The news isn’t good:

One in four Americans are obese (some stats say one in three).

One in ten US adults are suffering from depression.

9% are diabetic and our overall standard of health is on the decline.

We are in a health crisis.

Yet we have access to more information on physical fitness and preventative health care than ever. The “go green” movement, including buying organic or growing our own food, is burgeoning. Health clubs abound. Thanks to technology, we can take our blood pressure daily at home.

Why is our collective health failing?

To the public discourse on health I’d like to add a suggestion in the form of a question:

Have we checked our callings?

My take is that if we do not live our true life—follow our dreams and give the Gift we’ve been given—we find fewer and fewer reasons to take care of our health. If we’re not living our life, we’re living a fake one. An imitation of others’ lives.

Why maintain a false life?

We must do the heart-work necessary to be in touch with our Gift and make the hard choices necessary to give it.

 In his powerful little book, The War of Art: Break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles, best-selling author David Pressfield recounts his own struggle to live out his calling. He labels the force that conspires against us Resistance:

How many of us have become drunks and drug addicts, developed tumors and neuroses, succumbed to painkillers, gossip, and compulsive cell-phone use, simply because we don’t do that thing that our hearts, our inner genius, is calling us to? Resistance defeats us. If tomorrow morning by some stroke of magic every dazed and benighted soul woke up with the power to take the first step toward pursuing his or her dreams, every shrink in the directory would be out of business. Prisons would stand empty. The alcohol and tobacco industries would collapse…pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and the medical profession…Domestic abuse would become extinct, as would addiction, obesity, migraine headaches, road rage, and dandruff.

 What can we do to combat Resistance and get on track with giving our Gift?

1.  Stop. Begin to unhinge from activities and pursuits that are false to the real you.

2.  Listen to your deep heart and clarify the Gift you are here to give.

3.  Take a step in that direction and keep going. Don’t stop—ever.

Your health may depend on it.

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photo credit: ReSurge International (creative commons)

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