I was meeting with a client the other day. She was concerned about the future of her health. This particular client is overweight and has a family history of heart disease that seems to reveal itself in her family members at very young ages.  In my opinion, her concern is justified and she is smart to be making the effort to lose weight and learn healthier lifestyle habits.

But what is health? Is it just the absence of sickness? Personally, I think that defining health as feeling well is absurd. – especially given the fact that we cannot “feel” 80% of what is going on in our bodies. Ever known someone who has been diagnosed with a serious health issue such as cancer that felt fine prior to their diagnosis? I think we all have. Think about it…if we could feel everything happening in our bodies that contribute to eventual ill health such as arterial blockages, cancer, kidney stones, Alzheimer’s, etc. wouldn’t the world we live in look a lot different? Wouldn’t our concerns about developing health issues be a mute point – after all, we would “feel” whatever we needed to feel before it got out of hand.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, health is a state of optimum physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease. In other words, health is not how you feel but rather, if you are physically, mentally and socially functioning at your optimum potential.

I like that definition because it addresses whole health and the fact that we cannot “feel” so much of what is going on with our physical health.  I also like the fact that it embraces health from a more rounded perspective. We are the sum total of our mental, emotional, spiritual and physical well being.  In truth, we cannot ignore any aspect of our health without impacting the rest.