Article 5, 21st of January 2012 AJN/RFB Health and Sickness Why exactly are we undergoing a so far unknown health-

and wellness-boom for the last few years? Man simply still seems to be fit enough to realize his unbalance. He or she is seeking for a better attitude towards life, searching for happiness, for company, community, one needs attention and so is offered opportunities in form of products. One is suggested, that thus would be the solution to his condition, which of course would settle a certain unbalance, by producing another unbalance, demanding to be fulfilled, or dealt with. One thus is always on the hunt for ever new stimulations. One's efforts due to that tend to build width, high quantity, rather than depth, quality. And unfortunately one's own perception is dominated by that. For this reason he or she sees, unawarely, in health a quantitative constant, instead of a qualitative. Never before in history the gap between scientific developments, or rather the almost infinite opportunities it seemingly provides and natural, self aware physical human movement has been any bigger. Nowadays it is considered normal to go to an orthopedist or physical therapist with severe pain in the back at the age of 30, who also confirm bodily decay starting around that age and according to studies 40% of every man or woman over 40 has already had herniated disc. Simultaneously we have technology disburdening us from almost every physical strain, but still suffer from the same symptoms as people a hundred years before. The same applies for our nutrition situation. Never this many people have willingly had such an unhealthy diet before like we have today. At no time in history we have had such a vast variety on possible food as we have in our supermarkets. Nonetheless the majority prefers consuming unhealthy and unnatural food - stuffed with synthetic additives as it is, mostly not even deserving the name influenced by marketing, advertisement, media and society, as in everything we do. Which of course also applies to our psychic health. Most western people never suffered any real stress of the kind of war, famine, or the most basic fear of losing one's livelihood. At least in these parts. We are more free to live and act than ever before. We have luxury not even imaginable in other parts of the world, and still many people enjoying our societies every possible comfort feel empty, without purpose in life, unhappy, suffer, often starting at 30 and younger on burnout, depressions, midlife crisis and many other so called diseases of civilization.

What is health anyhow? Opinions and definitions very much differ on that. According to WHO health is "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." It is difficult to describe health, without using the exact opposite - the word disease. Often one can only realize, see and valor something when knowing it's opposite, in this case illness and disease. Or is it possible to know what is happiness without knowing just too well about sadness? To us, in the WTU, health is but one side of the coin. It is just as so often in life, one only want's to benefit from the positive effects. And if there is an illness, it is to go away as soon as possible and a doctor is immediately supposed to repress the symptoms. The same with sadness, anger or aggression: Modern society does not deal with it's cause just wanting to forget about and avoid handling such issues by distraction. Exactly such, natural, emotional states can on the contrary - depending on the case - be appropriate to manage and deal with certain situations, and be indispensable for the upkeep of (mental) health. Well-being, healthiness also means that man's immune system can cope with "illness" of any kind (biological, psychical, social). This also suggests that he or she would be able to find back from a state of mismatch to a dynamic state of balance.

Also, whenever there is something not "well", "right" or "whole" in our consciousness, which is not easy to control since we often are not aware of it, it can easily manifest on the bodily level as "weakness" or "illness". Not realizing the source of such a problem one often just tries to "repair" everything, by applying a creme, taking a pill, just treating the surface, but not dealing with the problem etiologically. Such an issue can appear - possibly in different location and extent - again and again. Considerable questions, someone might probably ask oneself after a severe "disease", "accident" and "stroke of fate" are: 1. When does it appear? Temporally, before or after what incident? Especially with spontaneous symptoms as lumbago or toothache. Here immediately preceding actions should be considered with special attention. 2. Where does it appear? Which area, in what part of your body? What does it's name itself tell you about it? Backache for example suggests issues which the spine and posture, but even inner attitude like "spineless behavior". Subconscious associations that the mind draws between metaphorical statements and actual physical behavior can very well affect the body, since not everything it does is controlled by us willingly. 3. What does it force to do? Like to deal with myself or take a break etc. 4. What am i kept from doing by it? For example to go to work or attend to school. When forcing oneself to go to work every day without the slightest interest or motivation, it is not surprising that the universe bestows relieving sickness upon you, to take a mandatory break, seemingly without it even being your fault. Such insights can already be very informative. Our bodies are not our enemies, but our friends, even if they get sick. Your body is you as well as your mind, voice, name and opinion. It shows you if and often where something is out of order. Making it exceedingly important to recognize and understand it's signals. Certainly not helpful is a victimhood-attitude and behavior like giving away responsibility, instantly telling a doctor to "fix me" right away. It goes without saying that does not mean to avoid doctors and rely on ones ability to heal oneself. Still one is well advised to find the cause and beware of the effects oneself, before consulting a specialist, who otherwise can only treat the symptoms.

So what is it now, to make me healthy? Well, eating, moving and living perfectly healthy and aware and by that hoping, expecting and thinking not to get sick - could that be considered a healthy state? Everything implying a challenge and obstacles, meaning everything disturbing momentarily well-being would by such thinking have to be considered as harmful desease of some kind. No, we think healthiness itself can not be controlled thus directly. Let us turn to the Ying and Yang symbol for illustrating exemplification: It is based on the law of polarity and periodic spiral circularity; When something is brought to an extreme pole (lets say healthiness) it at one point tilts over into the exact opposite (illness). Maybe someone like that is hit even harder by it than someone not being a health-fanatic.

Let us take Wing Tsun as a further example: Using Wing Tsun principles, we can face incoming energy (which we in that case also use as power source) with absolute assimilation, resulting in a wave like unloading of energy at its turning point. Simply put: We merge with the disturbing power / the energy source to a unity. We incorporate, assimilate useful parts of anything encountering us. A disease just as well is something we encounter, contacting us on a material, mental, or social level, infiltrating our sphere and thereby confronting us with new difficulties and challenges. It by thus gives us opportunity to change, adapt and grow, if we are ready to engage with the process. Of course an illness can also kill us, just as an opponent out on the street, if we are not able to find a solution suitable to the encountering problem. To us, there is not only one thing called "healthiness", but an interdependency of many elements, leading to a process, which we can call a healthy state. That means one should always consider meeting life naturally and spontaneously again, not much unlike a child, and free oneself from all conditioning imprisoning us in other people's ideas. In order to develop and practice a "better Wing Tsun" we do not constantly fight, but try to discover and improve different skills we also have to use in other, every day situations and implement them in combat situations. Such skills are just for example: attention looseness balance timing sensitivity whole-body movement will and many more It is quite similar when it comes to health. All skills mentioned above should also be developed and harmonized for the sake of health. With that attitude following areas can be dealt with just as well: Movement Nutrition Relaxation Breathing Healthiness is the proper balancing of all circumstances, one is momentarily subject to, balance at the same time is the process to generate a certain orientation. This orientation are the references / coordinates enabling us to keep on developing into a specific direction. It is important, again, to evenly focus on the centers of motion, mind and emotion and harmonize them, in order to be able to experience oneself and feel what one needs and what is blocking him or her. For as mentioned above, I am my own body, the one who is closest to it and bears in mind, consciously or not, every detail of it's momentary status. In the end I am the one, who has to be able to hear and understand the language of my own body.

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