Health is a Choice!?

What is health? Isn't it different to all of us? Who is healthy? What is healthy for you might be very unhealthy for me, or something I am not able to do.

The three basic components we are mostly concerned with are our bodies, minds, spirits/souls (though very different, they are often treated as the same internal entity).

We are told to feed our bodies nutrients, and to exercise to maintain optimal health. We are encouraged to be educated, well spoken, intelligent, and social, keep our minds growing, and consistently becoming more mature in our thinking and functioning. Our spirits/souls are treated very differently depending on the beliefs and emotional states of our caregivers. (I'll leave this one alone for now.)

To work on your health is to honor your creator and to love yourself and others, in fact. This idea of working toward health can be overwhelming and nearly impossible to someone who is depressed.

Many of the women I work with suffer from varying degrees of depression. Because we are not a treatment facility it can be a challenge to know how to help these women. The catch 22 in this situation is that making healthier choices would actually improve their mental state, but because they are in such poor mental health, making those choices is extraordinarily difficult.

Dr. Lucia Cappacchione is the author of a book called "The Picture of Health". She writes of healing and growth towards health by creative art, art therapy, and art expression. The premise is that sometimes we are unable to face our 'life blocks' or past traumas because we don't know how to, but through art we can safely become aware of many of the unconscious needs and desires we have. Through this we are able to move beyond the present challenge and make steps towards health.

I will begin to try some of these exercises myself and with select women at Coram Deo.