(NaturalNews) To manage one`s own health today, each person is going to have to become something of an expert in what is healthy and how to use it. This article will explain how to develop three standards by which to judge what is truly healthy in today`s sea of products, supplements and ideas.
These Standards are: First, "Create the Ideal Standard," this is where each individual determines his or her beliefs about what will work best for him or her. Second is "Learn the Relationship between Belief and Fact," where each individual learns to distiguish whether an idea of claim is a fact, or someone`s beliefs about that fact. Third and finally, the individual narrows his or her study and "Only Focuses on Relevant Data and Products." This last is the application of the other two standards and is where not only is time saved, but enormous progress is made suddenly in learning how to use healing products and strategies because the individual gets so focused. Below, these standards are explained in enough detail to make them usable today.
The problem of sorting out what is healthy/truly beneficial and when and how to use it is the #1 problem in the health field today. There is no shortage of products and ideas. There is no shortage of great programs and whatever you want to heal or accomplish or create in terms of health and wellness is available somewhere from someone who is healing it, accomplishing it or creating it already with success.
The trick is to swim through the vast sea without getting lost in the hundreds of thousands of products and ideas that are, no matter how great they sound, really a distraction to your prime goal!
This article does not describe the specifics of any products, but it does offer a plan to sort through far greater quantities of material more quickly while missing less of the relevant stuff. We have a desperate need to learn how to learn. The purpose of this article is to help sort out the nonsense from the good sense. In any article such as this, there is an inherent weakness in the article itself in that it creates unspoken parameters that suggest, "This is it, this is all there is." Of course, that is never true.
Nevertheless the principles stated here encompass 99% of the questions that need to be asked about a subject to determine its relevance and about a product to determine whether to bother trying it. Three strategies are covered in the following paragraphs:
First: Create the Ideal StandardIn a world of intolerable tolerance, humans are accepting everything until they are overcome and then they take issue with everything after that. It is the old proverb, "Ye strain at a gnat, but swallow a camel."
Tolerance is fine, indeed healthy, but sometimes patience and tolerance cease to be virtues and become vices of laziness and cowardice instead.
Simply put, before taking one more step through the maze of health products, stop and create some guidelines. In other words, create an ideal standard by which everything is to be measured.
Words like: Healthy, Natural, Cleansing, Healing, Supportive, etc, have no meaning unless each individual provides that meaning. Part of creating an ideal standard involves defining these words.
Not defining these words is like two friends going on a weekend vacation when each has totally different ideas about what is going to happen when they get there. It often turns out no fun for one or both. A little communication and some idea of what a "weekend vacation" looks like would have solved the problem.
Here is a list of examples of standards one might employ relative to healing products or health offerings or services:
•Raw, Vegan
•Whole Plant
•Could be made in a cave
•Naturally Occurring
•Available to Everyone
•Isolated from only Whole Plant or Animal Sources (petroleum free)
•Organic
•Blood Type Friendly
•Metabolic Type Friendly
•Vitalistic
•Mucus-Free
•Low Sugar
•Low Protein
•Low Fat
The list could go on.
Lists that are not particularly useful are those that demand scientific research, and those that require success stories. That may sound like the reverse of what is true, and no doubt scientific research is extremely valuable, but only AFTER the standards have been created.
The reason for this is as follows: Science studies thousands of different, isolated components of a whole (like an herb or a metabolic process in the body) and as a result can easily come to incomplete conclusions that would be complete if we could study the whole altogether.
As it is, in any given month it could probably be shown that two diametrically opposed conclusions have been reached by two leading scientific minds, each based on valid research.
This is one reason that the owner of the School of Natural Healing, David Christopher, says that there is no medical science, only medical religion.
Truly, valid research can be found to support almost any conclusion. Thus honest people try to make judgment calls, but inevitably end up making belief calls instead.
Since making "belief calls" is inevitable, we should be open and honest about it and use it as a tool to guide us to health. Make a choice on what to believe and stick to it and use it as an icon to guide you. This is a tool of all effective healers.
Great healers are not a product of any particular field of health or medicine, but are the product of an ideal they believe in so fiercely that they become real experts in it and, in the process, come to understand the body and healing processes. They do not get sidetracked by things that sound good but have no relevance to the approach they believe in. Sometimes they modify their beliefs but only after a long time of consideration and the realization of a real need for something different.
Second: Learn the Relationship between Belief and FactLearning to understand how facts and beliefs are related and how they come forward together will help in sorting out facts from someone`s opinion about the facts.
Facts are simply observations. They are taken as facts based on the assumption that all relevant data has been considered. This, simply put, is never the case. The number of variables is insurmountable, even if it is assumed that the only variables needing to be considered are those that science knows how to measure (a big assumption).
Facts are also very hard to come by. Usually, what is available in scientific texts are the conclusions of someone, or several people, that are based on the facts. In other words, what is usually available is someone`s interpretation of the facts.
This is particularly true when statistics are quoted.
Even medical journals often quote articles that are interpretations of facts and then draw conclusions based on those previous interpretations.
The best scientists know that reading scientific studies, and articles about those studies, is gathering information, not truth or even necessarily facts. Sooner or later, everyone comes down to the realization that they have beliefs that qualify which studies they will accept, embrace and live by. If this seems cynical, understand that to not have such beliefs is to stay totally confused and led around by every well-presented idea.
It is vital to acknowledge this now. Then one can be honest about their conclusions and selective about what to study.
Third: Only Focus on Relevant Data and ProductsOnce one has determined what is relevant and knows enough to avoid distraction, it is easy to quickly assess whether new information is appropriate to one`s focus. The product or information can be embraced or put down accordingly.
It seems vital to point out that success stories do not tell whether a product really works and certainly do not tell whether a product meets the standards that the recipient has decided on. A little television time will reveal to even the casual observer that drug companies have lots of success stories.
There are success stories about people getting rid of warts after chanting mystical quotes.
There are success stories about everything. Those stories can never be used to determine real results and are even less useful for determining long-term consequences.
One surely must use both results and personal ideals to guide him/her. If not, those wanting to make money off of him or her certainly will take the place of guide instead.
Results are important. We all want to have results and yet we cannot trust success stories by themselves to tell us whether something is right for us.
If one is content to use drugs and surgery for self-maintenance, then success stories about drugs and surgery are particularly valuable in helping him/her to do better maintenance. If one believes in high doses of vitamins and minerals, seeking out relevant, useful information is easy. If one is only interested in raw, whole plant food, it is easy to sort through products and media and find the information that is valuable.
There are valid solutions in every feild to most things. It is not reckless to establish a standard on which to focus, rather it is the only way to really learn the field of health and it is the most effective use of one`s time, energy and resources.
Until Next Time,
Kal Sellers, MH
About the author
Kal Sellers, MH currently operates KalsSchool.com and teaches a 2-year curriculum for Natural Medicine, via live teleclasses.
Kal is a Master Herbalist and holds several other certificates and licenses for hands-on healing modalities. He maintains a current practice in the Atlanta area.
Kal and Traci have six children, the last four of which were delivered at home. They live now in Powder Springs, GA where they teach live classes on food and medicine. Kal is also a full time Chiropractic student.
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