How Health Is the Path to Freedom

In the hundreds of conversations I've had with people about health over the years, I keep noticing the same few fears.

On one hand, everyone wants change, or at least understands that change is needed. Everyone wants to feel better overall, and slowly they come to understand there's no choice but to live "healthy" in order to stay healthy, avoid medical problems, and feel good.

So maybe the first and most obvious question is: "Do I feel good?"

Am I energetic or tired? Do I get headaches? Is my digestion working well? Is my mood stable, or am I depressed and anxious on a pretty regular basis?

And yet, even when the answer to "Do I feel good?" is often no, at least after a deep conversation gets people to admit it, the fear is still there: that a healthy lifestyle will cost them their freedom.

"I want to be free" to eat whatever I feel like, to go out drinking late, and to enjoy life without feeling like I'm living in deprivation or denial.

The underlying feeling is that a healthy life is a life of sacrifice.

When I find myself around people at social events (which doesn't happen all that often), they're amazed at my ability to turn down temptations or skip the things that seem so enticing and basic to them.

Whether it's alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, desserts, or processed food that I avoid at these events, or things in my everyday life that I do and they don't, like never skipping exercise, not letting a day pass without time in nature or the sun, not trading sleep for nights out or movie marathons. That's exactly what they "envy." They want it too, but "they don't have the energy, the discipline, the ability, the time, and no clue how to even start."

Over the years I've come to see that for me, the years of illness I dealt with for so long were a gift. Sure, they were a nightmare through most of my twenties, but the recovery, the rock-solid health I built, the person I forced myself to become, and the freedom I discovered all turned that situation into a gift.

In case it isn't obvious, it's important to say: the fact that I was sick for so many years means I was not a healthy person for most of my life. I didn't have high capability, motivation, or discipline, or any of the other things that might seem relevant right now for making the change you might also want to make.

The illness was an opportunity for me to understand how important it is to be healthy.

That said, you don't need to suffer from a chronic or autoimmune disease to remember how awful it is to be sick.

Most of us have experienced illness in our lives, each in different forms: the flu, a sore throat, a fever, sunstroke, a migraine, and so on.

When that's the situation, suddenly nothing in this life interests us except getting our health back.

What I'm about to say now, I'm not writing to scare you. I really just want to take a moment to share something and get you thinking about another layer. Maybe today you consider yourself healthy. Because on the surface, or on paper, you don't have a defined medical problem. But according to global health data, most of the world's population suffers from some medical issue, nearly half the population suffers from chronic diseases, and so on. It also says that the new diseases are lifestyle diseases. Which means Western medicine doesn't have much it can do. So it's all in our hands.

So maybe you're healthy now, but what comes next? Maybe you tell yourself, I live in the here and now, you only live once. Worst case, I'll get sick when I'm old. So I invite you to pause for a moment and think about your parents or grandparents. I'm thinking about mine right now. Do they have illnesses? Medical problems? Do they take medication on a regular basis? Do you think they're okay with it because they're already old? How does the illness affect them? Are they free because they allowed, or still allow, themselves whatever came their way? Whatever the environment served up? Everything tempting?

If they're sick, suffering with their health, and still happy with life, without ignoring the deep emotional pain, then maybe they're still free. But between us, you can't be unhealthy and still be free.

The freedom found in health is truth. With ourselves. It's my prioritization as a person, as a being, against all the experiences, temptations, and people in my life. It's the choice to choose what's right for me at any given moment so I can fulfill myself, my family life, my friendships, my body, my energy, and the work I truly want, if I'd let myself really dream without cutting those dreams off before they begin.

This health is freedom. Chronic problems, the ones that are the product of our choices, from digestive issues to fatigue, weakness, weight gain, skin problems, body aches, and so on. When I'm suffering with my health, when every other day I have a headache, a backache, a stomachache, a sleepless night, irritability, sadness, anxiety, and the list goes on, I'm no longer free. And once the problem becomes chronic, I'm never free.

And if my only way to grab a small moment of freedom is the bite of sugar, the drag, or the drink, that's not really freedom. That's called escaping a life that has no freedom in it.

After all, the drink or the bite isn't the essence.

The essence is: is this really what I want? Is this really good for me? Am I saying I want one thing while my choices point somewhere else?

I don't want a bite or a drag. I want to fulfill myself and build a life for myself that's the realization of my own thoughts. Maybe I'd love to work an amazing job and travel the world? Maybe I want a good relationship? Maybe I want to work for myself? Maybe my whole life I thought I'd be one thing and I'm something else?

Where's the solution? It's not in getting drunk, in food, or in shopping. It's in the right choices that will lead me to become a person who loves life and reaches euphoria without unhealthy crutches.

I don't know how I'd have reacted reading this a decade ago. What I do know is that it was the life experiences I took part in, and what I learned from others, that led me to recognize the powerful potential of life through my own beneficial choices.

I learned that when I give up food that isn't good for me, I feel good, and then it's easy to get up early, put on music and dance, or do a workout or meditation that leaves me afterward with the drive to chase dreams.

I noticed that my self-worth rose, and keeps rising, every time I make a choice that serves me in the long run, versus choices with quick gratification and regret right after, like drugs, alcohol, sugar, or a meaningless hookup.

I learned that every small choice changes who I am, how much I believe in myself, and how, after years of feeling worthless, doubtful, and incapable, it developed in me a new identity. And that's real health, and that's where true freedom lies.