In Health, The Whole Is Always Greater Than The Sum Of The Parts
What’s the best way to improve your health? Answers vary depending on who you ask. Some will tell you it’s your diet. Others will remind you that it’s your exercise routine. People with a mystical bent might tell you that it relates to the quality of your spiritual life.
What you notice about all these explanations, though, is that they’re very one-dimensional. The thing that’s going to transform you into a healthy person isn’t a collection of factors: it’s a single activity, like eating lettuce soup or going for a daily walk.
The Body, Mind And Environment Are One System
The problem with one-dimensional approaches to health is that they have nothing to do with the actual bodies and society in which we live.
There are two artificial separations that we make whenever we talk about health. We imagine that the mind and body are two separate systems – they are not. And we imagine that the person is separate from their environment. They are not. If you don’t accept that logic, see how long they survive on the surface of the moon without a spacesuit.
When it comes to health, though, we always view it through the old prisms of diet, exercise and stress. Progressive people might also throw stress levels and wellbeing into the mix. But fundamentally, these are each separate channels.
The reality, though, is that they’re not. They each impact the other. And there are often profound synergies between them.
It’s one of the reasons why so many people choose full spectrum CBD. They want a product that contains the full benefits of the plant.
It’s the same reason why so many diet gurus recommend eating a wide variety of whole foods. Each individual ingredient in the meal has thousands of beneficial components. And combining them produces even more benefits to the person eating them.
The Emotional And Spiritual Component
But we need to go beyond this. We need to stop thinking about health in terms of just the body. What you eat and how long you sleep are both important. But they’re not the full picture. How we treat our mind and the conversations that we have with ourselves are also important.
The data on this subject is quite extraordinary. For instance, people who feel more stressed (or like they have a duty to another person) are much more likely to experience chronic diseases. In other words, the way they think about their lives has a direct impact on their long-term health and mortality.
We should, therefore, never neglect the emotional or spiritual element of wellbeing. Dieting is great. But if it is leading to profound misery, it probably isn’t beneficial overall. In fact, it could be causing you profound harm.
Thus, when it comes to health, the whole is always greater than the sum of the parts. Doing individual things, like diet and exercise, can be beneficial. But working on the mind is just as important, if not more so.
Think about how many negative thoughts you have throughout the day. Could these be impacting your health adversely?
