Making health decisions

One of the ways that we can make use of the concept of Deep Health is as a way to filter our health decisions.

We often just adopt a health habit or behaviour based on the fact that it is “healthy” without really considering whether it is actually important or relevant to us as individuals.

Let’s say for example that you have heard that it is good to wake up at 5am.

You may consider your relational health. Maybe in order to wake up at 5am you need to go to bed earlier, but that is usually the time that you are watching something with your partner or the time that you hang out because you don’t see each other during the day.

Or you may look at it from the viewpoint of your existential health. Is this habit something meaningful to you? Does it connect with a certain purpose or goal that you have for your life?

Maybe it affects your mental health and you aren’t quite able to sustain the long periods of focus you need at work without more sleep. Or maybe the opposite, that you focus better when you wake up earlier.

Once you have filtered it through the various aspects of your physical, mental, emotional, relational, social, environmental and existential aspects of your health, you may decide to:

a) do it

b) tweak it

c) chuck it

This can ensure that our health habits are more sustainable and actually suitable and relevant to our wider life and health perspective.