In this episode I am going to explore what it means to be healthy, and how it might be possible to be healthy despite having a serious disease, and even in the face of imminent death. Despite how it feels when we experience ill health, stressful situations, or physical discomfort; our mental and emotional responses to these are not a foregone conclusion. They are merely learnt behaviors and patterns of thinking. And because they are learnt they can be unlearnt and relearnt. We can learn to consciously influence the way we respond to external stimuli, situations and circumstances. To change on purpose how we react, how we feel and what we do. We can train ourselves to feel joyful both in the sunshine and in the rain. If we can learn to do that, good health and happiness are not far behind.
A very common symptom I encounter in my day to day practice is feeling tired all the time. It is so common we have an acronym for it. TATT or Tat. To explore this with my patients I ask them to tell me about their lives. One of the great privileges I have as a GP is that I get to hear people’s stories. People are living frantic, stressful, crazy lives.
Sometimes it can feel like we are battling life, rather than living it. When we are not living life on purpose, when life is something that is happening to us, and we firefight and battle our way through from day to day, this will always lead to exhaustion. But people are sometimes reluctant to accept that the reason they feel tired is because they are exhausted. They feel like there must be more to it, that there must be some underlying disease.
In this episode we explore why this is, and how we can move beyond a diagnosis to good health.
Humans are meant to be running around naked in the woods. We are designed to run, just for the joy of running. No wonder we feel unwell, no wonder our bodies and minds are out of balance, out of kilter, when we are leading such frantic, stressful, unnatural lives. Progressive medicine is a bit like turning ourselves off and on again. Our instinct may be to distrust it, we may want a more scientific explanation and intervention, but sometimes in order to get where we want to go we need to reset and start afresh. This podcast series aims to provide you with the tools you need to reboot yourself, to give practical suggestions for making positive changes in your life, to help you to find your reset button.
As a GP patients come to see me and they feel like something is just not quite right. When I see patients who are feeling really washed out, the most common reason is lack of wellbeing. There are some problems that western medicine is just not very good at treating. Our excessive faith in western medicine to deal with problems that are outside its ability can be quite harmful. It stops us from being able to seek alternative, more helpful solutions. If we can understand and recognize the limitations of western medicine we can clear the path for are more helpful concept of health, one that enables us to take control of our own wellbeing. A system that makes it possible to choose health.
In episode 1 I suggested that if we want to feel better than we currently do, we need to take a fresh look at our whole concept of health. If we want to start doing something differently, we first need to recognize and understand what we are currently doing. We need to understand why what we are currently dong isn’t working for us. In general, most of us in western society adopt a concept of health based in Western medicine – I guess the clue is in the name! Western medicine is a fantastic thing, but it is not always the solution to all our problems. In this episode we are going to explore why this is, and the reasons why we might need to start thinking about health differently if we want to feel better.
Are you fed up of feeling tired all the time? Do you struggle with poor sleep, anxiety and low mood; or physical symptoms such as headaches, abdominal pain or nausea? Have you waited weeks to see your GP, only to find that they don’t seem to know whats wrong? Then this podcast is for you.