To me, its not just someone without disease, but the overall state of mind someone has towards their life. It can include the obvious such as eating healthy, managing stress, fitting in physical activity, but what about self-esteem, growing spirituality, friendship, being true to oneself and more. There are hundreds of definitions and components to health out there, I may even have plagiarized mine without knowing it. But being healthy or leading a healthy lifestyle all the time is not easy for a lot of people, some people have had very difficult lives, but learning to overcome those personal, societal and cultural barriers and manage a healthy lifestyle over time is crucial but for some more monumental than others.
I'm a female. I'm Hispanic. But how do each of those parts of who I am affect my health. I would need a book to describe those factors in detail, they really are that complex and will require multiple posts over time. But I'll simplify for today - As a female, I feel its my responsibility to guide the health of my family in its entirety (including all those obvious factors stated above and more). But as a Hispanic female, the cultural influence plays an even larger role. Family, isn't just me, my husband, and my dog. It's me, hubby, dog, mom, dad, sisters, friends, relatives and more, and in the Hispanic culture they come first over oneself. So "responsibility" takes on a different meaning and level of effort. But some would say "It's just what we do and we do it well". Do we? Much to our own detriment, we stretch ourselves a little bit too thin, and we think that's ok, because we like to do it and we do it out of love.
Just over Thanksgiving I found myself making sure my mom, who has type 2 diabetes, was carrying enough food for the day, managing her blood glucose levels, exercising enough and eating right. That alone is exhausting. Then, when we were exercising at the gym together, I noticed how stiff both of my parents were and so I realized I needed to spend time learning about and showing them how to and what to stretch so that they don't end up hunched over little viejitos (but not the hunch from osteoporosis).
It was the first time I sensed my aging parents fragility and I knew that If I didn't help them, who would?
So, I add, 1) learning more about stretching for seniors 2) Sharing information on diabetes management in a way that my mom will understand it, 3) Find time to do 1 & 2 and make sure they're complying, to my two internships, studying for finals, household duties, holidays, and of course making sure I spend enough time on my family (husband, mom, dad, sisters, friends, relatives - I don't even have kids, yet) and I can't forget my pup, Lucy (and boy does she require a lot of time). I run out of time and steam daily.
Can life be too full (even if its full of good things, things I want to do, things I like to do) to be healthy? Maybe, just maybe. But I thank God for all the goodness in my life. And in that same moment of thanks, I reflect on those whose lives are void of the good and positive...and I realize that there's more to add to my list of things to do and people to be helped.
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