Author Topic: What is "Healthy"  (Read 954 times)

CeeMee

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What is "Healthy"
« on: November 11, 2005, 10:40:11 PM »
Some weeks ago I started a thread regarding the book "A General Theory of Love."  The question came up, what does  healthy look like?  (while I understand some may take offense to this term "healthy", I hope you understand our meaning. Many agreed that "healthy" did not necessarily mean free from emoitonal damage, mental illness, relapse or the like). 

Based on the replies recieved on the aforementioned thread,


Healthy is…

•   Forgiving yourself
•   Loving yourself
•   Respecting yourself
•   Protecting yourself
•   Recognizing and learning from pain
•   Recognizing you are human, imperfect and prone to setbacks
•   Picking yourself back up after setback and continuing
•   Reaching out
•   Feeling secure about yourself
•   Being content in your thoughts, feelings and body
•   Valuing yourself apart from what others think
•   Coming to grips with the toxic parts of yourself
•   Disengaging from toxic people
•   Setting and maintaining boundaries
•   Never forgetting
•   Quelling the natural urge to identify and isolate the flaws of others
•   Not blaming others
•   Being safe for others
•   Showing compassion for others
•   Empathizing without being consumed by the problems of others
•   Listening and hearing others, especially what is not said
•   Loving and performing service to others
•   Exuding a quiet confidence apparent in the eyes
•   Having a clear gaze, void of rage or fear
•   Having a relaxed tone of voice and body language
•   Having a sense of humor void of cynicism and sarcasm
•   Being lively without over- the-top extreme extroversion
•   Maintaining well-proportioned balance in life with healthy scenarios like
                recreation, exercise, healthy eating, reading, writing, philosophizing
•   Knowing that “bad things” in life will not consume or destroy you
•   Learning the salient, universal themes of life in a way that is not destructive
•   Highlighting life’s positives, even without a fair share of experience with it
•   Feeling you are connected and belong in the world

Thanks to all who contributed to these wonderful responses.  I'm scoring myself right now.  I am feeling much more confident about my level of health based on this definition you've helped formulate, and I'm identifying more clearly those areas that need my attention.  I hope this will be of help to others also.

CeeMee

mum

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Re: What is "Healthy"
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2005, 10:48:37 AM »
CeeMee, thank you for the wonderful list. I am going to print it out and post it!!!  You should be an editor (maybe you are) with that ability to put things together so well!!!