Hey there,
I have to say a pet peeve of mine for many years now has been the "Western Medical Paradigm" which is founded on a prescriptive and not preventative
approach.
We all feel entitled to live our indulgent lives and when something out of the ordinary happens, we expect there to be a pill we can throw at it.
Then we end up acquiescing back to our old habits again.
Disease, morality and hygiene have always been linked; politics and religion however have not cooperated (their points of view are too myopic) and
probably never will. This is where the Eastern approach seems so much more conducive to long term "Wellness". The Eastern approach is more
simplistic and in the spirit of daily preventative maintenance instead of the western approach of "I'm broke, now fix me''. This preventative
approach seeks to make the body stronger by enhancing it's natural systems of defensive and avoiding behaviors, foods, thoughts, and things that are
known to weaken the body's systems.
Many traditional religious practices were two prong. Religiosity for one, and two, a "Cleaner is Healthier and more Godly" mentality. The Essenes
and other early Orthodox religious groups, and many to this day, bathed daily and washed their hands thoroughly up to their elbows before eating.
However we look at it, these kinds of activities were and still are conducive to good health.
Other traditional Eastern daily practices that are conducive to good health include: Meditation, striving for a quiet, stress, and anxiety free, state
of mind; Breathing techniques and best practices such as diaphramic breathing to increase lung capacity, tai chi, yoga, and many others.
A diet steeped in boiled (instead of fried) vegetables and more fish and less sugar, carbs and fat. And, of course just "Less".
The point is whether religious or not you take responsibility for your own health by being responsible to, and for, yourself.
It seems our media propagates a kind of shallow spiritual narcissism of staying young/beautiful, and sexually active for as long as you can. Slogans
like "Use it or lose it", "Variety is the spice of life", "You only live once", or "The more the merrier" take precedence over traditional
concepts like temperance, discipline, sacrifice, moderateness, reciprocity, or humility.
I really like the Indian (India) Ayurveda traditional approach to personal wellness. Ayurveda is an ancient medical approach to living in harmony
with your body by strengthening the mind, body and spirit all together in a kind of complex holistic ecology. Traditional plants, herbs, barks and
other medicines are used in combination with diet and other practice's to achieve maximum health.
I attached a link on Immunity and Ayurveda practices and philosophy. I have seen a good documentary on this practice. It focused on how the
evolution of Ayurveda and how there are traditional, contemporary and western practioners today all over the world.
Definitely worth more coverage attention in my opinion.
www.youtube.com...