What is Health?
If you’re looking for health using its most basic definition, you seek to be free of illness or injury. But, does it mean something different to you? Is health more than just the absence of disease or damage to your physical body?
Health is Subjective
Every day you see numerous claims from people that want you to buy into gadgets and gimmicks in the name of health. Things are either “good” because they promote your health or “bad” because they affect it negatively. But, what happens if we all view health differently?
Health is like this vague cloud that we all seek to capture. It has the promise of great things; a life filled with happiness and the ability to do fantastic things with our body. It’s the idea that, without it, we will have a life of sadness and disdain.
Because of this notion, health means different things to different people. To you, being healthy may mean that you’re well enough to be able to go to your child’s soccer game. To someone else, it may be having enough endurance to complete their day-to-day duties without being totally wiped out. So, is health about what you lack, or what you gain?
Health is Also Powerful
Regardless of how you look at it, the idea of health is definitely very powerful. When you don’t feel good, it’s hard to make it through the day and look forward to the next. All you want is to rest and relax and all your productivity is gone out the window. Yet, when you feel great, or healthy, you bound through your day with endless energy, excitedly going from one thing to the next.
Perhaps the saddest thing about health is, often, it’s not cared for until it’s in jeopardy. It’s easy to ignore the not-so-good choices you make when you can’t feel the immediate consequences. And, sometimes, it’s too late to get it back.
Whatever health means to you, whether it’s getting the most time possible with those you love or the basic definition of being free from illness or injury, take care of it. And, do it now before it’s too late. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
