing things. Pain is sometimes called “the gift that no one wants”.
Let’s take an example: Is a headache a lack of painkillers in the body?
NO, this is how our body warns us that something in our behaviour is not being beneficial to it (and to us, obviously) and therefore requires our attention.
Symptoms are just a sign, health is more than that.
Experiencing health and well-being requires that we take care of our body. Better to treat it well, without waiting for pain or illness to manifest itself.
Remember that health is not just “feeling good” because we know that problems can progress for years without manifesting themselves. For example, heart disease often goes unnoticed until serious disorders occur and set in. It makes sense to do all we can to reduce the risks and optimise our health, quality of life and comfort….: