Health-Esteem: What Does Your Health Mean To You?

America is fat! Over 60% of American's are overweight and/or obese. The question I want to ask you is, "Do you have Health-Esteem?" Webster's definition of the word esteem is "to regard with respect, high regards". So once again I ask, "Do you have Health-Esteem?" Hopefully this article does not apply to you. If not, please pass it on to someone that you have identified that has low Health-Esteem.

Many of us have made some sort of a resolution declaring that we would clean out the garage, lose 10 pounds, go visit your mother-in-law more often, etc. Of course some of the declarations may be easier to achieve than others, but never the less, you made them. None of them will be accomplished without a change in your attitude and lifestyle. Health-Esteem involves an attitude of respect of yourself enough to want to experience a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, you will have to change the mind set that you have adopted, inherited or been taught throughout your life. A change in lifestyle will require a total modification in how we define a healthy body. The experiences that you have had in your life have left you with both physical and emotional memory.

Embracing Health-Esteem requires making a commitment to the one part healing we can take charge of…..thoughts and emotions. Serious lessons come from the experiences we live. Everything we need to know to start restoring our health is available by thinking back in our past. Sickness or crisis is inseparable from the fact that we are everything that has happened to us. Health –Esteem is a process of removing things that make us ill in our lives and replacing them with healthy thoughts and actions.

For example, for years I was a "multi-project" person. Unfortunately, it was a pattern that caused a great deal of stress and ultimate sickness for me. I was a person that needed to stay busy. I would take on the tasks that no one else wanted. All those special projects that kept me busy were working in my body waiting to deal with me. I needed to be busy so I wouldn't have to deal with the broken marriage, being a single parent, moving to a state that I knew nothing about and other emotional frustrations. The result was that I got sick. I was diagnosed with fibroid tumors and hypertension. To get well, I had to change my need to be super woman, separate myself from what I did for a living and literally develop a self that was willing to change my lifestyle.

By healing, I am not speaking about a cure, but rather a progression into awareness. We don't necessarily get over a disease. What we do is become aware of the disease process and what underlies it. Then we set out to change as much as possible about cultural conditioning and mechanical thinking.

Health-Esteem is a process of creating a new concept of "self", independent from other's perceptions and completely tuned-in to your own wisdom. Here is how to begin. Look in the mirror and say, "I am worth being healthy." Repeat, "I am worth being healthy" five times before your reflection. Say it to yourself while you're exercising, driving in your car, and while sitting at your desk. When someone offends you or a person gets in the express line with 25 items instead of 12. Say, "I am worth being healthy," before responding. Before long the phrase will be your guide to finding your Health-Esteem.

Finally, is there a big enough "Why" in your life to motivate change? There certainly was a big enough "Why" in my life. So find the "Why" in your life to help you feel, love and live a better life filled with great potential.

Paula R. Chaney,
Master Life Coach&
Holistic Health Practitioner

Above content provided by Merritt Athletic Club