Summary: Everything we do in life is either health-supporting or health-negating, down to each of our activities of daily living. How do we create action from this concept? We each have within us a wealth of positive experiences that can be the basis of reaching our goals. There are several “A’s” in these concepts. One is assessment: What am I thinking, what am I doing and is it working? Once the concept of “mindful living” is accepted and some assessment made, actions should emerge from our assessments. We need to do these actions. Health is balance and healing is change to restore balance.. The tasks to do and the decisions for change we make can seem formidable. The decision to change needs you to believe that the decisions should, at the least, pass tests you create to believe they are right, sustainable, kind and intelligent. These principles will help us decide if the changes should be made and should they be made now. Usually health-enhancing behavior is just as easy to do as health-degrading behavior. Talk for a while helps to make a decision, but at some point, we need to take a step. If the action is wrong, it can be reversed. Without action, we may develop anxiety or other health-negating behaviors. The steps should be small enough that you will do them, but not so large as to be paralyzing or in some other way health-negating. For example, we may decide to lose weight. If we are too extreme in setting the goals for these changes, we may not achieve them. If we set the goals at one time, we can change them at any time if re-assessment says that is best. Any steps we take need to be repeated so that the steps become integrated into our behaviors and our lives. That’s how we can eliminate bad habits and foster good ones. Integral to this process is that assessments have to be re-visited. Part of that assessment are observations which are essential after we take some steps. We need to both observe and be prepared to negotiate with ourselves. New plans can always be re-visited to see if they are correct for you. We all can be energized by simply building on the pillars in our life: nutrition, physical exercise, stress management, meditative or contemplative study, and community and relationship. Such self-directed programs go beyond the management of disease. Properly assessed, modified and re-assessed, self-directed core behaviors will help us initiate and maintain change and through those changes—health enhancement. . Making sustainable change will help us make us better in all the areas of the pillars mentioned above. Self-directed change can be very successful in promoting change to change not only to diet, exercise, but also weight, exercise, interactions with others, behavior and many other aspects of our lives. Our well being is life-long learning, and there is a place for guides, mentors and experts. Professional help can give us expert advice, and may require a detour from our maintenance activities to maintain our overall health. Re-assessments can lead us on the course to health enhancement as circumstances change and change again. We all know what we all would like to do to make us better in our own eyes; the next choice we make is the first step to promote the changes we want to achieve.
