Important or not?

How important is your health to you?

Simple question. Extremely difficult to answer. Everyone would pretty much think the obvious would be to say, "It's very important!". But is it?

When I first learned Sennin-So Shiatsu, my Shiatsu Master talked to me about things that I never knew were that detrimental to my health. Most believe sugar is bad, and junk food is bad, and alcohol is bad, but many seem to have this weird belief that they'll know when they're approaching the threshold of some kind of red alert and they'll fix themselves before it gets to a serious stage. The sad thing is that most have to go through a very dangerous and traumatic health scare to get the hint. Sometimes... they're never given a second chance.

I have slowly changed things in my diet, slowly added things, slowly eliminated things, took different philosophies and thrown away old useless ones and my body feels so much better than it used to. It took sacrifice, and there are still sacrifices that I need to make. Is it fun to know that things like pizza, lasagna, hamburgers, hotdogs, burritos, beer, wine, milk, cheese, and anything fast food is doing horrible things to my body? The same horrible things that contributed to me having a blood clot that could have killed me 2 weeks into the life of my daughter? No, it isn't fun. Definitely a part of me wishes that I didn't know those things. But then I start to think about what it would be like if I was lying on the floor because a blood clot that I didn't know was there, had dislodged from my leg and now was stuck in my heart and I was having a massive heart attack. I began to think of not being able to watch Rayven, my daughter, walk down the aisle on her wedding day, not be there when she graduates high school, not be there when she has a child of her own, not be there when Julia, my wife, needed me the most. How important does pizza look now?

All the food mentioned above has the majority of us addicted to the sugar rush it creates. That's all. How many times do you eat that type of food, only to find yourself feeling sick later, or even frustrated that you couldn't win against your weak will power? So ask yourself, "How Important is Your Health?"

Do you want to travel? Do you want to see your children grow up? Do you want to see your grandchildren be born and even graduate high school and soon after start a family of their own? Do you want to run your own business, far into your life and live off the profits of your hard work? Do you want to help people? Do you want to see the Seattle Mariners win the World Series (you might need to be alive for 100 years for that one)?

The point is, you don't know pain until you have to endure it. You don't fully know fear until you've had it run through your veins. It is easy to ignore the threat of cancer, diabetes, blood clots, obesity, or even death if you have never experienced it so closely. But why ignore it until it comes knocking. You will never live forever, but you CAN live long into your life healthy, strong, and happy. Being healthy doesn't mean you have to be unhappy with life. So many people think that being healthy means eating "horrible vegetables" and doing boring exercises and focusing on things that are boring like learning how to breathe deeply and properly. If you were to ask those same people after they were diagnosed with Cancer or Diabetes, or laying in the hospital fighting for their life because of the inability for their weak body to fight simple infections, would they be willing to go back and make some changes? I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone say no.

But that is our culture. We are surrounded by outlets of "information" that seems to convince everyone that a simple pill will be created to cure cancer. A simple pill will be created to keep you thin and happy. A simple pill will be created for EVERYTHING. It isn't going to happen. But if you like living in ignorance, then I guess I'll never be able to help you.

So I offer what I know, what I preach, what I do, my hands, my energy, my will, my technique, to help you to live long, healthy, and happy. But only if your health is important to you! Because if it isn't... do you really think I can help you?

Stay Happy, Healthy, and Ready for Anything!