Health--What it Means and Its Relationship to Wealth

Health can take on many meanings and I think most people hear the word and immediately think in their minds physical health, as in a healthy body. This is certainly true but if one were to delve a little deeper he/she could unmask the different layers of health and how they are interrelated which will help each individual live a more harmonious and meaningful life.

The best definition I could find for the word health was: Health is the level of functional and metabolic efficiency of a living organism. In humans it is the ability of individuals or communities to adapt and self-manage when facing physical, mental, psychological and social changes with environment. Huber M, Knottnerus JA, Green, L., van der Horst H, Jadad AR, Kromhout D, Smid H. (2011). "How should we define health?"

While I don't disagree with this definition, it certainly can be expanded. . .

In my own experience I came to understand that health consists of 3 types:
Physical Health
Spiritual Health
Financial Health

For a good majority of my life I was striving for financial health. I wanted to be wealthy. And not just any kind of wealthy, but the fuck you I can do whatever I want whenever I want type of wealthy. The type of money where there are no restrictions on decisions due to financial stress. I would spend countless hours focusing on financial well-being but never really had a plan and I lacked physical or spiritual health. All I wanted was a lot of fucking money. . .So subsequently I would bounce between periods of having some wealth and being absolutely broker or negative in net worth. This can be attributed to my lack of physical or spiritual well being and bad decision making.

One day, a single decision was enough to change the rest of my life. I decided that I was going to approach life differently and from an angle that was never attempted before.

I sat down with a piece of paper, I wrote down a date that was 7 years away, and next to it I placed a $ number. . .This wasn't just any number, but it was a rather large low 8 figure amount. Much more than I ever believed I could accomplish in 7 years time and enough for me to retire with no worries for my family. I had no plan for getting to this number and quite frankly I had no idea how it was going to be accomplished, but something inside of me said that this was possible with a little faith and a different approach.
This included starting first with my physical and spiritual health before worrying about financial health. In fact, before any action was ever taken, physical and spiritual health was considered. I also remembered my goal in the back of my head, and if what I was doing didn't line up with reaching that goal, then it was not something I continued.

So, What Happened Next?

First thing that happened was I quit drinking alcohol or doing any drugs. I knew that these two things could not be in my life if I wanted to be stupid wealthy. This is rather obvious now. This part was not easy but after a few months I had it down. My physical health started to improve and my body began to heal from years of abuse. Exercise became a component of my life and in a very short amount of time I was feeling good. I still smoked cigarettes which were a tougher process for quitting, but I knew that they also had to be surrendered if I truly wanted this goal to manifest.
I gradually weaned myself off and realized that hurting my body was in direct opposition of achieving a mass amount of money.

In addition to the physical health, I realized that just because the body was ok didn't mean I was through. This process needed to be worked on every moment of every day. There was conscious understanding of what the ramifications would be if I didn't focus on physical health and the goal that I wrote on that piece of paper.

Spiritual Health

Spiritual health focus was going to be needed if my goal was to be achieved. The mind plays tricks on you and the only way to overcome thoughts is to incorporate a spiritual practice. In my experience I had tried everything from a religious standpoint and realized that most religions are Ego based and don't help achieve long lasting peace of mind. I needed something to deal with the constant negative "self talk" that was getting in the way of "my goal". So, I took up a practice in Self Inquiry which requires a diligent persistence any time troublesome thoughts arise. This was based on the teaching of Ramana Maharshi. You can look him up if you are interested. He is fascinating individual. Utilizing this practice helped alleviate mental suffering and the thoughts about myself that were untrue.

Financial Health

This was surprisingly the easy part and though my goal was all about this aspect, I never focused on attaining financial health first. Physical and Spiritual always came first and the financial part was smooth sailing. With a clear mind and healthy body ideas started to flow naturally. I would write them down and take action. Some would fail and others would work. At times it never seemed like my goal was going to be achieved and the mind would creep in and try to curtail progress at which point I would focus on my spiritual practice. Over time with more money in the bank due to lack of unecesarry spending on alcohol, drugs, cigarettes and a more health focused lifestyle everything just started to fall into place. There wasn't even a major attempt at financial health, it all just seemed to come into one. I could spend a whole post outlining the what I did in the financial side of my life, yet I don't think I would be providing any value as this aspect of health could not have been achieved without focusing on the first two.

What do I do now?

Whatever the fuck I want!