I wrote these thoughts down while undergoing my own health challenge some years prior to giving my related TEDx Talk... -Let's see how it holds up. Hope you enjoy and comment on my first Steemit post : )
Invest in the process, not the outcome.
Stop reaching for health and start living it.
Health is not the end to which we should aspire, but rather, a life long pursuit. When do we reach that place of health; that state of optimal well-being? Thinking of "health" as a destination rather than a vehicle is sure to keep it ever beyond our grasp.
So many of life’s obstacles exist in our mind. Illness is real, but it needing obstruct our path any more than we allow it. When confronted with an obstacle, be it physical or one of our own creation, an internal conflict arises and the question must be posed: Live within my limitations or choose to venture beyond them?
Whether in sickness or in good health this choice is one that each individual has to make; and not simply once but time and again. It’s fortunate to think that we have so many chances; right now is a chance, and five seconds from now… there’s another. Come to think of it, we had this power to choose all along. But that aspect isn’t important any more. The only thing that matters now is the choice you make from here. My choice is made; I choose the route of exploration, I choose to venture beyond my limitations; to see what’s out there, perhaps like what I see, and leap toward it. I choose to move forward and health will find me. Belief in it makes it so.
So how can we make sense of faith? How can we justify any action without knowing what it will bring about? How can we get to that place that Nike suggests and "just do it"?
Well, let's break it down:
Until recent experience, faith is a concept that always puzzled me. In college I took courses in existentialism. I read Kirkagard, Fear and Trembling and wrote about the absurdity of faith – to believe without reason. Now, I’ve found I have reason to do just that...
William James defines faith as “the will to believe”
IF Faith = belief (a confident acceptance of the truth of an idea) WITHOUT justification (logical proof or material evidence)
THEN Faith = Unjustified Belief
So let's take now the example in someone who is struggling with an illness and wants to get better. The first step (leap of faith) would be to believe in the power of belief itself to heal. Then, here's where the absurdity comes in - once that belief is solidified a cascade of beneficial reactions takes place in our physiology as the stress response subsides and the immune system is invigorated. This, in the most real sense, causes ones health to eventually return.
Thus Faith becomes self sustaining. The end result (health in this case) is a legitimate product of self-fulfilling prophecy:
The unjustified belief that belief-in-good-health brings about good health, brings about good health. That resulting good health then justifies the initial belief by grounding it in empirical evidence.
Conversely: the unjustified belief (or faith) that illness will endure causes illness to endure (via the adrenal cortisol pathway). And sure enough when illness persists, the initial belief that “I will stay sick” is confirmed and realized.
How to break the cycle? Do something Kierkegaard finds absurd.. Leap! – simply adopt the initial belief as an acting hypothesis and formulate yourself accordingly, see what happens.
Discussion:
Normally we are averse to such circular arguments in our way of reasoning. But does not a perpetual motion machine require a kickstart to be self sustaining. Faith acts like a kick-start: that initial energy (kick) must come from somewhere, in this case, it comes from within; from that conscious choice one must make to pursue something better (to be healthy).
Postscript/discussion point(?) - After reading this to my wife just now before posting, her response was as follows: “you really need a dog” - Is she right? : )