Thinking Healthy

Attempting to define health can be a challenging venture. Navigating the textbook version and most people’s misconceptions of health as a purely physical term has led me to my own interpretation.


I’ve always been a small framed person, weighing around 110 lbs for the majority of my life. I grew up with the belief that since I was skinny, I didn’t need to worry about exercising or what I ate– that was for overweight people. And, for most of my life, that logic seemed to work. On the outside I appeared to be healthy. I avoided what I perceived to be the biggest health hazards. I didn’t smoke, didn’t drink coffee, rarely had alcohol and I drank lots of bottled water. Besides the occasional headache or back pain most of us experience, I generally felt pretty good. So, it came as quite a shock when I was told that I had cancer. Obviously, this would be shocking regardless of the circumstances, but I was a 26 year old non-smoker. Cancer wasn’t even on my radar. I thought that was the worst news I could possibly hear, until I was told that it had already spread to my liver and bones, instantly upping my diagnosis to stage IV. In a split second, my view of health, among other things, was shattered.


Of course, I felt lost, angry and terrified. Cancer changes your whole perspective. I now found myself questioning everything I thought I was certain of. But, I slowly started to realize that I needed to take charge of my life and my health, and that meant much more than just the physical aspect. As I wrote in my last post, I began eliminating processed, sugary and hormone laden products from my diet and added more whole grains, fresh vegetables and vitamins. I also implemented exercise into my daily routine, something I had never done before. All of this helped me to lead a healthier life, but I knew it wasn’t enough. After a considerable amount of reading and soul searching, I finally came to the conclusion that true health is about overall well being – body, mind and spirit.


Negativity is just as detrimental to your health as eating junk. Your brain needs good food in order to thrive, so if you’re constantly complaining or looking at the bad side of things, how do you ever expect to be healthy? Just as you can slowly adjust your eating habits to reflect healthier choices, you can slowly adjust your thoughts to be more supportive of the life you want to live. Again, the question is where to begin. Everything I was reading was telling me I needed to get happy. Feeling happy and being healthy go hand in hand. The truth was I thought I already was happy. I appreciated the good in my life. But like most people, that happiness wasn’t constant and was usually dependent on outside sources. We like to look to our friends, spouses and material possessions to give us joy but most of the time those things fall short of what we’re looking for. The first step for me was admitting this to myself. It was also the hardest, but once I did I felt much freer. It helped to tell myself that I had nothing to lose by attempting to get happier.


I began starting my day with positive thoughts. Instead of waking up to a rainy day thinking “today is going to suck”, I would smile and say “what a beautiful morning”. Think of it as beginning your day with a healthy breakfast. Throughout the day I would pay close attention to my thoughts and try to shift them if they veered off of my path. If I was stuck in traffic, instead of getting angry and stressed out, which doesn’t change the situation and only makes you feel more miserable, I would look at it as an opportunity to have more “me” time. This may seem like a bunch of malarkey to you, it did to me at first as well. I challenge you to try it for one week. You’ll notice how your life begins to change and how much better you will feel when you replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Of course, this doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen. It just means dealing with those things in a better way.


It’s important to remember that this isn’t about putting on a fake smile and pretending to feel something that you don’t. It’s about genuinely deciding to take control of your happiness and realizing that the only thing affecting your bliss is you. Looking for the positive in every situation really helps to shift your way of thinking and in turn, your reality.