The Waterfall people…
I was reading a great book this week about Health Coaching (Wellness Coaching for Lasting Lifestyle Change by Michael Arloski) and came across a tale which demonstrates nicely how preventative health practices such as nutritional therapy and health coaching works.
Image by Robert Lukeman on Unsplash
……’There was once a village of people who lived at the base of a huge waterfall. Life was good until one day a stranger was washed over the falls and plummeted to the rocky cauldron of foaming water beneath it. The village people were alarmed and immediately sent two of their best swimmers out to rescue the person. With much effort the person was dragged ashore and revived.
Before long another stranger was washed over the fall and again a rescue team sent into the dangerous waters. As they worked on reviving the person they decided to station a rescue boat and a lifeline by the base of the falls.
As time passed, strangers continued to be washed over and rescue efforts increased. Soon a small building was erected with emergency supplies and designated people were constantly on call for more rescues.
The number of strangers being washed over continued to increase. Soon the people constructed a small hospital at the base of the falls and built a fine rescue boat with full-time emergency rescue workers to staff it.
The people were perplexed but continued to respond to the demands of the victims of the waterfall. They built an even bigger hospital and started to build a whole fleet of rescue boats, when at long last, someone asked… “Why don’t we go upstream and see why these people are falling in?”...’
We all fall into this trap. Our lifestyles are fast and the world around us supports more reactive, short-term, remedy responses to solve issues quickly, not necessarily long-term. We have an ache or pain, we take a painkiller; we’re constantly tired, we reach for the coffee, or sugar we struggle with heartburn, in comes the antacids, we've got PMS, constipation, diarrhoea, bloating….whats the rescue boat we need?
The Waterfall people spent a lot of time, money and people effort to respond to the strangers falling, over, and over, and over again. But, going up the river and seeing why people are falling, and fixing that, means stopping it happening in the first place. No more lifeboats, no on-call rescue teams, extra buildings and people needed to save the strangers. AND no more strangers falling.
So, when it comes to our health we should be thinking why more. Why is this happening? What’s going on ‘upstream’ to create these symptoms? What is it that can be changed ‘upstream’ to improve your health fully, not just for that moment?
When Halbert L Dunn wrote one of the really early books on wellness (High Level Wellness) he proposed that health and wellbeing are a matter of mind, body and spirit. Of the whole human and their personal, social and physical environment….that it’s a ‘state of being vitally alive’.
When was the last time you felt vitally alive? if you can’t remember then it might be time to be that person in the village and ask “what is happening upstream to create the way I feel?”
Everyone should be able to feel great and thrive more than not. So don’t put up with suffering unnecessarily. There’s always something you can do about it!
Want to find out what’s upstream for you? Get in touch