Do You Take Responsibility For Your Health?

It is often said in the alternative field of medicine that one of the biggest hurdles to overcome is the fact that when someone visits the doctor, they are given some drugs to make them better. These are always prescribed with the caveat that if they do not work, that you are to return to the doctor to try something else.

This system of prescribing something to alleviate the symptoms has led us as a society to expect the professional (doctor) to sort out the issue in one visit. We give our power away to the doctor and let them tell us what to do to get well.

The main problem with this form of medicine is that the sick person takes no responsibility for their health. The professional becomes responsible for finding the issue and for fixing it. This system also takes away the sick persons' ability to choose for themselves, or to listen to their body and really hear what it is saying.

It is clear that good health is reliant upon regular exercise, healthy food choices and a balanced emotional state. We live in a system where there are no obvious consequences for a poor diet , smoking, taking drugs, taking no exercise - you can still visit the doctor and expect him or her to make you better, without expecting to have to make any changes yourself.

In a recent survey, it was said that a percentage of the drugs that are prescribed by doctors make you worse, not better. Add to this the fact that the pharmaceutical companies are heavily invested in ensuring that you do not get better, because there is no money in healthy people.

More and more people are turning to alternative medicine in a quest for good health. The problem is that they expect the same service that they got from the doctors- that is, a quick solution to the presenting issues so that you can get back to your daily life and stop being inconvenienced.

This approach is not how any good alternative practitioner will look at your health. Alternative medicine is a holistic method of looking at the entire picture of the mind/ body/ spirit connection, and addressing the underlying issues that are causing the symptoms to arise.

Evidently, if you are looking at the entire body/mind/spirit complex, an alternative practitioner will take into account diet , exercise , life patterns, life circumstances, family history- that is the complete picture. When you are truly trying to make life changing health improvements, they take time, and sometimes a life time.

Many clients expect miracles in one or two sessions for problems that they have suffered with for their whole life. It is not true that with alternative medicine you cannot have amazing healings in a very short space of time. It is true however, that if you approach an alternative practitioner, you will be expected to take responsibility for your health and life decisions, and make changes so that healing can occur.

Not everyone is ready for that. Not everyone wants to work that hard- they have been spoiled by the medical system so far and do not want to change. However, if you truly would like to find good health and learn how to be aware of your body and what it needs, then alternative medicine can help you to begin to take responsibility for yourself.

Written by Caroline Nettle.

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