Stages of Personal Development in Health

If you’ve enjoyed any form of personal development, you will probably know that in any field of personal growth there are three distinct stages:

• Conformity
• Awareness
• Enlightenment

Conformity refers to conventional wisdom, or a collection of ideas on which most people base their lives. These conventional ideas usually don’t serve us well, and the overriding purpose of personal development is to break free from these very often limiting ideas. In the area of health, conventional wisdom leads most people to rely on slick product marketing, or the placement of certain (mostly high-profit and nutrient-deficient) foods in highly visible areas of our local supermarket. The vast majority have abdicated responsibility for their health to others. This results in ever-increasing profits for food manufacturers, and ever-increasing waistlines for consumers, as can be seen in any Western nation. Awareness refers to a slow realization that we are ultimately responsible for our own wellbeing, whether physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. An increase in consciousness often leads to the recognition that readily available advice often doesn’t serve us as well as expected. In the area of health, the advice typically available to us in the awareness stage of development would include not-so valuable suggestions like: avoid sugar, eat more whole grains, drink water and avoid processed foods. However, if you’ve ever tried to manage your weight following this type of guidance, you’ll know that results are usually less than spectacular. Enlightenment refers to an understanding of why life works the way it does. It also provides clarity on the powerful media forces unwittingly influencing conventional wisdom on a daily basis. As Edward Bernays said in his 1928 book, Propaganda:

“Our minds are molded, our tastes are formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”

This is as true today as it was during World War 2. In the area of health, the enlightened soul knows that good health is attained by nutritional abundance rather than restriction, starvation or dieting. Abundant health is about giving your body more. More vitamins, more minerals, more nutrients, more hydration, more antioxidants and more healthy fats. Since there aren’t too many hardcore health tips readily available, here are some of my favourite unconventional health ideas.

If you've enjoyed what you've read so far, you'll certainly enjoy my big-picture thinking in the booklet The 2012 Manifesto. You can read more about it here or just click on the big-ass Download button below and I'll take you straight to the download page.