Does free health care feed lack of responsibility for our own health?
This might be considered to be a controversial or provocative question, but on the shop floor in our health care service in a ‘first world’ country there is clear evidence of a deviation from taking care of and responsibility for our health, from looking after our bodies so that we can live our potential and from realising the burden of wayward lifestyle choices on all of us.
We all know the narrative. The health service in the UK as one example is on its knees and cannot be sustained. GPs and A&E departments are ‘front doors’ into the NHS and they are drowning, unable to cope with the inundation of demand. It is apparent that the situation is similar worldwide.
And there is something very separatist and divisive about not taking responsibility for our health. I can do whatever I want in terms of my lifestyle choices and then I can demand that society fixes it, with a large added dose of blame when this does not work out as expected.
If we blame another or a situation for our predicament we block the learning and healing on offer. We are active participants in our overall health and our bodies sign post us clearly to what supports and what does not. Any health care offering can only be a band aid if we do not play our part.
The disease of ‘them and us’, that is a thin disguise for blame, pervades every aspect of our lives and is a true pandemic to be concerned about, whether it is directed at those behind our failing health care services, seniors at work, politicians, our parents, our children, our neighbours, our neighbour’s dog, other countries… ‘them and us’ divides, when what we long for, what is our true nature, is to be unwaveringly unified.
As soon as I feel or hear the thought pattern of ‘them and us’ I am alerted to something being awry and clock the particular styling of it, often discovering another aspect or angle of the way we have become accustomed and entitled to behave.
When it comes to taking responsibility for our health and therefore, by default, for our health service, we are all equally responsible and instrumental in this.
And beware the temptation, as a flipside to this, of berating ourselves or others for becoming unwell and needing the support of health care professionals. It is not about that. Illness and disease can be a clearing, deepening and/or advancing process that the body willingly takes on to support our return from waywardness. So, in each and every moment is the opportunity to be open to what is on offer, what the learning is and how we can partake fully.
Taking care of and responsibility for our health is not only essential but also a joyful and super rewarding thing to attend to. We feel lighter, more vital, richer in every aspect of our lives and part of something collaborative, grand and unified.
