Security Breach

Ever since September 11th we’ve all become more conscious of our personal and national safety.  It’s has become a part of our civic duty to know what’s happening in our communities so we can protect our children, our lives, and our freedoms.  I’m sure you’ve heard about the attempt to blow up a plane at Christmas time; it sent ripples through the country.  Then while I was on vacation last week, isolated from the news I returned to hear about the bomb attempt in Times Square…another shocker.

I guess the biggest and most prevailing security breach was in your own body when the doctor said, “I’m sorry to tell you but….”.  That was as if a bomb went off in your core and shook your reality.  You ask yourself, “Was the health I had merely an illusion?”  No, the health you “had” was not an illusion just as the illness you’ve been diagnosed with is not an illusion.  Things change and as you know not always for the better.

It is disconcerting to receive the diagnosis of a chronic or life-threatening illness because you believed you were safe within the confines of your own body.  We have a tendency to discount genetics, the environment, and health habits that are anti-health as possibilities for waging a terrorist attack on our bodies.  Unfortunately, just like September 11th, many don’t take the necessary precautions for health until the diagnosis.  Unfortunately, even if you did everything “right” there’s no guarantee that you’ll avoid a health challenge; you may be a bit ahead of the curve in dealing with it, but avoid it…maybe not.

Your role in this health challenge is to reinforce your own borders on the physical, emotional, and spiritual fronts.  It will require a commitment to health and healing.  You’ve been recruited as the Secretary of Defense or better yet, the Secretary of Health and Welfare.  What will you invoke to improve your health?  How will you strengthen your strategies that promote your journey to wellness?  What has to shift for you to become a better advocate for your own health?  I hope you’ll share how you made the shift and what shifts you made so we can deepen the conversation.