The one thing you should know about your health is that your health is your number one resource. YOUR HEALTH IS EVERYTHING! It really is the foundation of it all. Health is the operating system for our lives. It serves as the foundation for our decision making and cognitive capabilities. It serves as the foundation for our earning capabilities and success. Health determines the quality of our relationships and the level of our happiness. 

Most people do not have their values straight in relations to health, unfortunately. I believe this is why the fast food industry is thriving. This is why people are suffering from major illnesses and roll in misery. 

What do I mean by all of this?

Human behavior is mostly triggered by the individual’s environment. We constantly respond to things as they come at us. In a way, life is all about rolling with the punches. But the way we respond to those punches is predominantly based on our internal values and beliefs. 

If a given person values honesty, kindness and believes that she should act with honesty and kindness towards other people, that person is not going to lie, cheat and try to hurt others. But if another person values only personal gains through any means possible, that person will lie, cheat, and walk on others to get whatever their petty little heart desires. 

This is true in regards to health as well. If a person values health understands that health is their number one resource that they have. That their earning, their decision making and behaviors depends on their health. Clearly, they will take better care of their bodies and mind.

I’ve been a clinician for the past 13-14 years now. And believe me when I tell you. People do not value their health. They just don’t.

Most people realize how important health is only when their health and wellbeing is compromised. Be it back pain, indigestion or something more serious. Only then, they get the wake-up call. 

Sometimes when I discuss this notion that health is everything and it’s the number one priority for humans, people say “no it's not, the family is first”. I respectfully agree right before I disagree.

Health is number the one value because if you’re not healthy everything falls apart. 

Firstly you can’t take care of your family when you’re sick. Secondly, if you’re unhealthy you become a burden for them. Which is even worse.

Don’t you agree?

I get it people have incurable conditions, and genetic conditions, and all kinds of difficult problems, and pain, and discomfort, and sleep deprivation and the list of and-s never ends. Never the less we can make choices that can help us to move into the direction of health, and make things a bit easier.  

But we all come up with all kinds of embellished excuses.

There’s no time. I’m too tired. It hurts too much. I can’t do it all; I’m just one person. I get it! In a way, we’re all in the same boat. We all have the same excuses. But when you adjust your value system, excuses kind of start to lose their power over us and they lose the need to exist. 

Once again I’m talking about positioning y0ur health properly in your value system.

I’m talking about proper choices and small changes. The more well-balanced approach to your health and daily choices that will yield health.

I’m not saying stop eating cheeseburgers, and eat only kale. I’m saying eat the best cheeseburger you can get your hands on, and eat a kale salad with it, to balance it. And do it a few times a month, instead of a few times a week. 

I personally love burgers, really love Hawaiian style burgers. Slice of grilled pineapple on top of the blue cheese stuffed patty. But I won’t eat my burger until I eat a salad and no fries... 

Yum… 😋

It is true with exercise as well. No one is asking you to train like a pro athlete. No one is asking you to move into the gym. Go for a forty-minute walk, get on the stationary bike for 25 minutes, do a 15-minute yoga session. 

Do something! 

Keep moving even if it hurts! 

Just do it!

Put on your Nikes and don’t listen to the internal dialog that’s telling you that you’re too tired or too sick or whatever excuses it’ll make this time. 

Just put on your shoes and go.

Life is movement. 

Your health depends on your movement. The absence of movement creates stagnation in the body and slows down all of your essential processes, like circulation, elimination of toxins. That my friend creates is a recipe for disease.

Analyze your daily behaviors in relations with your health. Analyze your value system, and keep introducing small health changes into your life. 

Health is everything, it really is.

Here are a couple of unusual questions to ask about your health…

When you think of health, what is the image that comes to your mind? 

Have you had this thought before? 

What sound comes to mind when you think of health? If health had its own music, what would it be? 

When I think of health, there is one image I see. Me with a grin on my face surrounded by my family, doing things we love to do. That is hanging out on Maui in Kihei, getting pineapple burgers and Kona brew beverage.

The soundtrack of health for me is laughter. 😂

It is safe to say, people who are not well, they don’t really laugh much. I’m sure its different for everyone. I’m also sure that you won’t find a living person on this planet that wouldn’t agree that, smiling and surrounded by loved once is part of their healthy picture.

I think this idea is really to showcase that health and happiness are very interconnected and inter-depended. 

Who doesn’t want to be happy? 

Probably people don’t think about these things much, everyone’s caught up with the day-to-day hustle of making things happen. And some people are parked on the sofa making nothing happen…

Reevaluation of the positioning of your health as a value in your value system is critical. And not just for people who aren’t healthy, but also for people who are healthy and are into a healthy lifestyle.

You probably think what now? What do I mean by health junkies should reevaluate their health positioning in their value system?

Extreme behaviors. 

For example, many people would look at a bodybuilder or a professional athlete and would have the impression that those people are the healthiest because of the way their bodies look. Not necessarily true. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not being judgmental but the facts are facts.

Bodybuilders put their bodies through so much wear and tear on the musculoskeletal level, digestive level it's crazy. When someone works out three to four hours a day, five/six days a week, that body will naturally go through lot more wear and tear than the person who works out one hour a day four times a week. 

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

I mean, shoulder issues, multiple surgeries, blown out disks and torn knees and elbows are a normal thing for them. And I understand that’s how they earn their living. Still, they compromise their health a great deal. It’s extreme. It’s just too much…

Or a person who’s gone vegan and eats processed, packaged vegan foods. That’s not great either. French fries are also vegan. Do you know what I mean? 

Homeostasis

The scientific term for a healthy state of the body is called homeostasis. It is when everything is in balance with everything in the body. Health is everything balanced with everything. Sounds pretty much impossible from human perspective right? Yet it’s very possible from the perspective of your body. Just provide all components and all of the necessary building blocks.

When one gets their priorities straight when the health takes it’s a rightful place in the value system things start to move in the proper direction because the individual will base their daily choices on their value system. 

Action Plan

Write out a unique chart of your values. Just pick the fundamentals. 

-    Health,

-    People/relationships, 

-    Finance, 

-    And environments/home/work. 

And try to analyze and see if they're in balance with your goals and with each other, see which one is overpowering and compromising your health, and come up with one minor change that you can implement this week. Choose something simple, nothing extreme. Maybe you’ll have three salads this week, instead of burgers. Or, you’ll go for a walk for a few minutes and will do some deep breathing while you’re out. A small, simple, action plan that is doable. 

HEALTH IS EVERYTHING! 

Do something today to stay healthy, to get healthier and be better equipped to block the punches…

I hope this article brought some value to you. Or at the very least, it reinforced what you already knew.

Do at least one thing for your health every day. 

And remember…

HEALTH IS EVERYTHING!

Thanks for reading…

Massage. Meditate. Be Happy.

Bye…

💪😎🤙

Hayk Zar LMT

Clinical Massage & Qigong Somatics

45 South Ave W, Cranford NJ, 07016

hi@zar.ink | haykzar.com | zar.ink

732.766.0897 | @haykzar