Dysfunctional Wellness
The current medical paradigm is ineffective.
Treating symptoms of preventable chronic and degenerative diseases is a losing proposition.
It is a profitable model for pharmaceutical companies, medical schools, linear-thinking practitioners, and the like…in exchange for your health.
“Every man’s disease is his personal property.”
~Alonzo Clark
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Money talks no matter the price.
Optimal health is our responsibility. Wellness is a choice. The key is determining how much you value your health.
Allopathy is a system of medical care focusing primarily on treating disease symptoms versus promoting health. An allopathic physician tends to view health as a state in which disease is absent.
Conventional medicine is obsessed with infective agents rather than host defense factors. This theory implies that different diseases are caused by different antigens. We now know this is not the case.
Conventional medicine consists of treatments designed to kill the invaders whereas preventive strategies inherently mean immune system enhancement. Your body will resist infections and disease through a balanced and integrative lifestyle.
The relationship between health and behavior yielded the fact that our lifestyle choices profoundly impact our health. The mindset shift is outlined in the classic book by Michael Arloski, PhD, PCC, titled Wellness Coaching for Lasting Lifestyle Change.
Prescribe and Treat
Wellness is steeped in the medical tradition. Wellness in its infancy was sucked into the diagnose, prescribe-and-treat model still implemented by the medical community.
The prescribe-and-treat mindset was designed to function in medical cases when remedial care is necessary – absent behavioral compliance by the patient.
This model is replete with challenges. The prescribe and treat method implies something is wrong with the client. Telling someone what to do is ineffective.
The National Pharmaceutical Council estimates that non-compliance with medications costs the healthcare system in the United States more than one billion dollars per year.
Optimal health will only be achieved through client/patient compliance.
Wellness is more than an intake questionnaire. Wellness is much more than treating symptoms.
Wellness consulting is a powerful alliance in which clients are empowered to take charge of their health during their lifelong journey.
Educate and Implore
Many wellness professionals forsake the medical approach and opt instead to improve health by providing their clientele with the best possible information.
This model tends to become overwhelming for the client due to the inundation of material to scour. People may have good intentions but follow through is the key.
The information provided is most often exceptional, however, expecting the client to follow through versus shoving it in a drawer for eternity is a stretch.
Information alone is ineffective when lifestyle behavioral change is the desired outcome.
Health educators are trained to provide an abundance of material in a creative, caring, and amicable manner but imploring the client or group of clients to impart behavioral changes therefrom is often futile.
Wellness is a lot more than hoping the clients will take action to transform their lives.
Wellness consulting affirms the stance as an advocate or guide for the health and well-being of the client; to support growth and development.
The desire to transform one’s life must be internal. You must be inspired not motivated by some external factor to commit to change.
Nothing will be accomplished unless the client truly desires change.
A pacer does not run the race for an ultra-endurance runner. A Sherpa does not climb the mountain for the corporate junkies who paid a boatload of money to get out of the office. They guide these participants to complete their respective endeavors.
The wellness consultant operates with a fundamentally different mindset – s/he is poised to stand with the client, stand by the client, and stand next to the client as his/her guide.
The client will be held accountable but also knows s/he has an ally to lend support en route to the summit of lasting lifestyle change.
It is clear preventive health care is much less glamorous and profitable than disease management. Until the medical school curriculum is changed treating symptoms will remain the focus of health care.
Mopping the floor when your sink is overflowing with water does not address the causation. Preventive health care turns off the faucet.
It is well-documented that the Standard American Diet [SAD] is linked to the proliferation of chronic and degenerative diseases. Nutrition is the cornerstone of all dimensions of wellness.
Primary source nutrition has the profound and vastly underestimated ability to maintain health and prevent or reverse chronic and degenerative diseases; yet, the vast majority of people continue to eat from the SAD menu.
Would you put sand in your vehicle’s gas tank to improve its performance?
The Latin meaning of decision is to “cut off.” The implication is you no longer have a Plan B or any other out-clause.
A decision means finality. Excuses are no longer acceptable.
In order to play a bigger game you have to elevate your commitment. Wellness is about being accountable.
Your results are the by-product of your cognitive and behavioral tendencies.
How are those tendencies serving you respective to optimal health and manifesting all you desire from life? Commit to preventive wellness ~ for the health of it.
There are several dimensions to wellness. Each dimension needs to become whole before coming full circle. Addressing only a few of these dimensions will create imbalances. It depends on how much value you place on your health.
When you mindfully commit to preventive health care you will start to understand the difference between effort and struggle. This is the beginning of self-actualization.
