Wellness is a verb disguised as a noun. It involves action. It demands change. Living with a chronic illness can make you feel very alone. How you take care of your body physically is going to play a huge role on how your body performs mentally and emotionally. What you are eating, how you’re sleeping, how often you exercise and how often you are still in reflection or meditating are correlated with what and how you feel emotionally and physically.
After a diagnosis with multiple autoimmune syndrome, I am always looking for technologies and tools that promote regeneration and health. I am hungry for experts who share a roadmap for navigating the amazing modalities that support the innate intelligence of the human body and its ability to heal. Today mindfulness practices are fast becoming the go to treatment plan for depression and anxiety symptoms, which are experienced by most patients with chronic conditions. Mindfulness practices are about being in the present moment.
The pharmaceutical industry as well as doctors may be well equipped for the biomedical aspects of care but not for the challenges of understanding the psychological, social, and cultural dimensions of illness and health. Advances in research and the delivery of health care have reduced mortality from disease and extended life expectancy in developed countries. We are living longer, but are we necessarily living better? Often patients must cope with a chronic condition and yet the emotional dimensions of these conditions are frequently overlooked when medical care is considered.
Make a healthy investment in yourself. A significant part of the treatment for almost any chronic condition involves lifestyle changes. We are all fairly well schooled as to what these are — stopping smoking, losing weight, exercising more, and shifting to healthier eating habits. Food fuels our bodies and also impacts how we perform, physically and mentally. Exercise can help you unplug from the distractions of your daily routine and allow you to listen to your body while you build physical fitness. Although these steps are sometimes relegated to the back burner, they shouldn’t be. The people who make such changes are more likely to successfully manage a chronic condition than those who don’t. Investing the time and energy to make healthy changes usually pays handsome dividends, ranging from feeling better to living longer.
We have to create an ethos of wellness. Make it a family affair. The lifestyle changes you make to ease a chronic condition such as high cholesterol or heart disease are good for almost everyone. Instead of going it alone, invite family members or friends to join in. We have to take an active role in our healing. According to a scientific article published in March 2018 in the Annals of Family Medicine, fundamental to medicine’s meaning and purpose, the relief of suffering should arguably be the foundation for medical decision making. Yet, modern medicine often fails to relieve suffering and, at times, can paradoxically exacerbate it through its curative focus, therapeutic activism, and a service delivery system poorly designed to meet the needs of chronically ill patients. Ask any patient diagnosed with a chronic condition. Hence, healing is now left in the hands of the patient.