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Health, Wellness, who's Responsibility is it?

Who's responsibly is your health and your well being? It is a simple enough question, and I'm positive that we all have a quick answer: ours. Upon first examination, we all know that ultimately, we are responsible for our health and our well being. However, when we begin to dig a little deeper, we start to uncover a pattern of truths that are incongruous with our answer to that question. If we are responsible for our health, and we know that, then why do we repeatedly--day in and day out--make decisions and take actions contrary to that assertion.

I'm going to leave aside the fact that there are entire multiple economies which are working to keep us unhealthy and sick, because that is how they make their money. We have a consumerist economy that is selling us goods, like clothes, cars, and flat screen TVs, to substitute for real happiness. We have a hospital economy that is selling us "health care," but really they are maximizing their profits by keeping us sick and diseased. And we have a pharmaceutical economy, in bed with with hospitals, who want nothing more than to give us drugs that make us dull, sick, and dis-empowered to finding real health. I'm not going to address these issues because I'm going to assume that you already know about them and are already actively working against them in your own lives, or else you would not be reading this blog right now.
What I want to find out is why are we making decisions that make us sick when we could be making decisions that make us happy, What I want to find out is why, if we know that our health and our well being is our personal responsibility, then why are we not acting in accordance with that knowledge. 

What Choices to we take, What Choices do we make?

We are consistently being offered choices in our lives--the choice to keep on suffering or the choice to start thriving. In the excellent film Food Matters, David Wolfe addresses this choice as it pertains to food. He says, in one hand you have a hamburger, in the other hand you hold the world's most nutritious food, which do you chose?

Unfortunately, we usually chose the hamburger, knowing that it is not the food that is going to make us feel our best. We know that this hamburger will not make our energy soar, and bring about happiness and health. Yet we chose it time and time again. If I saw someone making the same bad decision over and over again, knowing that it will bring them unhappiness and knowing what the better decision is, I would think that this person wants to be unhappy, that this person not only thinks that they do not deserve to feel happy, but that they deserve to feel bad.

What causes us to make these bad decision? Is it self hatred? Do we not want to be alive? Do we believe that we only deserve bad things? This is the case. The most rampant health problem facing us today is self-hatred. No amount of good food, exercise, nutritional supplement or medicine will heal self-hatred. Furthermore, no amount of consumer goods will make us feel good when we hate our selves. We first have to believe that we are worthy of love, we need to then love ourselves, and then we will start making decisions which reflect that self love. Again, until you believe that you are worthy of health you will never be healthy. When you believe that you deserve to be happy, you will be happy. And when you believe that you deserve to be the recipient of love, you will find an abundance of love. 

I do not know why self hatred is so rampant in our society, and I'll leave that up to our own introspection and conversations to try and find the root of it, but I do know that it is here and that it is permeating our society, making us sick and unhappy, perpetuating that sickness and unhappiness, and keeping us from healing ourselves, the community, and the world. 

Personal responsibility is taking responsibility for oneself, and beginning to act in accordance with self love. All your actions of love will be futile, they are and will be failures, if they are not radiating out of a core of self love.
Join me on the journey of personal responsibility and self love.