This blog is for all my young friends and family, for their health in all respects; for the older ones, to their continued health and joy. If it speaks to you, please share it.
Every financial advisor worth his salt, every column on financial planning, everyone these days drum into you that apart from the health insurance your organization offers you, you need to ensure you take one in your own personal capacity. It is such a frenzy that if you haven’t done it (as in my case), it is a serious financial folly. When I share with people that I haven’t, they urge me to correct it on an urgent basis.
I started thinking about what drives this thinking – that wasn’t there a couple of decades ago. Cost of medical treatment has gone up – so have average household incomes! Are people falling ill more, more lifestyle diseases, fear???
I see a rising number of younger friends, in their thirties and forties, battling health issues, in many cases seriously affecting their day to day life; some who are in constant pain, some who are so in-disposed, that they have to take breaks from their career; they are losing out in many ways. Many lose out on just the sheer pleasure of a healthy day! That prompted me to write this slightly sanctimonious blog – so pardon the preachy tone. But please, please think about every one of these ‘premiums’ and attempt to pay them. I have a different philosophy on health ‘insurance’. Debatable philosophy, many of my smart friends will find enough evidence to poke holes in it, and it does not cover unexpected curve balls life throws us in the form of certain diseases………. but I am sticking to my form of insurance.
I invest in health insurance, by investing in HEALTH! My health, my family’s health; the premiums I pay are
- Eat right, eat healthy, eat nutritious; I invest in buying and consuming healthy foods even if it inflates my monthly food bills. Fruits are always around, vegetables cooked and raw, healthy oils, right quantity, right time. Replace favourite but unhealthy foods with healthy alternatives. Eg. tamarind with lemon; butter with olive oil; dessert with fruit; restrict, make the favorite unhealthy food an occasional treat! Make the effort to cook family favourites at home. But in my view, many people, especially women do this most of the time. It is the rest that follows that is a challenge. And, the fact that like me, healthy eating is restricted to about fifty percent of the time – the time I eat at home. What happens to the other fifty???
- Cook and eat in a positive environment – I have started cooking with music, with laughter or with prayers resounding in my ears, joyously, enjoying the activity, loving the family that I am cooking for. I strongly believe that cooking in anger, sadness, resentment or other negative emotions reflect in the food that is eaten – it carries the positive or negative energy of the cook, to the person consuming it, creating health or disease as the case maybe. My cousin, a neurosurgeon, validated this thought with her own experiments while cooking, and I do too. Don’t cook in a negative environment, don’t serve in anger or resentment, don’t eat with your mind full of stress thoughts. Please!
- Exercise – this is a double four letter word sometimes (eight letters??). If only many of us showed the same urgency and non-negotiable attitude that we show to buy health insurance, and paying hefty premiums, to exercising regularly, and ensure we fit this into our day, we are truly investing in health. I am frightened by the belief that leads to treating exercise as something that I will do, if there is time. Of course there is no time!! Ever!! Please find something you enjoy doing, whether it is tai chi or yoga, walking or running, gym or dancing, but FIND it! And stick to it, to a reasonable routine. What works for me, is to count how many times in a week I manage to do my yoga and meditation and my walk. Keep a minimum acceptable performance level, beat myself up when I don’t do it in a week and feel good when I do. But, be conscious, measure weekly, and keep pushing the target up. I swear it works!! Another thing that works is when you and your partner /spouse, walk together. Unless you absolutely hate each other, this is a great way to just be together for a half or one hour daily.
- Positive mental state, positive beliefs, positive outlook on life – this is the deeper and difficult to change part. Stress results when any of the above is not in sync, is turning negative. And that is the destroyer of good health for many of us. Again and again, I find that we are quicker to turn to doctors and medicines, buy insurance to support that, rather than examine the painful underlying mental states and correct them, or invest in changing habits and behaviours for lasting health.Again, find what works for you. For me, it is my prayer routine, and of late, I do listen to a TED talk that is motivational every morning. Simple, 10 -15 minutes over my morning cup of tea, but what a way to start the day! Another one that works, is to just count the good things that happened, the little joys and successes of the previous day, and tell myself that today is going to be better. When I search out for good in a day, I find a something, even in the worst day. And I stay away from negative messaging – soaps on TV, negative talks by friends……….
- Forget the what ifs, the why me, the how dare he/she……. Easy to say, difficult to do, but I find that the more I relax and accept that people are what they are, mistakes happen – I may have made it, someone else may have, but clinging to the past, HURTS ME! Clinging to anger, to hurt feelings, to guilt, is just not doing anyone – me, or the other person, any good. VERY difficult to change, but CAN change, again with conscious mindfulness. The most difficult and most expensive premium I am paying even today, one that I miss very often. Given that I am a highly judgemental ENTJ, this has been tough. But not impossible….
- Dont believe everything you are told – let me explain this one; my mom was told by a doctor that one lung had collapsed; she believed it, and so her breathing mirrored it; till a leading pulmonologist fifteen years later, poof-poofed the diagnosis; but the damage was done. A very famous physician diagnosed my low back pain to be ‘fibromyalgia’ – sounds scary, and when I read up, it was scary; permanent, incurable. I just decided to ignore the diagnosis, ignore the medication, and just worked on some lifestyle changes and mindset changes. Has worked brilliantly for me. At 50, my mom was told, and she believed, that her healthy days are over and she has hit old age. 50? Old? Are you kidding me? I know it sounds crazy, but you ARE what you believe you ARE.
- Avoid negative people – I mean it – AVOID them! Stay far away from the whiners, the ones who always look at the dark clouds on the horizon and not the bright sun and the wonderful rainbow. I avoid negative people like the plague, and don’t pretend to be otherwise. I DONT want it to rub off. And be very careful, some of them seem to be hurting so you want to help, instead, get pulled into their negativity. And they add to add the beliefs about yourself, about others, about the word, that you are better off without!
- Reach out to friends and family – only the positive ones please, when you are out and down. They may not tell you sympathetic lies, they may even point out some painful truths, but seek them out, hold on to them. In day to day life, look for and be around the people who are preferably always joyous, but for sure forward looking and positive. I have a friend who has so many illnesses, but who is always mocking his own ill health, laughing at it, at himself! I seek, I appreciate, send out a prayer of thanks to the good people, the wonderful positive and grounded people he sends me every day. The Shirins and Kalyanis, Narayans and Senthils, Bindus and krishnans, Charus and Vaijayanthis……………..
- Search for excuses to be happy – whether it is the first rose in your garden, or the little kid who smiled at you in the train; the funny vadivel comedy on TV; a friend’s stupid joke; your own clumsy slip; an inspirational forward; an ‘I appreciate you’ message from a colleague. Most of us catch the reasons to be unhappy very quickly, and stay with it longer. My friend venky always uploads some photograph or the other, of a flower or tree or a sunrise, something he caught while running around to complete his assignments. Brilliant!
It is not as if I pay my premiums on time and regularly – one or the other of the nine premiums get missed, or not paid in full. But a conscious, mindful attitude towards this form of HEALTH INSURANCE is the key. I am working towards it, I am experimenting with each one of the above, and I see early signs of success. This blog captures my experiments with my form of health insurance, and reflects in a healthier fifty year old Usha, as compared to the 30 and 40 year old Usha! Seriously, not necessarily the healthiest person around, but an improved me!
Of course, in my case, it is further powered by my fear of doctors, needles, and other painful stuff J irrespective of who pays for it, I don’t want it!!
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