It always concerns me when someone says that their body betrayed them.  I have heard this from people who are obese, have cancer, lymphatic conditions, fatigue, and more.

First of all, the body is an insanely intelligent masterpiece that has been honed for survival over millions of years. In fact, the body is much, much smarter than any of us will ever be.

Secondly, we live in a society that actively promotes separation of self from body. Proof of this can be found in our language. Mind, Body, Spirit. Or Mind and Emotions. (These wouldn’t be so bad if there was also a word for the entire package, like Body-mind only more elegant and encompassing).

Thirdly, we have created, and continue to create, toxins that bombard us every day. You can stand on a street corner in any town and in 10 minutes will be exposed to more free radicals than people a few hundred years ago would have been exposed to in an entire lifetime.

Blaming the body for not being able to sustain health under the above stated conditions simply highlights how disconnected we are from the body. The body cannot move away from us – it is us. But we can, oddly, move away from the body.

If we are the ones moving away, poisoning, and otherwise abusing the body, how can it be accurate to say it has betrayed us?

And self-blame isn’t exactly productive either.

I constantly hear people talk about their health issues in such a way as to indicate they are taking the blame for it. “I haven’t resolved some grief and now I have lung cancer.” or “This illness is because I don’t think positively enough.”

So not only are we disconnected from our bodies, now we are also disconnected from our environment and other people.

Maybe we should start with the bigger picture?

1) The environment is polluted

2) The food most people eat, that fills our grocery stores, is crap

3) The social structure of work causes ridiculous amounts of stress

4) Our media is a fear machine that bombards us daily with really negative, scary stuff

5) The body and the mind are not separate

6) Your body is constantly sending you signals about it’s needs and overall health

7) Western philosophy is fundamentally dis-embodying

Let’s say all these things magically went away and the lifetime of damage caused by them was removed. How much illness, do you imagine, would we be dealing with as compared to now?

It’s almost sacrilegious to me to blame the body when it is doing everything it can to keep us healthy in spite of ourselves.

A more holistic, integrated approach would be to step into our responsibility as citizens and make smarter choices for ourselves and smarter choices for our planet and smarter choices for our children.

It is scary to have a body because it dies. We die. But that’s unavoidable reality.

Avoiding it doesn’t make it go away, it just makes us sick and go out in really horrible ways.

I say step into the reality of the body and have the best ride possible while you’re here. Forgive the body for not adapting yet to our crazy toxic environments and lifestyles. And be as smart as you can about what the body needs to do it’s job for you.

Yes, the body is smarter than us, but it is a prisoner to our ignorance and our choices. Being better stewards of just the body is not enough. We need to be better stewards for all of life. Everything is connected and just eating organic and exercising ain’t gonna cut it. Until everything is healthier, truly, we cannot be.

That means I need you to be smarter about your choices and you need me to be smarter about mine and we all need each other to come together and create smarter social policies and healthier soil and smarter environmental policies.

You don’t have to do it all, you just have to acknowledge that your health isn’t solely in your own hands and start living in a way that reflects this.

It may seem daunting but you’ve already got me in there with you and I’ve got tons of people in here with me that you can have, and they’ve all got tons of people they’ll share. So you’re done with this blog and already have a whole tribe. Pretty cool. Now what are you going to do?