A paper published in The Lancet, a well-known leading medical journal, claimed that 95% of the world’s population have an illness, disease or condition of some kind, with over a third having more than five conditions. (1,2)
This is a SHOCKING statistic – one that should call us to investigate, question, study and question some more, what is really going on? How come we live in a world where the vast majority of people are sick? How come only 5% of the world are apparently well – though perhaps if we dug a bit deeper and broadened our definition of what it is to be sick, then we might just find that it’s 99% or more of people who are sick.
How is it possible in an era when we have the best understanding of the human body, its organs and their function, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, biology, pharmacology, pathology – all the sciences – that nearly everyone on the planet is sick? Not only is the number of people with one condition rising, but so are the numbers of people with multiple conditions and they are acquiring them at a younger age.
Diabetes, obesity, mental ill health and more are all rising – ticking time bombs all capable of crippling the health service resources globally.
Part of the global rise is because more people who may have not had access to health services before, are now doing so and being diagnosed that previously were not, but this does not explain it all – there is also a genuine rise in the number of people getting sick.
If we look at women’s health in particular we see:
breast cancer rates are now 1 in 8 women (3) but many more have benign breast conditions
endometriosis – up to 10% women affected and is a major cause of infertility (4)
dysmenorrhoea (period pain) – experienced by up to 90% young women (5)
ovarian cancer – incidence rates projected to rise by 15% in the UK between 2014 and 2035 (6)
ovarian cysts and fibroids – occur in 30% women with regular menses and 50% with irregular menses (7)
Not only that but there is a rise in young women with eating disorders (8) and self-harm issues like cutting as well as sexual promiscuity, STDs (9), and more. There was a 68% increase in the incidence of self-harm in teenage girls aged 13-16 between 2011 and 2014 (10).
Although self-harm is clearly self-inflicted, it is indicative of inner turmoil or dis-ease that results in the behaviour – for one reason or another, the person is sick to the point of harming themselves.
What is going on?
Why is the health of women, and indeed all people, deteriorating? How are we living as women, that is resulting in all these ills?
Rather than approach this from the end-point of having the disease or condition and working backwards to see where it all went wrong, I would like to suggest a different way to look at this – one that is based first and foremost on knowing who we truly are and what it is to be truly healthy and see if that makes it easier to understand what is going on.
This is important, for if we do not know what our true health potential is or who we truly are, we are much more likely to just accept life the way it is, and assume being sick is just normal, just the way life is, and not something we can influence or change.
Whereas if we do know who we are, and what our true potential is, it can be a game changer if we come to see that we are living so much less than this.
We realise we are not victims of illness and disease or life for that matter, but that we can change the trajectory of our life, take responsibility for our choices and develop a way of living that is truly healthy. So who are we? And what is our true potential for health?
What if our fact of being human is just a part of the story but not the whole truth? What if we are not ‘just human’ beings but also divine beings that come from and are made from and with love?
What if who we truly are is a super-intelligent, wise, glorious, amazing, beautiful, gorgeous, sexy, sassy, love filled being of light – and our body is the vehicle for that being of light?
What if our true nature is to be vital, vibrant, joyful, delicate, sweet, loving, playful, harmonious, deeply caring and nurturing … not just for ourselves but for everyone equally?
WOW! Could that really be me? Is it just a utopian ideal or is it actually possible? And if it is possible how do I get there?
These qualities and understandings are not just wishful thinking, or unobtainable ideals or fanciful beliefs but are based on the energetic understanding of the human being as well as universal philosophical and religious teachings that have been delivered to mankind down through the Ages that affirm we are Love, that Love is our true nature.
What gets exposed is just how far removed we are from our true nature when instead of the above qualities we are tired, depressed, exhausted, miserable, unwell, drained, depleted, burnt out, mentally or physically unwell … the opposite of who we truly are!
If this is so, then could it be as simple as recognising that we are living in ways that are opposite to our true nature and which resist and oppose the love we naturally are? So instead of:
Eating to be light and aware – we eat to be heavy, dull and numb
Moving with the grace and stillness of the divine – we rush around in nervous energy
Appreciating and loving ourselves – we are judgemental and critical of ourselves
Going to bed early to be well rested – we stay up late and end up exhausted
Being emotionally centred, we react – get emotional which affects us further
Dealing with and healing our hurts – we numb them with food, alcohol, drugs, sport etc.
Being aware of our bodies and their messages – we bury, numb, deny, ignore or override the sensitivity of our bodies
Being connected body, mind and soul – we are disconnected, separated and able to make unloving choices in disregard of the body
Being loving and gentle – we are harsh and hard
Sweet and delicate – we are bitter and rough
Vital and vibrant – we are exhausted and tired
And so the list could go on and on – the point is we are living in ways that are directly opposing to the ways that are actually natural and healthy for us and which engender true health … so perhaps it is not surprising that being sick has become the new normal.
And being sick will continue to be normal – until such times as we realise that it is down to us and how we are living.
The potential for true health has never left us and still resides within us but it won’t happen by a wish, a hope, a prayer, or simple desire – the only way it will change is if we actually make the changes – if we choose to consciously and deliberately make choices that we know are more healthy.
And the key to making these changes is to know that irrespective of any hurt, trauma, event, experience, abuse, harm, torture, illness and disease, is the incontrovertible fact that we are divine, we are love, a love that is stupendous, bountiful and unending, a love that is completely unaffected by ANYTHING, but which remains, pure, untarnished, unblemished and whole.
When we accept this to be true and connect with the love we are, we know we are worth caring for to the hilt and beyond, first and foremost by ourselves. All the beliefs that we are anything less than love get melted away, dissolved, resolved and truly healed – indeed miracles can occur.
For many people this can be a new concept and it can be a process to come to know this to be true for ourselves as a felt lived experience.
It may start with just accepting intellectually that this is a possibility and in doing so we can begin to make choices that are aligned with that possibility and become more loving towards ourselves through the choices we make regarding sleep, food, exercise etc.
As we begin to make choices that are more loving and caring based on the possibility that we are love, sooner or later we will reconnect with the truth of the fact that we are Love, such that it becomes known as a fact, as a truth and is not just a possibility or a belief.
Of course, we have free will, so we can also choose to stay on the misery merry-go-round for as long as we like, or we can hop off anytime … and develop a way of living where it is instead normal to be vibrant, energetic, vital, joyful, loving, playful and truly healthy with glowing skin and sparkling eyes – eyes that reflect the love that we are.
This involves consciously choosing to live in a way that we know and can feel is more loving and healthy – for example, no longer poisoning our bodies with alcohol, drugs or cigarettes, removing junk food from our diet, going to bed early and having adequate rest so we are not exhausted, moving and exercising in a way that respects the body and does not push it too hard but is instead gentle and considerate.
Simple daily choices performed with a different quality, one that is caring and loving and respectful of the body, can have a profound effect.
So let us not pretend any more in ignorance that we do not know what is going on – we do know, we know when we abuse ourselves, we know when we eat unhealthy food, we know when we are emotionally out, we know when we behave in ways that are not loving.
We know, we know, we know because we cannot NOT know…. as we already are Love, and Love knows all that is not love.
References
1. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60692-4/fulltext
2. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150608081753.htm
3. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/breast-cancer 4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2941592/ 5. https://academic.oup.com/epirev/article/36/1/104/566554 6. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/ovarian-cancer#heading-Zero 7. https://patient.info/doctor/benign-ovarian-tumours 8. http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/5/e002646 9. https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats16/adolescents.htm 10. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/18/self-harm-girls-aged-13-to-16-rose-68pc-three-yearz