What health risks do you take?

Risks come in different forms.  You can break them down into categories related to where you perceive possible dangers. For example, consider mental, emotional, hypothetical and physical.

In August 2006,  Yusuf, a global heart specialist at McMaster University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, reported 9 risk factors account for 90% of heart disease in every population on Earth.  This physician perceives most of the associated risks to be or relate to physical ones;

Abdominal obesity 
Alcohol
Bad cholesterol/good cholesterol
Diabetes
Eating fruits and vegetables
Exercise
High blood pressure
Psychosocial stress
Smoking
 
More general health risks
Under-nutrition continues to be a contributing factor in more than half of all child deaths in developing countries.  This issue has been linked to lack of awareness and adequate education.
In contrast, obesity is becoming a global problem - estimated to affect more than one billion adults world-wide.  (~500,000 people in North America and Western Europe die from obesity-related diseases each year).

Dr Christopher Murray, who has been responsible for World Health Organisation(WHO) reports, has said: "Globally, we need to achieve a much better balance between preventing disease and merely treating its consequences.

"This can only come about with concerted action to identify and reduce major risks to health."

Meaningful lessons

Throughout our lives, we learn things that help us along. We receive advice from friends and strangers about how we could better ourselves. Do we listen? Do we hear and choose to grow? Our thoughts and feelings resonate sigals that draw people toward us. Some emit positive thoughts and others negative energy.  We may learn from everyone if only we're open to that.  Your thoughts are seeds of opportunities.  Your desire to learn can invite unexpected growth. 

Reflect on the kinds of experiences you invite into your life.  As you focus on what you desire, on how you would like to help others, you are in the process of summoning power from inside you.  Believe that you can influence the laws of nature, influence the opportunities that present themselves, influence a positive reaction and a hopeful mindset that will change your life. 

What you think about highly influences the choices you make and people who enter your life.  Whether or not you believed in miracles before, you're now more aware that they're possible.  Meaningful lessons come in different forms. 

A car whizzes past you and nearly runs you over.  But, because you take a risk, you cross the race finish first and change your life forever.  Stuck in traffic, a young man misses a plane and what he thinks was an ideal job interview.  Yet, he was spared from the death toll of a nasty crash.  A lightning bolt hits a tree. It falls next to your neighbour's house.  She decides to move and avoids the damage of an unpredicted earthquake.  You instinctively change your travel route and meet the love of your life in passing on a bus. Lucky breaks? Or did you invite reasons to be given a new chance at happiness?   Just because you're unable to explain things doesn't mean you have reason to disregard or underestimate their importance.  You invite joy and pain. You determine how emotions will affect your evolution. You tap into your connections with what you don't understand.

Describe a meaningful experience you have had which enabled you to learn about yourself.

No turning back?

Life is full of opportunities to learn. Some experiences are are perceived riskier than others. 

Sir Edmund Hillary became the first man to summit Mount Everest (with Tibetan sherpa Tenzin Norgay).  However, not everyone would wish to accompany such a perilous expedition to climb a dangerous mountain.  If you did join the team, and decided turn back, could you bring yourself to give up th mission and do that? Would you take the risks involved in retracing your steps in uncertain weather?

Consider anyone who decides to backpack though a foreign country, or more challenging still, to backback through many unfamiliar countries.  To take the risk of stepping outside what you know can be a scary thing for many people. You would need to find maps, navigate through places you've never been, do things as simple as find food, a toilet, a safe place to sleep, when you don't necesarily speak the local language, dress like the local people, or share their perspective on life or the world. This would require courage and the willingness to learn new things.

Before you travel anywhere, you would likely evaluate risks. Should you stay where you are or should you go discover someplace new? If you do decide to take risks to step outside your comfort zone, you would likely consider things like potential threats to your health and safety.  Could you even qualify for health insurance? Would you wish to have any? Could you afford the trip? Do you have responsibilities that you could afford and you would be willing to leave behind?  Some of us would choose not to turn our backs on mortgages, family and other priorities.

What kinds of incentives would motivate you to re-think the life you know and consider it something you could leave, at least for a time? Some people would abandon theri lives at a moment's notice with few belongings.  Other people require extensive planning in advance and would take much luggage.  The nature of the travel destination and purpose of your trip would influence what you think you would need.

Then again, it's possible that visiting foreign places may not even appeal to you. You may find it risky to live where you do everyday.  The idea of getting into a car and driving somewhere involves a certain risk. 

Risk is relative to what we know, to what we don't know, and to what we have the inclination to learn.

Proactive thinking

You may know people who complain about what they're not doing rather than focus on what they can.  I've heard people express they know they should eat differently, exercise more, sleep longer, be more diligent or commited to what means the most to them, and finally finish a project they start. Yet, these sorts of people reinforce their negative thinking and never seem to change.  They are talkers and not doers. They would prefer to complain about where they are rather than try new things and face a fear of failure or re-experience past failures.  They may sometimes seem to drain your energy because they look backwards and not forwards.

More people talk about taking action than actually get out in the world and make a difference.  What would compel you to go that extra step? If you're not satisfied with your relationship, what are you doing to change that? If you're unhappy with your work situation, what will you be doing as of tomorrow morning that will help you move closer to what you wish to do? If you're the type of person to regret the past, what would cause you to learn and apply lessons to your future? If its easy for you to self-criticize and judge, what might you do instead to focus on learning to feel good rather than increase the negative thoughts that make you feel bad?

You may have been asked, "if you were given only 6 months to live, how would you live life differently that you do now?" Many people would abruptly stop certain things they would suddenly consider a waste of time.  They would spend money differently.  They would express how they truly feel.  They would devote time to loved ones or do those things they had been putting off. Now why would you wait until your life was almost over in order to really begin to live?

How you see your life now is your point of departure. You are in control. If you continue to make choices you know are bad for you, recognize that you're the only person who can ultimately decide to change that.  If you have developed habits that harm yourself or others, you have the option to ask for assistance.  If you feel discouraged, you can always reach out to sources of encouragement.  Its possible to learn to motivate yourself to change your life for the better. As you learn to visualize positive developments, this will lead to proactive thinking.

Success 101

Today, I accompanied a friend to visit her great aunt in a rehabilitation centre.  She recently had a fall in her own home and is working to get her strength back to regain her independence. This great aunt is nearly 101. She has a lot of spunk and clearly has her own ideas about longevity. She spoke to me about how she would walk miles into town every day even when she was well into her 70s.  This reflected her desire to keep healthy, and to continue to challenge herself.

I think about how her attitude and plans to live a meaningful life shape her sense of success.  This is not the traditional success we think about that brings thoughts of money, fame or other kinds of prosperity. Instead, this success relates to a sense of accomplishment at different life phases. How we feel about ourselves reminds us to be grateful we have the strength and will to get up in the morning. Remind yourself how many people can not longer take that for granted. Success could mean having the ability to define the life you wish to lead and actually doing it.

Some cultures don't like the idea of retirement or nursing homes. On a personal level, we don't necessarily like placing family members in such facilities. Imagine how older relatives might feel. Imagine how you would feel if you were placed in such a place and were unable to function menatlly, physically, emotionally as you one did. Would this contribute to your sense of failure?  Perhaps success is far more intimate than we might've realized.  It may be less an idea imposed by people around us than how compatible our real abilities are with our own expectations.