There’s nothing good about being healthy

I first wrote this eye-catching headline in 2018, but with the rise of online ‘healthfluencers’ and cruel and unscientific ‘health’ policy coming from the highest levels of our government, it felt like a good time to revisit this important topic.

At Energy Matters, our mission is to help you live a long, strong and healthy life. It feels good to have energy to do the things we want, to have a sense of well-being, to enjoy life and a long lifetime of experiences and time with loved ones. We’re here to support you in accessing all those things, and as you can imagine it is rewarding and satisfying work.

As good as it feels to support our bodies with choices that enhance our well-being, something I hear from a lot of people is “I’ve been bad!” meaning; I ate a certain food, or I didn’t exercise, or I skipped acupuncture. It’s a very slippery slope from ‘it feels good to do these activities” to “I’m good if I do these things” to “I’m BAD if I don’t do them.”

Adding a dimension of morality to our health isn’t healthy! Healthy people aren’t morally superior, and sick people aren’t bad or wrong. Sickness, injury, aging and even death are natural parts of human experience that visit everyone. They’re not punishments for not going to yoga class or eating enough kale. 

None of us ‘deserve’ to be sick - no matter what choices we’ve made or what hand life has dealt us. In fact, when we lock ourselves into the good/bad dichotomy around our health, we often cut ourselves off from making small, sustainable changes, instead getting caught up in ideas of what we’re supposed to be doing, or suffering emotional pain for being ‘bad’ on top of physical pain we may be enduring.

Let’s think beyond the binary of good/bad or healthy/unhealthy. Being in loving awareness of ourselves means we can be curious and non-judgemental about our choices, our habits and our patterns, as well as those of other people. How do I feel when I do a certain thing regularly? What is my body and my spirit telling me about my choices? 

It takes practice over our whole lives to deeply listen to ourselves, and to be accepting and gentle even when we’re experiencing pain, illness and frustration - and you’re not bad if you can’t do it all the time.