The Nature of Health and Happiness

What does it mean to be healthy and happy? The terms ‘Health’ and ‘Happiness’ are subjective names given to states of being that we all seek, yet when we try to define them, any description seems to fall short of what we actually mean when we say “I feel happy”, or “I am healthy”.

Nonetheless, to be healthy and happy are both desirable characteristics for obvious reasons and they are intimately related. When we are happy, our state of health tends to be better. When we are healthy, it’s easier to feel happy.

Health, according to the English Dictionary definition of the word means, “soundness of body or mind; freedom from disease or ailment.” Happiness is defined as, “delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing; characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy.”

Is it possible to be healthy and happy all the time? I would be hard pressed to say NO! When we understand that on the other side of health is illness and on the other side of happiness is sorrow, we realize that in order to be happy we must experience some moments of sorrow; in order truly know what health is, we must sometimes experience states of illness or dis-ease.

If you haven’t noticed, we tend to take things for granted when we get used to them. Think about the last time you were sick. How good did it feel when you finally got better? How much more did you appreciate your health once you recovered? Without that period of ill time, chances are you weren’t necessarily focused on how ‘healthy’ you were – you just went about your life, business as usual. But once you felt ill, the only thing you wanted was to feel better. Right?

Same thing with happiness. Think about the last time you were depressed or grieving. Those feelings have their own quasi-addictive qualities - being neurochemical – but I’m guessing all you really wanted was to feel happy.

When we are experiencing peak health and joy, our energies are overflowing – we are more effective at work, more engaging with others, and we tend to feel more peaceful, more useful. Things don’t seem to bother us as much and we have the capacity to be more easygoing (although some people remain discontent regardless of what’s going on!)

With this way of thinking we can more readily navigate the fluctuation of our emotional and physical states. We come to realize that what we’re describing as ‘happiness’ or ‘health’ is actually one end of the spectrum of being: happy-sad & healthy-sick are more appropriate terms for what I’m describing.

Wherever you reside in any given moment on the spectrum of happy-sad or healthy-sick is what you tend to describe your state of being as when someone asks how you’re doing or when you’re thinking about the way you feel.

Thinking about polarity when you’re sick or sad doesn’t necessarily take the pain and discomfort away but it does remind you that illness and morose are indefinite parts of life that are meant to be experienced. They define the positive states. Moreover, it helps us to realize that when we’re in the ‘negative’ end of the spectrum, it is not absolute.

There is always a seed of joy in your sadness. There is always a kernel of health in your dis-ease. Your happiness carries a shard of sadness. Your illness holds the origin of health.

We live in a world of opposites, of balance and counter-balance, of yin and yang. And this rainbow of possibilities is what life truly is in WHOLE. There’s always a circumference in the image of yin-yang.

To be truly healthy, to feel ultimate happiness, is to realize that all experiences in life are defined and created by their opposite. When we do this whole-heartedly, we exclude no experience – even the unpleasant, uncomfortable, or undesirable.

There is a saying that has stuck with me since I heard it from Osho years ago: “To be whole is to be holy.”

I take this to mean that when we are inclusive – meaning we don’t exclude any aspect of our lives – we are whole. And when we are whole, we are in complete resonance with the creative universe. The universe, God, Source, whatever you call it, does not exclude any aspect of existence. It is in fact ONE complete entity that splits itself into myriad intricacies, perfectly balanced, always dancing with itself.

This is what we mean when we say “Holistic Health”. You are conscious of the complete picture.

Be whole my friends. Every moment is an opportunity. The way we perceive the moment is the true deciding factor for health and happiness. Our attitude is the only metric that really matters. How we respond to life in any given situation is more important than what is actually happening – it is the only thing that’s really in our control and it’s the emerald of truth that has the power to determine the way you feel about what’s right in front of you.

Next time you’re feeling down and out, remind yourself in this defining moment that on the other side, is bliss.