One thing that defines adulthood is responsibility. Sometimes it can pile up and feel weighty with each new commitment and so it can be helpful to outsource to trusted others in order to lower the burden. Such as grandchildren to grandparents, education to schools, cars to mechanics, bread to bakers, healthcare to doctors. To be entirely self-sufficient in the western world takes an almost complete separation from society and is not an attractive prospect for most. The advent of the NHS has much to be celebrated and we are indeed fortunate to live in a country where healthcare is freely accessible, should we need it. In terms of health responsibility, until what point does the responsibility lie with the individual and when does it become that of an outside source?
Once upon a time when mothers were solely responsible for the running of the home and needs of the family, most would have had a manual to refer to all aspects of housekeeping and at the back of this was an extensive section on family healthcare. The mother held extensive knowledge on how to manage many common ailments and would have not only known practical ways to work with the body, but also have grown medicinal herbs in the garden for all the family’s kitchen pharmacy needs. Sadly, much of this wisdom was lost from the hands of the common people and laid to rest with that of the experts within their specialisms. Many of us can relate to the saying, ‘a mother’s work is never done’. Parenting tasks are relentless, demands are high and often we even work beyond capacity. Releasing some of the burden can feel like a godsend; one thing less to worry about, one thing less to manage. But what if we are attracted to certain aspects and thrive in taking responsibility for them, or the outside source seems misaligned with your values?
Some of us find healthy living is an enjoyable responsibility, almost a hobby. Each new healthy habit feeding the next through a series of feel good hormones, thereby enhancing the overall quality of life. We try to incorporate a healthy balance of movement and rest, stimulation and peace, socialising and solitude, eating and digesting, hoping that for every output, we receive enough input to cover the costs. Of course this may be the ideal we strive for, it is challenging to attain balance all of the time in our modern world. So we must prioritize and generally what will tend to come first are our children and our work. Sadly not ourselves, despite the fact that in order to do our best, we must be well nourished in mind, body and soul.
As a family we chose to home-educate and so when our eldest began school at 14, there was some relief at handing over the responsibility for his education. We spoke openly about the benefits and drawbacks and tried to keep things in perspective. With healthcare we have done the same. We take personal responsibility for our health, learning what we can about the workings of the body and how best to support it with movement, rest, nutrition and community, sometimes entrusting more challenging issues over to others, such as body work therapies. In support of our decision to take health responsibility my herbal medicine degree gave me extensive knowledge in both the conventional management of disease and the complementary and alternative approach to wellness. I learned how to gather an extensive health history and to carry out physical examinations in order to gain a full picture of health. I learned to diagnose and to create individualised herbal prescriptions as part of a holistic treatment plan. I am indeed very grateful to have been able to learn such a healing modality from a naturopathic perspective and it feels fully in alignment with my values. I both understand the disease process and the process of healing, as well as health promotion and disease prevention. I go for the root, whilst being able to ease the symptoms as well.
As a health consultant prescribing medicines, I am keenly aware of the risk of holding too much responsibility for the healing and wellness of the individual. It is very tempting to just prescribe and allow herbs to work their magic, and work their magic they do, with great effect! However, there is a danger of ignoring the disease sustaining factors, such as stress, food intolerances, poor diet or sleep problems, and until we address these issues at a practical level, we will only receive so much joy and it may not even be sustainable. Herbs can ease away tension, balance hormones, strengthen the immune system, soothe the nerves, clear the skin, bring down inflammation, and the process by which they do this is by directly nourishing the systems of the body, feeding the organs at the cellular level. Because after all, herbs are food sources offering just what is needed for optimum functioning. After millennia of plant-human co-evolution, the body knows exactly what to do with herbal medicines, they are concentrated extracts of food substances containing a huge array of active plant constituents. These get lapped up eagerly by the body wherever they are needed, giving the required nudge towards optimal functioning. This is why change that is lasting sometimes takes time, depending on the depth of need in the body. Where there is a high demand for support, the system will keep lapping up the plant micronutrients, all the while edging towards greater health. In contrast, take trans-fats for example; this is not a substance the body is familiar with. In fact the body is confused and does not know what to do with it, and so just shoves it in wherever something similar would go, like cell membranes. Except its structure is inferior to that of healthy fats and as a consequence compromises the integrity of the entire cell and that of that of the body. Just imagine what other unfamiliar substances do to the body!
So in full awareness of how extensive herbal medicine is as a system of healthcare, it is still of utmost importance to me that a person recognizes their own responsibility towards their own health. Life is too precious to leave our health to chance. We can all benefit from improving our resilience to the stresses of modern living by making positive diet and lifestyle changes and as a side-effect enhance our enjoyment of life! It is just this which brought me in to health coaching. It provides the framework for making positive changes towards enjoying optimum health. Herbs should not be relied upon indefinitely to keep the blood pressure down, it must be used as an interim measure only whilst the person is making a firm effort to adjust their life in ways that will support the normalizing of blood pressure, such as introducing stress relieving practices, rebalancing family or work tasks, creating a great daily sleep or exercise routine, cutting out alcohol or making dietary changes.
Making these changes to our familiar life habits can seem daunting, especially when these habits have been around for a long while and daily rhythms sustain them. Partnering with a health coach can offer support and guidance to move from where you are, to where you want to be, one manageable step at a time. Together we can tailor make a personal plan to move towards goals you thought unattainable or too slow going to bother with. Together we will identify obstacles holding you back and tap into your inner wisdom to find doable actions that overcome them. Even small health changes have a strong positive impact and this not only has a knock on affect to other areas of life, but the receipt of so many benefits also elicits the motivation needed to keep at it. It is a wonder why we didn’t make these changes sooner… or is it? With all our many responsibilities as parents and career-goers, where is the time to make these changes happen? It could start with the simple act of attending a first consultation, assessing what is important to you and beginning the gradual steps towards attaining your health goals.
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