What Does “Limitless” Have to Do With Health?

The meaning of health is often misunderstood, or at least looked at very simplistically.  We often measure it by our symptoms.  If we feel good, we are well.  If we feel bad, we are sick.  This is a very black and white way to categorize health, and one that causes us to sell ourselves short.  I propose that being healthy is much more than just not feeling bad.  It is a pursuit of living to our full potential, and a pursuit of wholeness.

Health is a complex spectrum of color, with limitless degrees of change.  It is gradually lost as we take baby steps towards disease.  Loss of the proper curvature of a spine may not cause symptoms at first; the extra stress it causes may take years to show up as bone degeneration.  Many ignore these steps towards disease, because loss of curvature doesn’t have immediate consequences.  It doesn’t interfere with the daily routine, so its easy to believe we are healthy.  Though the colors of health may change slowly at first, they can gain momentum, and quickly accelerate toward the black of disease.

Ignoring these steps towards disease is like going into debt.  It is drawing from our future health to continue to live the same today.  We’ve all felt the sting of huge car payments or credit card interest.  Financial debt is appealing because the consequences aren’t felt immediately.  Feel good today, and pay for it tomorrow.  This is often the case with our health as well.

The spectrum of health is also limitless in the positive direction.  Think back to sixth grade math and the negative number line, zero being the middle point, negative integers on the left, and positive integers on the right.  If the zero point represents having no decline in health, then what does the positive side represent?  More than just not being sick, it is an opportunity to grow and become stronger.  It’s the realm of the athlete, who starts fit, but only gets better, training hard everyday to achieve new heights of possibility.  This is the place to thrive, physically, mentally, and spiritually.  This is the realm of limitless health.

Photography by Danilo Rizzuti.