Our cultural approach to health and healing tends to be mostly reactionary. That means that we wait until something happens, and then we act to counter the symptom. It’s a simplistic way to look at healing. Actually, that is not healing but treating.
So many people seem to be frozen in fear until they’ve had their Covid vaccine. Sure, the conversation around this virus is complex, and everybody has a different and personal risk level (and it’s good to be aware of yours). On the other hand, we give up control over our health when we keep believing that we are powerless without a vaccine, powerless without outside intervention, powerless on our own. It also gives others control over you.
The proactive way to health is not symptom treatment oriented but strives to maintain a healthy body and mind through ongoing preventative maintenance measures, call it self-care. It involves movement, sorting through your thoughts, beliefs and emotions, a good diet, boosting your immune system, feeling purposeful, being socially interactive, maintaining loving relationships, and being intimately connected to yourself, your body and mind. Hence, health and healing are complex processes that are always in flux and involve our mental disposition (thoughts and beliefs), individual body chemistry and constitution, and how we interact with our body and mind (food, movement, awareness). Thus, a one-treatment-fits-all approach doesn’t work too well, besides letting you off the hook instead of being invested in your body and mind.
The key is to participate in your health and healing, to be involved and invested in your mental and physical topography, to take charge. So much of it is in your own hands. It may be tedious, it may be time consuming, you may need to deal with emotional fallout. But the alternative is potentially more painful.