Defining Health and why "your why" is important.

I started several blog posts in the past few weeks, and was not inspired to finish and publish any of them. Most provided the conventional "tips" and "how-to's" related to personal development. You know, "Top 10 tips for ____". This morning,I checked my email as I often do, and saw everything from "How to have a successful SuperBowl Party", "Exercise tips for busy parents", to "How to attract more love in my life". Then I realized how incredibly bored I was with the amount of information of this type that is so prevalent ad nauseam. I recognize that in our busy lives, we often will only skim blog posts, newspapers, emails. In fact, one of the most oft written "tips" for writing blog posts is to "use bullets and lists". I tried to remember my purpose in wanting to write a blog on "Creating Your Health". It was and still is to write about some of the most important ideas, resources, experiences, and people that have helped me in creating my own health. I think it is so damn easy to get distracted from our original purpose, and to begin looking at all of the "advice" out there, that we lose site of our own passion and purpose. We stop expressing, communicating, and creating and continue to absorb, assess, and assimilate other peoples' ideas. Getting back to basics, and remembering your "why" you do what you do, helps you to ground, and become more clear when feeling distracted and diffuse. This is exactly what I needed to do when I was stuck, and uninspired with my 1/2 written blog posts of the past few weeks.

So, for today, I spent some time, looking at how I, myself, define HEALTH.

"Health" as defined by the World Health Organization is: *a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. In addition to physical, mental, social well-being, I see spiritual, career/creative, financial, and environmental well-being as important components that encompass my holistic definition of "Health".

In addition, my work as a dance/movement therapist informs my definition. One of the basic tenets of DMT is: The Mind, Emotions, and Body are connected. They are closely integrated, mutually interacting systems. This holistic connection means that not only does the body reflect the psyche, but the body can affect the psyche as well.** It was Martha Graham that said, "The body doesn't lie. The body says what words cannot".

Health is defined as having a large movement repertoire. Healthy functioning strikes a dynamic balance between bound and free flow; movement alternates rhythmically on a continuum between the two polarities. A Healthy individual has a wide range of copings for both internal and external stressors. For example, the individual would have the ability to be both direct and indirect (regarding relationship to space), to be both strong and light (regarding relationship to weight), and to utilize both acceleration and deceleration with regard to their relationship to time.

When you are assessing a person's movement patterns, you are observing their qualities of movement and the psychological, cognitive, and emotional correlates. You look not only at the way they cope with internal and external stressors, but their relational patterns as well. You assess the individual's relational development, relationship to self, and to others. Healthy functioning related to relational patterns means having the ability to trust those who are trustworthy, and distrust those who are not. How do dance/movement therapists assess these patterns? We assess patterns of growing and shrinking as they relate to the horizontal, vertical, and sagittal plane. For example, a healthy individual would have the ability to both widen and narrow, lengthening, and shorten, bulge and hollow in response to various internal and external stimuli. Healthy functioning in relationships to self and others means having ability to utilize a healthy balance of these growing/shrinking patterns; growing toward love objects, and shrinking away from noxious, dangerous objects.

In summary, I would define Health as the following: Health is a multi-dimensional holistic concept that encompasses many parameters. It's a state of wellbeing in these different areas. It means having a large range of copings for internal and external stressors. It means being able to grow toward pleasant stimuli, and shrink away from dangerous stimuli. (i.e, healthy boundaries in relationship to both internal and external stimuli).

How do you define health?
Spending some time coming up with my own definition helped me to clarify my purpose and passion for this blog on Creating Health.

If you feel yourselves getting distracted from your original purpose when attempting to create something, or fulfill a particular goal, take some time and consider your "Why" for wanting to do the thing in the first place. It's an easy way to reconnect to your passion, and re-ignite your energy.

Have a wonderful weekend.
~Chris

*Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.

The Definition has not been amended since 1948.

**Amighi, J., Loman, S., Lewis, P., & Sossin, K. et al. (1999). The Meaning of Movement: Developmental and Clinical Perspectives of the Kestenberg Movement Profile. The Netherlands: Gordon and Breach Publishers.