DWELL IN POSSIBILITY AND POTENTIAL

“The inner eye of vision can see what isn’t yet there, can reach beyond present circumstances, and can see what, up to that point, has never been there.”—Robert Fritz

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

"AS LONG AS MY HEALTH HOLDS UP"

Our home well-water filter was functioning poorly and needed to be replaced. A local supplier came out and recommended a new filter that requires servicing once or twice a year. The supplier, who appeared healthy in his mid-forties, tried to reassure us that he’d be around to maintain the equipment. He said, “I have young kids and will be in business for years—as long as my health holds up.”

I was surprised by his comment even though it was consistent with health survey comments we’ve received over the years, where eighty to ninety percent of respondents envisioned more illness and declining health in the future.

Why is it so hard for us to envision health as anything other than a problem or vulnerability? Maybe it’s because we’ve devoted much more research and attention to malfunctioning health than to well-functioning health. Marketing and media promotions reinforce these views. For example, direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs has grown as much as 330 percent in ten years.

But health isn’t inherently a problem. The outdated way we view it is.

HEALTH BEGINS IN THE MIND

Actually health begins in the mind. If we don’t intentionally create a vision for the health we desire, we will unintentionally follow outdated visions created by the modern media and health industries. On the other hand, when we step back, take time to reflect, and articulate our own health vision, we instead begin forming mental pictures of our future selves experiencing high energy and high well-being.

A health vision developed today enables us to identify and implement the actions needed to enjoy more health tomorrow. It shifts our focus away from the states of health to avoid and moves it toward the states of health we’d like to achieve.

The next frontier of health investment will require shifting from a predominant focus on health as a state of illness to health as a state of high capacity and overall well-being. Fortunately, investing time and effort to formulate and follow a positive vision of health yields a sizable return for minimal cost. As Daniel Goleman puts it, “Our course of action will be more compelling if guided by a positive vision, a guiding image of what things could be like one day.”

CRAFTING A POSITIVE HEALTH VISION

Jogging with the same group of friends over the years has given me a good level of fitness and capacity for unrestricted activity. However, attending an occasional yoga or T’ai Chi class was not enough for me to build sufficient muscle strength. I had been thinking about ways to do more strength training for months, and when the pandemic hit, the lockdowns and schedule changes enabled me to implement a new twenty-minute strength-building routine at home. In hindsight, I see that desiring to build strength—and believing that I would—was my health vision.

Our health visions may be limited or comprehensive, formal or informal. They are likely to produce good results by prompting us to imagine and pursue the goals we desire, such as having high energy, mental focus, resistance to illness, and other hallmarks of high health and well-being. These visions help us replace years of negative views and focus our attention on an active process for producing high health.

HOW A COMMUNITY CAN EMPOWER POSITIVE HEALTH VISIONS

We may feel isolated and inadequate when we’re adopting new concepts that conflict with the beliefs of the people around us. That’s when joining a community of like-minded others who share similar visions and provide support enables success. Crafting and pursuing positive health visions as part of a community is one of the High Health Network’s key features—one that aligns with the Network’s vision to help as many people as possible access effective methods and processes for attaining high health.

We believe that it is better to be helped by a vision of the high health we desire than to be hindered by a vision of illness and declining health. Contact us and we’ll help you and your company begin replacing outdated visions and grow more health today.

Joyce M. Young, MD, MPH
Managing Director, Advanced Wellness Systems

Dwell in possibility and potential. Imagine what you really want for your health, choose to have it, and take small, daily steps to get there.

Sincerely,
Your colleagues at Advanced Wellness Systems