:: Making Time for Wellness ::

How often have you come to the end of the day, still overwhelmed with responsibilities and wishing there were MORE TIME?

Most of us live and move by the clock: fully, busily, and exhaustively.  With so many schedules running the show it is no wonder that we have little patience for illness. Instead of following our intuition, getting some rest and re-focusing on wellness, we find ourselves with just enough time to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy, have an extra latte in the afternoon, and nurse sick days with medicine that allows us to maintain productivity... because taking sick time means less pay for some, and being laid off entirely for others.  That itself is enough stress to impede fast recovery!

As a society we live in time deficit. Most of us don't get half of the vacation or sick-time as our friends in other developed-nations.  This is affecting our well being in profound and destructive ways.  As we strive to catch up, to make up for financial losses, to pay off debts, or in many cases to just get by, the monster of disease is catching up to us, and the statistics don't look good. More than 10% of the US population currently has diabetes.  And, according to the CDC, in 2003, approximately 37% of adults reported having two or more of six risk factors for heart disease and stroke (high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, current smoking, physical inactivity, and obesity).  That was 5 years ago.

These types of lifestyle disease do not arise in a vacuum.  Stress, poor diet, and inadequate exercize are the indicated culprits of these chronic diseases, not chromosomal anomalies.  But with a lack of time come destructive habits of time management.  We choose quick comfort food instead of wholesome.  We choose TV instead of taking a walk.  We choose emotional drama instead of sleep.  We choose to believe what the so-called experts and professionals tell us, instead of doing research ourselves. And sadly it doesn't usually feel like a choice.  If after work you happen to find the time for healthy meals, nurturing relationships, laundry, shopping, housecleaning, exercize, education, sleep and creative (ad)venture, not to mention raising a family... you are the superheroes.  Because for most of the people I meet, something always slips through the cracks.

The real question is: how can we regain our full, vibrant health amidst the hustle to try and change the course of history for the better, all while keeping our loan payments current? 

In order to tap into the amount of energy that we are going to need to transform our world, it seems to me that we must take drastic measures bordering on the miraculous.

We are going to have to MAKE TIME.

to be continued...