“I work all day at the factory/I’m building a machine that’s not for me. There must be a reason that I can’t see/You’ve got to humanize yourself” 
- Sting, “Rehumanize Yourself”

In a society where health care is just another commodity, it’s difficult to discern exactly what health is. To begin with, I can tell you what it’s not. Health is not merely the absence of disease, it’s not something that can be measured by how much you bench press, and it’s definitely not something to be bought at the supermarket or drug store, bearing a label “low-fat,” “all-natural,” or “miracle cure.” More than bulging muscles or overflowing medicine chests, health involves the entire being—mind and body. For the body, a genuine feeling of health would entail prevention, strength training, flexibility and cardiovascular conditioning, along with proper nutrition (preferably whole, live, plant-based foods without pesticides or additives). These elements, in turn, must be then melded with a fit mind in order to experience the deepest essence of health. Some of the characteristics of a fit mind are self-esteem, open-mindedness, creativity, and the ability to deal with stress. Clearly, this isn’t something that comes in a box or a pill.

More likely, meditation, visualization and making time to do nothing will help point you in the right direction. Sure, the “do nothing” part seems odd in today’s world, but consider the words of poet Charles Bukowski: “Pace is the essence. Without stopping entirely and doing nothing at all for great periods, you’re gonna lose everything...there has to be great pauses between highs, where you do nothing at all...And I don’t mean having profound thoughts. I mean having no thoughts at all. Without thoughts of progress, without any self-thoughts of trying to further yourself...It’s beautiful.”

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine,” Thomas Edison wrote a century ago, “but will interest his [or her] patient in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.” Clearly, Edison’s “future” has yet to arrive, so it is up to each of us to wake up and accept reality. We must take responsibility for our own health. While some call this “new age,” it might be helpful to remember that the “natural” approach dates back at least 5,000 years. What’s “new” is managed care, crash diets, and information-age stress.

What’s “new” are health club obsessions over things like muscle size. Look around the gym: How many people do you see lifting more weight than they can handle? Much in the same way waif-like models can inspire shame, anxiety, guilt, and eating disorders among the female population, that artificially-tanned, oiled-from-head-to-toe bodybuilder smiling at you from the pages of your favorite magazine has the power to wield considerable influence. “This is what a real man looks like”, he seems to be saying. “Envy me. I am a healthy man who commands the sexual attention of others”.

“The gyms you go to are crowded with guys trying to look like men,” writes author Chuck Palahniuk in his novel, Fight Club, “as if being a man means looking the way a sculptor or an art director says.” In order to reach that sculpted ideal, the guys Palahniuk refers to are usually doing too many reps using far too much weight while taking way too long of a break in-between sets as they walk around in a permanent lat pose. Add in the wallet-draining habit of downing powders, pills, and potions, and you have yourself an industry founded on the illogical quest for size. Sort of a “mass” hysteria.

When was it decided that muscular hypertrophy was the ideal and is there a shred a proof that such over-development has any correlation with health and fitness? The human body has evolved over millions of years to support muscle mass similar to that of, say, a swimmer. Until the Industrial Revolution, humans had little time to use solely for the sake of gaining size. Today, however, we are surrounded by men and women who have piled up enormous muscles on connective tissue not designed to bear such a burden. Also, the type of training needed to promote and maintain such unnatural mass is not exactly conducive to joint health.

We look back now and laugh at what passed for entertainment in earlier civilizations. Stuff like gladiator contests or even Vaudeville. What will future generations have to say about the inflated, tanned, and oiled bodies of men and women trying to impress us with their flexing in tiny outfits under the glare of klieg lights—all pretending to represent health? It’s just not natural.

Let’s face it, we each possess a physiology that evolved to negotiate the Stone Age. Unfortunately, we live in the Space Age…and there lies the rub. We are essentially “urban cavemen”— overmatched in our daily battle to navigate an artificial reality because we have lost contact with our instincts. Why else would everyone wanna get so damn big?

Psychology pioneer, Carl Gustav Jung believed “most of our difficulties come from losing contact with our instincts.” Well, the simple act of perusing a garden variety American day drink tap water (heavy metals and microbes), light up a cigarette (tar and nicotine), chow down on a candy bar (sugar and chemicals) and an unorganic apple (pesticides and bioengineered food stuffs), wash it down with a glass of milk (animal protein, BGH, subtherapeutic levels of antibiotics, and more pesticides), wipe the face with a napkin (chlorine and dyes), and then head off in the car (exhaust emissions) is evidence enough to back up Jung.

So…what then is health?

“Health is waking up fresh, with a deep sense of spirituality without a need to define what spirituality is,” says Majid Ali, M.D. “Health is waking up with a sense of gratitude. Health is waking up with a sense of energy. Health is going through your day’s work with the same sense of energy. Health is feeling as well before you eat as after. Health is freedom from anger. Health is being gracious to people you report to for your work and being kind to the people who report to you for their work. Health is being able to have a language of silence—being by yourself without any compulsions to do things. Health is being able to have some family time … Years of devastation cannot be undone by one exotic potion, herb, or nutrient. It’s more of a philosophic approach to life that helps you make the choices you need to make.”