How we define health says a lot about what we will do or won’t do to achieve it.  Many people define health as being free from disease, pain, and disability—the premise is that “as long has I am not sick I am healthy.”  But this approach—also called a negative view of health—is all about avoiding pain, injury and illness.  In theory this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does promote a fear of disease mindset that governs our behavior.  Much like the story of Ichabod Crane who feared the mythical headless horseman, this mindset promotes a constant “looking over your shoulder” mentality that increases worry, anxiety, and second-guessing.  “Am I at risk for this disease?” “Should I eat this cake?”  “What will it do to my cholesterol?”  Life can become one worry after another, which of course leads to additional worries about worrying too much.

An alternative definition of health is a positive, based on performance, potential, and optimal well-being.   This definition promotes a mindset of what can I become?  What can I do?  What do I want to be?  The focus is on doing, being, and becoming.  You engage in behaviors and run towards a goal of optimal health, rather than run away from disease.  Health becomes something that you obtain, and improve upon.

To illustrate, a person with a negative definition of health would exercise so that they didn’t get heart disease, or to lower their cholesterol; whereas a person with a positive definition of health would exercise so that they could become stronger and more energetic.   The negative definition of health promotes a “worried well” mentality; the positive definition a feeling of “optimal well-being.”

Although both a negative and positive views of health can reduce risk for disease, the positive view makes life more fun, and encourages more long-term healthy behaviors.  

How do you have a positive view of health?

First, set an achievable and realistic goal of what you want to do in life.  For example, setting a goal to walk one mile every day without stopping is positive.  Trying to lose 10 lbs so that you can reduce your risk for heart disease is negative.  If you actually walk a mile per day, you will become more energetic, burn more calories, increase your capacity to do more physical activity, and could ultimately lose 10 lbs. (reducing your risk for heart disease while not even thinking about it).

Second, identify things you want to do or accomplish that are not health related but require healthy behaviors.  I worked with a woman who wanted to hike with her grand kids down into the Grand Canyon.  Her focus was all about her relationship with her grand children. Getting in shape was for the greater purpose of being able to share an experience with them.  Getting back into shape was about relationships and future opportunities, not disease risk reduction.

Third, stop measuring your self.  Overly focusing on size, weight, measures, and metrics puts the emphasis on our bodies and totally omits the way we think and feel (you figuratively become the headless horseman—dead from the neck up).  If you exercise, focus on how you feel, how energetic you are becoming, the enjoyment of movement and being able to move more.  Can you do more today than you did yesterday or last week?—great! Keep it up. It’s about the splendor of being healthy, not the avoidance of disease.

So, when it comes to health, be all that you can be, and stop worrying about the headless horseman.