Real Health is Scientifically Proven

We often spend so much time coping with problems along our path that we only have a dim or even inaccurate view of what's really important to us.
- Peter Senge
Reality Check #3 The World is Changing so Rapidly, We’re Leaving Our Good Health Behind
Everything has changed.
Our routine way of life is so different from just a decade ago – especially in the U.S. The way we go about our 21st century day to day survival, the pace, the electronics and the actual environmental conditions under which we live are moving further and faster away from our ancestor’s way of life and natural environment than ever before in human history.
Our parents, grandparents and great grandparents never experienced the rapid rate of life-style changes that we do today, aside from natural disasters. We call this change “progress,” and it has accelerated so rapidly that the typical way of life of just a short time ago is already “old-fashioned,” inconvenient and even primitive to many in our current generations.
“No cell phones, computers, Internet, frozen food, fast food, cars, microwaves; young and old alike wonder, “How did we live without them!?” We need to ask, “How do we live with them?” As professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Jon Kabat-Zinn says, “Our whole society has ADD.”
We’ve rapidly shifted away from a close relationship to the land, to our families (there are more families falling apart now than ever before) and to the natural order of life, into a more progressively “compartmentalized” version of living. This shift began as we’ve gone from a more family oriented and originally tribal, “micro” rural existence into a “macro” big-urban one – all made possible because of big advancements so easily accessible through technology and “conveniences.” We’ve become quite capable of creating a very comfortable disconnection from ourselves, each other, the land, our food, our environment and our higher purpose. We’ve disconnected ourselves from our roots.
Technology and social progress has insured that we now have shelter, food, drink, clothes, transportation, and communication with others – all at our fingertips.
Once upon a time…., we had to grow, raise or hunt our own food, prepare food from “scratch” in appliance-free kitchens, build and repair our own houses, hand clean our clothes (sometimes in a nearby stream), go to the family or community well for water, walk or ride our horse or wagon to our destinations, make our own clothes, and have to be very physically active in order to even accomplish the most basic tasks. The mail was central to communication, small town meetings and social gatherings were big news, home doctor visits (virtually unheard of now) were common and “operator-assisted” phones were few and far between. These days are often called the “the good old days.” But a proper comprehension of even some of our most recent past is being buried by the current information overload.
Today, accomplishing these same basic living tasks (shelter-food-communication) is almost spontaneous, requiring little or no physical effort at all, just money and electricity. Walking is almost a thing of the past as we sit forever driving cars, in our workplaces and then “vegging out” while eating fast food in front of our computer and the TV, instead of farming the soil, hunting for dinner, hands-on raising our families, hauling water, feeding the horses and other livestock, composting garbage, bartering service and products, participating at community gatherings or helping our neighbors pick the latest apple harvest or build a barn.
Regular exercise is now easily thought of as a high tech product that you have to purchase, since our schools no longer offer adequate physical education. Typically we travel to a special “exercise” place or perhaps it can be done at home in front of the TV again, with special equipment that we buy. Of course, enough “free time” to exercise is another rarity in the over-busy, overweight ADD world we’ve created.
As we’ve shifted so quickly into a new “fast-paced electronic convenience lifestyle,” we’ve also created a harmful and toxic natural environment. There are more man-made toxic residues to be found everywhere than ever before -- including in our bodies. The water found in the open wilderness, what little wilderness is left, is no longer safe to drink – it’s tainted just like the air and soil. This “toxic explosion” has been magnified because of our “technological advancement.”
A profits-above-all-else mentality and how-do-we-makes-ends-meet reality has turned our “free time” into “work at home.” We don’t make “time” for ourselves or our families and loved ones, we’re living in a “pressure-cooker” world of 24/7 connectivity in an unprecedented era of information overload.
Where Does This Leave Us?
The air we breathe, the water we drink, pressure we labor under, the neighbors that we try to keep up with, and the foods we eat are very different from generations before. We’ve become such a fast paced, convenience first, instant gratification, limited free time, “throw away” obsessive ADD society that we’ve barely noticed the subtle changes in our lives that are turning into big problems. We’re creating “throw away” lives to go with these lifestyle choices and we don’t realize that we’re undermining our health at it’s very core – until we’re already ill.
Some of us have taken notice and are in fact aware of the toxic environment, improperly nourished/synthetically infused farming topsoil, additive-laden food processing, the “hyper” fast-living pace, overwork, fast food, and the overall emphasis of convenience-centered quantity as the priority over quality of life. Few of us realize the true and total impact of these things on our basic ability to be healthy. There are many ideas and opinions, but few people have ever made the direct connection between these stresses and their own measured core health status at the most meaningful level… their own body.