My Philosophy

         

 

           Being healthy is not just about eating a salad a few times a week. Nor is it just about working out or getting enough sleep. Health is so much more than that. While the definitions are endless, one way of looking at health is seeing it as cultivating a lifestyle that properly balances each dimension of health which encompasses physical, mental, social, environmental and spiritual components. If one dimension is neglected, the whole being is lacking. That is why, in order to manifest the benefits of good health, one must be aware of how to achieve each dimension.

         Health means understanding how to nourish the body and the environment around it. However, the information needed on how to do so is not always so clear to the public. While nutritional science has grown immensely, junk food companies, lobbyists, and pharmaceutical companies interfere with our ability to communicate accurate information to the public. Therefore, the nutritional guidelines we are taught as well as the nutrition messages taught to health care professionals aren’t exactly science. Additionally, these guidelines typically don’t recognize all the elements of health, just the physical elements.  Health is about looking at one in the context of the environment and how we are all connected. Therefore, it is our responsibility as eating, moving and living beings to take matters into our own hands and advocate for our own health.

        By simply practicing a healthy lifestyle independently, one is limiting their wisdom from reaching a much larger group of people. Health education takes health to a whole new level. In order to be a health educator, one must be eager to teach others what they know and be an advocate and role model for health in their own lives. There are seven responsibilities of health educators. They are to:

1. Assess Needs, Resources and Capacity for Health Education/Promotion

2. Plan Health Education/Promotion

3. Implement Health Education/Promotion

4. Conduct Evaluation and Research Related to Health Education/Promotion

5. Administer and Manage Health Education/Promotion

6. Serve as a Health Education/Promotion Resource Person

7. Communicate, Promote, and Advocate for Health, Health Education/Promotion, and the Profession.

These guidelines outline the steps to take being healthy a step further and spreading it to the general public.

            My personal health education philosophy is comprehensive and based on both scientific research and extensive anecdotal experience. I look at the Blue Zones as one of my most significant models. The Blue Zones are areas around the world with the highest mortality and morbidity rates. These five places include Loma Linda, Calfornia, Sardinia, Italy, Nicoya, Costa Rica, Icaria, Greece and Okinawa, Japan. Their lifestyles are excellent examples for anyone around the world to sculpt their life around. Even though each Blue Zone has different specific lifestyles, they follow nine commonalities that lead to a happiest, healthier life. They are to move naturally, have purpose, manage stress, stop eating when you are 80% full, eat a plant based diet, drink 1-2 glasses of wine a day socially or at a meal, have a sense of belonging, put loved ones first and be part of a healthy community. I also incorporate the research I have done on databases such as PubMed into my philosophy. Some significant studies include the reversal of certain types of cancer with superfoods like turmeric and mushrooms, healthy lifestyles preventing heart attacks and increased sleep inducing weight loss. Based on all of these resources, I have developed several guidelines for my personal philosophy in order to cultivate optimal health. The steps are as follows, broken up into the different dimensions that make up health. Each step can be taken depending on an individual's specific issue or lack thereof. 

​

PHYSICAL

1. Eat local, organic foods. Base your diet on nutrient rich fruits and vegetables and add small amounts of other food groups such as legumes, whole grains and animal products that are ethically raised, not fed antibiotics and instead fed what they are naturally meant to eat. Don’t eat too much; stop when you’re full. Eat in social settings and slowly. Practice personalized nutrition.

2. Do natural, non-aggressive exercise while still working hard. Incorporate strength exercises, cardiovascular exercises and yoga into your routine. Let your body rest, as well.

3. Listen to your body. It is your best resource to know if you are helping it or harming it, and take action. This is especially important with stress and hormonal balance.

4. Seek natural approaches to health problems, and if all else fails, use medicine sparingly.

5. Sleep a lot, but not too much.

6. Some things should be done in moderation, and some things not at all. Be balanced.

​

MENTAL/EMOTIONAL

1. Find the connection between mind, body, soul and the environment. Understand that you are part of a bigger picture, and take time to yourself and doing activities you enjoy.

2. Do spiritual practices such as yoga, meditation and expressing gratitude every day. Live mindfully in all activities and reflect often. Make time to relax in a busy life.

3. Keep internal and external environment nontoxic.

​

SOCIAL

1. Practice a positive relationship with yourself and others. Value experiences over materials and harness love and gratitude. Be happy!

​

ENVIRONMENTAL

1. Go outside and connect with nature and its gifts.

2. Heal yourself with people, plants and nature.

 

       Additionally, Healthy People 2020 is a set of four goals that health educators should be acting to achieve. They are a bit simple, but they are still a valuable, easy to follow guide for the public. Therefore, they align well with my personal philosophy. They are as follows:

   1. Attain high-quality, longer lives free of preventable disease, disability, injury, and premature death;

   2. Achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve the health of all groups;

   3. Create social and physical environments that promote good health for all; and

   4. Promote quality of life, healthy development, and healthy behaviors across all life stages.

 

       Health Education allows me to utilize my passion for health and spread it to others. The point isn’t about forcing people to make changes or telling them their lifestyle is wrong. Health education teaches and promotes healthy behaviors and leaves in to the population to decide how they want to live. As health educators, we teach people and communities how to make informed choices based on the accurate information we share. Through the process of assessing needs, planning, implementing and evaluating as well as the smaller steps in between, we have an effective strategy to ensure positive health outcomes.

​