We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with an impure mind
And trouble will follow you
As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your shadow, unshakable.
The Sayings of the Buddha
INTRODUCTION
Can I live to be 100 years old? Can I be healthy and
independent then? Can I have lifelong positive
relationships? Can I maintain a healthy environment? Yes,
it is possible to live to 100 and beyond, to be in good
health in a healthy environment, and to have positive
relationships. You probably have known others who lived
beyond 100 and were still healthy and independent. And you
probably wish for the same for yourself. A long life, good
health, positive relationships, and a good environment are
partially dependent upon the decisions (thoughts) you make
in life and the actions you take. And if you have made
decisions and taken actions detrimental to your health,
environment, and relationships they can be reversed. In
addition to decisions you make that influenced your health,
environment, and relationships, your elected officials also
make decisions and take actions that may influence your
life in these three areas. This book will help you assess
your life in these areas and provides direction for
changes, if needed, to move toward more positive health,
relationships, and an improved environment that are all
components of healthy holistic aging.
HEALTH,
ENVIRONMENT, RELATIONSHIPS AND HOLISM AS MAJOR CONCEPTS.
The purpose of
this book is to provide the knowledge that will assist you
to perform self, community and national assessments,
develop plans, and carry out interventions to improve your
health, relationships, and environment. These areas were
selected as the major concepts of this book because they
are interrelated, each influences the others, and all
influence health, longevity, and success in aging where
success refers to a favorable outcome of living. This
favorable outcome involves optimum health, and a long
positive life, a healthy environment and positive
relationships. For example, research has shown that those
with positive social interactions live longer than those
who are isolated. Other research shows that people
subjected to smog and other air pollutants have more lung
diseases than those in clean air environments. Thus, the
environment affects your health and you decide whether or
not to smoke and pollute your environment, for example, or
to elect officials who will or will not allocate resources
to reduce smog and other air pollutants. Thus, health,
independence, and longevity are dependent upon your
relationships and the environment as well as your decisions
and actions and those of your elected officials. In
addition, a holistic approach to health is the most
effective and will be elaborated upon throughout the book.
ASSESSMENT OF YOUR HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND RELATIONSHIPS
Below you will find a brief assessment tool to evaluate
your health, relationships, and environment. Completing
this assessment will help you determine whether or not you
should read further in the book, complete the more
comprehensive assessment tools presented, evaluate the
solutions proposed, and make decisions about actions that
will improve your life and promote success in healthy
aging. Whether or not you decide to make these changes, if
indicated, is up to youthat is your decision. But if you
want to experience success (positive health, relationships,
and/ environment) based upon your assessment of where you
are now, change is probably indicated. A friend of mine was
having marital problems and was separated from his wife and
children. In addition, he was not completing his doctoral
degree that he had been working on for several years; he
had frequent colds, allergies, and other minor health
problems. I shared with him some self-help books I thought
would assist him to improve his health and family problems.
After reading them, he said that implementing the mental
exercises in the books were too much work. He, thus,
decided against making any changes. It has now been 5 years
since I gave him the books and his health problems have
gotten worse, the marriage is beyond fixing, he is having
severe problems at his job and has been unable to find
another one, and has not completed his doctorate. I am sure
there are other problems that I do not know about, and I
predict that he will suffer additional problems in the near
future unless he decides to make changes in his life. Thus,
he chose not to move in a more positive direction regarding
success in healthyl aging
The brief assessment that follows will identify where you
are in your current life situation in relation to health,
relationships, environment and holistic interventions. It
also identifies where your elected officials are in
relation to these areas of life. Answer the questions
honestly and score the assessment as directed.
Answer the
following statements with a checkmark under yes or no.
Yes No.
HEALTH
1.I practice yoga or exercises regularly.
2.I maintain a proper weight for my height, and age.
3.I know how to lose and/or maintain an ideal weight for
me.
4.I do not smoke.
5.I know smoking cessation techniques, if needed.
6.I know how to use various herbs for health.
7.I know sources of and need for vitamins and minerals in
my diet.
8.I sleep through out the night without interruption.
9.I know how to prevent or reduce wrinkles without surgery.
10.I use affirmations, meditation, and other mental
processes to improve
my life, health and relationships
11.I use prayer and other spiritual processes to improve my
health and relationships
12.I know some research results on the effect of these
interventions on health
RELATIONSHIPS
1.I know how to establish and build positive relationships.
2.I use techniques to improve my relationships.
3.I use positive communications with others.
4.I use positive communications when resolving conflict
with others.
5.I deal constructively with conflict.
6.I utilize the negotiation process to resolve differences
when necessary.
7.I know how to constructively end relationships, if
indicated.
8. I use affirmations and prayer to improve relationships,
when needed.
9.I rarely experience loneliness.
10.I rarely feel depressed.
ENVIRONMENT
1. My house is free of dust and clutter.
2.My house is free of mold.
3.My house is free of harmful chemicals such as asbestos,
radon or carbon dioxide.
4.I do not allow cigarette smoking in my house.
5.My house is not considered a “Sick Building.”
6.I open windows to air out my house, when possible.
7.I avoid genetically engineered foods.
8.I am prepared for any emergency including bio-terrorism.
9.My house is burglar and safety proof.
10.I practice precautions when using pesticides.
11.I protect myself from mosquitoes and ticks.
COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL DECISIONS
1.I keep current on local and national issues affecting
health, relationships,
and the
environment.
2. I know of actions by local and national officials in
these areas that have affected
my life in a
positive or negative way.
3. I use the political process and contact my elected
officials about my wishes.
4. I am involved with some local and/or Internet advocacy
groups
to bring about
change, when needed
If you answered
yes to most or all of the questions, you probably are in
good health and living in a good environment with positive
relationships and are, thus, having success in healthy
aging. Reading further may not be indicated. However, if
you are like many of us who lack the knowledge or have the
knowledge but do not always apply it this book will assist
you to change your life and move toward a period of less
stress, improved health, a more healthful environment, and
more rewarding relationships.
OVERVIEW OF THE
BOOK
Part I includes an introduction (chapter 1); and a
theoretical framework underlying healthy holistic aging
(chapter 2). This theoretical framework looks at our
interactions with the environment (including other humans)
and how well we adapt to these interactions. Our adaptation
is dependent upon the decisions we make and the actions we
take. If our actions (behaviors such as exercise, weight
management, meditation, spiritual activities) are positive
we move toward a positive end of a continuum regarding
health (including the influence of the environment, and
relationships). If not we move away from a positive life
and may experience health problems such as heart, cancer or
diabetes; relationship problems such as divorce, suicide,
or mental illness; and/or environmental problems such as a
sick building, mold, asbestos or other environmental
pollutants in the home and these affect health. It is
possible to make more positive decisions and take actions
to bring about change. The knowledge in this book will
allow the reader to do.
It should be reemphasized that individuals create a
successful life or one filled with problems with their
thoughts, decisions, and actions, and consequently, they
are the only ones who can prevent problems in life. Yes,
you are responsible for what you have created or where you
are in life, and you are responsible for what you are
currently creating and where you will be in the future.
Even though others may assist you in solving problems, the
ultimate change must come from you because only you can
create your future. For example, if you make the decision
and have frequent promiscuous sexual relations, you will
likely have (create) a sexually transmitted disease. If you
drive too fast on ice, you will likely have an accident. If
you continue to smoke, overeat, and fail to exercise you
will likely create heart disease, diabetes or cancer. Only
you can change the mind-set (decisions and actions) that
lead to the sexually transmitted disease, accident, or
heart disease.
Part II presents comprehensive assessment tools in the
areas of health, environment, relationships, and community
and national leadership decisions. It expands upon the
tools presented earlier in this chapter. These tools allow
readers to determine where they need to put their emphasis
to bring about improvements in their life.
Part III identifies healthy behaviors that facilitate
success ih healthy holistic aging using a
21st
century
mind-body approaches consisting of knowledge, effort, and
thoughts. How can I improve my relationships? How can I
improve my health, and how can I prevent specific diseases.
How can I improve the environment I have created? The
concept of High Tek is related to this process. It means,
“How I get healthy” (HIGH) and the way is by “thoughts,
effort, and knowledge” (TEK). Some self-help books state
that changing your thoughts will change your relationships,
health and so forth. However, thoughts alone may facilitate
but by themselves usually do not change relationships,
health and the environment. For example, I can sit and
think about obtaining a beautiful, healthy body
indefinitely when I am 70 pounds overweight. However,
unless I supplement these thoughts with knowledge about
diet, exercise, stress reduction and other techniques for
reducing weight and put these into practice (action that
takes effort), I will not achieve my goal of a beautiful,
healthy body. Other authors ignore the influence of
thoughts that are an important aspect of change; they focus
only on the physical aspects such as diet and exercise to
lose weight. Both positive thoughts and knowledge in
combination with ongoing effort (action) is needed to
create a healthy body, environment, and relationships.
Stated in another way, both physical and spiritual laws are
operating in our lives whether we acknowledge them or not.
Thus, it is important to deal with both if we wish to bring
about change in a planned positive way. Combining the
physical, mental and physical aspects of behavioral change
is an important part of the holistic approach.
The holistic approach is separated for study purposes into
physical, mental, and spiritual solutions for health in
Part III of the book. Physical solutions include weight
loss and maintenance, smoking cessation, yoga and exercise,
herbs, vitamins and minerals, quality water, obtaining
proper rest and sleep, reducing wrinkles without surgery
and others. Mental solutions include meditation, stress
reduction, affirmations, and visualization; and spiritual
solutions include prayer for self and others, community
service, service to others, and strengthening spiritual
attributes such as patience, faith, and forgiveness. An
ongoing implementation of physical, mental and spiritual
solutions are necessary to improve health and this holistic
approach will be emphasized throughout the book.
Environmental solutions include how to insure quality air
in the home, burglar protection, protection from radon,
asbestos, mold and carbon dioxide, preparation for
emergencies such as bioterriorism; and avoiding sick
buildings and genetically engineered foods. Relationship
solutions include how to build positive relationships,
improve communications in relationships, have positive
resolution of conflict in relationships, and how to
negotiate in relationships. In addition to these practices,
prayer (spiritual) and meditation and positive affirmations
(mental) is often necessary as an adjunct to improving
relationships.
Solutions also include ways individuals can bring about
change in actions of local and national leadership, when
needed. These include using the political process,
influencing the outcomes of elections, and influencing
leadership decisions and actions utilizing groups such as
coalitions and networking with advocacy groups on the
Internet. These interventions may impact decisions made by
elected officials and, thus, influence the individual’s
life (health, relationships, environment).
KNOWLEDGE FOR SOLUTIONS IS AN ON GOING PROCESS
Knowledge needed to maintain or improve health,
relationships and the environment is an ongoing process
because new diseases, conditions, and health actions evolve
as humans and the environmental interact and change over
time (Part I). Knowledge from new research on these changes
is also ongoing. For example, 20 years ago HIV/Aids,
bioterrorism, and Mad Cow were not problems to be dealt
with in the United States.
Because knowledge about health, relationships, and the
environment change; and leaders in leadership positions;
advocacy groups; and other parts of the solution to improve
your life are evolving some solutions presented here may
not be appropriate in the future. In order to remain
timely, a web site has been created that will update
current research in these areas and also links to other
sites that advocate for improvements This web site is as
follows:
www.healthyholisticaging.com or
www.carlhelvie.com Please review
the site periodically for new information and free offers..
If you find new solutions or web sites that advocate in
these areas I invite you to contact me by email
(carlhelvie@cox.net)
or on the site to share your information. I will post these
with your name, city and state. I am also interested in
hearing about how you feel after using some of the proposed
solutions. A summary of comments will be posted.