827 thoughts on “Lifestyle choices and responsibility for our healthcare – whose hands is it in?”

1. Definitely worth considering that last question. I am coming face to face with a part of social care that is really challenging my beliefs. Which is great because if I have any beliefs I can question them and in effect lessen my reactions to the system, the very same energy, just a different flavor, that’s maintaining the whole thing in the first place.

2. What has been presented here is worth investigating, why is our health care system on the brink of breaking point, if it isn’t already. There is this vicious cycle of poor lifestyle choices that affects the health and wellbeing of the bodies and when it breaks down, it requires support from pharmaceuticals and/or medical/surgical support. Whilst the person takes some or little care of themselves.

   I have known a handful of health care professionals who have gone to the extreme of gastric banding or other surgeries to reduce their stomachs, only to continue eating the foods they were eating on the first place. The weight loss is drastic at first, then they plateau and take no responsibility to do anything else to support them.

   Health care systems are to support people, they are not there to fix the underlying causes of the condition. It takes another person to assist with this, and it begins with you first and foremost.

3. It feels like we have this inclination that when something is given to us for free, we just take it for granted. We have every right to have access to health care, but equally, we have to learn to practise our responsibility as well as our right. One cannot go without the other.

   1. Fumiyo, you’re spot on, when we receive things for free, we tend to take it for granted. When we play our part, it is a whole new ball game.

      Everyone has a right to health care, every health care professional also has a right to work in a safe environment too, especially with the increase in violence towards health care professionals on the rise too. Where are their rights? Health and wellbeing is a two way relationship, so it is time to be responsible.

4. It is definitely worthwhile considering Jane. Also, I wonder, why does it take our health care system to get to bankruptcy for it to start looking at healing with a different approach?

5. It appears from this article, and many others I have read, that not only is the NHS struggling to keep up financially and practically with the huge demand on its services, but so are many other health systems around the world. And then when I read the information from the WHO that a large percentage of all illnesses and disease are as a result of our life style choices, and so are preventable, it is clear that the majority of humanity are not taking responsibility for the way they live. Just imagine how quickly the health of the world would improve if each and every one of us began to take responsibility for all our choices instead of expecting someone else to fix us when we get sick.

6. The medical care systems of the world and the education systems need to meet up with government and begin introducing classes such as cooking and nutrition, gentle exercise, and general self care into schools. Cooking and nutrition classes alone from a young age could make a difference to obesity rates especially if it’s coupled with growing food as part of science classes. Some schools in Australia have already successfully trialled gardening and cooking for young children with a program called the “Kitchen Garden”. If we are coming out of the education system with no idea of how to take care of ourselves and ending up very unwell as adults what’s the point of the knowledge? I feel we need to partner education with caring for our health and wellbeing. This could help establish healthy lifestyle choices from a young age.

7. “We have health services that are under severe pressure with finite resources and increasing rates of illness and disease and multi-morbidity – a combination that spells disaster and one that we can ill afford.”

   This is a major reason why I look after my own health and well-being, so I reduce my chances of having to enter an overloaded system, to not overload the system even more and if I have to enter the health service system I am taking the bestest body I can to it.

8. Amazing how we have to hold a licence to operate many vehicles but no one holds us responsible for how we treat our own bodies?!

   1. Great point Helen, imagine getting a regular yearly check-up or report for how we have cared for our body. That could be fun, I wonder how many people would pass if there was a body care and safety test?

9. It seems that we don’t realise how even the smallest of changes to our lifestyle can reap huge benefits. In the past, I would put in place changes to improve my health but would not stick to them long enough to see if they were working or not. Or I would do far too much all at once and then want instant improvements.

10. Healing involves not only utilising the support of medicine and health care systems but the willingness for us to equally engage in the process.

11. The ‘first do no harm’ principle of medicine can be left to perspective if we are not careful and deliberate in its delivery.

12. When we consider our own body as one cell in the body of humanity, then the way we take responsibility for caring for our body is reflected in the health of the whole.

    1. This really illustrates how our choices affect everyone and the responsibility we have with every decision we make and its impact not just on us but the rest of humanity.

    2. Very wise words Mary, this is exactly what our current world health is showing us.

13. I think far more rests in our hands than we care to know.

14. This quote by Serge Benhayon reminds me of the innocence and simplicity often forgotten when it comes to dealing with an issue. We seek a solution, we like to devise a big strategy etc., but these kind of very basic questions are the breadcrumbs that would lead us back to the root cause of it all.

15. A much needed discussion for all the healthcare systems in the world for many are on the edge of bankruptcy and when this happens no-one will look at their own part in it. Most people consider diseases something that just happens to them and haven’t realized yet how much we can do for ourselves and our bodies by making different lifestyle choices.

    1. Yes and that also has to do with us and not wanting to change the way we live our lives. Living a loving life, where you honor and take super good care of your body serve us all.

16. As a society we have an expectation that the NHS will fix us, we are able to do a great deal of self healing when we take responsibility for our choices and the way we live.

17. It seems a pretty courageous act, for a health care organisation to ask it’s patients to begin to take full and complete responsibility for their health and well being first, before seeking treatment from them. This is paving the way forward for what true health care will eventually be – a part of a self-caring society that knows what it is to heal.

18. Through the inspiration of attending courses at Universal Medicine, I have started to take much greater care of myself and my body. I have lost around 15 kilos and kept it off quite effortlessly, stopped smoking and drinking, and was eating far more nutritious meals. When I had day surgery last year, the anaesthetist commented that I was in good shape and that should stand me in good stead for the surgery. It was a real stop moment to appreciate the care I had taken for my body and how it is absolutely my responsibility to take a vehicle that is well looked after in for repairs.

19. Paying attention to HOW we look after ourselves is a worthy investment in every capacity, and building a body through exercise, our diet, our rhythm and sleep that we feel supported by and confident with has an impact on every single thing that we do.

20. “Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?” This is a great and very needed question to be asking, but it’s actually very concerning that we need to ask it at all. After all it is our own body, the one that supports us from birth to death, we are talking about, so why would we not want to care for it as deeply as we can? The answer to this will be the difference between a world that is becoming sicker by the day and a world where people live in a most vital and healthy way.

21. Agreed 100% Jane. It really does seem to be the height of selfishness and arrogance for us to willingly indulge in a lifestyle that knowingly make us unwell and then expect a system to take care of the mess we have created, correct the disease or prop us up so that we can continue on the same dishonouring ill-path. There is no true empowerment or healing in this way of being and I have experienced this first-hand as I also have been part of this myself. The pressure we impose on society in many ways hinders our advancement of ourselves and together as a humanity as our resources are consumed by band-aids and props and not truly healing the ill-momentums that hold us back from freely living with true vitality and well-being.

22. We all know that smoking damages our lungs yet we still smoke, we all know that alcohol is a poison yet we still drink alcohol and we all know that eating sugar leads to an increase in obesity yet we still eat sugar so that tells me that there is far more at play than what we want to know, admit or recognise. We are intelligent beings, every single one of us so why is it that we don’t want the answers that will support our health and wellbeing? Could it be because we enjoy the comfort of what is mentioned above before the condition of our health and wellbeing? And if so, isn’t it supporting the health system and each and every one of us in some way or another when we are asked to look more closely at our own health and wellbeing even if it is suggested to not treat those who smoke or are obese unless they are on a program supporting them? To me that is true love rather than feed the system which is not supporting the individual to make the necessary lifestyle changes that are needed to bring about a healthy and well looked after body and mind.

23. Asking ourselves why we do an unwanted behaviour and observing how we are with it helps us understand the bigger picture and thus the possibility of changing this behaviour without a force or discipline but with love for ourselves.

24. Today I heard the estimation again that the NHS won’t be able to pay for any other illness than Diabetes in 22 years time and it really stopped me for a moment. This is shocking but in a way if it happens it will create a calamity that might stop us and make us question our ignorance and lack of taking responsibility. It would be better if this happens before though because there is so much wisdom known about how to prevent lifestyle diseases and its more than time and we are more than worth it to take heed of this.

25. The sad fact here is that we don’t want to take responsibility for our health because it means adjusting the way we live and if we are really honest with ourselves, we don’t want to give this up, even if the way we are living is not supporting our levels of health and vitality. Metaphorically speaking it is a case of wanting to ‘eat our cake and have it to’, as the saying goes. Except in this instance it is the cake (a symbol for the comfort we crave) that is causing us the dis-ease in the first place!

26. It is irresponsible to think that the NHS system can be propped up forever and more money will be poured into it regardless of where that money will have to come from. Maybe, if it did fail, it would make us sit up and take notice, appreciate the support we have had all of these years and to do our part.

27. I think learning about the impact of our lifestyle on ourselves and everyone else should be a key foundational topic at school from young, something that we support everyone to grow up appreciating the importance of and having the space to discuss, learn about and evolve with.

28. Type II diabetes is going to cripple the health services of the world very quickly… There was a study recently where a control group of 150 people with type II diabetes agreed to lose 15 kg over a reasonable period of time. Of those that did, over 90% came off all medication and no longer had diabetes… Responsibility is huge!

29. When you start to take responsibility for your own health and lifestyle choices you realise that there is so much more to be aware of and to take responsibility for.

30. I love the Serge Benhayon quotation, it makes total sense to me. When we are able to stop and question our life, be honest enough to admit we self sabotage we open ourselves up to seeing what the root cause of our illnesses are. The problem is our spiritual pride, we do not want to admit that we are the cause of all our ailments and issues in life.

31. How many lifestyle choices are not ours? What have the role models we have observed growing up offered us? The pressures of parenting and the short cuts taken; cook a meal or take away fast food? Work hard all day and rest as a couch potato. Lifestyle choices can be changed but normally only after the ill effects manifest in the body. What if we impressed at a young age diet and lifestyle choices as kind of future medicine healthcare today?

    1. Yes this will have to change and be what our future education entails as our current way of championing and soliciting the disregard of our body through our chosen lifestyles is not working and making us sick because our understanding, willingly so, of the magnitude of the potential of what our vehicles offer us and are calling for us to live is lacking. All of which begins with understating and accepting of what responsibility is.

32. Ahh ! responsibility, self-care and the health of humanity… a wonderful topic to bring up all sorts of responses.

33. There is something about our attitude as human beings when something is made available to everyone equally, for free, that develops arrogance instead of appreciation, a sense of entitlement or undeservingness.

34. What a powerful quote from Serge – that we can make the next loving choice simply by asking the question – why do I do what I do? And so starts an amazing experiment with our bodies that will challenge our ideals and beliefs and ask us to develop a relationship with our bodies.

35. People often complain about healthcare services and yet never consider themselves to be just that; a health care service to themselves. Perhaps they could consider applying some of the critique to the service they provide themselves with in relation to improving and supporting their own health.

    Cutting waiting lists and times for public services could be applied to themselves as not delaying in taking action that they know is required. Being underfunded could be allowing resources to eat well, time to do what is required to be healthy and rest well. Not meeting targets for the NHS could be equated to us individually having our own health program to which we follow to keep us on track and support our health and actually following advice and guidance from health professionals from appointments or make available publicly and so on.

    We are very good at blaming and criticising others and organisations when we do not live by the quality and actions that we ask and seem to expect of others. Time to take responsibility.

36. Many people misuse the health service, especially when they want to get fixed, I have found that by taking responsibility for my own choices, making changes to the way I live, and being honest with myself has helped me realise that we can’t expect the health care system to just fix us, because we have to take responsibility first, and then seek help when we need it.

37. I think it is really important that we each take responsibility for the way our lifestyle impacts on our health and wellbeing, and this is something that we can keep deepening our awareness of. I don’t think it’s about judging people for their choices, nor any kind of punishment but about being real about the consequences of our choices and seeing the knock on effect on others that also has.

38. In the news this week in the UK; Politicians are trying to get a tax put on plastic-lined paper cups that coffee comes in. 2.5 billion cups a year that are thrown away and only 1% is recycled. Is this one more frantically waving your right hand and saying don’t look at my still left hand? What is the root-cause of this consumption? Could it be, a lack of being responsible for our choices and the way we are living?

39. How radical… Asking people to take responsibility for themselves and their own well-being… Whatever next? 🙂

40. In order to truly we heal we need to start looking at our lifestyles choices. I would love to know the follow up of this where ‘the organisation in the UK made a decision that it would no longer treat patients who are obese or who smoke – unless they have been/are on a programme to do something about it.’ to see how this unfolded for both patients and professionals. A great blog on a very important topic.

41. In taking responsibility humanity will begin to again feel the essence of being that each person holds. Again connecting to the true, tender, sensual person that for so long has been hiding inside. From there the sense that there are many ways we live that doesn’t support such beauty will be unmistakable and then naturally stopped. Responsibility is definitely a very needed quality to again introduce into our lives.

42. Julie, you show here with wonderful expression, how important it is to look beyond the surface level of facts and scientific research – to go with a deeper enquiry and ask ‘but why do we do that in the first place’? As it is perhaps through this exploration of human behaviour that we can come to some of the more fundamental influences that are either directly or indirectly affecting us all. And this to me, makes you a true scientist of life.

43. In the context that health care systems have limited resources and the ever-increasing demand of illness and disease is likely to exceed these limits, it makes absolute sense to support their own health and wellbeing that the patients who access it and the staff who work in it live in a way that is focuses on preventative health care and the responsible management of their own lifestyle choices and chronic diseases.

44. Beautiful Jane how you give everyone a clear view that we all have the key in our hands to reform the healthcare system, we cannot point our finger without looking at what we live ourselves. And how you make it about a shared responsibility so more sick or elderly people can have access to care when we support seemingly only ourselves but in truth we support other people who are in a higher need of care.

45. Years ago I would have been looking for the big changes to make the most difference, i.e. if I lost 3 stones, or I got fit, but what I have come to realise is that it is the smallest of changes with a consistency that have made the most impact on my life and sense of well-being.

46. “Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and well-being, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?” Such a pertinent question Jane. As changes in lifestyle choices make such a huge difference to illness outcomes – and are now more accepted and published in the media, even by some courageous doctors who are speaking out – is it that we don’t want to take responsibility for our choices in un-making the disease? For if we can un-make an illness we must have played a part in making it too.

47. Some simple lifestyle choices can have huge changes in how we feel. Just recently I was speaking to a woman who had been experiencing inflammation. She shared how she had been experimenting and had stopped eating dairy, increased her water intake and began walking and felt so much better for it. Simple changes such as these can have powerful responses in the body.

48. It is very telling of the level of responsibility that generally humanity is currently willing to take that self-management programs have not taken off. Probably also a reflection of the quality of these self-management programs which from my experience in health care are usually not supportive enough for the patients and do not get to the root cause of their lifestyle choices and behaviours.

49. The Doctor doesn’t come home with us. Often what we share with them is not the full truth of how we live. Yet we want them to be the absolute remedy to any illness our bodies are impacted with. To me it is simple maths. I am the only person that lives with me 24/7. So, ultimately, along with medical support where needed, I am am the one who can be my greatest ally.

50. It would make sense that at the moment there is only an imbalance because people are misusing the system, when it would be used correctly and with consideration of everyone living in the UK it would naturally be balanced. We might complain but I agree that it is a very wise choice to look at our way of using the system and if there is something we can do.

    1. This is a great point Lieke Campbell. How often do we consider that the system of health care has been set up yes to care for those who need support but are we stopping to care for the quality we choose to live and what this system is truly about?

51. I love that you have proposed the necessary responsibility that needs to be taken to reduce the burden of ill choices on the health services. Countless people take these services for granted, often arrogantly expecting them to fix whatever ailments arise whilst in denial of the fact that many may not have needed to use the stretched resources in the first place should they have been making more loving lifestyle choices.

52. Jane you raise a great point here, the NHS is already struggling at breaking point and we continue to look at the NHS to fix us, without thinking or taking responsibility for the choices that we make in our everyday living, do they support our body or are they actually adding to the problem, we need to educate ourselves over our own responsibility and not keep looking at the NHS for a short term fix.

53. This is a great conversation to start, I suppose the tricky thing is where do we draw the line? The other day I read that alcohol has been now proven to cause seven different types of cancer. In saying that, it is a popular form of poison, not to mention extremely socially acceptable. Smoking on the other hand has lost a bit of its social status and is known now to be a destructive choice, with deadly consequences. Also, the choice to eat until we are at a high, high risk of diseases or have made ourselves immobile seems obviously destructive?
    How can we argue that people who make these types of life style choices are prioritised over those that take care of themselves properly? Or at least to a basic level. How can we claim that people who are deliberately harming themselves deserve to be treated above a baby or an elderly person that has genuinely fallen ill even after being relatively responsible? You could say that it is a conservational position to take but maybe it is just common sense?

54. I have taken responsibility of my own health for many reasons, and the key one is to reduce the burden on the system and also to reduce the chance of me being in the system because it is bulging at the seams and it must be very difficult for healthcare providers to provide a true duty of care when it is like that.

55. Gosh, I agree. This makes sense when we consider the intense pressure on the Medical System, which as a result, is not fully equipped to provide the service it could, simply because it is bursting at the seams and doesn’t have the space to deal with patients on a level that will support them. Instead it’s in and out in 5 minutes and handing out whatever bandaid is required, just to get through the list. We definitely need to all be taking more responsibility for our lifestyles and the consequences.

56. Yes, the answer is much closer and definitely at our hands. Being aware of the part that we take in our health through our lifestyle choices, is the beginning to change what we are adding to our diseases, and so restore our health

57. The Hippocratic oath of ‘do no harm’ has been interpreted to mean not refusing to treat, no matter what but what if offering people treatment and relief without asking them to take responsibility for their own health is actually doing them more harm than good? That would put a different perspective on the oath entirely.

58. There is so much we can do about our state of health and wellbeing, each and every one of us.

59. Great to stop and ask ourselves these questions on an ongoing basis and give ourselves the opportunity for change….and be the change we want to see in the world.

60. When it comes down to it… Self responsibility is possibly the only thing that will stop healthcare systems around the world grinding to an inexorable halt with the overload of irresponsibility that is endemic.

61. It is time we saw health in a completely different way and started truly taking responsibility for it!

62. I found asking the ‘ why questions ‘ about my life style really helped me to understand why and so in changing my choices, taking responsibility for my health and wellbeing.

63. To enter any doctor’s surgery without asking for a fix /solution is no doubt the future, if we stay open to the possibilities of what is offered with Western and Esoteric Medicine. When we start to take responsibility at looking what is the root cause there is no doubt more to heal and a lot more to appreciate.

64. It’s possible that the self care that is taught is done by professionals who do not self care to the level that those they are talking to need to, this means that their advice is more likely to fall on deaf ears or at least not be held as a consistent practise. I know that for years I saw clients as a health practitioner and in the beginning I was still smoking, albeit seldom, and I was drinking alcohol and generally not taking care of myself in a way I would expect of my clients who had some form of illness or disease. We do not have to wait to become ill to begin a clean lifestyle that supports us to have clarity in mind and body and if we work in any area of health would it not be wise to ask ourselves the questions posed in this blog ? We do not just heal ourselves but thousands of others when we live this kind of responsibility.

65. Our lifestyle has an undeniable effect on our health and it’s essential for us to evolve in the way we approach healthcare in order for true change to occur. We would do well to have more services and education supporting true lifestyle change as a preventative medicine so to speak as well as support for those who are already having symptoms and illnesses.

66. I had no idea about the Self Management programme you mentioned and would say it is not something many are aware of or are talking about yet it seems extremely important so thank you so bringing awareness to this issue. However I have and do continually hear in the news just how stretched the NHS is, so stretched that many cracks are now obviously showing. What came to me whilst reading your article is it seems currently there is no strong foundation where change can positively be brought about. The whole NHS system seems tired, stretched (to put it politely), with few resources and lesser money (is the NHS nearly bankrupt? I am not sure with this) and then you have the public who are …. tired, exhausted, anxious, stressed, struggling financially, with illness and dis-ease on the increase so where in all of this can true change be brought about. I guess first we have to see the rot for where and what it truly is (which is pretty much everywhere) then and only then can we have the honesty to address this, not in band aid style but as in what I feel you are asking which is ‘How are we all living?’ as this is the very foundation that needs to be changed and takes zero or little money to do this but way more self-love, self-care, the needed support and commitment for our own health and well-being. Which for me is where Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine come in as this is part of their teachings and way of life which absolutely works.

    1. “‘How are we all living?’ as this is the very foundation that needs to be changed and takes zero or little money to do this but way more self-love, self-care, the needed support and commitment for our own health and well-being.” This is a really good point you make here, Vicky that it costs zero pounds to make steps towards caring and loving ourselves – – in fact we can save money as it is not spent on substances which evidently are causing harm to our bodies.

67. The last thing many of us want to admit is that the way we have been living has led to a condition that costs our entire society not just in the financial cost of the healthcare but also in other ways such as the need to take leave off work etc. This is a big ginormous pill to swallow but we should never undervalue or underappreciate how blessed we are to have the support of our health care system for us to heal and have another go at life again. And the best way to appreciate and value such a service is not through thanks or flowers but through truly learning and changing our ways so that the ill does not happen again and we can live more of who we truly are.

68. Without the depth of understanding offered by Universal Medicine about the energetic root cause of illness and disease, they tend to be seen as simply bad luck and/or inconvenience. The patient wants a hassle free quick fix and the medical system is scrambling for a quick and inexpensive way of dealing with the symptoms.

    Meanwhile humanity is getting sicker and sicker. How we are approaching it is clearly not working. But we have keep repeating the same and hoping the results will be magically different. That is not very wise.

69. The NHS and other country’s medical services are like shovelling snow while it is snowing. The lifestyle choices people are making is the snow, and we only have one shovel. Our best plan would be to find a way for people to choose a way that is not detrimental to our health!

70. I discovered Serge Benhayon, when I truly asked what does helping people really mean?

    From my parenting experience I found that it is possible to help too much, which can sabotage my children’s own process of experiencing life. And I feel experience is the way to truly understand things.

    So has our medical system gone too far in helping people? Is it all about making people feel better or about supporting them to evolve in their lives? I had to watch my children go through some painful things, but sometimes discomfort can be the best teacher.

71. Such simple but powerful questions. Why do I live this way? Why am I making this choice? Asking these questions in this way removes the self criticising approach, which actually offers no new way of looking at our choices. They open us up to self loving choices, because we begin to recognise that that the way we are living is not the way.

72. Yes! Brilliant! Why do we make this so difficult, why are we so comfortable handing over the responsibility of our own choices to others. Is that not simply crazy?

73. Jane I love this blog and at the same time find it challenging. What it’s asking of us is not a fix, the cure that we often associate with healthcare, but a life long choice and way of living that is deeply loving, supportive and nurturing. It integrates our health into everything, all our movements and gets rid of the them and us. It means we can’t do as we please, or actually we can, but we and all those around us pay the consequences. At the same time it shows the divine power we all have and how we don’t need to end up with a bankrupt system if we all make different choices.

74. I know what it is like to live a very unhealthy existence making one bad lifestyle choice after another, seemingly stuck in a momentum designed to keep me in a rut that was totally acceptable by my friends as they were all doing it to. When you realise that it is as simple as a choice to stop drinking/smoking etc, and the benefits to doing so are endless and the chances of burdening the NHS further are greatly reduced it really is a no brainer. But the big question is really, why do so many of us still do stuff that we know is doing us harm and is almost certainly leading to an illness.

75. Another cost the NHS incurs is ambulance crews attending weekend drinking bouts in our towns and cities, which has by all accounts become quite the norm – maybe a payment should be charged for every time a person over drinks to the point of being dangerously ill and needs medical assistance. At the end of the day drinking to excess and making yourself ill is self inflicted and can easily be avoided.

76. The word responsibility commonly comes laden with a rather heavy side order of negativity, burden and effort. All too often it seems we don’t embrace responsibility with all that we are. It has got itself a bad name we might say. But what if responsibility is in fact the doorway to empowerment and in truth, unless we do embrace our power we are choosing to remain victims in life? Perhaps it is time we transformed our definition of the word responsibility to support our own empowerment.

77. The NHS has just sent a letter to all doctors advising them to stop prescribing over the counter prescriptions like paracetamol and indigestion aids for simple common ailments. This is going to save millions. They are also looking at prescriptions for gluten free breads, that the NHS pays up to 10 times the price in shops for the same item. Three questions: why waste doctor’s time with common problems; why is the NHS not run like a business when buying and sourcing everything; and where is our part in being responsible for our own health and well being?

78. ‘Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?’ We don’t want to look at the comfort we live in, what we feed ourselves with – physically and emotionally – and how it keeps us unhealthy and dissatisfied in life.

79. Its breaking the habits and patterns that put into motion the unhealthy lifestyle choices that then lead to the body copping the consequences of these habits. When the body is living with a chronic disease, over time this can become accepted as the new ‘normal’ and then a greater amount of responsibility is needed to generate a change in habits and lifestyle patterns. You can see how the inertia and reluctance to change sets in. Yet there always comes a point where there has to and will be a ‘U-turn’ to make steps to change.

80. It is easy to see what is going on around you, and make reasons for why it is there….but what I feel you are offering the reader, is to go beyond that, and really ask yourself why is that happening. And in your own case, why am I doing that? What do I get out of it? That is where the true gold lies. And the answer to our questions.

81. “So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?” To really consider this point asks us to look at the way we are in how we conduct our lives, the choices we make and for most, including myself up until the point I came to meet Serge, I didn’t want to look at this. Yet it is the key for our entire health system.

82. Our health and wellbeing is our responsibility as it is the reflection of our choices.

    1. I love that Jane. There is no denying that we are choosing the level of health and vitality that we are experiencing. This is all a blessing as our body never stops loving us back.

83. When we get right down to it, lifestyles are our choices around how to live and the relationship with have with our selves (body) and others. All of our choices impact others, how we talk, are at work, with friends and family and most importantly the relationship we have with our own bodies. If our choices are in disregard to our bodies, we are also in disregard to others.

84. There is no doubt and numerous studies that show that some simple steps towards promoting a healthier lifestyle do make a lot of difference, especially things like being overweight, smoking too much, drinking too much alcohol, excessive sugar; so it really shouldn’t be a surprise when we are told that we have a serious illness, and if we survive it, lifestyle changes are always advised. But still in many cases we ignore the advice – this does not seem to be very intelligent.

85. I agree, there is only one person responsible for my health and well being – and that’s me. It’s me who chooses what time I get up, how I care for my body, the food I nourish or sabotage it with, the way I breathe, what and when I drink, unlike the NHS’s resources, my choices are infinite and I know without doubt that my every choice affects my health.

    1. I agree and I find living being aware of that responsibility a very fulfilling and empowering way to lead my life – my life, my health, my body and how I feel day to day are all up to me and the choices I make.

86. The seed of our discontent lays in the illness of our ways. We do not want to take responsibility for our ill health because then we will have to admit that we have not honoured the physical body as a vehicle that carries us through life but more so used it as a dumping ground for temporal excesses so that we can continue on our ‘joy’ ride that ultimately always ends in death. If we then dismiss the truth of reincarnation in the sense that we kid ourselves that what we do now will not affect us in the next around, then we are seemingly absolved of the part we play in the greater scheme of things and thus the ultimate responsibility we each have to move in accordance with the pulse of the Universe and not in complete disregard to it.

87. I ponder on where we lost our way in not looking after our bodies, might this suggest we are being run by behaviour and thoughts that totally override our natural balance.

88. I was having this discussion with some students recently. Many of them agreed that diseases caused by lifestyle choices like type 2 diabetes, obesity and smoking related illnesses should incur a cost to be paid by the patient.

    1. Financial costs do make us stop and think when they are coming more directly out of our own pocket!! I wouldn’t want people to not be able to afford the care or treatment they need but can also see how it could help to make us more aware of our choices and the consequences of those choices… It would be great if we could see this without needing to go down the charging for healthcare route…

    2. How different would our levels of responsibility be if we no longer were able to pull from the public purse?

89. We live this precarious walk between not taking responsibility for ourselves and stubbornly refusing to see and act on inspiration from others. It is a kind of stale mate, the effect of which is evident in our health and well-being stats and so simply in our hands to change.

90. With illness and disease rates climbing as they are, there is no doubt that responsibility will have to be held by the patient in the way that they live. In this way they are contributing to their own health rather than expecting a medical system to do the work for them. This is how it should always have been.

91. The starting point that Serge Benhayon offers here in this quote is crucial for our ongoing health. I know I have absolute responsibility for the health of my body and mind and that they are a reflection of the responsibility (or not) that I’ve been willing to take.

92. What if denying certain treatment to people who abuse themselves is not “not treating” them but actually offering them exactly what they need ~ a wake up call to take responsibility and better care of themselves.

    1. I agree Nicola, we have become very accepting of letting each other sit in our own mess and often argue it is too harsh to point things out, but we never question the harshness and cruelty we allow then, by not speaking up, having an other sit in and live with a condition that is unhealthy for them.

    2. Yes and it is also much more respectful and empowering.

93. It is interesting that the Hippocratic oath states to ‘do no harm’ and this has been interpreted to mean continue to offer healthcare, regardless of how responsible the patient is being with their own health. But what if this approach was actually encouraging or fuelling the irresponsibility by removing, reducing or softening the consequences? Then it could be said that this approach may in fact be harmful in that it does not also support someone to change their self harming behaviours. Something to consider for everyone in the medical system.

94. I agree there is a strong belief in society that whatever we do to ourselves and our own health is our business and does not effect anyone else. But the growing health funding crisis is a big wake up call that taking care of our own health extends way beyond our own life and health and actually effects the health of our very societies and civilisations.

95. Where I currently work the hospital close by has vending machines that are operated on a contract by Coca Cola, this very fact shows to me that widespread changes to healthier practices will require the will of the people, as industry will put on their game face, pretend to care about health, but only when profit is affected will true change to healthcare in the food and drink we consume come our way. We have complete responsibility for our health, and we have to accept this and the fact there are always going to be businesses that will only change in the face of the one thing they care about – profit.

    1. The ripple effect is very powerful in our current climate as it is this that leads the consumer market. If you don’t by the product there is nothing to sell. It is so easy to get caught on the band wagon of what is not fair and right and how manipulation can drive the profit margins of large companies. But how often do we stop to take stock of how we create the demand by the choices we make.

96. ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ To begin to really ask ourselves honestly why we make the choices we make is a really awesome start to considering the active part we play in our own health and how ill health manifests. It would be a real game changer to have this educated in schools and the work place!

    1. I love this Jane. Just taking one of your examples above could save the NHS millions. The bigger illnesses and diseases manifest from the smallest detail in lifestyle choice. If everyone paid attention to posture how much could be saved in physiotherapy alone, and as you say, let alone the deeper awareness around ones more insidious choices that could then be changed?!

97. A powerful snapshot of how we sabotage the way we eat. What is interesting is the willingness to go there in the first place. This takes a lot of responsibility or a realisation that what we thought was working isn’t any more with the onset of disease and illness. In many cases we are buying time that no doubt catches up with us one way or another. This itself is already showing with the vast rates of global crisis management in hospital worldwide.

98. if physicians have a duty to offer all patients appropriate care and supportive care then surely action that helps another stop the self harm is a crucial part of this duty.

    1. These small clues and details, which are there in all parts of our body whether it’s our nose, eyes, joints, neck, stomach…and I could go on to list every part of the body here, as every cell reflects the love or disregard we hold the body in. Open questions that invite us to explore more deeply what it means when a part of our body shows us something’s not right are invaluable opportunities to make some very supportive moves towards deepening self care and understanding.

99. It seems that the level of irresponsibility we present on a society level is slowly but surely strangling our health care system as we display more and more chronic lifestyle-triggered and very expensive to manage conditions – all because we eat the wrong things, don’t move enough and get very stressed, all of which can be tackled and dealt with.

100. I myself asked the question “why do I live like this?” and it lead me to where I am today with a far more rich quality of connection and living with myself, in my relationships, at work etc.. I am deeply blessed to have asked this question yet the answers were not immediately forth coming, most places or people I spoke to also did not have the answer just a quick fix solution. It was only with the love and support of Serge Benhayon did I start to connect to the fact these answers are all within me waiting to be reawakened. However that did start with taking personal responsibility for my part in why I got sick or did not feel amazing every day.

101. These are some very uncomfortable, honest questions that will provide much insight and hence may help to deepen one´s self-care and support one´s health. But are we willing to ask the questions and seek super honest answers? That would mean we were willing to take responsibility. Without that willingness we would not even like to know the questions.

102. Yes Jane, if we are willing to ask ourselves these questions then we have picked up ‘the key to our own health and vitality’. If we put it in the lock and turn it we can open the door to new possibilities. The trouble is that with new possibilities come new responsibilities and the question is – are we willing to accept them? Unfortunately, many people are content to just manage their condition rather than seek true healing. This compromise for the sake of comfort dulls and stifles us reducing our natural vitality and sense of wellbeing. It’s crazy how we are content to go for this option and it’s only by people like you pointing out the possibilities from your lived experience that people will start to see that there is another way possible that is actually offering a beautiful expansion.

103. Thank you Jane for sharing this. It is very interesting indeed to consider the responsibility we have here. I know in my own body the more I truly take care of my body, the less I am in and out of medications and doctors. So actually I know it supports the whole in me doing this.

104. I really think what is key is the fact so many of us are constantly in self sabotage and are eating and drinking exactly what we know is not supporting our bodies to be in harmony. Until we dive deeper into our unconscious workings that are there to protect us from what we don’t want to feel we will never be able to address the lifestyle diseases that are bankrupting our health services around the world.

     1. Well said Vanessa.

105. Great blog Jane, what if we all took responsibility for our own health, doctors surgeries wouldn’t be so full, food manufacturers would start taking responsibility for what they put in our food, and likewise we would be more aware of what we are eating and how we feel.

106. “What if, simply by taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices, we can bring untold benefits to our own health and wellbeing and significantly reduce the burden on our pressurised health services?” Great question Jane. The impact of actually implementing this into our lives would be enormous, even if it started with the more simple conditions such as colds and sore throats. I was recently in a walk in clinic, and waited over two hours to see a doctor for something that needed to be checked quite quickly. I was told that the majority of people who come to that clinic are for problems that will get better on their own and need no medical treatment. For a health care system that is already bursting at the seams with the amount of more seriously ill patients that it has to see, this does not bode well for its future unless there is a willingness for people to change their attitude and approach to thier own health.

107. I agree. The willingness to ask ourselves the questions you have posed at the end of your article is the beginning of a vast shift in attitude and approach to our health and well-being.

108. Even though you have written about the NHS I am sure that the story of the UK’s health provider will be mirrored in most other countries. It seems very obvious from the masses of statistics being published showing that the majority of illness and disease comes about as a result of our lifestyle choices and therefore preventable. It’s time to dismantle the long held belief that there will always be an ambulance (the NHS) at the bottom of the cliff to catch us when we ‘fall’ and begin to live responsibly by being our own ‘doctor’ at the top of this proverbial ‘cliff’.

109. It is quite clear that the NHS is close to collapse and any thought that we can keep propping it up and continue as we have been is not going to work. It makes total and utter sense for us to have to start taking responsibility for our lifestyle choices because it feels pretty arrogant and self-centred to be thinking that it is ok to be living in a way that is going to cause illness and disease and have someone else pick up the pieces and the bill for it.

     1. I am not sure the day of reckoning is that close – the UK pays considerably less for healthcare than other, comparable countries (not just the US), so it will be interesting to watch to see what gives.

110. The title of this blog says it all – Whose hands is it in? As a society we are so conditioned into handing over responsibility to various professionals when we are looking for a fix and questioning what went wrong. To stop and recognise our primary role can be a hard pill that may be difficult to swallow, yet is a pretty obvious example of the choices that we make each day. This blog brings back the key word – RESPONSIBILITY – that is what starts us all towards a quality of life and true vitality we all know is possible.

111. Lifestyle choices and responsibility for our health would have to be in our own hands, as we live and breathe in our body, and make choices for what we do, eat, behave etc… It really can’t be passed or blamed onto another or something else surely as we have the ultimate say of what we ‘do’ and the relationship we have with everything.

112. I had a chronic illness for many years, looking for someone with the answers to get better. It was when I looked at how I was living and took responsibility for this with caring for myself and my everyday choices my health started to improve, I now no longer have the chronic illness.

113. This is a hugely important piece of writing, namely because it brings the social responsibility for one’s own health firmly back in to our hands. This is truly the way forward for healthcare systems all over the world as illness and dis-eases becomes ever more intense and complicated along with the intense and complicated versions of living that many if not all of us are engaging with – equally all over the world.

114. I absolutely agree we need to be responsible for our own health, I have begun to look at this myself and I am understanding that there is amazing amount we can do ourselves, concerning self-care which can make huge changes in our life. Coming back to responsibility is something I am looking at in my life generally, and what I mean by that is being more aware of the choices I make, why I make them and the impact they will have. We can all do this, it could be part of our up bringing, my children are having these conversations and we as a family are looking at our choices, and it is not just about the shops we go to, what we eat, where we go on holiday, it is the whole thing, the way we are with others, how we care for our bodies, what we eat, what emotions and energy we go in, do we clean up for ourselves round the house…generally….what habits do we have that impact on others or ourselves negatively…these details matter.

115. The NHS system is caught in a hamster wheel existence of fighting ill health through medical interventions. Yet if we truthfully stop, we will see this is a failed method of healthcare. Only when we get really honest about how we live, the inequalities we foster, and the disregard we covet will we make real change. Until then we will continue to see the NHS slide into a growing pool of despair, heading for a tipping point where the whole structure won’t work for anyone, patients or staff.

116. It is curious that we have a habit of enlisting ‘support’ and then conveniently forget that we are responsible in the first place, expect ‘the support’ to sort out everything we are not prepared to be accountable for. Nowhere is this seen as clearly as with our expectation for the Health System to be responsible for our health when as a society we are being so irresponsible with our choices that engrain us in ill health.

117. Could it be that we are unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing as that would expose the fact that it is our choices, the choices we have made that have got us ill in the first place?

     1. And that is the ultimate responsibility. Accepting the part we play in where we find ourselves today. But rather than it being a punitive or shameful moment, it is a point of inspiration to realise that we are in our own driving seats and can make changes if we so choose.

118. ‘The NHS has finite resources…’ and yet we expect to be able to go on leaning on it without taking responsibility for what has brought us to the need for health care. I enjoy considering how different the world will look when we choose to be responsible for the part we play and how symbiotic our relationship with our health care systems will be.

119. Our health is in our own hands. It is not only what lifestyle choices we make, but also how we accept, care for and love ourselves with all the choices we have made.

120. If it is all about healthcare providing better care for people, then maybe suggesting that people take more responsibility for their health is a step forward. The system that we have now is incredibly expensive and the level of care is in question, so it makes sense to do something different. I feel taking more responsibility for our individual lives is essential to making true change on our world.

121. In whose hands are we? – Ultimately our own. We make the choices.

122. In a way we say, I live how I like to live and when something happens there is always the medical system that will help me to recover from the irresponsibility I live. To me this is not acceptable anymore, as in fact it has never been, because the national health organizations are not able to cope with the continuous rise of the illness and disease rates and the severity of these anymore.

123. Great question Jane, the responsibility fall directly in our hands and our hands alone. Yet we are looking to the medical profession, doctors, hospitals, even the government to help bail us out of dyer situations when our health is compromised. But it really is because we want to negate responsibility for how we have been living. This is not ok.

124. From my experience in working in health care Jane I would agree with you that there does seem to be a way of thinking or a mentality that we must not advise or disagree with people’s choices and allow them complete free will to do whatever they like – a similar way of thinking exists on the internet. However our looming health crisis is rapidly reflecting to us that there is a responsibly we all have and that we do affect each other and everything by our daily actions, even our most personal choices.

125. If we all take responsibility for our choices in the way we live, not only will we be and feel much healthier, we will also take the pressure of the unsustainable burdens of the Health System.

     1. I couldn’t agree more Mary, especially as some of the more obvious health conditions can so easily be improved upon with some healthy food and exercise choices. It seems that people who have been ill for so long forget what it feels like to be vital and lively – I know I did until I made some changes.

126. This is what might be called “a brave move” by the NHS in the UK, to suggest a filtering of recipients of certain treatments depending on their lifestyle choices. But can we really afford to not take these measures, seeing that it is not only the NHS but health systems worldwide that are groaning under the heavy load of the afflictions caused by our lifestyle choices? Is it possible that measures like these are the only way we sit up and listen and start taking responsibility for our lifestyle choices rather than leave it to the public purse to take care of?

127. I feel a big part about making healthy lifestyle choices, is having accurate and truthful information on food and drink presented to people.

128. “What if, simply by taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices, we can bring untold benefits to our own health and wellbeing and significantly reduce the burden on our pressurised health services – well worth considering?” So on point!! True reform will only change the status quo when we begin to take more responsibility for ourselves, our health and our wellbeing.

129. The short comings of the NHS in the UK is regularly a hot topic of discussion and often these discussions put responsibility for health care only in the hands of the government. What you share here so beautifully Jane is that we all have responsibility and whilst there may be initial resistance to it, by taking responsibility for our lifestyle choices everyone benefits.

130. I agree totally Jane that we need to take responsibility for our own health! Only then will we truly realise that our own health will improve and also allow others to see the benefits in this as well. We can all just hand over to others the responsibility of looking after us but surely looking after ourselves must be more rewarding and the responsible thing to do.

131. I very much appreciate the support of Universal Medicine and the Ageless Wisdom teachings in understanding and healing my self-sabotaging choices. Neither is it beneficial to just fix someone’s symptoms without giving them the opportunity to deepen their understanding from it, nor is it useful to just ask people to be more responsible without offering the support needed to uncover and heal why they adopted the behaviour in the first place.

132. Responsibility for our own health and well being must be the only way to go and the way you share this Jane is so simple and obvious and very empowering and if we all adhere to this would change dramatically the current crisis in health care and the fundamental care that we all deserve and allows us the real and joyful loving way to be we are all part of and from.

133. Jane in discussions with a healthcare organization yesterday what came up is that they find people who have free healthcare or free insurance rarely make the active changes in their life, however for those that can’t access free healthcare or can’t afford insurance they have no choice but to change. However all of this could change if we started today to be responsible for how we lived, then there would be funding to support critical conditions and the fight for healthcare would dissolve.

134. I think it would be great to put more responsibility back in our own hands as it shows that the way the health care system is at the moment is not working as the rates of illness and disease are going up and up. It makes sense that the doctors and health professionals do their best yet it is now for all of us to take more responsibility for our own health.

135. We often get a wake up call with an illness as a reminder to care for ourselves because our health really is our own responsibility. An illness can be a message that returns us to focus on the details of exactly what support the body needs to remain vital and well. The NHS may be free but that does not mean we abuse the system and absolve ourselves of our responsibilities.

136. This article gives us all a moment to pause and consider just how much we rely on our health systems. How we expect them to support us and fix us if we get ill. I truly believe that why we live the way we do, that mostly lacks the responsibility our bodies require, is the most needed study in the world. For armed with this understanding many may just choose to change the most basic of living ways, that will truly support the body that we live in.

137. Some councils in England have stopped putting cigarette bins on streets and have litter police that will fine you £60 for dropping your finished smoke on the pavement. We have stopped listening to our body’s in regards to the abuse we cause, will the litter police and their fines help those they ticket to quit, or is it just shooting fish in a barrow for some easy revenue?

     1. Taking responsibility for our health and wellbeing is without a doubt, supporting the public health system.. Maybe there could be a tax deductive incentive in this to get more people to take up responsibility, rather than fining people for disregard?

        1. Love your plan! It could bring a new meaning to the carrot and the stick, but as policy makers never to miss a trick, the people that attempt to listen to their bodies and actively try to live a healthy life get to eat the carrot… the others get the stick.

138. We treat our bodies like a racecar! We drive it hard and fast use the NHS as the pit stop to be serviced and carry on the race. The problem is there are more and more cars on the track, with only one pit crew with limited supplies and staff. What if we stopped abusing our bodies? After all, we are the one in the driver’s seat!

     1. Great analogy Steve, highlighting our scant regard for ourselves and our health resources.

139. we do have to become more honest not just about what choices we are making, food, drink, work stress conflict situations, toxic relationships, drugs for example that are contributing to the harm in our bodies, but going deeper, to why we would choose things, or allow things that we know are harming. It is often very apparent to see in another, but we need to bring greater awareness to all that we do that keeps us less than our true vitality and vibrancy we are capable of living.

140. The answer to our health care funding crisis is definitely in us all taking responsibility for our own health. That way we are not leaving it up to others to do it for us.

     1. The simplicity in this truth, Elizabeth, is very inspiring.

141. That self-exploration in my relationship with the what I ate, drank, consumed by way of emotion, catching points of reaction, and the patterns and behaviours I would return to, have all contributed to a wider awareness that has naturally changed the choices I make…which has changed the level of health and vitality that I live with day to day.

142. The more I look after myself the more I can appreciate how this really does support my health and well being which in turn supports me to bring a quality to what I do. When I drop the ball or resist in going deeper in this relationship with myself I immediately feel the effects this has on my body and all those around me. This is so powerful because my awareness has become so much more in tuned to where I am. This is what freaks me out as I can see how simple it is being myself and enjoying spending time nurturing this relationship and how this is our responsibility. No biggy just being All of who we are.

143. Self-sabotage is the drug of choice worldwide. The state of world health systems in showing the increases in health related illnesses and disease. What is interesting in this blog is how time and time again we are constantly looking for causes and conditions to label our illness but how often do we stop to go deeper as to why we repeating the patterns time and time again? Deep down inside we know that this is not a loving choice yet it’s the call to responsibility that keeps many at bay.

144. I recently wanted to see a doctor and rather than wait for 2 weeks to get an appointment decided to go to the local drop in clinic as I felt my symptoms needed to be checked asap. At the drop in clinic you take a seat and wait until somone is free to see you. I was initially taken aback by the amount of people waiting to see a doctor and waited over 2 hours to be seen myself. I commented on the numbers in the waiting room, and the response from the doctor was that probably 50% of the time, people come with reasons that do not need medical treatment or even an examination, for example with a cold or a sore throat. What struck me then was the lack of responsibility we have in general when it comes to taking care of our own health, and that so often the response to being ill is to get a prescription from the doctor that will supposedly take away our symptoms. It would reduce the strain on our Health System enormously if we were to start taking true care of ourselves, and responsibility for our daily choices.

145. I just think this is brilliant – to bring responsibility into the mix. Its the missing ingredient in what is becoming an impossible puzzle for the NHS and while it may seem a bit radical, if we all took more respoonsibility then it would be like recruiting 7 billion nurses as we start to look after ourselves!

     1. I agree Simon taking responsibility for our own health is the missing ingredient and definitely a much needed one to bring in with regards to the NHS. It is just how do we start to do this, we need to be educated as to how to take responsibility for our own health, by people that already live this to the best of their ability with practical programmes put into place that people can work with along with a consistency of support where we can go to, to check in and help us if needed. Things like this do not need to cost millions or billions it is just have the right people in place that make it truly about people, including empowering and supporting them. This is an awesome blog that starts to bring a much needed discussion around taking responsibility for our own health which always seems to bring about a debate but we do need to speak about this.

146. It doesn’t seem to matter what we say or do, the truth is things always come back to you. There is always a way to choose Love, to go deeper, be greater and rise above. I haven’t found a situation yet where that is not the case. It is no wonder that our actual health system is so badly off, when our system of living is so far from health. The way back as you clearly show Jane is to take finally responsibility for ourselves.

     1. You have nailed it Joseph by saying “It is no wonder that our actual health system is so badly off, when our system of living is so far from health”. No amount of intervention, fixing or management will ever take the place of us choosing to live with a foundation that supports our health.

147. If we are not careful we will collapse our health care systems simply because they can not cope with the stress, workload, financial burden, ever rising complications and issues and the expectations to provide top notch care when often the health staff are rarely seen, valued and met for who they are and the service they provide. And this is all from our lack of responsibility in changing or rather dealing with the issues of how we are living!

148. It is interesting to know that people reacted to an edict that people who smoke will not be treated unless they are already on a program of self care. It seems that we are so wholly addicted to assuming help can only come from outside of ourselves that what is glaringly obvious cannot be seen. Self responsibility needs to become the new normal – then we will have one-to-one care for all of us and extra care from the doctors and nurses for those who truly need that care.

149. We have been supported with free healthcare, but in truth that has allowed a compliancy, with the public relying on the Public Health System to ‘fix’ the symptoms, without any responsibility being asked of the patient. It’s time we chose to take responsibility for our own well being, after all, we are the ones that we are supporting. Yes Jane it’s time!

150. As long as we deny the truth the body holds and communicates and allow ourselves to be motivated by our desires and needs there can be no taking responsibility for our ill health.

151. Thank you Jane, for a valuable insight into the situation of the health sector.

152. Hi Jane,
     Fantastic post and discussion. I remember reading an article several years ago that compared/contrasted the healthcare behaviors of American versus that of Scandinavians. I’m paraphrasing here the pith of the article: while Americans would visit a hospital once a year on average for usually an emergency, Scandanavians would visit their primary care physician approximately 7 times a year, just to check up on minor issues, which generally decreased the likelihood of any emergency medical case from ever occurring. I also recall the article emphasizing the benefit of Scandinavian patients seeing a chosen physician several times a year because it bred camaraderie and trust.

     While I think this is fascinating to ponder, especially in terms of financial prudence, I would perhaps like to play devil’s advocate regarding the prospect of visiting only a primary care physician several times a year for various issues. While primary care physicians (MDs) as well as NP/PAs are extraordinarily skilled at recognizing and treating common issues and illnesses, they are not specialized enough to recognize any of some of the rare medical issues that some of us may face. Theoretically, a superb primary care physician would be nearly immaculate at the decision of discerning what he or she knows and what he or she may not know–thus, appropriately referring the latter cases to a more specialized colleague.

     I have recently started a blog on Pharma, healthcare, and technology. I would love for you to join in on the comments!

153. “The moment you stop and ask yourself –
     Why do I live like this?
     Why do I eat and or drink this way?
     And, why do I self-sabotage so much?
     –you have opened yourself up to recognising
     the possible root cause of your ill ways.
     Following through on the questions alone will
     Begin the much-needed changes.” – SB

     Such simple yet powerful and poignant questions…this sets the ball rolling…and so we are challenged to take things deeper – for though the answer may be simple, there is much there trying to stop us from finding out the truth…are you willing to keep prying? There is much to be revealed should we dare to keep seeking the truth. In my experience, I have certainly been at times dumbfounded to feel the depth of self fooling and stubbornness that has been there, but when I allow the simplicity of what is to be felt, then there is a freedom that comes with it that helps me understand what has happened, what continues to happen should I allow it, and what a potential lies ready, waiting for me to embrace it.

154. When we are so used to blaming other people, the system, the weather, God and all sorts of things for the quality of our life, it may not seem so palatable to hear that we have a part to play and that we have a responsibility. Yet I have found that once embraced it turns out to be the most empowering realisation ever.

155. ‘Lifestyle choices and responsibility for our healthcare – whose hands is it in?’ …Who else’s hand but our own? ….we just like to keep avoiding it,

156. The responsibility each of us has for our own health has long been placed on the medical profession. Thankfully some are waking up to the undeniable fact that how we live is a major contributor to our health and wellbeing.

157. It seems the NHS crisis is in the news daily and with good cause as it is buckling under the pressure of our choices to not care for ourselves. The pressure of working as a doctor or nurse right now must be horrendous and stressful – at this rate it will be the sick looking after the sick.

158. I agree Jane, our health and the choices we take that affect it, really do sit squarely in our own hands.

159. I agree when we recognise our ill behaviours we can begin the journey to true healing and change. Without this awareness we carry on living in the illusion we are getting somewhere when in fact we are not but simply going around in circles abusing our bodies. Therefore appreciating this awareness and not being hard on ourselves which is something I am learning is key.

160. It’s when I read things like this that I’m glad to be a citizen of the U.S. Free healthcare comes at a cost. It’s not what it’s believed to be. Number one obesity is a disease and it’s not always caused by poor diet. Many diseases and medications for other diseases cause weight gain and can lead to obesity. Smoking is an addiction, as is alcoholism, drug addiction, etc. To leave these people on their own to try to figure out what’s best for them and to get the help they need is a very risky and unethical practice to me. So, I would much rather pay for insurance and be assured to get the best care possible. This is just my own opinion on the matter. Thank you for sharing yours or the knowledge on this matter that you have obtained.

161. Excellent questions Jane ! Something to really ponder on..

162. So true, in the UK there is much talk about the over burdened NHS and how it does not have the resources to deal with the escalating health crisis and yet here we are, everyone of us has the resources at hand, as in caring for ourselves a little more and taking more responsibility for our general health, so when something happens that brings an illness, we have a stronger foundation from which to heal from.

163. We easily turn to blame governments for shortcomings in our health systems, but we are less likely to turn to ourselves and question ‘what is my part in this?’ If we took responsibility for our own health and wellbeing we would not be in this situation in the first place.

164. “What if, simply by taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices, we can bring untold benefits to our own health and wellbeing and significantly reduce the burden on our pressurised health services – well worth considering?” What if indeed Jane. The potential for change to our health services here is enormous, and is something that we could all contribute to.

165. It is very worth considering being responsible for our ‘health care’. Sooner than later for this awareness to stay filtering through society would be very supportive to all. As shared the health system itself is in crisis and at some point this back up system will slow down. A very wise choice would be to heed this fact and start preventative choices so that we don’t turn around one day and get ‘cut-off’ from what we felt we where entitled to. That is someone else wearing the responsibility of our own less-responsible life-style choices.

166. Many people tend to think that their unhealthy lifestyle choices affect only themselves or that they have the right to be self-abusive because it is not affecting anyone else. We only need to spend some time at the emergency department of you local hospital to realize that self-abuse affects others in a visceral way. Alcohol leads to arguments, fighting and violence. Smoking cannot be contained in designated areas because the polluted lungs still share the air when the cigarette is finished. Even being moody, frustrated, grumpy, or miserable affects others.
     As Jane has pointed out here the health system is doing great work but it is not keeping up with the sheer numbers of people with illness and disease which are largely the result of unhealthy lifestyles.
     It seems our irresponsibility is catching up with us and what we have ignored for a long time because we have been able to “get away with it” is no longer ignorable.

167. I found that if I went to the doctor with the intention of them wanting to fix me there was no care or consideration that they are a person as well. And it doesn’t feel pleasant when someone wants you to pick them up and support them with no intention of supporting themselves, and that’s what came back to me, a lack of care. But if I go to the doctor with the intention and knowing that I can and am supporting myself, I meet my GP without the weight of expectation being placed on them and this is when I have seen doctors open up and become more caring and bringing back that intention to support and help people as many go into the profession for.

168. I find Serge Benhayon’s quote in this article both enlightening and empowering: “The moment you stop and ask yourself – why do I live like this? Why do I eat and or drink this way? And, why do I self-sabotage so much? – you have opened yourself up to recognising the possible root cause of your ill ways. Following through on the questions alone will begin the much-needed changes.” We may choose to ask for assistance and that is often a wise choice, however we are the ones living in our body, we are the ones living our life, the reflections offered in our life are precious gifts to us from our soul that can support us deepen our awareness and evolve. The responsibility is very clearly in our own hands and the wiser we choose to be the more we will celebrate this fact.

169. Its a crossroad we are at in our healthcare systems, particularly in free at point of use countries like the UK, in the USA the problems are in some ways harsher in that for many they can’t afford healthcare and are left with no support. This is all a wake up call but it will be interesting to see the response, the sense of entitlement that runs through so many patients in the UK NHS system is a result of the long held lack of responsibility we have towards healthy lifestyles. You would have to question if we even know what healthy lifestyles are when we have doctors that themselves are stressed and not managing to cope.

170. In society, we have started to see a widespread acceptance that there is a link between the quality and kind of food that we eat and disease and illness rates. But how long will it take us to expand this out to the emotions and reactions we have every day? Perhaps the first step is for us to see we absolutely choose to indulge in these too just as we do with an ice cream or chocolate bar. In my experience, emotional binges are extremely toxic for me.

171. The NHS can no longer cope with the self-abusive nature we have endorsed, and in some instances encouraged, in our society.

     1. It’s a two way street isn’t it… The NHS has the responsibility to be a nurturing company and support us all, and we have the responsibility to look after ourselves and not abuse the NHS.

172. We can support each other with the upmost respect and dignity in regards to illness and disease but can also have no ‘sympathy’ for the way we got there or we will never be able to truly look at, and turn around, the devastating health issues we have as a society.

173. Self responsibility is the key to not only our physical health but also evolution.

174. If our medical systems are so overloaded and overwhelmed with the sheer number and complexity of health issues today, how can we expect that the healing or care we may receive be anything other than crisis management? Come in personal responsibility and we have the opportunity to engage in health care where we are seeking more than just symptom relief so we can return to our ill choices of the past.

     1. We have an interesting dilemma. See our health issues as a curse that someone else needs to save us from and we have disempowered sick individuals as well as a health system crippled with the increasing health trends. See our health issues as an invitation for us to deepen our understanding and responsibility and we have empowered evolving individuals using the health system as part of taking responsibility for their own healing. It is imperative that our health education that promotes such self responsibility right from the beginning.

175. “The NHS has finite resources that are so stretched now and the deficit continues to mount, and there simply isn’t enough resource to go around or to meet the ever-increasing demand on illness and disease.” This is something that the government does not want to openly discuss and therefore is avoiding the issue, preferring to bury its head in the sand rather than state the obvious; that we are to start taking responsibility for our own health as the system cannot afford to prop up irresponsibility – to the ever-increasing degree we at large, expect and take for granted.

176. The NHS has financial problems now, so how are they going to move forward with escalating numbers of illness and disease…what would happen if they started asking people to be more responsible for their health? For instance, if people blatantly abuse their health by whatever means-smoking, drugs, alcohol, etc.,then maybe NHS would have a system in place that benefits those who are responsible for their health, and penalises in some way or ways those who abuse their health; and, at the same time those who wanted to change their disregarding habits could be supported. This would be unpopular by many at the outset, but if this was understood from birth then I am sure many would respond.

177. These are such great questions Jane, as you inspire a greater and more detailed look in to healthcare systems and our responsibility to ourselves which affect all of the processes within the NHS that are desperately trying to stay afloat amongst an increasing impossible situation.

178. What I felt to reiterate from what you have written so wonderfully Jane is that taking responsibility for our own health means not only truly, deeply and unreservedly loving and caring for ourselves but equally taking letting ourselves be honest enough to build a very personal and intimate relationship with EVERYTHING our body is sharing with us all the time.

     For instance I have some warts on my finger and sure taking responsibility for them is about getting them treated and hence dealt with, but equally is the importance of feeling into them myself and reading what these warts are indicating to me about how I live, because they are not naturally something the body would have in the first place. Perhaps there is some disregard in my life day to day relating to how I am with myself and others that the warts are indicating? If we take healthcare to this level then we would not only be dealing with the physical problem but also the reason why it has even existed.

179. What a responsibility this would bring, ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ We are powerful beyond belief.

180. It is something to consider – what has been our responsibility and part to play in allow the governments and corporations to take over control of the freedom of choice over our health and treatments. If we allow institutions to assume control and authority they will take it, and if those institutions have been influenced or corrupted in any way by power, money, control we bear the brunt of their greed and ignorance – and indeed we may feel like we are helpless in the face of such autocracy – however this is an illusion, one that is fostered by these very institutions, for in fact we can start to turn the tide immediately. just as you are leading the way in Jane. thank you.

181. We are for most part responsible for our well being. I know some people take better care of their cars then their bodies. It is mind staggering to see someone treating their bodies as garbage disposal then having to suffer the consequences. Unfortunately some illnesses seem unpreventable, but we don’t need to add to it by abusing our bodies.

182. It is a big question Jane ‘Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?’ – could it be that we are looking for solutions outside of us and doing our utmost to avoid taking responsibility for our own chooses that led to the ill health in the first place. It seems like our dishonesty is ultimately leading the NHS to crumble under the pressure of our unloving choices.

183. The biggest issue facing the health service appears to be the increase in cases of Type 2 Diabetes, an entirely preventable disease. The food manufacturers are out for profit, as is the current ‘rule’ for business, but if the Health authority and the food manufacturers were to work together for HUMANITY then the problem could be resolved. Charging a tax for sugar is overlaying another rule instead of getting people to take responsibility. Duty on Alcohol doesn’t stop people drinking, it just means they don’t have money left for other things. The general public also need to take responsibility, not just depend on the NHS to provide pills so they can continue their lifestyle as before.

184. ‘first do no harm’ – This is an interesting statement and oath to look at, and in relation to treating patients with lifestyle related diseases – could there be a balance between supporting them with their health and delivering care to help them get better, but also not encouraging self-abusive behaviours by continuously providing the solution of treatment without looking at the cause?

185. The NHS is like a bucket of water that we the taxpayers pour money in, at the same time because of our choices we are poking holes in the bottom of the bucket. Will, there will come a time there are too many holes and bucket runs dry?

     1. Steve, your comment reminds me of the song ‘There’s a hole in my bucket…!’ A great question though, and one we need to take heed of. We have to start taking responsibity for our choices or the whole system is likely to eventually disintegrate.

186. We can so easily ignore what we know is deep down the truth that we are ultimately the only one responsible for our choices and bodies and what they represent. Being selective as to what we remember and associate ourselves with ‘good’ choices but blank all the rest. Interesting that we can play this game for so long but always it catches up with us no matter what and we are held to be accountable for our Irresponsibilities.

187. Quite often we can feel trapped in our illnesses and feel that there is no way out, especially when the medical profession has tried their best with us – with or without our cooperation or our maximum effort, but what we fail to realise is that even the smallest of changes over time will start to change the way we feel and how the body responds to those changes can be miraculous.

188. Once I started taking responsibility for my body and started to respect it, love it and care for it I realised how much I had ignored and neglected it. Thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I have come to understand and appreciate that there is so much we can offer ourselves it we live with such a level of Self-Love and Self-Care.

189. The responsibility for our health ultimately falls with the individual, all the money and the best treatments won’t help somebody who does not want to change, so perhaps we as individuals could also adopt “first do no harm”. If there are good programs out there for people smoking or obese this might be the best medicine to prescribe.

190. It can feel quite tricky to make some changes because we can get caught up in our patterns and habits we have always done. The NHS is finding it very difficult to sustain us not making changes, it is absolutely our responsibility to do this ourselves. I know I used to feel I wanted to change but then couldn’t manage to do it and would fall back into old patterns. Once I realised how everything is energy, I know now to feel the energy of what is happening and find the root cause of what I’m feeling before the behaviour, and realise that is what is needing to change and the habit loses its grip.

191. I love re-visiting this blog, Jane, as it makes so much common sense. Asking ourselves these simple questions would improve to no end the drastic situation in the NHS but also throughout society, as we would become more responsible in the way we are with ourselves, our bodies and each other.

192. I am finding more and more how absolutely vital and integral to healing is our personal involvement in the process. There is nothing more empowering than understanding our power, responsibility and potential by deeply and profoundly engaging with this process. I know this to be irrevocably true because I have experienced such support from Universal Medicine and know the level of empowerment and deepened awareness this brings. It would be a great gift if the immensely valuable insights offered by Universal Medicine became part of the standard medical studies, so medical practitioners who so deeply care about the support they offer could deepen it to embrace this area as well.

     1. Yes Golnaz, if we leave it up to the system to “fix us up” we never cure anything. If we take full responsibility for our condition and our healing, address our lifestyle choices, be eager and engaged with our medical staff we are much more likely to have lasting healing.

193. ‘why do I self-sabotage so much?’ This is a question that we can often ask ourselves – we know what is good or bad for us, we make resolutions to change but somehow that resolve weakens and then we add to our self criticism for not making that change. The concept of self care is extending to include self-appreciation, letting go of self-judgment and self criticism, so that naturally caring for our bodies becomes a no-brainer.

194. The world is waking up! Our world is growing smaller by the day, with the web connecting everyone and thing. Multimedia is now a platform for people to express, what are we doing to ourselves through our choices? The ripples on the pond are growing!

195. Imagine if we rented a car and drove it down the side of a mountain, rolled it through a forest of trees and poured in alcohol and left old food inside. What would the faces of the company be when we returned it back at the end of our trip? Yet this is the irresponsible way we can treat our body, yet still expect that a doctor will magically fix up the situations we have created. It is time we started to see our physical being is delicate and precious – just like a Rolls Royce – and is the only one we get this lifetime.

     1. I had spent most of my life knowing every nut and bolt of all my cars and could feel when something was not right but treated my body like the works dumper truck that is meant to be used and abused, daily! Today I treat my body like a classic car; it runs as if it was new. It is nothing flash, but it does everything I need to get me where I am going, with style!

     2. Just love this analogy Joseph, rather eye opening in its rawness, but presenting nothing but the truth of the way so many are choosing to treat their bodies; in fact many treat their cars so much more lovingly then their bodies. Where’s the common sense in that? Time to acknowledge that we have a body that is just as glorious as some consider a Rolls Royce to be, so let’s take responsibility and treat it with the loving care it deserves, after all it is the one that will support us until the end of this life.

196. Support for our world health is much needed and the fact that we can all play our own part in this by taking responsibility for ourselves by our lifestyle choices is immense and life changing. Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine is leading the way in reflecting to us all there is another way to life that supports us all everyday and the doctors and health care workers and everyone. Surely this needs to be looked at with the severe global health crisis we are all part of.

197. You make a valid point Jane about supporting our fellow health workers, especially as resources are being stretched to the limit within the NHS here in the UK. It must be very frustrating for the GPs to see people time and time again with illnesses which can be prevented or even managed better if the patient looked after themselves more and made different choices regarding their health.

198. Recently I have also been to see the doctors and had a hospital appointment regarding a health condition, nothing serious but I was offered a course of treatment which I could accept on its own and just carry on as before, however I know that the way I was living day to day and had through my life had created this and therefore had to be open to looking deeper and changing these choices to really heal the situation.

199. I love this understanding that there is an underlying responsibility for having any illness. It teaches us how and why an illness happens to us and we have the opportunity to learn from this.

200. Something I found odd in my studies is that in at least one lecture they would present the stats that the health care system is going to be bankrupted in a matter of years. Yet we are still relactant to make the nessary changes as indivuals and as a society as a whole.

     The problem with hearing the stats about the health care system is that people detach themselves from the fact that it doesn’t include them. However if we consider that the health care system supports everyone, when it fails, it is a responsibility on us all.

201. Fantastic reading Jane on how our choices to either be open to looking at what is going on or to not which results in the health systems around the world being crippled by the staggering weight of illness and disease.

202. At age 40, some 23 years ago, I made a choice to be more responsible for what I put into my body. My body showed me that what I was eating was not working as I would always feel bloated and or congested. So I stopped eating pita bread, which was the last gluten I was eating and started to eat totally gluten free. While I stopped those things I was still having cravings for certain foods. I did not consider this until I felt what was happening in my body and then tried to give them up. I was shocked as I felt as though I was addicted, which I suppose I was, as I found it really difficult to give up certain foods and even when I did give them up the cravings persisted for a while.

     Thirteen years ago I came across the presentations by Serge Benhayon and this was life changing. For the first time I came to understand that underneath my indulgences were a lot of hurts. These hurts needed to be healed, otherwise the scenery or drug may have changed but the emotional addiction which was the underlying cause was still prevalent. So after 13 years I still am finding hurts that need to be healed. Thank you Jane, I fully agree that we all need to be looking after our own health so that the health care professionals can do what they are trained in. One huge problem is the lies that have been perpetrated on society about sugar.

203. Surgery can help us with repairs to our body when something is broken but we can support the work of surgeons by stopping the behaviours that started the whole thing off. For example, I’ve just had a hysterectomy to cure a prolapse and I have explicit instructions to not lift things for a few days – on my own head be it – otherwise it will happen again. I must admit, my nails are loving not cleaning or washing up and are growing at last!

204. It is simple really. If we truly focussed on self care, and invested our time in people and not just the system, then the financial repercussions would be huge. Unfortunately, no one really wants to truly look at self care in detail, because we are all invested in the things that we draw comfort from and that assist to numb us from feeling the tension in life. And rather would we deal with the ramifications of such disregarding choices, than deal with the tension that underpins life for every human being. So if you talk about self care, you have to talk about tension, the fact of tension, and acknowledge and explore what drives that tension. For only then, do you start to realise why self care is so difficult.

205. If you were to observe NHS care as a complete outsider, an alien even, it might seem strange to see a system where you don’t have to care for your own health, then you have expectations that a health service must then step in. Of course there are many factors at play, lack of education, low social mobility, access to good health choices, but ultimately we have to be honest when we say, have we done all we can to live in true wellness. And if we do get ill are we going to take control of making the changes to how we live, it is only in this partnership that the NHS can be of any long term support anyway, otherwise we are just plugging a leak.

206. There seems to be a deep level of disconnect between illness and personal responsibility. We can become dependent on and demanding of the medical and community health systems to support us and even indignant if it does not serve us as we expect. At the same time there is often absolutely no regard for the fact that much illness is lifestyle related. .

207. ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ A great question for us Jane . But really, such an obvious one too..We need to consider why we don’t want to go there and take up that super-simple responsibility.

208. It is interesting as I can’t imagine the idea of us all taking responsibility for our own health will be welcomed. Which is very exposing. We have become so used to and feel entitled to having other people fix things for us as though it is their responsibility. It can be a wake up call when that responsibility is given back to the rightful owner. But in Truth we love it because we know it was our responsibility all along.

209. It is such a fascinating topic I know personally when I 1st make a choice to not do something like say eat something I know is not good for my body like cake then I feel the instant support in making that choice, however it is then up to me to live in a way that confirms that choice otherwise later on at some point I will be back in the same position wanting it even more. And so the more I say yes to living in a truly loving and supportive way the less I find myself wanting the ‘cake’ in the 1st place. But lets say I have the cake then my tendency next time is also to have the cake and so it goes on. We then consider it to be normal and ok because we have repeated it when it is actually harming our own body, something we live with 24/7!

210. “Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?” This is such a good question Jane. It’s actually astounding that most of us do not want to take responsibility for our own health, and instead hand that responsibility over to the medical professionals. Yes we need support from the medical profession, but why would we want to disempower ourselves by relying solely on them? It just doesn’t make sense.

211. It is actually empowering to ask ourselves these questions, and take responsibility for our choices.This is where the true healing begins. We will start to see real and lasting improvement in our health, and lessen the burden on our health care systems. Everyone wins.

212. A humdinger of a ‘what if’ question at the end, Jane. Simply considering what taking responsibility for our health and well-being might look like… this is huge.

213. When we start understanding, promoting and LIVING that free choice and responsibility go hand in hand the whole discussion will change, no longer will the question focusing on the loss of freedom but the degree of responsibility lived.

     1. Well said Alex, the key as you have high lighted is ‘living’ the love we know and then the responsibility naturally follows. Without living the love we are anything that is so called ‘taken away’ is seen as a loss but what if it was not actually truly supporting us in the 1st place?

214. Why isn’t it common knowledge / Wisdom that most of us run away from ourselves day after day, simply to avoid feeling the hurts that reside within. The perfect excuse to blame or keep anything or anyone to ransom. Instead of taking responsibility and making the most of our own precious life. We’re our own ‘creators’ of life. That is, we are to either co-create (being impulsed by the one unified truth and love of God) or create (choosing to live disconnected and keep adding to the separation in life).

     We could simply prevent all of this if we would start communicating about choices, responsibility and the love of life. Instead we allow silently the force of jealousy to ruin our innate preciousness and are (seemingly) forever forced to keep playing this awful game. But there’s a way out. Simply by starting to apply self-love and self-care into our daily lives and start being honest about our feelings.

215. There is a tendency to think that doctors and nurses will fix us so that we can go back to the way we were living before, not realising that our illness is our body saying ‘stop doing this’. Part of preparing for an operation can be looking at how we have been living and starting to make changes to our lifestyle so that once we are recovered from the operation itself we do everything to prevent a recurrence i.e. live and eat differently.

216. Jane, your article has made it blatantly clear that we must all take responsibility for our health. Our Doctor, and/or our Health care system can and should support us, but we as individuals must take responsibility. Unhealthy lifestyles are going to lead to illness, it’s that simple, the statistics show that is where we are going and we cannot afford such complacency.

217. Great blog Jane, highlighting that our health is actually our responsibility and we have a part to play in supporting our true wellbeing, rather than having expectations that the NHS and medications can fix everything without us doing anything else.

218. I’m noticing within myself that I don’t actually have an active relationship with our healthcare system. As if it’s not my responsibility. Only than when I need them. When I’m sick or need an operation I actually demand that they’re there for me and ‘fix’ me. Rather than accepting that I am my own medicine at first, the way I live. And that I am indeed responsible for the body I bring into the healthcare system. Said from a loving perspective. We’ve got an amazing healthcare system. This shows the care for each other. But the care is more or less organised, not actively lived on a daily basis. Isn’t it amazing and very humbling how much our GP’s, nurses etc. do support us unconditionally. In fact, supporting us while we’ve made the choices that led to the illness or disease. I can feel how I am still stubborn to truly accept that I am responsible, but nevertheless can feel that it is true. But we can’t continue to be stubborn and demanding. As the illness and disease rates are going through the roof and if we don’t make the change, we will end up to slowly deconstruct our amazing system. Simply because the system is too expansive.

219. I was talking to someone today about the notorious clubbing area/street in the town where they live, where all the bars, pubs and clubs are in a very concentrated area, meaning come ‘chucking out’ time in the early hours, the area becomes a tinder box for violence, aggression and disorderly behaviour, meaning it is a nightly exercise for the police to be there, getting everyone home safely in their various states after a hard night on the tiles. Think of the amount of time and money we are spending keeping our streets and each other safe from ourselves after we have been drinking or taking drugs – and then there is the next knock on effect, the number of people in A & E after a night out has taken a turn for the worse, with doctors working tirelessly to put right what we continue to put wrong.

     1. Yes when you stop to consider the ripple effect of our every choice it really is a huge wake up call.

220. Has modern medicine become a method for us to continue our lifestyles of excess? What is the percentage of treatments that are not, from our choices in the way we have been living? Smoking, drinking, drugs and food we choose to indulge is a good start of a list of our devolutionary actions on our health. The way we live and how we care for the vessel that contains us is what medicine needs to address, not how to fix what we have chosen to break.

221. “What if, simply by taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices, we can bring untold benefits to our own health and wellbeing and significantly reduce the burden on our pressurised health services – well worth considering?” A great question Jane. We simply cannot continue to blame our ill health on outside influences, but have to start looking at the choices we are making in our daliy lives that could possibly have some bearing on how we are. And this could be any number of things from our diet and how we eat, to our relationships, how we move, how we sleep, what we think or what we do to distract ourselves to name but a few.

222. We have an incredible healthcare system in the UK with the NHS but as you share the problem is that with the current approach we all have to healthcare it is unsustainable. Yet with a simple change, by looking at our lifestyle and making choices that support our body we can make the NHS sustainable once again.

223. Responsibility is 100% ours to take, Jane, whether it is to find out what we eat that is causing the IBS or discovering why we have low back pain. The body responds to how we are living and until we look at that, all we are doing is putting sticking plasters over our symptoms, and carrying on in the same way. It does not work, and no amount of relief is going to solve the issue until we look deeply into our lifestyle choices.

     1. I totally agree with you Gillrandall, as I myself suffered for 15 years with low back pain and chronic IBS and through changing the way I relate to the world and my food choices, these two health conditions no longer even register as health issues – isn’t it even worth considering that we actually play a part in our own well-being as a start.

224. It can take a lifetime to build an ill body – the trouble is, we are surprised by a heart attack or a stroke, not truly appreciating that is is all our choices how to live through the decades of our life that has led to it. A healthy life is a whole life in which we take good care of our bodies from birth to death.

     1. Can I add though that it is never too late to start? As in, at those points of realisation we don’t just keep ploughing on, but start to shift and turn the ill habits ingrained over years… I have certainly seen huge changes in my health and well-being as I have chosen to take more care and be more respectful of my body.

225. Not until we take more responsibility for our own health will anything change, it is in our own hands to make the changes, and only then will it make any progress. It is entirely up to us all to realise it is completely our own destiny whatever we decide to choose.

226. Health care has always been in our hands! But, we are constantly trying to improve something that doesn’t always need to be fixed. Are we just stuck in the swamp, in water up to our waste that is full of alligators and snakes and forgot we are here to drain the water?

227. It is curious our capacity to out right refuse to accept responsibility for our health even for the most obvious ones like obesity and type 2 diabetes. We truly do not have intelligence that serves us to be harmonious we are too often run by an intelligence that cares little for the body.

228. Re-writing the medical system in such a way requires a complete re-write of the education system to ensure we are raised to understand what taking responsibility for our health truly looks like and how it is lived.

229. Taking responsibility for ourselves and how we live our lives, is definitely the way forwards to reduce the strain on the NHS. I used to think more money was required, but in fact, when we reduce the unnecessary need for treatment by helping ourselves, the demands on the NHS system would reduce proportionally.

230. The financial burden of our lifestyle related illness will certainly affect our health services more and more. If we all take primary responsibility for looking after our bodies this will affect more than the health services, for our food choices would also change and this would impact the food producers and processing industries.

231. I am always slightly bemused as to why the fact that our illnesses are largely lifestyle related doesn’t bring a feeling of hope and action, the fact it is mostly in our hands and our choices should bring liberation but rather it brings dismissal and denial. It seems we are more invested in how we live than in the truth.

232. It’s a big scary word – ‘Responsibility’. When I take a look out in the world the lack of responsibility prevails, common place from the litter on the street to the lack of a living example from our leaders.

233. Jane, it is great to come back to your blog again and feel we can all play a role in not only our own well being but reducing the burden on our NHS.

234. A much needed question Jane thank you ” Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?” Taking responsibility for the way we live and not indulging and smothering ourselves can be the only way to change our lives our health and the health crisis hitting world health growing out of control every day. Thank you and a great reflection for us all.

235. Billions are spent on curing the things we have caused to flourish from our ill choices. What is spent on preventing them from happening in the first place, that has always been a simple choice?

236. Perhaps the only way collectively we take ‘responsibility’ for our own health properly, is when whole health care system which is under increasing strain and demands of rising diseases, has to crack and fall apart… for then it can be rebuilt on the foundation that every body can see their part in taking responsibility for the whole.

     1. The healthcare system is clearly under strain but do we really have to wait till it “cracks and falls apart” before we address the root cause? What are we currently investing in that is making things worse?

237. I firmly believe that we all need to take more responsibility for our own wellbeing and this should be lead by the NHS but not only by being promoted but also by example. This means that staff and clinicians should also look at their own way of living and levels of self care.

238. This brings up many questions about the way we live and what we are prepared to take responsibility for. It seems many of us stick our heads in the sand to not see what we are doing to our own bodies which in turn affects others in the way of pressure on our health system. In time we will all need to take responsibility for the parts we play.

239. In a capitalist society there has always been that tension between those who care for themselves and are less of a tax burden, and those who do not and cost more in healthcare. The problems arising are the depth of health burdens that are occurring, we see more and more people suffering ill health and more and more extreme behaviours to cope with the intensity of life. Somewhere in there is the balance between, education, care, compassion and self responsibility, but for sure the latter, responsibility has to be at the top of our healthcare agenda as no other way is going to work, financially or personally if we wish to live in a state of wellness.

240. Great article Jane, and I agree ‘ Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?’ What is it going to take for this fact, of us being responsible for our own health and way of living, to be universally accepted as being an absolutely essential component of life.

241. The global health situation is in very difficult times, it is time to make some realistic decisions and change in policy, but also a change of heart for many people who ask for the support for a healthier way of living.

242. Jane in my arrogance about how I was living in the past I would never even ask the question “why do I live like this?”, simply going and going and going and then wanting a fix if something in me is not going so well. Of course I would never even treat my car or computer like that! There is a clear and direct link between exactly how I live, the choices I make, and my health. This will no doubt be part of our education process at home and at schools where we understand our health is in our hands before anyone else’s.

243. It makes complete sense to me that if I am to have a body that is vital and harmonious, it is the choices that I make that will determine this. What I love about Serge Benhayon and the teachings of Universal Medicine is that it takes it to the next level and questions what quality are you choosing when making these choices. That is what will determine the outcome of our bodies.

244. What the NHS is moving towards is a controversial but needed step – our health care service provides amazing support but it is buckling under the strain of far too much pressure which cannot be released by drugs and pills, but lifestyle choice changes.

245. There are so many times throughout my life that I have visited doctors with extremely uncomfortable symptoms and they have not found any physical explanation. And yet the pains persisted. Thanks to Serge Benhayon I have come to understand and accept that all pain and illness stems from the way we live. That they start as warning signs that have not yet become physically explainable, but could if the messages go unheeded and we don’t change our choices. These experiences unequivocally show me that the ultimate responsibility for our health is in our own hands.

246. Years ago, when I was a smoker, there was a new drug that was being offered to assist you to stop smoking but was only available by prescription. I went to see my doctor about this, and he said: he would not prescribe the drug, people that smoked did it because they liked it and they had to chose to quit! After years of looking for ways of quitting, I just decided to stop one day, 15 plus years ago.

247. Our healthcare is in the hands of our doctors and those who pay for it – which is ourselves, really. As patients or participants we then have a choice to do our bit and that bit can be vast.

248. The joy and ease I have in my life now is an incredible testimonial to the work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. Taking responsibility for my way of life, and my part in my health care is simple common sense and has built true vitality in my body. And I love waking up every day knowing that there is even more I can do – an ever evolving, caring and nurturing way of living.

249. Where do our choices come from? Is our focus avoiding pain and discomfort, and gaining security and reaching our images of success? Or are we realising how much grander than this we are, and the power and responsibility within us to offer our vital part in ensuring that none of us end up resigning to the smallness of avoiding pain and discomfort, nor accepting the defeat of seeking the lonely path of personal success. THIS is how True Health starts.

250. Lifestyle choices are the elephant in the room that we refuse to see, admit to or want to change. It’s literally like we want our cake and eat it without accepting the consequences.

251. Taking greater care of our own health makes simple common sense thereby alleviating stress, time and resources on an overburdened system.

252. Sometimes the most loving thing we can do in life, is say No.

253. It is easy to get a sense of how the NHS is struggling to keep its doors open, and there are many reports from around the country that say this vital unit is shutting down or services are being reduced, and maybe as a regular everyday person we feel like we cannot do anything to help the situation or that we pay our national insurance therefore it’s not my responsibility, but what if we all did ask ourselves some basic questions as presented in this blog, and made some small changes to our life style. Isn’t it a win win situation, we improve our health and reduce the visits to the doctors, and the NHS gets to feel the burden lift.

254. Jane, this is a really important information to share, ‘For well over a decade the NHS has been promoting ‘Self Management’(3) of chronic illness and disease, in a bid to hand back responsibility for wellbeing, and the management of chronic conditions back to patients. This has not really taken off in the mainstream NHS and remains on the periphery.’ it shows how little responsibility we take for our own health, it is not a suprise reading this that there is so much illness and disease, if we are not willing to look at our lifestyle choices and to make healthier more loving choices.

255. Jane, this is well worth considering, ‘What if, simply by taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices, we can bring untold benefits to our own health and wellbeing and significantly reduce the burden on our pressurised health services?’ This completely makes sense and really it is a little crazy that it does not work in this way already, there is so much information available about healthy lifestyle choices and yet so many of us choose to ignore these, there is very little responsibility taken in this, which does not benefit anyone.

256. Something that stands out to me in this blog is the fact that through our own choices to live in a way that create lifestyle diseases which then place a strain onto the healthcare systems, we are in effect actually blocking the way for sustainable and high quality care to be available for those whose conditions are not necessarily lifestyle related, but are more a result of their bodies healing, clearing, or ageing processes. The difficulty here is, the general tendency to not consider our ill conditions as lifestyle related, or even our responsibility at all. So this is where perhaps education plays a key role in the future of healthcare.

257. The Hippocratic oath ‘First do no Harm’ is a very powerful one and one that is very humbling, calling all health professionals to attention. However, this oath is not and should not just be something reserved for health care professionals only, or if it is, then it is high time that we all saw ourselves as health professionals on some level – what I am saying is that this oath actually applies to us all. After all we have our own body as our first responsibility, from the moment we are old enough to walk and talk and express and make choices. Hence the oath ‘First do no Harm’ is applicable to us all and so it calls us all to responsibility in caring for our body with the choices that we make. When we go see a doctor, we actually go to seek their advice, their counsel so to speak, however in our society this has become about delegating our issues to them whilst not working with them. Hence what you have presented here, Jane, is about us all working together on all levels, being more aware of the role we play as patients, and empowering ourselves – as we so rightly are capable of.

     1. You are quite right. We all have the inalienable right to harm ourselves as much as we want. That is true but what I wonder about is why should we be so protected from the consequences as we currently are?

        1. Spot on Christoph…there is a sort of pandering that happens in our society where we are not called to the full responsibility that we are actually capable of in any given moment in time. It is of course important to have recourse to medical and other support when one has realised one’s mistakes and needs help to get back on track, but this implies that one has the true intent to make changes that support our health. Too many times we fall into a complacency of letting another fix us, the disempowerment is instant. And medical practitioners and others do play a role in this – perhaps this ‘protection’ comes from something the practitioner has to gain… a feeling of importance or identification perhaps in being able to help another, or a way for us all to not grow and learn…The question you have asked here Christoph is one for us all to ponder deeply on!

258. If we do not soon start to look at our lifestyle with sincerity, our health and medical system will become bankrupt, if it is not already. It is already happening, and already there is resentment in society by people who believe that it is the morbidly obese people etc that are cluttering up our health system. But that in itself is an irresponsible way to look at things, that just because you are not extremely unhealthy, that you are not contributing to the problem. It is like a person who drinks 1 drink a night does not think they contribute to alcohol violence, yet they do inevitably by perpetuating a culture that says it is normal to drink alcohol.

259. The elephant in the room has become so huge that denial of its presence is nonsensical. But, on the whole, we still continue to accept a way of life that is virtually killing us. It is only when we begin to appreciate how amazing and beautiful we truly are that we can start to treat ourselves with the love and care that nurtures, heals and truly sustains us.

260. It’s extraordinary that as a society we tend to adorn our bodies with the best we can afford and yet trash our bodies on the inside by filling them with junk food, with sugar, dairy and gluten all substances that have been proven to inhibit good health and vitality.

261. Responsibility for ourselves and our health makes perfect sense, maybe this needs to be taught from a young age so it is deeply understood. I agree Jane, why are we unwilling to be responsible, ‘Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?’

262. Yes this is well Worth considering Jane! I understand why people drink, smoke, take drugs and overeat, which are four very large precursors for ill health and the resultant strain on the NHS and country and planet as a whole, because I’ve done all of these myself, to numb the pain in my life, but what I don’t understand is how caring/loving it is to treat patients over and over again for conditions related to these abusive behaviours, whilst the patient isn’t prepared to take responsibility and take action to stop the behaviour in order to support the healing of not only the resultant physical disease but also to be able to expose the underlying cause that makes them need to continue the abusive behaviour, in order for that to have a chance to be healed also, which would reduce the need for the numbing, abusive behaviour also …. The old adage “you’ve got to be cruel to be kind” is so true here – if the NHS keeps patching them up, these amazing people who sadly have allowed their hurts to build up to such an extent that they have to use extreme measures to not feel them, have absolutely no quality of life, even with the NHS trying to reduce symptoms; surely it would be more loving to support them to understand why they have this behaviour and encourage them to take action to stop the self abuse by refusing to treat them unless they show willingness to take responsibility for themselves and work with the healthcare profession rather than against, for the good of their own health and wellbeing.

263. This is a great article Jane. I feel that there needs to be more education from a young age about how life style choices affect our health and well-being and with this awareness, if people choose to drink and smoke, then they can be responsible for their choices and the effect this has on their health, not the NHS.

264. Healthcare Staff should not have to be put in a difficult position about whether to treat a preventable disease based on the patient’s lifestyle, but the current pressures on the system are unsustainable. When we are young, many of us are thankfully fit and healthy, but take our health for granted. Are we get older our viewpoints usually change, but in some cases the damage is done or remains hidden from daily sight. It’s pleasing to see the work done in schools to educate children and young people about nutrition, exercise and lifestyle choice but society as a whole needs to pay more attention. Behaviour change in a population is possible but it takes time and requires the right stimulus. Ideas anyone?

265. It’s so obvious that we are the ones who need to take direct responsibility for our health. We are the ones who live in our bodies so therefore why would we not want to take good care of them? By the time we get to the doctor we are already living with the consequences of disregard, therefore the doctor has a pretty hard job! It makes sense to do our bit.

266. This is a simple but clear call to take responsibility for our choices, not only for our own benefit but also for the well-being of our wider societies and in the UK the support and nurturing of our much overburdened National Health Service.

267. Being able to full accept that we are fully accountable for our own bodies and the quality that they are reflecting is something that we can find a little tricky. I know I have in the past and sometimes still have moments where I just want to do what ever I want – whether I do or not is not the issue. It starts with the train of thought that I allow in that I don’t actually care about myself and my body. Here is when the alarm bells go off and I have to stop and address such disregarding thoughts.

268. Re reading this blog I am asking myself ‘Why do I/we not take more responsibility for my choices to ensure that this miraculous body is cared for as it deserves? It serves me endlessly. My answer comes easily and it is that I/we do not fully appreciate the grandness of my body and what it reflects to me. This disregard and disconnection from the truth and potential of my being is ill health. It is my path to first feel and to own this truth and then to live the potential of it. On a large scale such responsibility would also heal the woes of our health care system.

269. It is a thorny and super-charged issue, the allocation of inadequate and insufficient resources to shoulder the burden that our current society’s ill health and disease are creating, and it will not go away until we take a whole new approach to our health and the responsibility we have to ourselves and all others – and not just look at the behaviours that create the ill-health but the impulses behind why we continue to do what is clearly hurting if not destroying us. Universal Medicine presents a way of exploring and understanding the root cause of our illness and woes and in this we can truly start to heal and take the steps forward in true self-care and self-love – the most powerful remedy for the health system’s budget ever.

270. Is it truly worth keeping on putting our bodies through the wringer because of the lifestyle choices we make? What then with this lack of self-responsibility for our health becomes the quality of our life? Only we can change this downhill slide in relation to our health. There is always the choice. Whose hands is it in? First and foremost our own.

271. Slowly we can see research and western medicine shifting its gaze to the possibility of lifestyle choices having far more effect then ever previously entertained – with this shift, we are all called to be responsible in how we live.

272. I really love this and I have no doubt of the reaction it will cause. When we have been allowed to get away with something and then have it squarely put back in our own hands can cause quite a stir.

273. The NHS shows strain under the pressure of people running to the GP for things we can change ourselves. When we take more responsibility for ourselves instead, some of these problems would be avoided, like simply reducing a little weight on an arthritic knee for example. I have been using my hand more gently and not jarring an arthritic thumb and it makes a big difference to the pain I used to feel. Small changes can be made quite easily but have big positive consequences.

274. I have recently been studying freedom in the politics degree – one of the practical applications of the theory of liberal freedom was the fact that smoking was banned in public places. Many argued that this law prevented their freedom to do as they wish, despite the fact that this freedom was at the environmental and health cost of others. The same goes for other aspects fo our health – we want absolute and irresponsible freedom or right to behave as we wish and not have to take responsibility for the consequences be they for ourselves or for others.

275. I for one have turned my health around, to the point where all I have is regular checkups! All thanks to the presentations by Serge Benhayon.

276. It’s fascinating to me how expert we are at avoiding responsibility. Brexit and the US election are two classic examples. Irrespective of your political beliefs, irrespective of which is better for humanity, almost every discussion I hear about the subjects involve finger pointing, blaming the system or judgement of others. Is it possible that we are all responsible for the separation within society that caused 52% of the UK to vote to split from the potential brotherhood offered by a European Union? Is it possible that the US election had less to do with the two candidates on offer but more to do with the massive disillusionment, poverty, corruption and inequality that exists in the United States of America – I wrote that in full to expose the irony of the word “United”.

277. Self responsibility is hugely lacking in our society, it is not something that is endorsed and promoted from young. In fact irresponsibility is often encouraged when you think of all the advertisements for unhealthy eating and for alcohol. Often I hear stories of blame directed at our healthcare system and even through it is far far from perfect it is doing its best it can with the money and resources it has been given.
     We could have the most efficient healthcare system in the world but if we the people are not willing to take responsibility for our own health then what’s the point?

278. Well worth consider? You bet. This blog asks the questions that we all need to be asking ourselves.

279. “It has been stated that ‘irrespective of the “rightness” of smoking behavior, physicians have a duty to offer all patients appropriate care and supportive care and to help their patients become tobacco free.’” Many people choose to become tobacco free after the wake up call of a diagnosis of a smoking related condition, this may tick a box but it does not restore wellbeing for the behaviours that led to the smoking have not been healed – indeed introducing education around self care and self responsibility is fundamental to the stability of our public health systems.

280. The desire to live in a way that is irresponsible is seen as a person’s right, and there is an underlying belief that it only affects them. But a person who chooses to smoke, and then asks a government to fund their medical needs as a result of that smoking is affecting everyone, and so their irresponsibility is much greater than just for themselves.

281. It seems that education on self care and self responsibility is key to the public health

282. THIS is the sort of article that needs to be front page news… it is so profoundly relevant and important, and yet where will its voice be heard…. Humanity itself needs to listen in a very new way to what is happening, and to recognize truth when it is written or spoken.

283. Offering the understanding and supporting people to live with this level of responsibility is one of the most loving and empowering things ever, and I am immensely grateful to Serge Benahyon and Universal Medicine for so profoundly re-introducing this as a foundation. It does not seem to me that people do not realise their actions are unloving or unhealthy, but there is an underlying belief culture that keeps encouraging us to over-ride what we feel, not consider ourselves worthy of the deepest care, think in order to be happy or even to survive we have to strive, fight and compete for external recognition.
     In such a climate how we relate to one another, the deep love, care and honouring which we can express in all interaction, has the power to turn around the debilitating beliefs. This I have learned by witnessing Serge Benhayon and how everyone around him naturally grows and expands whoever they are, whatever background they have. Yes our health IS in our own hands. The level of love and responsibility we choose to live has a direct impact on our life and our health. And by the way we relate to all others we can support them to also start living the truth of this reality in their own lives.

284. I love to do experiments on myself to find out what the body really truly knows. It is easy to blame others for things that we don’t like happening to us, rather than taking the responsibility and looking after ourselves. The body gives us the information all the time, and we choose whether to listen or not. When we do an experiment for a week or two,( like not eating a certain food) it can be very surprising to notice what the message is from the body.

285. Many of us have grown up in the quick fix society, taking pills for this and that rather than actually stopping to say ok this happen because of this and this. We have to make a choice whether we want to simply get by in life or actually fully embrace life – we will only fully embrace life if we then take full responsibility for all of our choices and actions as only then will things truly change.

286. There is an innate part of us that knows exactly what we are doing and where we need to change our own lifestyle before we ever go to the doctor. We have become very arrogant about our own health and feel that we are invincible, always looking for ways to maintain our lives of comfort rather than looking a little deeper and seeing the root of our woes. I know I lived this way until my body said no more, and at long last I decided to listen. We need to be encouraged to take more responsibility for our lives and take the power back into our own hands. Yes, we need the support of the National Healthcare Service but we can be a participant and become involved in our plan back to a healthier lifestyle. Without the support of Universal Medicine I would be stuck in the old cycle of victim.

287. Our lifestyles and the choices we make are bankrupting the NHS and burning out its staff. I wholeheartedly agree, as others here have stated that; ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ should be on the wall of every Doctor’s waiting room throughout the country!

     1. Agreed Steve, something has to be done to alert society that health and vitality is all up to the choices we all can make, which will bring amazing benefits across the board!

288. Taking responsibility for our own health is the only way forward, we can not keep doing what ever it is that we want to and think we can get away with it. The health systems are bursting at their seams and the only way this is going to change is if we make it a priority to look after ourselves on the basic level of life. Self-Love and Self-Care is the way in connecting to our true quality of being.

289. Our health system is so strained already one can only imagine how it’s going to look in another 50yrs if illness and disease escalate at this rate. To me what is proposed in this blog is the only way forth if things are to change. We start breathing and moving our own medicine.

290. Looking after ourselves and taking care of how we are living and our health go hand in hand and simply makes sense.This is a great sharing of the facts and realities and the choices we have and something to be noted and taken into our lives with a real love for who we all are.

291. Not looking after ourselves is the height of irresponsibility on so many levels.

292. ‘Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?’ This is something we really need to look at. Why do we blame others and curse an already over stretched health system? Really, the arrogance of it all is quite shocking.

293. We are at the turning point I believe of making it a known way that we are all responsible for our own health, that the health care system is not a ‘fix it’ station, or a pit stop to then resume on in the way that got one there in the first place. Our health care system can be an amazing resource for behavioural health change.

294. It is so easy for us to blame genetics for many conditions and take the approach of “I had nothing to do with this” or likewise so easy for us to not want to take responsibility for our lifestyle. But in the end it is about being fully accountable – which is simply about a wilingness to be open, to realising that there is more to responsibility than just physically ticking the ‘right’ box. The energetics cannot be ignored, nor can our integrity, and our true dedication to our own health and well being as well as that of others. Thank you Jane for an amazing and exposing blog!

295. I had a burst appendix recently, and the NHS service initially was amazing, I went into A&E and was operated on that day but after the operation I was in hospital for a week and I experienced the lack of funding, lack of doctors on duty and the muck ups that can happen when they are so under staffed. Most of the patients in my ward had weight related problems, direct results of lifestyle choices so the more we can do for ourselves to stay healthy and support this great service the better.

296. I have personally found that by looking after myself and questioning the choices, I have made and the effect on my body. When the winter cold and flu season arrives and whatever the annual bug that always goes around, that is always a little different with their symptoms and duration. Even flu bugs need to evolve. The only reason that I do sometimes now catch the new bug, that only lasts for days now rather than weeks, I put down to looking to what it brings for me to look at and how I have been living.

297. There are finite resources in the NHS and it feels really stretched right now, even before the increased winter pressures in Uk of issues like flu epidemics or road traffic accidents because of the changing conditions. The more we can take care ourselves with looking after bodies by diet, exercise and self care, the better we feel and we have a healthier life.

298. My life style choices have always looked towards being responsible for what I put into my body. It was not until the presentations by Serge Benhayon that I came to understand that the thought process causes far more harm than what I can physically do on a healthy lifestyle regime. I now am looking into what is bringing my health down and it is mainly over eating and or craving a taste.

299. This is a discussion that needs to happen. I was previously morbidly obese and had many health issues and relied on the health care system. I resigned myself to this is what my life would be, I never thought outside of that or that it could be different. I have now lost the excess weight and my life is totally different from making different lifestyle choices- we need more promotion of this so that people can have the opportunity to make a different choice for themselves.

300. Self-management is a fundamental part of dialysis. There are currently more and more people on dialysis due to complications from type 2 diabetes. This is an illness that could, through lifestyle changes, influence our outcomes. I look at how we get to chronic kidney disease via type 2 diabetes and the thing I see most is a lack of self management or willingness to engage in our own health. The NHS or any other health system cannot carry this level of personal neglect. Self management is a public health necessity, it is what stops us living centralised but rather with community responsibility. Perhaps this level of responsibility is what we are not prepared for.

301. I feel taking more responsibility for our lifestyle choices on a whole will support with the crisis and rise we are seeing with illness and disease all round the world. The way this responsbility looks is not always obvious, for example: I may be able to handle my sugar intake to a certain degree, say I am not over weight and relatively healthy. Then one day I decide to stop having refined sugar, all my staff I employ notice and begin to also to experiment with no sugar in their diets, some of them are over weight and look like good candidates for diabetes. They thank you for inspiring them, as they are now losing weight and feeling healthier. The reason I told this story is because we all have a responsibility to each other as much as we do ourselves, we may think we can handle a particular food or drink better than the person next to us and therefore why should we have to stop? But that is not living in brotherhood, it’s not looking at what big industry we are supporting, it’s not saying, you know what, I want to role model true health.

302. Asking ourselves some of the questions you pose Jane is a good place to start from when wanting to take responsibility for our own health. There does seem to be a belief that we are not allowed or supposed to make decisions about our own bodies, and that the best advise comes via self proclaimed health experts, one diet fits all, magazines, newspaper articles, in fact everywhere except how we personally feel. It is so easy for us to override what we feel and replace what we know for someone else’s take on things.

303. “The moment you stop and ask yourself –why do I live like this? ” Is the moment we start to open up to truly loving ourselves and our responsibility with life and our part in it all. Taking true care of how we are living and making loving choices as you share Jane will change the world and this is much needed.

304. “The moment you stop and ask yourself……why do I live like this?”
     This question I can ponder on everyday and it deepens my understanding for myself, if I do it in a true way. It supports me to observe my behaviours and confirms the parts in my life which works well and exposes the parts which do not work, where I feel disharmonious and not with myself.

305. The question for those who are obese or who smoke can be why others need to pay for the consequences of their behaviour? The two cases are a bit dissimilar – smokers have higher health care costs but lower age pension costs as they pass away earlier – but the question is how much do we allow others to burden us with their choices?

306. Our health and wellbeing are ultimately in our own hands. But what if we have been brought up to think that health is something that is up to doctors to give to us, and if we get sick it is their fault for not being able to fix us. It is so very important that we do not allow for people to see that there is another way to be. Simply asking the questions in the beautiful quote from Serge Benhayon that you have included here provides a way to start to see for ourselves that not only is there another way, but we hold the path within ourselves.

307. If we know that lifestyle is the number 1 factor in many illnesses and health conditions then this needs to be the underlying foundation of what doctors are taught, but it currently is not, or doesn’t appear that way. Doctors could then support patients in a whole different way to help them make the lifestyle changes that have contributed to the condition, whilst providing medical support as it is needed.

308. Lifestyle has to be a major factor in illness and disease if we consider that our body is with us in everything we do! It is subject to whatever we put in it in terms of food, drinks, drugs and also all the physiological effects of our emotions, thoughts or state of being (something that is being shown more in psychoneuroimmunology & endocrinology).

309. It does seem to be such a simple and sensible solution -to be more responsible for the choices we are making in how we are living so we would require less formal healthcare services. Unfortunately our western societies are not great for making us responsible for our decisions and choices and many are getting constantly bailed out through our social welfare systems. I am with you on this Jane, we need to start somewhere. Maybe our doctors should be asking their patients first what they are doing about their health issue before writing out the script!

310. When we start to truly value and connect with the communication of the body, science and people’s experience as shared in the blog will produce a much more real and supportive picture of what is behind all illness and disesase.

311. I definitely feel we can changes our current healthcare crisis ‘simply by taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices,’ and bringing awareness to the importance of taking responsibility for our own health and lifestyle choices is very much needed. We live in a society that currently promotes irresponsibility, so I can understand why so many people would oppose to this. Your blog will inspire people to feel what is truly going on and be more willing to consider how their lifestyle choices and irresponsibility is impacting on themselves and others.

312. Awesome blog Jane. I am re-quoting your ‘what if’ question at the end of the blog to a statement: “…the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests … in our hands.” This is absolutely true and we each have a responsibility to ourselves and society in the choices we make. Health and wellbeing is not about what happens in the hospital, it is everything we do leading up to that point.

313. Great questions you ask Jane regarding taking responsibility. I know from my own experience that taking responsibility looking at my lifestyle choices I turned a chronic illness around and no longer have it. This to me speaks volumes of what you present here.

314. The current paradigm of taking no responsibility for our health and then having an expectation that the health system will fix us while we continue on in our merry ill ways, cannot be sustained. It is doomed to implode and expose the lack of self-responsibility that has led to the shocking statistics of illness and disease that we have in the world today.

     1. I agree. Being irresponsible has a compounding financial effect until it becomes unsustainable and it may have already reached this point.

315. The health system in the UK and the world is under so much stress and pressure and is simply not coping with the escalating world wide illness, disease and suffering. True responsibility for our selves by our life style choices and the offering of true understanding of what this really means amongst the huge amount of different conflicting and false projections out there is much needed as you share Jane so beautifully with your inspiring wisdom and support.

316. This is such an important subject to ask ourselves, what is stopping us from looking after ourselves more and living healthier? I know I can chose patterns of self-sabotage quite easily and it’s great to observe this behaviour. It is our own responsibility to look after ourselves rather than rush to the doctors without any thoughts of helping ourselves. The pressures off the NHS will be immense when more of us choose to live like this.

317. Our free will and personal responsibility to swing our fist has always ended at the point it touches some one’s nose. Smoking was one of those exceptions with second-hand smoke around non-smokers causes damage. It is the ripples on the pond we create by our choices that affect others detrimentally that we don’t take responsibility for! You have started a great discussion point Jane of why don’t we assume the responsibility of our life style choices.

318. So much power does rest in our own hands and we have been unwittingly educated out of this at a very early age. True relationship has largely been abandoned on earth and the predominant dynamic is of the ruler and the ruled – even demonstrated so clearly by the existence of a monarchy. The recognition of respect and then true love and equal-ness is an extremely important step we need to take for us all to take the power back into our own hands – we are responsible for our own bodies! And as Sandra so beautifully says above, it would be extremely interesting to learn of the outcomes of people who actually did this.

319. It would be interesting to learn of the outcomes of the people who did accept the responsibility of their life style choice. If they were surveyed would they feel that it was a gift to their health and overall well-being to choose to alter a pattern that had previously had them requiring medical attention?

320. Yes well worth considering Jane. It is important to come together and be responsible for our own health and with that also for others – true brotherhood. Also by taking responsibility for ourselves we are inspiring other to do this to which would be a beautiful ripple effect.

321. It is deeply self-empowering and responsible to live from listening to the wisdom the body brings and then choosing to act on this.

322. ‘…the obligation to “do good,” or beneficence’…’ if physicians have this as part of the oath they follow, could the system be perceived as being harmful when being complicit to the harmful actions people perpetuate in their lives.

323. Julie I know from my own wasted years spent reading books on spirituality that when something only brings part of the truth and not the whole truth that it can potentially be much worse than getting none of the truth. I was mislead by small nuggets of truth that were fed to me through books and presentations, as well as the bastardized consciousness of yoga and these small nuggets of truth hooked me into believing that what I was experiencing was the truth, when in fact it wasn’t. So all in all, I spent years following a false light that did nothing other than keep me in the dark.

324. Our bodies must be well looked after.

325. One of the reasons why self-care has not taken off is because medicine works – we can take a pill and feel normal again and go back to how we were living before, whether that is in terms of the food we eat or what we drink, e.g. alcohol, caffeine, sugary drinks. With any illness or disease, our bodies are signalling to us that we need to change our lifestyle – there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence to show that changes in diet, lifestyle, gentle exercise etc., all can greatly improve health and vitality – this needs to be turned into hard statistical evidence so that senior scientists will take note and more will be done to promote healthy lifestyles. But as long as companies can make profits out of providing unhealthy food and drink, there will still be marketing, advertising, promotions that counteract the healthy view. We can choose instead to work with our health services, to support our own health so that we don’t need so much medication, for example, my doctor wanted to give me statins because, he wanted to get my Cholesterol level down to 4 (It was 5.7 at the time). I decided to alter my diet instead and it is now 4.2 and I haven’t take any medication for it. I have stayed on the Warfarin, to avoid a stroke, but that is all. My blood tests all show normal, so my lifestyle is keeping me healthy, and my weight stays normal. Where I get arthritic pains, it makes me look at what I’m doing to aggravate my joints, i.e. being physically too hard, so I live more gently. There is a lot we can do for ourselves.

326. It is a simple thing, self responsibility of our own lifestyle choices – so simple that we have the perfect instrument to tell us when we are making choices that harm and when we are making choices that heal. It is called the body.

327. It is so true as you have shared in Serge Benhayon’s quote. Once we open ourselves up to the very obvious in-our-face questions that we avoid we open ourselves up to a far great awareness and understanding which leads to true healing. Very cost effective by every measure!

328. ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ How wonderful it would be to have this sentence written on the white boards within the GP surgeries across the globe. A great starting point for those ready to take greater responsibility for their health and well being.

329. Wise words Jane, there is so much going on in the world that is showing us that things are not working, that the current way we are living is not working. What you are calling for here is for us, us as a humanity, to take more responsibility for how we are living, it will take the pressure off so many sectors and systems, that are close to collapsing under the weight of the many not taking responsibility.

330. At a time when the NHS, a service to the people, has been struggling for so long and now is in need of dire help this makes sense. We need to take responsibility for our health and lifestyle choices which ultimately is what it should be about in the first place. This is a great question to ask and I feel one we could never tire of discussing to get to the absolute root of it ‘Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?’

331. To this day I have not heard anyone talk about looking at the Root Cause of our illness and disease. I have had several things in my life and seen different practitioners both holistic, complementary and medical and not one has said ok what we need to do is address the root cause of what is going on. Serge Benhayon is the only practitioner and all Universal Medicine practitioners are the only ones that have supported me to look at and heal the root cause. To me it makes complete sense to have this approach to our health, wellbeing and our life.

332. ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ This is a beautiful and super powerful question. Our willingness to explore and answer it, revealing in itself. It invites a total step shift in our approach to life with responsibility willingly taken, understanding the impact of our choices and, in the instance of health care, how clearly this is seen.

333. The way we live our lives and the choices we make certainly do seem to influence the health and wellbeing of our body, so ultimately health care is everyones individual responsibility. The thing is, one can choose to either be inspired by seeing another making good choices or they may see this and feel to ‘give up’ and continue with unhealthy choices, so maybe, the issue lies deeper than just a simple choice.

334. The health system is now coming to such a crisis that there soon will be nothing left but to go to root causes, which involves lifestyle and the quality in which we live our lives. Perhaps the system will have to crash before we come to our senses, our bodies.

335. In the UK there is a lot of bad talk about our healthcare service and the way our government manages the funding and running of the NHS, but as you’ve pointed out in your blog Jane we have a responsibility to look after our own health and we can only inspire others to take responsibility if we do ourselves, so to address the ‘big picture’ of how the NHS functions requires us to take care of our bodies in our own lives.

336. I keep coming back to this blog Jane as I see that taking personal responsibility is key to addressing the issues we are facing within the health care system. This includes the health care professionals taking responsibility for their choices. One of the biggest ways we could address the issues within the health system is to have healthy and engaged practitioners – this should be easy as they are all educated health professionals, yet some of our so called health professionals are less healthy than the people they treat.

337. If we only knew and looked at why in the world we do live such unhealthy lives we might be closer to dealing with why we are so sick. And for those around to not be quiet and let people do their thing even though we know it’s hurting them and sometimes us if they for example smoke and put others at risk for having to also inhaling the smoke. Time to bring some focus on that big elephant.

338. Whilst we do not wish to be responsible for our own health, we will also not want to see the bigger picture that in fact we are the cause of all of our own ills and therefore the illnesses and diseases we will have to endure. The current status of the NHS is a direct reflection of this.

339. “For well over a decade the NHS has been promoting ‘Self Management’(3) of chronic illness and disease, in a bid to hand back responsibility for wellbeing, and the management of chronic conditions back to patients. This has not really taken off in the mainstream NHS and remains on the periphery.”
     Jane these are critical and much needed questions.
     “Self Management” of Chronic Illness and disease is fundamental for the long term wellbeing of its patients.
     By placing care and responsibility back into society’s hands they can become truly empowered and inspired to support their own health and wellbeing. However why has it not taken off and why is is still on the periphery? Perhaps because people are so comfortable with being cared for, it’s crass for people to be having full blown surgery only to go home to repeat the behaviour that caused the ill in the first place. Could the NHS be enabling this kind of irresponsibility?

340. Our health care systems are stretched to the max, and Jane’s blog highlights the fact that we cannot keep going on like this – the health care system was never designed to bear the responsibility of everyone’s health. The health care system is set up to support us, and help us to return to health. However, the current way of using the health care system is to abuse the system, use it recklessly and to not take responsibility for our own health. When someone gets a diagnosis of diabetes, for example, the person should take all care to adjust their diet, look at their body weight and exercise and play their fair share of how to support themselves back to true health. Further to this of course is exploring the energetics of why they have developed the diabetes in order to get a true understanding of their condition. But, rather than work with the system, many people see the diagnosis as becoming a victim, and hence they do little to change their lives despite the multiple opportunities that abound (dietitians, nutritionists, naturopaths, fitness programs etc), they rely on the drugs for diabetes and continue with the same diet and lifestyle that eventually erodes their health to a point where they need an amputation of a limb or have lost their vision due to complications with diabetes, all of which place more and more strain on the health care system.
     Then consider the socially accepted and encouraged consumption of alcohol, which leads to domestic violence, motor vehicle accidents, liver disease and another stream of people relying on the health care system (which is already under huge strain) to help them and fix them so that they can continue to do the same thing.
     And then consider another health risk such as the beaches that have warning signs for the presence of sharks, and then the people who decide to go surfing anyway – putting themselves at risk not considering that it is the community’s resources, the police, the helicopters, the ambulances etc that have to then come out to rescue them and the funds and efforts and lives that are risked to do so…
     It makes me wonder whether we should not be giving fines to people who decide to put their lives as well as other lives at risk for what seems like very selfish reasons…
     So to hear that a health care organisation in the UK decided to not offer health care to patients that smoke makes sense…People don’t like this however, because it calls them to account. But how long are we going to make these choices and get away with it? It is only a matter of time, before we are forced to look at things more deeply.

341. I watched a program on television this week that was about alcohol use in our society. The program was made in the UK, and presented by a British doctor – a doctor who openly admitted to drinking (as his normal practice) way over the recommended number of units in his week. The points made in the program were glib, the over-riding tone one of looking at just what we can get away with…
     I couldn’t help but reflect upon the callousness with which we regard our own health. That a medical professional who has worked in emergency departments and would be well aware of the recommendations for zero alcohol intake in regards to cancer risk, is still a part of such wanton abuse of his body speaks loud and clear that we have not as a society chosen to really look at the harm we do to ourselves, and routinely so.
     How much more needs to break down, be absolutely over-demanded upon and fail in our systems (that are here with the intent to support), before we actually look at what we are doing, and the messages not just the systems, but all of us need to convey, that we shift out of such rigid mindsets and behaviours, and realise just how deserving we are, of truly living in honouring and loving ways… Phew, we have a long way to go, but thankfully, awakenings are occurring…

342. Not only worth considering Jane, but the only sensible way forward. We are, as a whole, not ‘well’. We of course deserve medical systems that will support us and offer dutiful care, yet there is a prevalent attitude of ‘passing the buck’ over – the ‘buck’ being responsibility for our own health, wellbeing and bodies.
     A paradigm shift is indeed called for, yet it will clearly need to take us deeper, as yourself and Serge Benhayon have articulated so well – for we need to look at why we live in such utter irresponsibility for our health and wellbeing… why we get to the point of diabetes, obesity, 50 years of nicotine addiction, or whatever we have been choosing, in the first place.

343. I know I was unaware in the past how my choices were affecting me, and I love to talk to people to raise their awareness when they are open to feeling the truth of this. It’s possible to see ‘the penny drop’, the moment when they understand how we can all help ourselves. We often only need to make simple changes to our way of living by accepting our responsibility to make a huge difference to our health.

344. Any policy made from reaction cannot be true. Having said that, I understand the frustration of the medical profession that would lead it to consider such drastic threats. What is most ironic is that we have the best opportunity in the history of mankind to live a live free from illness and disease, and yet we manufacture ways to keep us ill.

345. This is a very tricky question Jane: ‘At what point could organisations like the NHS take a stance – knowing that lifestyle is such a key factor? And what stance could or should it take?’ What do you feel to be the case? I would love to know and it would be a great discussion to have. It would be very tempting to take the stand the NHS is looking at on this – a rough education! Yet I agree that doctors and hospitals need to be there to support people whose bodies are in need of help and healing. I know that God is there with us no matter what we do or where we take ourselves. Is there a point where he leaves? There is a law of love called karma that brings us around from the carelessness of our spirit, and God is there all the way through, holding us in his Atma.

346. Why is it that when the birth of a child comes into a family home that the parents of the child can feel such a great sense of ‘responsibility’ and having to be [more] this, as if one cannot escape such a sense, and are to “grow up”. For to bring life into this world, and to parent it, indeed is one massive responsibility. And yet, very often this same sense isn’t really much applied to the way we live life as a man or woman – with self-responsibility…understanding [crucially] that it is in this quality that the to-be-born child will be raised in. The ill of irresponsibility and so too importance of responsibility is set within the family home, either quality being exercised by each family member, independently.

347. Lets face it , we are serial offenders in abusing our bodies. Learning about true self love and self care through the teachings of Serge Benhayon and the Ageless Wisdom has been the most incredible revelation in my life….and constantly evolves to new levels.

348. To be even sitting here and reading that it is possible that we are the ones that have the ability to feel what our bodies is communicating to us is very powerful. We can see that it is totally our responsibility to live in a way that is supporting our body to be all of who we are.

349. This is a brilliant point Otto. There was an uproar about the introduction seat-belts – I can remember not at all like the feeling of being more-or-less tied into the car seat after the so-called ‘freedom’. The petulant spirit does not like its fake liberties interfered with, even when the proposed change is for everyone’s good. Responsibility is almost a ‘dirty’ word and the spirit thinks it can do what it likes – but then it doesn’t like the consequences very much when they come. It is profoundly beautiful to realise that we have a choice to love and care, to choose to heal and not harm.

350. Thanks Jane for this wonderful article – from what I have read in English Newspapers, and from what you have said , the NHS sounds like an extraordinary place: ‘For well over a decade the NHS has been promoting ‘Self Management’(3) of chronic illness and disease, in a bid to hand back responsibility for wellbeing, and the management of chronic conditions back to patients. This has not really taken off in the mainstream NHS and remains on the periphery’. The NHS almost sounds a bit ahead of their time, but this initiate to promote self management of chronic illness is a really progressive step – responsibility is the name of the game name now – no more carelessness. We have to grow up – everyone of us.

351. Thanks for sharing this Jane. This is a great initiative from a health organisation in asking us to take responsibility for our health. It doesn’t expect us to be perfect but asks that we commit to changing the unhealthy choices we have previously made. This feels very supportive for all, even if it makes us feel uncomfortable to look at the choices we have made.

352. Jane I was considering just now that even when we get stressed out or frustrated that the choice to be so is irresponsible not only to our health but all those around us, lifestyle choices therefore mean not only food and exercise but everything we do and how we treat ourselves. This is something that until meeting Serge Benhayon I would not have even considered.

353. It reminds me of the law in the UK that was introduced about twenty or thirty years ago that made it illegal not to wear a seat belt. There was a huge uproar as people considered it an infringement on their civil liberties and the heavy hand of a police state….yet all we were being asked to do was take responsibility. The result has been a huge drop in the number of fatalities and a huge drop in the burden on the NHS who were having to deal with the horrendous injuries caused by people not wearing their seat belts. Now, 30 years on, it is a no-brainer and everyone fully accepts the wisdom behind the law. The issue with smoking is a bit different – in that nobody was ‘addicted’ to not wearing their seat belt! But the acceptance of responsibility is a common theme. That said, when you think about it, isn’t it crazy that we need a law passed before we taken even the most basic of self-care actions such as putting on a seat-belt. Says much about where we are at.

354. I think that the stance that this healthcare organisation took is fascinating and induces a much need conversation about our responsibility and also awakens us to the absolute fact that our health is in our own hands. So many people still talk of it all as if it is some kind of lottery. Whether that is absolute denial or just lack of genuine education and awareness – I’m not sure – but I do feel that if people were shaken in to taking responsibility (through the kind of actions that this healthcare organisation took) then the picture would start changing.

355. Starting to take true responsibility for oneself is the best and only medicine.

356. We simply cannot afford to go on like this with not taking responsibility for our health and well-being, as it is crippling our health services. I have a medical diagnosis and part of my treatment plan has been surgery. In my not wanting to take responsibility I would be forever telephoning the hospital to find out when my surgery date was, putting added pressure and demands on the staff. When it came to the time for the surgeon to operate she could not, as my body was not playing ball. All of that effort and focus on getting the date, rather than focusing on changing how I live day to day and building a more caring and loving relationship with myself lead to that outcome. Now I have the opportunity to set a new treatment plan and I know that my responsibility is in living in a way that I know works for me and is supportive and loving with myself without compromise. Whatever and however the treatment plan turns out to be is not the number one priority but more so how respectful and loving I am with me.

357. When we take responsibility for our own health it can also inspire others to do the same. Not only do we lift the burden on the healthcare systems but those who are not in immediate need of medical support can support themselves while ‘healthy’. I type ‘healthy’ because we have accepted a far lesser quality of health as a whole and it’s only from the reflection of others who are deeply self-caring has my view on what is healthy has changed. There’s exercise, not eating junk healthy and then there’s a feeling of contentment and not living with constant self-abusive thoughts or drive for stimulation and distractions. This form of Healthy is displayed from Universal Medicine which I feel is a key element in sustainable and consistent self-care and not just a novelty or what we do when illness arises.

358. It’s time for us all to start to take responsibility for our own health. It is so easy to go to the doctor, who may then be pressured ( by patients and big pharma alike) to prescribe medication. There was a recent BBC TV programme by a doctor who took over a surgery practice room and prescribed lifestyle changes rather than pills. Some patients had been on medication for years without feeling any better. This approach, though it takes longer on each consultation, would result in better health for many I would suggest. Doctors need more training on nutrition etc…..

359. You have raised some keys questions here Jane. There is a way out of the impasse we have tunnelled our way into – and that is by taking responsibility for our actions, our thoughts and our bodies. Our newfoundland must be governed by love.

360. By the time we have chronic illnesses, it can feel overwhelming to look at the messages we are given. We have delayed listening to the body and need the correction, which supports us to make some changes. When we take responsibility for ourselves when we are well, we are choosing to keep ourselves well.

361. Jane thank you so much for putting your fingers on this topic as it is so much needed. Responsibility should be the new “black” as without being more responsible our society will be in even more trouble as we are already are.

362. Thank you Jane. And to vouch for what you are saying here I know for a fact that taking full responsibility for my own lifestyle choices, has brought untold benefits to my health and well-being. I am 60years old and feel better than I did 20 years ago.

363. What wakes people up to self care and self responsibility? Often it is illness. Often I hear people say “this was a wake-up call for me.” Yet when we are well again, we often go back to the way we were living. What would make us think twice before resuming the life that led us to ill health? Perhaps if a doctor said to us “if you return to your ill ways, I cannot continue to patch you up” maybe that would make us pause and consider before slipping back into our old ways.

364. There needs to be a radical shift in health care in my opinion for how can the NHS or any health professional really present self care and more responsibility for health and lifestyle choices when they are not living it themselves? This is what prevents the necessary shift and why there has been a lot of talk about self care and self management of conditions but very little change in health behaviours. Health professionals need to be supported to take more care of themselves and to truly understand the responsibility they have to care for their own bodies, from day one of their training, and into their working careers, so that when this message is delivered it comes with the integrity and authority of actually being practiced and not just talked about.

365. Indeed there are many aspects in life i.e. health, education, and environmental where we have driven ourselves into crisis because we have not wanted to look at and take responsibility for the lack of harmony that we choose to live in and with.

366. Why is it that we expect doctors and nurses to be at our beck and call, pick up all the pieces and take all this care of us, care I might add that we are unwilling to even take of ourselves? This system isn’t broken, we are breaking ourselves and then blaming the system for bringing us any thought of responsibility.

367. Jane this is absolutely a conversation we need to have. We all need to take responsibility for our choices and realise the effect that these choices have on our health and the health of society more broadly.

368. I mean, who feels comfortable to be accountable for one´s ill choices and asked to grow up and take responsibility, of course it is uncomfortable but nevertheless exactly what is needed – something we all need to learn saying and listening to.

369. There most definitely needs to be a conversation about responsibility – not judgment not blame, but the reality of how we are living – a way of living that is in fact destroying us, our families, and our community. And each one of us has something to understand about how we live that we know is not in truth how we could be living.

370. Asking ‘why’ I am living like this, why is my life so contradictory, why am I doing things that don’t really make sense, asking this is what matters.

371. Handing over all the responsibility towards our health systems isn’t fair and cannot be true. We can’t tell people what to do, I hate to be told what to do without having a say. But on the other hand, are we allowed to ask people just like you and me to take responsibility to a certain degree? Can we build a foundation on which we lovingly support each other to take responsibility? Of course with allowance of time and space, as some patterns can be quite stubborn, but also firmly. Of course we are to support people to take responsibility, as this is for most of us not something we do over night. My feeling is that we are to start the conversation around this delicate subject. As the rise in illness and disease due to the rise of less responsible choices asks us to ponder on a totally new way of relating to one another. Everyone in hospital is somebody just like me, so is someone that I care about. Maybe not literally in the physical sense, but I do care about everyone in the sense of a system that should support everybody to not only cure the illness or disease, but also heal the pattern of irresponsible choices that are at the core of the current illness or disease.

372. I love the questions posed here, Jane. What if we started to take responsibility for our choices and the impact they have on our health (then health service)? I can feel the opportunity for change and it is in our hands.

     1. Yes, especially if you are a health care worker.

373. There is an unhealthy cycle that has been created where the power sat with the medical profession and we relied on them to ‘fix’ our problems. To some degree the medical system has been so successful at this, that we have lost the connection between choice and consequence.

374. It is a pattern often seen in human nature that when something is free it is less valued. We all have a responsibility to look after ourselves physically and for some people they have been lucky enough to have families that have brought them up this way, but for many others there is a lot of information that needs to be shared and learnt. The interesting thing is that the choice to look after one’s self is free.

375. If we do not take the reins of our own health care then they are taken by an energy that has no regard for human life whatsoever and with that energy in the driving seat then it is no wonder that our health is careering out of control. And although we can, at times choose to give the reins to healthcare professionals, ultimately taking back the reins is the only way to remedy our dire health.

376. If more people did start to take responsibility for their health and well-being it only makes sense that the pressure and burden would be relieved from the shoulders of the NHS. Is it any wonder the doctors and nurses get despondent when it comes to seeing people with easily preventable conditions.

377. Jane, I can feel how true this is, ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ I attended a Breast Cancer Awareness presentation in London yesterday and with what the women who had had breast cancer were sharing I felt how important self care is and also important how we feel about ourselves is and the relationship we have with ourselves. Listening to what these women had learnt has inspired me to deepen my relationship with me and to care for, love and nurture myself rather than wait for an illness and disease to come along to show me how I am living and that it is not loving and nurturing.

378. Great blog Jane, and one vital conversation that needs to be continued as it’s time to get the “lifestyle ‘elephant in the room’” out of the room and into full view of humanity who are needing to know that first and foremost their care is their own hands; it is their responsibility to care for the bodies that support them in every moment in a loving, caring and responsible way. It is becoming more evident day by day that, yes, our lifestyle choices are killing us, so why are the majority of humanity still living with their heads in the sands of denial?

379. Yes, a great point to consider… that in taking responsibility for our own lifestyle choices, we are not just improving our own health, but it is a way to ‘give back’ to the public and the public health care system. Support by one is support for all…

380. Only yesterday I had a conversation with two people who believe that our inability to take responsibility for our health is justified by the fact that many people ‘suffer’ social inequity, life trauma and poor education. If we accept this view without taking the conversation further into areas including healing of our hurts, community engagement, brotherhood, self worth etc., we are far from addressing the core issue of self responsibility.

381. Taking responsibility for our lifestyle choices is a huge support for everyone; it takes an unnecessary weight off doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, support us to truly be healthy and helps everyone else in our lives, it is essential medicine.

382. The NHS is one health service, in one country that is on its knees and is being crippled by the intensity of the demand for services and the rapidly increasing illness and disease rates. Headlines this year reported that by the end of the financial year of 2015/16 the NHS were in a £2.5 billion deficit. This is really telling us something about the way that we are treating our bodies on a day to day basis that so many of us are getting sick. The same article by Public Finance http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2016/05/nhs-deficit-tripled-size-ps245bn-2015-16 states that 21 million people were seen in emergency services in the same period. This is saying a lot and clearly this situation is serious. In my experience we can do something about it and as this blog is presenting it is about how we live and take care of ourselves. At one stage in my life I was visiting emergency services due to chest and stomach pains, not knowing the cause – enter Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and I have not visited an emergency service for myself in more than 6 years. What changed? With the support of a Universal Medicine Practitioner I started to look at and consider my choices of foods and the effects that they were having on me and I eliminated whatever brought up bodily symptoms indicative of a food intolerance e.g bloated belly, mucus, sleepiness/tiredness. This has most certainly improved the quality of my life and has enabled me to look at how else I am living my life that could be adversely affecting me. From here I have started to examine my emotions, relationships, how I look after myself and my home and how I am at work, for example, to determine whether they are supporting or hindering me and others.

383. Large food manufacturers also need to be held to account on this topic. In recent times, more information has come out about how damaging sugar is and yet it is in most processed foods. So on one hand our health systems are crippled because of the damage sugar is doing to people, and on the other, large corporations are adding sugar to most processed foods. This shows that countries are not working together to combat the issues. One is feeding the masses with a substance that is killing them, and another is trying to deal with the symptoms. It does come down to individual choice and responsibility for our health, but also it’s time large corporations were held accountable for what they are doing.

384. We are straining the NHS in UK to breaking point with our abusive ways of living. It is logical if more of us took responsibility for ourselves and our way of living, the NHS would cope very well with those who had a deeper need. When we understand we can take our lives into our own hands in a responsible way, we are much more aware of the choices we make and the effect of them on our health and well being.

385. I raised this topic with a class of 16 year olds this week. The overwhelming majority of them said they agreed that people should take more responsibility for their health and agree to implement a self-help program before receiving NHS treatment. The irony is our teenagers are not the healthiest. When I see what they eat and hear about their sedentary lifestyles, they may not be able to access the same healthcare in the future compared to what is currently on offer. The system is buckling under the pressure of dealing with a society that is becoming increasingly unwell with very serious diseases.

386. The density and intensity of information that is out there, that floods our living rooms and consciousness daily, with ideals about how we should be that is so far from truth, makes it almost impossible for most people to find their way out of the maze and find a truer more simple way to be. Whenever we step clear of the mainstream and start making choices for ourselves based on how we feel rather than what we’re told, we risk being isolated from family, friends and colleagues. I remember well my own experience of tensions that erupted when I stopped drinking alcohol, eating certain foods and going to bed early that eventually led to the end of the relationship.

387. The question to ask is why the situation is as it is? Ill-health fuels the profits of pharmaceutical, and food industries. People are enticed to over-eat, smoke, drink alcohol, take drugs, be distracted by film, TV, gaming, social media, anything that prevents them from truly feeling their bodies and adopting simple life-enhancing ways. And those that do live this way and have taken responsibility for their health are often ridiculed and considered to be strange. It will take time before this balance changes and it becomes the norm for the majority of people to want to have a self-caring relationship with themselves. Until we break the consciousness that condones and sells the glamour of tobacco, alcohol, sugar, and food without any nutritional value to the masses, things will remain unchanged.

388. There are so many areas where humanity chooses to accept something that is far from reality and then is in complete shock when reality hits. I recently completed first aid and felt the shock in the room when people heard the statistics of success of CPR were less than 10% without a defibrillator. I think we live in movie land accepting what is fed to us through entertainment as a true reflection of life, when in fact it is far from it.

389. Oh my goodness, absolutely. We have to be the change we want to see with our health outcomes. It is a total cop out to expect someone else to fix us and not change anything that led to us being in that space in the first place.

390. In the past, pre meeting Serge, i would have said the doctor is the person that can make me better. Today I understand that my choices have a far bigger impact and that the doctor can only help treat issues that arise – what studies clearly show is the effectiveness of the medical profession lies in the choices we as patients make.

391. We really do need that link between lifestyle and daily choices, and health and wellbeing to be made more strongly. I personally feel that the concepts of self responsibility and our daily choices as a strong contributing factor for our health could be introduced into education, beginning in primary school. As human being we deserve the best of care, but that must begin with our own self care.

392. The gigantic resistance that would come up if the NHS called to account those that weren’t taking responsibility for their own health is proof of the fact that we all know this to be the truth. Because if we didn’t know it to be true we wouldn’t make the effort to resist it.

393. I would advocate a system that encourages people to be responsible for how they are living – to acknowledge the fact that if we are not taking personal responsibility then why should the NHS treat our disregard at great financial expense, but also quite possibly at the expense of another who may have been able to use that bed. Its not a popular view, it has it challenges, but if we don’t take a long hard look at the current set up we are going to bankrupt the system and then no one wins.

394. It is absolutely worth considering these questions Jane and how much further do we want to continue in over exhausting the NHS system. We tend to think of ‘oh I won’t make a difference’ if I need any medication or support but what we are currently seeing is that when we all have that ‘it doesn’t matter’ mind set every single one of us adds up. When I have been in hospital on occasions to support and be with others I have been blown away by the late Friday night and Saturday night influx of patients that have self inflicted themselves with alcohol or drugs to a point where they need medical attention, all the while abusing staff and patients at the same time. But really is there much difference from someone that has obesity and is self inflicting harm to their bodies as well. We as a human race have the opportunity to make this change but stopping and start by reflecting on those very poignant key questions.

395. We need to understand fully and totally accept that what ever comes our way on a health level is totally of our own making and that anything that happens to us happens for a reason and is an accumulation of the momentum we build up from all the unloving choices we make. When we totally embrace this the NHS will no longer be in trouble and will be there always when we do need it.

396. Mentioning ‘choices’ and ‘responsibility’ with our health and wellbeing in our daily lives has been a no go zone for a long time, it has become an expectation that someone else can solve our health problems, and I feel it’s treated like a rite of passage, whereby many solely rely on the system to be fixed.
     Your question Jane has never been more pertinent … only now with a struggling system are we beginning to bring in the concept of patient participation prior to medical intervention and suggesting the patient make different choices and in doing so be responsible.

397. I love that our health is our responsibility and I feel that if more people accepted this fact and realised that they are making choices all the time that is either supporting their health or literally slowly killing them then there would be a massive shift. How often do we just do things recklessly and then expect the doctor to fix us. This pattern of behaviour has been running for way too long and a change is well and truly overdue.

398. Lifestyle choices includes more than just exercise and food, but it includes how we think about life, and how we feel about ourselves – unhealthy self-criticism or a healthy appreciation.

     1. Absolutely Carmel, this is the new medicine. Life enhancing life-style choices together with a true and loving relationship with ourselves.

399. The NHS is not something separate from us, we are part of it and without it we would be in a very tensed space. So it is our shared responsibility to take care of ourselves more deeply so the preventable lifestyle diseases are prevented and as the beautiful quote in the end shares we will only benefit as the quality of our lives will increase too.

400. Hawaiian Airlines on its flights to and from Samoa has introduced weighing passengers as many Samoans are very heavy and weight needs to be evenly distributed in a plane. I found it interesting that the reaction by Samoans and the press was quite negative – as if we do not want *any* reminders to be more responsible.

401. It actually feels very freeing to come to the realization that we we are responsible for our own health as it immediately says that we can make changes and that we don’t have to accept and settle for declining states of health and wellbeing.

     1. True Vicky and doctors can change the conversation they’re having with patients and introduce the notion of self responsibility, but first they must have that conversation with themselves.

402. This is a discussion that needs to be all over the newspapers in the UK to bring deeper awareness to the critical plight of the NHS and also make it possible for others to see there is another way to live, with responsibility and connection to the body that takes the burden off the NHS.
     A vast majority of humanity is choosing to hold onto that which they have done for a long time and do not want to move out from their ‘normal comfort zone’. Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, I too, was part of that consciousness and would prefer not to return to it – bringing deeper awareness to true self care and nurturing has made huge changes in my life – JOY is part of everyday and I am glad I faced my own white elephants.
     “So dealing with the lifestyle ‘elephant in the room’ rather than patching up and treating illness would and could help wellbeing more sustainably”.

403. “So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?” The responsibility this brings to us all is enormous but also life changing in far more than we can ever imagine and the only way for us all to come to. A much needed article of the truth for us all to see and ultimately take responsibility for.

404. Could it be that we actually would love to self-care for ourselves and care for each other? That at our core there’s nothing we want more than to care ourselves and each other? But that we’ve strayed away from this innateness and now waiting for others to give us permission to care and love again. We’re to accept that love is missing in our intelligence and that in fact love is the highest form of intelligence. And that love is in fact the only factor that makes us intelligent, that is truly intelligent. As the way we’re currently using our intelligence is certainly lacking love, joy and vitality. And in relation to others lacking appreciation, understanding, acceptance and allowing. We want other to be perfectly loving all of the time, rather than accepting that not a single one of us is perfect and that the key to evolution lies in imperfectionism. Without failures we wouldn’t learn.

405. Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease? This is a great question and one that needs to be asked of everyone. I would also ask why we feel it is our right to do what we want with our bodies and then to asks others to be responsible for our ill choices? Something here does not add up.

406. Reflecting on my life and having made the choices to stop smoking and drinking some time ago and to commit to eating foods which truly support my body I can now appreciate just how this process is continuous in being responsible for my own health and wellbeing for it is every choice that I make in how I move through life that will either contribute to promoting my own health or wellbeing or not.

407. We all have an absolute responsibility for the choices we make and the affect these have on not only ourselves but all those around us. We offer a reflection to all those around us through our choices, the question is, what reflection are we offering? This is where true responsibility comes in, if I am abusive it gives permission for others to be abusive. If I am unloving in my treatment of others it gives permission for others to be unloving. However, if I love and care for myself, it asks others to have the same level of love and care for themselves. Our choices and our reflection is very powerful.

408. Since attending Serge Benhayon’s presentations, workshops and course I have come to realise and appreciate how much my choices have a huge role in the way my body will respond. This responsibility that I feel is actually very liberating and empowering because I have never cared or loved myself to this level before. The beautiful thing is that each day I get an opportunity to embrace this even more and to take it deeper.

409. We still wait for illness and disease or an accident to question our lives, and even when we are ill we only question it long enough to get better. The NHS is an amazing service but it can’t keep going the way it is, pushed continually to the point of exhaustion and bankruptcy. Maybe it s time for the NHS to take a stronger stand and say no to those that have stuck their head in the sand and refuse to support themselves in anyway..

410. It’s bizarre we have to ask the question…. Such is our disconnection to our wellbeing, our relationship with our bodies, and our irresponsibility. The truth has to be presented at some stage, and I feel the more aware we are of the consequences before it becomes an illness and disease the more opportunity we have to support ourselves, presenting the possibility of self care and love.

411. Our health really is in our own hands, by way of taking responsibility for keeping ourselves in good health. Our health care system, perhaps would have much less demands placed upon it if this were the attitude, that we value and appreciate having such a system there that supports human health.

412. When we are asked to take more responsibility for our choices, we can either embrace what is on offer for us, or dig our heels in and fight for a way of living that is clearly not wokring.

413. What a different world it would be if we all took responsibility for all our choices, it is amazing that we have the mistaken belief that we cannot change and that we blame someone or something else for our problem. It would open up our blindness to ask the WHY question, why would anyone in their right mind choose by their habits bring on illness and disease.

414. “Who’s hands is it in?” We each have a role in our own health and well being – how can we not?! To think we can abuse the body we live in and not have any consequences is completely arrogant, and yet we then hand our power over to another to fix what we have created – it shows a total disregard for ourselves and our bodies, and an overall lack of self-care. How amazing would it be if we were shown from young what it meant to honour and lovingly care for our bodies and for ourselves – the world we live in, and our health and well-being, would be totally different.

415. We don’t like taking responsibility for our own health because it exposes our every choice that has led to ill-health… and in that we know we have made choices we knew at the time were irresponsible but we still made them – and that irresponsibility exposes our enormous arrogance, which is a big Ouch for us all!

416. It is interesting to question ourselves sometimes, and I do when I know I have sabotaged myself. The answer comes back that I feel too tired to do anything differently and at that point, I simply feel I don’t care. It’s a bit of a shock to think I don’t care about myself, but the next question I ask is, why did I get too tired? I am learning it’s my responsibility not to get too tired, and feel how that is now. Thank you Jane for the deepening of this subject.

417. The fact that we even need to question, ‘who takes care of my health? exposes how much we have and do rely on healthcare services and professionals to band aid or compensate our disregard.

     1. Wow. What a point Susie. How exposing to need to be asked to ask “Who takes care of my health?”.

        What about asking ourselves “Why am I not, really, deeply, truly taking care of my health?” and/or “Why, as a society, on the whole, are we not really, deeply, truly taking care of our selves and our health?”.

        The only answers to this question, (in all my life’s searching) that make perfect sense to me, are found in the Ancient wisdom, as brought through by Serge Benhayon. This wisdom is in us all, is comprised of our very origins & essence and so knows us inside out and belongs to all of us equally so.

418. It’s very sad that people find it so hard to look after themselves. It’s sad that people find no joy in responsibility. I have found that the more I take care of myself the more joyful I feel. Why would anyone not want that?

419. So many people are of the belief that disease and illness simply fall out of the sky.. that it is just something that happens to you and that we have to ‘fight’ against it. However despite so many agencies and official bodies confirming that lifestyle choices play a part in our health, when we allow each other to not seriously consider this, or are in denial of it we are continuing to promote ill health for all and lack of responsibility for all, which continues to drain our resources. Will it have to take complete bankruptcy for us to start being responsible?

420. Jane this is a brilliant sharing on the importance and responsibility we hold for our own health and well being and something so much needed to be taught in the world as a basic loving reality “.The moment you stop and ask yourself –why do I live like this?………” is the moment we start our awareness and a true way of living can come from this.

421. Great question Jane, ‘What if, simply by taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices, we can bring untold benefits to our own health and wellbeing and significantly reduce the burden on our pressurised health services – well worth considering?’ Absolutely! It seems that it has become so ‘normal’ to drink alcohol, smoke, eat sugary foods, the list goes on and then we get ill and want to be fixed, there is so little responsibility for our own health taken in this, it seems like we like to ignore and deny the fact that we are making ourselves ill. So much could be done with education about health – starting from young with parents and schools, rather than from what I see is that kids eat copious amounts of sugar and this is seen as completely acceptable and then as adults we continue this.

422. The U.K is very blessed by its National Health System. ‘Free at the point of delivery’ is such a gift and its clear that at present we do not truly appreciate what this service really offers us.

423. Who’s choosing to eat the type of food? Who’s choosing our drinks? Who’s choosing what time we go to sleep? Who’s choosing to connect to our bodies or not? Who’s choosing to abuse ourselves? Who’s choosing to be silent? Who’s choosing to be rude? Who’s choosing to be loving? Who’s choosing sensitivity? Who’s choosing hardness? Who’s choosing responsibility? Who’s choosing to be individual? Who’s choosing to be hard? Who’s choosing perfectionism? Who’s choosing? So who’s the one making choices? Who’s the one primary responsibility for their health? Who is it?

424. With the already overburdened health care systems bursting at the seams in many ways courtesy of the accumulated lifestyle choices of those that are engaging in the services provided, I read articles like this and I cannot but wonder if our general public fully appreciate our health care system or just see it as a place to go to get fixed when something is broken. For this reason we really need to start focusing on that lead up to how and why our body breaks down and fully educate everyone of that process.

425. There is an unsustainable belief in medicine that we can live however we like and then hand our broken body over to doctors who are expected to make everything all better. Unfortunately, it seems that the institution of medicine has for a long time believed their own hype and bought into this belief that they will find a cure for every ailment that is presented. Now, when the situation has become dire, it seems that they are scrabbling for a way to get people to take care of themselves so that they can focus on helping those that they can.
     Of course, there are external factors such as the abundance of sugar that is now available in the everyday diet, etc. and these factors cannot be ignored, however, I think that the combination of people’s expectations and the medical industry relying on fixes instead of supporting self care and responsibility has greatly contributed to the state we find ourselves in today.

426. I know for myself that the moment I stopped and asked the question in the quote from Serge Benhayon my whole life began to change. Prior to that I absolved myself of all responsibility for me, enjoying apportioning blame wherever I could make it stick, in places other than myself. I may have ‘thought’ that I didn’t know the answer lay within me, but deep down I did and I feel we all do.

427. The state of our healthcare systems are a classic example of the general populace disconnecting themselves from our awareness of how every little choice in how we live does play a HUGE role in the overall outcomes of our medical systems and other systems in general. We may only see the impacts of lifestyle and our health through those close to us, but add that up across the board and the statistics tell a very very different picture to what most are aware of and would like our healthcare systems to be.

428. How can we support our doctors with the lifestyle message? At the moment most people see the ‘healthy option’ as giving up something, such as letting go of those yummy chips and desserts. How do we turn around our perception to truly love our bodies and feel just what alcohol, caffeine and sugar are doing to us?

429. What if, “…physicians have a duty to offer all patients appropriate care and supportive care and to help their patients become tobacco free.’(1)” and the best or only way to help the patient change their ingrained and self-abusive behaviour is to no longer play along with it? It is not about denying all medical care but making a point and not helping to delay the necessary change through prescribing drugs that allow the body to compensate a bit longer but actually getting harmed more and more due to the abuse continuing.

     1. My thoughts exactly Alex. Its not about denying help but “…not helping to delay the necessary change…” I feel it is supper important not to just blindly “help” people. I often notice that some kinds of “help” can actually enable another to stay in self harming ways or to even deepen patterns of self disregard and overall irresponsibility.

        Yesterday I spoke with a land lord who described a problem with a tenant who’s belongings and trash had begun to effect not only their own health but the well being of all their neighbors… this tenant was diagnosed as being a “hoarder” (now recognized as a mental illness) and so legally no one was allowed to say “enough”…

        Question #1.So what then? How far do we let a brother go into harm and away from our natural balance?

        Question # 2. If we accommodate and even protect the harmful and irrational behaviors of a person (who needs help) are we not then supporting their illness or delusional mind set instead of supporting them to understand the cause of their illness and calling upon or supporting who that person truly is underneath?

        Question #3. If we protect a person in the acceptence that “they can’t do any better” or “they cant help it because they are sick” then are we not giving up on the possibility that this person is still in their underneath the issues and could, with the correct and compassionate support, pull themselves up by taking small steps toward responsibility and ultimately toward themselves and so away from illness?

        Question #4. Isn’t it all about responsibility, for all of us? Are not, even those who have given up, lost heart or fallen into hurts, reactions or patterns to such an extent that all can see they are “not OK’ and as a result are disrupting those all around them, still responsible for the choices that took them to that point?

        I feel we must remember we are accountable, that we are responsible for ourselves but also for each other; especially when someone can’t see the mess their in. It is our responsibility to speak up and say “this is not ok”, “this is not good enough for you or me or anyone”, otherwise we just let each other go… we let the world go…

        …but Serge Benhayon has shown me that we don’t have to…

     2. Alex, this is an excellent point and a very interesting interpretation.

430. Self-care is the foundation of health and the NHS should be there to support that rather than the individual handing over responsibility for their health to another.

431. The NHS is such a great thing to have in place, but we do need to take responsibility for our own health and lifestyle choices to alleviate the huge burden we are on this amazing system.

432. Jane there is a lot of talk about “community healthcare” and what struck me when reading your article is that for real community healthcare to work it requires everyone in the community to do their part, that means myself and all those I know taking preventative healthcare steps, looking after ourselves. Then the medical system can support us, but without the community doing their part we can’t have any true community healthcare.

433. Self responsibility is vital if we are to reduce illness and disease rates, our culture is one of blame and we rely heavily on doctors and nurses expecting them to fix our problems. Not is it in our culture to question our part in it and take responsibility and until this happens we will continue to suffer individually and as a society.

434. Beautiful question Jane, ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ I would respond with a big whole-hearted ‘Yes’ to this question. The key to all health and wellbeing not only of ourselves but the animal, the nature kingdom and the planet is in our hands. Let’s take that responsibility and bring that joy.

435. Our health care is definitely in our hands, we need to look at everything in the way we are living, the food choices we are making, as well as other activities in life. Everything contributes to our health and well being.

436. I love the basic principles on which the NHS has it’s foundation. That we are to take care of each and everyone, regardless of their choices. In this lies a seed of brotherhood. That we are to take care of each other, always. What if this foundation of brotherhood was taken seriously by not only our medical system – our doctors, nurses, dentists etc – but also by everyone in society. What if we would sit down together and come to a general agreement on what we can ask from each other towards living a standard in life that contains a level of self-care that we call healthy. Not from a have to do, but from a loving point of view. From a point of view that we care about each other, that we don’t let each other drop to a very deep level, including a very poor standard of self-care. We are to not allow each other to make these choices. Of course, we’re to let them make their own choices, but we are to return to a natural way of communicating our care and concerns about one another when we sense that somebody isn’t very well. So yes, amazing our medical system and the foundations it is based on, but we’re to take the responsibility much grander.

437. Taking responsibility for my own health has been a very empowering choice – which has more effect in my life than simply on my physical health and wellbeing

438. ‘Why is this? Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?’ Is this because the responsibility in this also reveals the much bigger picture of just how much we are living contrary to our true nature and that in this we can feel just how much we are actually trying to avoid. I know this is true for me.

439. “Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?” Because if we did, we would have to admit to the fact that our health and wellbeing is a direct consequence of our choices.

440. ‘More so, if we all started to observe the way we are living our own lives, and the responsibility we currently do or don’t take for ourselves, we not only support ourselves, but in doing that, we will be supporting the health service – and our fellow brothers in humanity – as, if we decrease our own burden on the health services, we allow others, more sick or elderly, access to the care they need.’ Sayings like ‘you only live once’ or ‘I can have one addiction’ or ‘I know nothing about my body only the doctor knows’ or ‘I want to enjoy life so I eat and drink what I want’ or ‘don’t take away my cigarette’ are a sign of the irresponsibility a lot of people choose to live in. What you bring here Jane is we have the responsibility for all, not just for ourselves, and that what we choose has an effect on all of us. We all truly matter in more than one way.

441. What to expect when challenging someone in their comfort and exposing their lack of responsibility: reaction, resistance, blame, defamation, accusation…, simply everything excusing us for why we cannot or don´t need to change.

442. The human race is slowly destroying itself and the medical profession is struggling to cope. Is it not time for all of us to start taking responsibility for our lifestyle and stop blaming circumstances, or outside influences for our escalating illness and disease rates and not see ourselves as victims. Taking responsibility and choosing that stop moment to ask ourselves ‘why do I live like this’ must surely be the way to initiate true change in our lives and restore ourselves back to true health.

443. Imagine if the same effort that goes into getting people to quit smoking was applied to obesity? If all food packaging had to advertise the risk to your health by consumption, if there were laws in place to regulate added sugar, salt and fat content, if we were educated from young on the risks, with advertisements and support clinics – however, as we have seen with smoking, putting all these measures in place comes at a cost to a health service already buckling under the strain and even then, smoking is not a resolved issue. The only solution that is free and long term is taking responsibility for our health and the effect our choices in life have on our health.

444. Because we eat and drink in a way that numbs our bodies, we are unable to feel directly the effects of the poison that we ingest, therefore there is no urgency to change our ways until there is a definite STOP from our bodies much further down the line. We may try to diet or stop eating certain foods but until we allow ourselves to truly feel, these measures will only be temporary. Once we love ourselves enough to feel more, eating only nourishing foods becomes a simple no-brainer and easy to maintain.

445. Great blog Jane, we need to be held accountable for our health and well-being. Quite ludicrous really, how many of us abuse our self then need medical support to fix something that could have been prevented in the first place had we been more responsible.

446. It does make you wonder why we are unwilling to take responsibility for our own health, especially as for years the NHS has been promoting healthy life changing options but at best we are only managing the illnesses. Having spent most of my thirties and forties feeling ill I do understand what it feels like to be unwell and the despondency which follows, but having made a lot of small changes to my life I now wish I had done it sooner.

447. Sustainability is something at the forefront of things we must truly consider, and the sustainability of our health systems is a huge part of this: ‘So dealing with the lifestyle ‘elephant in the room’ rather than patching up and treating illness would and could help wellbeing more sustainably’. If we as a race do not pick up the baton of sustainability as regards our lifestyle choices, life on earth is going to fast become untenable and unsustainable.

448. “Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?” Great question and one that needs asking. We are so quick to blame the health care system when we don’t get better, but rarely are we prepared to take extra care of ourselves and accept that perhaps by doing this we would get better sooner, or even prevent illnesses from occurring in the first place. But doing this does mean we have to look at how we are living and that perhaps there are things in our lives that have to change – and this is not what we want to look at.

449. What if, rather than extradite the smokers and the overweight from our health care, we were to welcome them in with open arms and put them on an intensive self love program?

450. Jane this really is such a big topic that needs very careful consideration. When I read ‘This means that ‘physicians are discouraged from refusing treatment simply because they disagree with their patients’ decisions or lifestyles’, I considered how it would be if physicians did refuse treatment on the grounds of them not agreeing with a person’s lifestyle choices. Would the person who is refusing the health care be completely free of all loveless behaviours themselves? Otherwise who has the authority to decide over another that their particular loveless ways are the ones that are deemed unfit for free medical treatment ?The other thing we need to be really careful of, is that judgement cements behaviour and so if there is judgement in us then we will be making it even harder for person to kick a particular habit or behaviour.

451. When the latest financial figures come out for the NHS, it seems that the automatic response is to look at ways to reduce the overspending of the healthcare service and look at how it is ‘underperforming’, but what if the real reason we continue to have these issues is because we aren’t addressing the lifestyle choices of the population and the actual reason people are getting sicker, thus why the NHS is so overwhelmed and so called ‘underperforming’. It is in fact performing to accommodate thousands and thousands more people than it has the staff for.

452. There comes a time when the consequences of our choices catch up to us and we need to take responsibility. Can we really just expect to be taken care of when we are completely annihilating our bodies? The health care systems are struggling and so they should be – we are not as a whole looking at the way we are living and so are getting sick – rightly so! After all if we are all love, which I know we are, yet are not living the love we are – then surely it is a gift and a blessing to have illness and disease so we can at least glimpse the fact that the way we are living and treating our bodies and each other is not love?

453. “The NHS has finite resources that are so stretched now and the deficit continues to mount, and there simply isn’t enough resource to go around or to meet the ever-increasing demand on illness and disease.” My understanding is that a high percentage of medical problems stem from poor lifestyle choices. By this measure clearly it’s time that we began to take more responsibility for our choices and ways of living so that we don’t overtax an already over burdened system.

454. It is time to change this culture of expecting the NHS and the awesome people who work in it to fix our problems for us. How can anyone fix a patient’s problem when the patient insists on continuing to abuse their bodies via their lifestyle? There are many truths to wise up to in our societies and one of them is that it really does matter what we feed our selves, not only physically but emotionally and mentally too. If we continue to eat junk food, watch junk TV and engage in junk on the internet and so on, it makes sense that one of the outcomes is junk health.

455. The questions for me are: Why don’t we know how to take care of ourselves or, if we know how, why aren’t we doing it on a sustainable basis? Why is that too difficult?

456. Perhaps it takes the health system to be completely broken, so that the only way one can turn is back on ourselves. It’s like if you are forced into a corner and there appears no way out, then the only thing to do is step forward and do something … in the case of rising illness and dis-ease, taking responsibility and self care is the only way out.

457. Surely this is the most basic of responsibilities – to look after our own health. Governments who represent the people can make policies that support people to support themselves, not policies that support people to abuse themselves through unhealthy choices.

458. I wonder what morals and values we place in our ideal that someone must be cared for even if they make no effort to take for themselves. That sounds harsh but is it, or is it possible that truly caring for someone in the long term is not pandering to them. I feel it’s worth exploring what caring actually is, perhaps too much of our healthcare is focussed on fix and mend, and there is a need for more self care and responsibility. Exactly how this shapes up is the interesting part as those who don’t care for themselves won’t change overnight, but neither can we carry on the business model of the NHS in its current format given the out of control illness and disease rates.

459. Jane, you shine light on a big issue and it’s obvious that we need to take more responsibility for our own health and yet why are we so reluctant to do it? We seem to think we can get away with it and it gradually becomes normal to feel a bit sluggish and tired and not fully alive and then once we are sick we rely on others to ‘fix’ us. Most of us are doing this to some degree and we can only make real changes once we really examine our lives and are prepared to see what it is we are doing, or not doing, rather than what is being done to us.

     I remember thinking that feeling less vital was part of getting older and it wasn’t until I saw women who were older than me just shining and so full of life that I realised that it is not natural to feel lack of vitality at any age. It is great to have role models such as these to confirm to us that the norm is not necessarily the way it has to be. Students of Universal Medicine have changed their lives significantly by taking more responsibility for the way they live and they show that it is possible to stay young at heart and fit and healthy until a ripe old age if one makes self-loving choices.

460. If everyone with an illness put the same amount of energy into taking responsibility for their own health and choices as they do into complaining about the NHS, there would be big turn around in attitude to both, resulting in the well-being of all — the organisation and the patients. I have found how much doctors these days really welcome it if I take some responsibility for my heath, and so deeper communication is reached and working as a team, not in conflict.

461. “What if, simply by taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices, we can bring untold benefits to our own health and wellbeing and significantly reduce the burden on our pressurised health services…?” This is indeed a question well worth considering. World Health Statistics reveal the strain on the health system in many countries and it is obvious that we soon will not be able to provide service to all those who need it. People often don’t want to face the fact that the way they live is contributing to their state of health and yet our ‘comfortable’ habits such as overeating and smoking are like a slow suicide, killing our quality of life.

462. Responsibility is the big elephant in the room when it comes to healthcare – everyone knows they need to take responsibility for their own part but nobody actually says it, and so there is this arrangement where one party agrees to hand over power to the other, and the other party agrees to find solutions… and the result is neither are satisfied at the end of the day because they havent been true to what they knew was needed.

463. Responsibility for our own health placed in our own hands – exactly where it should be. We have access to great medical care when we need it, but that is not where the responsibility lies.

464. This turns the problem of the NHS on its head.so many times I have heard people complain that the NHS has no money, but what if we are really saying that actually we just haven’t bothered to take responsibility for our health and therefore the surgery is full of people with lifestyle related ailments. And all of which could have different result should we choose to look at how we are living. This is huge and prompts a big question for us all to look at our own choices.

465. ‘Why is this? Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?’ Now that I have experienced so much vitality and harmony in my body there can be no going back. Taking responsibility for my health and wellbeing has been incredibly freeing , but I have had my struggles as various food addictions tried to hang on. Now my body has taken charge and lets me know when it isn’t ok, even before I eat it.

466. “Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?” This is the number one question that should be headline news. What is it that we are choosing to hold onto here that is preventing us from doing the most natural thing in the world, taking care of our own health? There is no other species on earth that harms itself in the way we do and yet we pride our selves on being the most intelligent species going. I wonder if we will ask this question of our selves before or after we have pushed the NHS over the cliff?

467. The quote from Serge Benhayon referenced here is without a doubt a truism that I know from personal experience. By putting into action what it says my whole way of being has been transformed to one that is far more healthy and vibrant

468. You raise so many great points Jane, especially around the fact the NHS have been advocating ‘Self Management’ for over a decade. Wow, that is incredible, yet you share based on your research that the uptake has been minimal if at all. What does that say about us as a race of people? In my opinion, it does not reflect very well at all.

469. Very interesting Jane about the healthcare organisation, and we have to ask why is it that there has to be a ‘taking away’ or ‘refusal’ in the first place.. to garner any action from the person which shows the actual reliance and even arrogance many of us have in defaulting towards wanting another person to sort out our mess, or fix us. Lifestyles that come from personal choices carry responsibility; and a responsibility worth being confirmed right at the start of one’s schooling/education. And before that, within the family home.

470. Health is a subject that everyone thinks they have the solution to, a magic pill for, the perfect combo, the trick, the answer to but what if true health isn’t about what we think it was about? What if the perfect nourishing food, the amount of food, the type of exercise was just a part of the picture. I have learned that my attitude and quality contributes to how I feel and the choices I make in a day. We are much less educated on who we are when we are connected to our body, we see the body as something we have to rule and train and discipline, push through. If the body was an employee, I am pretty sure it would be disgruntled, we expect it to perform endlessly but rarely listen to its ideas or contributions to the company and we certainly don’t stop when it is telling us that everything is out of whack due to poor mangement. The body is actually more intelligent than we give it credit for, it is able to communicate very clearly about what works and what doesn’t but if we don’t listen, like any ‘good’ worker, it’s not just going to quit, it’s going to commit to continue its job and then down the track try and say the same thing in a different way.

471. Discovering early in life that our health care is in our hands is a truly supportive place to start. The longer it is left by ignoring and refusal to be aware and honest, the harder it becomes. Patterns of behaviour in our lifestyle become entrenched, familiar and relied on and often to a point where nothing around us resembles other choices. Early introduction may offer people the awareness that there are choices.

     1. Great point, Sandra. If this was part of early education, we would be raising children who are aware of the consequences of their choices in all aspects of life.

472. The health care and after-care systems are cracking, seeing unprecedented pressures and increasing demands, they cannot continue to work to capacity without some sort of support, not just in terms of more funding, but in terms of preventing the demand through changes to lifestyle.

473. It is an important call to make and take on in our lives, are we taking responsibility for our own health and when not why is this? It is great to honestly start asking the questions and homour what our body is showing us.

474. I can feel within myself that I’m so used to ‘alarming’ news such as the NHS is in financial problems. As if I don’t truly want to feel what this does to me and what it actually means. If doctors, nurses, carers etc. can’t cope with the amount of people that seek support, than the people in the same world as I live in, are not well. Fact is, even though I don’t know them, I care about them. Even though sometimes I don’t know what to do. But if I set the doing apart, it is confronting that so many people actually lost their connection to their true selves and as a result became / become ill. This isn’t normal and we are to support each other to look after ourselves, to be able to openly express what is going on for us, instead of keep wearing the masks of protection, politeness and niceness. They don’t work, they’ve never worked. We are responsible for ourselves in the first place and secondly responsible for each other. And all those people that are not able to look after themselves yet, they are to be connected to and they’re to be asked what they need in order to look after themselves again. Numbing ourselves with vices such as suger, cafeine, alcohol, drugs etc. doesn’t work and has never worked. Do we want our medical system to not treat us anymore in the future… Or do we take responsibility. We’re the masters of our own life. Including the misery and illness and disease. Said with uttermost understanding, but it’s time to at least consider that the choices that we make might have something to do with our physical and mental health.

475. Our health care is 100% in our hands even when it may feel out of our control. We can recover from illness as quickly as we are willing to look after ourselves. The current climate with the NHS is that it is actually broken and the fact we keep carrying on as if it is not is simply a case of the ostrich burying his head in the sand.

476. “So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?” This is the answer Jane! We need to stop looking to our administrators and politicians to fix the system and start taking individual and personal responsibility for each and every choice that we make. Every choice that we make has an effect on our health, health care reform starts with our own choices.

     1. I agree. This applies to everybody, including health care professionals and the first question I would ask is “How do I improve my health and well-being in a sustainable way and not with the usual high level of effort?”

477. It would seem we have always given the responsibility of health and ill health away to something else. Why are we so sick? Some would say it’s the food we eat, pesticides, fast foods, cooked foods, exercise, climate change etc but the way things like these are spoken about is like in some way someone else or something else did it. You could indeed say health is a very personal thing and so is the responsibility for that health. Is health just about exercise and diet? Well these are 2 parts but not the whole picture. What if we deliberately get focused on a couple of things only to not see the other parts lay hidden from our view? There are many things we say like ‘quality not quantity’ that ring true here. Is all the focus put on the quantities we do things in and little regard made for the quality. If we are talking of food you may say there is a focus on both, but what if the quality was much more about us than the food. Remember I said we focus on a part and not the whole picture, so quality doesn’t just relate to the food but to the whole relationship. We can all eat organic or greens or have this ‘amazing’ diet and yet still be really unwell, why? This relates to the how we are bit, the part often ignored and yet here we are more unwell than any time in history. We are being asked to put more dedication to the quality we are, the quality we eat, grow, buy and prepare food in. We are being asked to take care, a deep care of ourselves from the inside out and while food and exercise are part they certainly alone don’t make up the whole. We are tunnel driven and now find it difficult to see this fact or truth, once you clear the tunnel you can see the light of day and how obvious this is.

478. Imagine if the whole world was sat down, and gently but firmly told ‘look you know all those illnesses you have and the conflict and corruption that goes on, every last piece is a perfect reflection of how you have chosen to be – it is your responsibility’. Wow, I imagine consultations and sessions would suddenly become very simple and short. For the good of our health as humankind, let us not wait to be sat down but listen to those who like you Jane who present lovingly the uncomfortable truth.

479. “The moment you stop and ask yourself – why…! will not only expose why we self-harm but our whole approach and purpose to life, something most people will probably not find easy to face and deal with. Nevertheless, it is our attitude towards life from where all our choices are made, so if we want to change any kind of behaviour for good we will not be able to avoid to look at the core of our beingness.

480. I have noticed time and again doctors and their patients sitting outside a hospital smoking, some even have drips in their hands for medication. This is not to be critical or anything of the like but just to expose the fact that something as obvious and plainly harm-full and in truth deeply self-abusive like smoking is being practised openly in public outside the very organisation that is meant to be our key source of re-covery and re-vitalisation, basically our place of health-care. This most definitely is not a picture of true health!

481. This quote by Serge Benhayon gives a very clear pathway for how to bring about change. What strikes me is just how simple it is and how anyone can do it. It just requires an openness to look at our lives and be honest about what we find.

     “The moment you stop and ask yourself –

     why do I live like this?

     Why do I eat and or drink this way?

     And, why do I self-sabotage so much?

     –you have opened yourself up to recognising

     the possible root cause of your ill ways.

     Following through on the questions alone will

     Begin the much-needed changes.

482. It must be very frustrating and disheartening for physicians to treat people who do not want to help themselves by looking at their lifestyle choices. Maybe the changes seem too big if we approach them all at once but making small changes over time all add up.

483. Because we live so centrically it doesn’t occur to us to consider the wider ramifications of the personal choices that we make on a daily basis. I doubt if many would consider the burden we place on society each time we choose to smoke, take drugs, drink caffeine, not exercise, not express etc., and yet when it comes to wanting others to pick up our pieces we demand and expect that they will be there and in the case of the NHS – for free. We do need to start waking up to the fact that every choice we make impacts on everyone else too.

484. Taking responsibility for our own health and the support of this can be the only way forward for humanity. The overburdened heath systems of the NHS and worldwide are stretched far beyond capacity with illness and disease rising every minute. Teaching us and educating ourselves from young to care for honour and look after ourselves, taking our own responsibility first, is very real and needed as Universal Medicine, Serge Benhayon and the way of the Livingness is showing for all to see. A brilliant conversation started Jane, thank you, this article deserves to be seen by everyone.

485. We have a health insurance system that is founded on brotherhood. The more healthy people support the less healthy people. This can be a loving approach. The reason why this is not functioning anymore is because rarely anyone lives with the awareness of this foundation. What I observe from conversations in doctor’s waiting rooms and at parties or dinner tables is the following: People are angry because they don’t get what they want for themselves at the expense of others. They become aware that they are not in control. A painful revelation for most.

486. Absolutely Jane this is well worth considering indeed what state of disarray does the Health Service need to reach before we realise that the current approach to healthcare is not restoring true wellbeing and empowerment to its patients but through its legal small print enabling irresponsibility through the ceaseless delivery of solutions.

487. Our health is most certainly in our own hands – we know our body the best (if we are connected to it!) and therefore we are the authority in every little thing it needs – for health and for healing.

488. What’s in it for me and why should I change the way I am living? It feels like a large part of the world prefers to be barnacles, stuck to the bottom of the boat and just happy as a mollusk. Why would we not choose to take full responsibility for our lifestyle choices… is an excellent question, that will always be a personal choice!

489. When you ask people to be honest about their lifestyle choices, everybody knows that they contribute to how well or unwell their bodies are. But the point is to take the responsibility for our own health and not to only lean on our medical healthcare systems to solve any ailment when it occurs. We have to become honest about the fact that the way we live can either lead us to illness and disease, or is the best medicine we ever can have.

490. It is deeply inspiring to realise how hugely our health is in our own hands. Once this responsibility is truly accepted, our lives begin to expand into something far greater than they were when we trashed out body and then blamed it for breaking down! Our life must incorporate (in every sense) the preciousness of the body!

491. Many people try to take control of their own lifestyle choices – look at the weight loss industry and its lack of sustainable success, with the exception of gastric band surgery – but the problem is that it is very difficult for most of us to sustain good lifestyle choices. It would be useful to have research that tries to find ways to make healthy lifestyle choices more sustainable.

492. ‘obligation to “do good,” or beneficence’.(1) It has been stated that ‘irrespective of the “rightness” of smoking behavior, physicians have a duty to offer all patients appropriate care and supportive care and to help their patients become tobacco free.’’ Could we not also be considering that in truth it may be more supportive to let people feel the consequences of their own choices when despite all help, support and advice they do not take responsibility for their choices in trying to understand what lies beneath them?

493. It feels like the responsible thing to do to be encouraging people to take responsibility for themselves as well as receive the treatment they need. If we don’t look at our lifestyle choices but just want a band aid solution so to speak then it’s a huge drain on the NHS and we don’t get a true healing as we’re ignoring what is being shown up for us…

494. I love this article for many reasons, firstly because it is directly addressing the irresponsibility we have all been apart of as a human race when it comes to our health and well-being. Secondly it reminds us that the choices we make with our lifestyle are not just about us, they affect the broader community. Some might say that if you choose to make yourself sick (from cigarettes or excess sugar consumption) then this is an avoidable choice, one that puts unnecessary pressure on an already over loaded heath care system.
     But by the same token, some could argue that both cigarettes and sugar are both highly additive products and are legally sold in the UK and Australia. Sugar is in nearly every product we sell in our super market shelves, with no real regulations on labeling clearly or proper health warnings. The point I am making is to do with the governments responsibility when it comes to properly policing BIG industry about a responsibility in selling real food and drink, rather than beverages and burgers that will send you to an early grave.

495. The reliance on the health care system is massive, it’s like we are giving our power away to an outside source that is becoming more and more unstable due to such high and ever increasing demand. Taking back the power and being our own practitioners is the way forward, with support when needed, we can live in a way that is medicinal every day.

496. When I first understood the dynamics of a true healing: that I am the one initiating it for myself even if it is by just choosing to have an honest look, then when I seek support from a practitioner, a doctor or a physician it is to further what I have already started myself, and it follows that afterwards I continue the responsibility and taking charge of the whole thing whilst I may carry on asking for support. The empowerment and the ease which this way offers is exceptional. The fact is that society’s current understanding of and approach to support and care is one that mostly promotes dependency and disempowers, and what is more it is bringing the organisations that are set up to provide the support to their knees.

497. ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ – Fact is, if we all start to take responsibility for our day to day choices and and start to honour the signals from our bodies, we have the power to turn around this ill trend and out of control situation with illness and disease.

498. As you say Jane – Why? As Serge Benhayon says – “Following through on the questions alone will begin the much-needed changes.” There is such simplicity in what Serge is presenting. The health care crisis can appear an insurmountable mountain, yet it is just a simple as having the courage and commitment to keep asking ourselves the question. For me, whenever I manage to do that, the joy of the honesty that I am bringing so often changes my choice. It’s kinda like trying to lie to an innocent child – super hard to do.

499. Illness and disease are potent forms of medicine.

500. This is a super important topic, Jane. If the medical profession/NHS does not start to hand responsibility back to the patient for their state of wellbeing and open up to the undeniable evidence that our lifestyle and emotional make up directly influence our physical health, they will soon be completely overwhelmed and there will never be enough money available to cope with it.

501. “Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?” This would call us to be far more responsible in our choices and I know from past experience there was a time where I was not willing to take that responsibility. But articles like this bring to the fore and start to re-educate us more widely on what is needed and why it is needed, so that we become discerning and responsible for the choices we make to bring about change to the downward spiral of health and health services.

502. Isn’t it time for us all to adopt and accept the fact that we all do contribute to our own illnesses and diseases? Not from a critical point of view, but from a loving point of view. That we care so much about ourselves and our fellow human beings that we want to share that we’re to listen carefully and astutely to our bodies. And if we do so, we will find out that our body is very much willing to teach us how it wants to walk, what it wants to eat and drink, how it loves to be nurtured etc. And, it’s not another ‘have-to-do’, it’s a fullfilling, graceful and joyful way of returning to a way of living that is in fact ancient and very natural. And in treating and being with our body so lovingly, we will work together with the doctors, nurses and specialists if it happens that our body has to get rid of something through illness and disease. How different would that be? It would take an enormous burden that we’re now putting on our medical system and everyone who’s working in there.

503. ‘Dealing with the lifestyle ‘elephant in the room’ rather than patching up and treating illness would and could help wellbeing more sustainably’ – Very true Jane; instead of relying on short term quick fixes, medicines and pills, by looking at people’s day to day lifestyles it means their health would be looked after much more consistently and sustainably.

504. We have a huge part to play in our own health. With the health services buckling under the strain of a population that is becoming sicker and sicker, I would not be surprised if more organisations implemented the same idea of refusing to help certain patients unless they are doing something to help themselves first.

     1. Yes, it makes a lot of sense and surely it is only a matter of time until these measures are implemented by more organisations and governments. It would be very interesting to calculate how money would be saved in these instances.

505. Cigarettes were once considered an acceptable part of life and had beneficial effects… till science and medicine proved the actual effects it causes on the body, its health and well-being. Look at another pure plant substance, a mere natural product that is finding its way into most things we eat – Sugar! The world’s obesity rates are already blamed for being one of the leading causes of an item that is taxing medical treatment on a global level. There are other things we choose to put into our bodies and know what the detrimental effects they cause… and we still carry on. Are we choosing to cull ourselves from evolution?

506. Although we might throw our hands up in horror at the idea of refusing someone treatment, it does not make sense to offer treatment if the lifestyle choices behind the condition do not alter. It is the ultimate arrogance to present one self to a doctor and demand a cure when we are feeding our condition through self-harming choices. If the NHS is to not only survive but flourish we need to bring a much greater awareness to the responsibility we have towards our own health and our responsibility to use this precious resource wisely and fairly, so that those who genuinely need it can receive swift and effective support.

507. We all have very busy lives these days, and we can get caught up in the buzz of this. I know I used to eat sometimes without feeling what I was eating, for a quick fix boost. It can still be tricky sometimes to choose what I know is right for my body rather than to eat what I want to eat to dull myself. Our food choices are a great reflection of how we are feeling.

508. Yes, well worth considering, no doubt. I love your point about taking responsibility for our own health and well-being and that this goes far beyond our own experience of life; the unseen ripple effects and support that each one of us taking responsibility and care of ourselves will have on our over-burdened health service.

509. Ten years ago I would have agreed with the obvious points being made eg obesity and smoking, but only because these have never been my coping mechanisms, yet there would have been an underlying unsettlement because deep down I knew I had my own strategies to keep myself away from healing, and for coping with the world, ie sugar, caffeine, that was making me very unwell and books, films, stress, or travel to escape and to keep me less that my full vital self, and therefore not needing to step up to the responsibility of the greater picture that was being called for. The choice of behaviour and patterns make little difference, they may have different manifestations but at a deeper level they achieve the same outcome. And that also is why there can be no judgement.

510. Jane this is a conversation that should be up in spotlights and front page news. the NHS is being crushed and yet there is a sustained resistance and ready attack towards anyone who might suggest we look at personal responsibility – it is not about judgement or blame, just a loving approach and an honesty to look at our choices and seek understanding of what, how and why we do things that ill-affect us. and in this lies greater self-empowerment and the potential for true healing.

511. This is brilliant Jane. A powerful call to responsibility when we really look at how we are the ones creating the mess.

512. The NHS is crumbling under the strain of unprecedented numbers and will not be able to continue to function at capacity – steps have to be taken to address this and the greatest step we can take is responsibility for our health.

513. It is uncomfortable for many of us to take a look at our lifestyle choices and to see the consequences play out, it is far easier to blame our parents, the climate, our boss – anything except look inwards. Our body is the greatest source of wisdom we have – it doesn’t make sense that we ignore it when instead we could absolutely treasure and cherish it, and pay attention to its every minute message.

514. There is so much to discuss here Jane. It appears that we have so much access to our own health care these days, but when it comes down to it we actually are taking less responsibility for the way we live than we did 50 or so years ago. There is such an irony in this, as although we did not have so much information available to us at the touch of a button or the flick of a switch, there was not nearly as much illness and disease around and we all had more time for each other.

515. ‘For well over a decade the NHS has been promoting ‘Self Management’(3) of chronic illness and disease, in a bid to hand back responsibility for wellbeing, and the management of chronic conditions back to patients.’ – This is very interesting to read, and also the fact that it has not been a success. Could it be that the only way we wake up is to first run the NHS completely bankrupt and that we need to start from scratch? Learn the hard way, because there is no other option?

516. It is interesting that the “self management” courses have not worked or had much of an effect on how people are managing their own health. The self management courses I have seen tend to be like a “to do” list rather than being about making connections to the person and what is actually going to help them to help themselves. Universal Medicine has a lot to offer these big health institutions if they are prepared to listen and are open to a different way of being.

517. What strikes me is that currently on a whole humanity do not take responsibility for their own health and instead leave it up to healthcare systems like the NHS to bandaid the damage caused more often by our own choices/lifestyles than anything else, so what would it look like if this was reversed and we were the primary carers for our own wellbeing and doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals were there to SUPPORT us to look after our health and live vital lives? Would the systems still be under so much pressure? Would they be able to run more smoothly without having to take on the full responsibility of humanity’s health avoided and offloaded onto them by 7 billion people?

518. People should take responsibility for their own health, that’s a given. They should also form a partnership with their primary care health professional. When it comes to obesity the problem lies within the very foundations of how healthy fatty foods have been demonised and wrongly asserted to cause weight gain. Where does that leave the obese person? It leaves them looking towards a primarily carbohydrate diet and that fuels their obesity. The mindsets of health professionals and health organisations needs to change so that a better diet consisting of healthy fats can be adopted rather than being left to carbohydrates which fuel fat production within the body.

519. It seems to have got to the point where there is so much information out there in the form of TV shows, written material of how to live healthier, and it is a no brainer that eating excessive amounts of surgery and fatty foods, excessive alcohol and cigarettes will damage our health and yet we are choosing to ignore the information – no wonder the doctors are despondent. It seems that it is only a matter of time before the NHS just buckles under the pressure.

520. What we are witnessing is millions of people lost and unable to support themselves in a true way. Healthcare has become more about dispensing prescription medication than educating people about self-care and making life style changes that would bring them back to health. Many doctors are unable to dispense this level of wisdom because they themselves are trapped in the same cycle of dis-regard are not models of true health.

521. And the taxi driver’s honesty offered the GP a great reflection on his own state of health. How can we inspire others if we don’t walk the talk.

522. Your blog highlights so much to discuss Jane. This is where Health Promotion is a vital aspect of health care as lifestyle and choices are key factors in illness and disease development.

523. Also the health insurances in Germany are coming to a limit concerning to finance the huge amount of illnesses. Of course there are the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, the interests of the centers of different diagnostic tools etc. There has grown huge markets and systems around healthcare, which are sometimes used in an ineffective way. So both, on the one hand the increase of illness and disease, on the other hand the different systems used in a way which serves more the economics instead of people, deplete the finances of our healthcare insurances. Lifestyle choices and taking responsibility for ones own health is a huge point which needs to be adressed more in our society.

524. “Why is this? Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?” This is a great question Jane and one that I feel needs to be made more broadly available by our government, politicians, spoken about in the media more, all the way to the office to our next door neighbour. Why are we not taking responsibility? but also not making it a priority in all our conversations? is we have become lazy, we have become comfortable. People don’t want to take more responsibility, it is a sad indictment of where we are in our world, but it is true. We need to make this the topic of conversation, that life is medicine and it is our own responsibility to take care of ourselves.

525. Each of us has total responsibility for our own state of health and the state of healthcare as a system overall. We need to stop complaining about the system and take responsibility for each and every choice that we make, as it all relates to both our individual and collective health. We are not victims of circumstance, we are held to account for the choices we have made.

     1. Rightly said Lee – we all play an important part in this and we can not continue to ignore the elephant in the room!

526. It is in the hands of both the patients and the medical professionals. However, as the patients have chosen to make it particularly difficult for the medical professionals to help them by, in large numbers, asking for a quick fix, it may be worthwhile to consider that progress will be slow for a substantial time.

527. The “Why?” of ill health is an interesting one, why I wonder don’t we question more why people are becoming obese, yes there is the inactive lifestyles and the availability of an abundance of highly sugary convenience foods, but there is a deeper why of why we wish to abuse our bodies and allows ourselves to get so sick. What is going on there, this is the type of questions we don’t very often allow the space to explore.

528. Hello Jane and while ever healthcare is linked to money like this there will be a problem. I understand that healthcare organisations stance by not treating certain people but I wonder what the true base there is for their decision. The NHS like many other government healthcare systems would be under severe financial pressure, similar to Medicare in Australia. I agree we can take personal responsibility for our health absolutely but also these systems need to look at why this isn’t part of their overall plan. Sure they may say it at different points but we are giving people solutions and not truly giving them healing. Are we missing a part of the healthcare picture? I would say yes we are. These systems are part of the treatment and so how they care, the quality of their overall message and the way they do it is important. We are more and more obviously draining them but they are in it as well. At some point these systems may collapse and then we will be forced to look at what is going on. It seems to be our way as a race of people, don’t really look at things until they are extreme and then we are forced to work together.

529. I definitely feel the solution to our healthcare system and ill health lies in our willingness to take responsibility for our lifestyle choices and our health. Our lifestyle choices affects us in more many ways than we think. It makes sense to me to educate and support people to be open to taking responsibility for their own health and possibly introducing this as a way to support patients and people suffering from illness and disease. I understand and know that the way we choose to live can be our medicine or cause of illness and disease. We only have to observe what is currently around us to see this is so evident.

530. And what if we would take re-sponsibility? Could it be that this responsibility isn’t heavy or a duty or ‘thing-to-do’ on our daily list? Coult it be that taking responsibility is actually a way or the way of appreciating, caring for and loving ourselves? Could it be that the word responsibility is actually bastardised into something it isn’t? Could this be true? Could it be that life will be much more amazing, vital and joyful if we start taking responsibility for ourselves? Could this be? Really, could this be? And if so, where to go from here? And how? Not from discipline of heavyness, but from the inside out. How would it be to put ourselves lovingly to bed when we feel tired, whether that being at 19.30, 20.00 or 21.00? What if…

     1. Taking responsibility is quite difficult in the beginning when we both have to go through the adjustments, perhaps even cold turkey and the momentum of our previous choices trying and often succeeding in seducing us back into our old ways.

        1. Yes Christoph, it is. I found it (and still find at times) to take responsibility for my own choices. What I’m learning is to come away from perfectionism and just have to be with me, connected to my body. I love being with me, but the relationship with my body is something I’ve been struggling with. I realised this morning for the first time from in an understanding way that I’ve actually not been having a solid and strong relationship with my body. And that I hesitate and delaying building this relationship. So in this area I’m growing responsibility on one hand and in choosing so, also see where I didn’t take responsibility. Thank you Christoph.

531. It really highlights our sense of entitlement the moment we are challenged to be responsible for ourselves. I think it’s awesome that there is an initiative by the NHS that offers another way. We are so heavily reliant on others fixing our problems, but it appears that doesn’t work going by the state of our society.

532. Working with people who are living with the total sum of their life choices, more and more it seems to make very practical sense to care for ourselves through all our life and support our bodies to the best of our ability with well-being. The end result is not only extremely costly and very human resource costly in the level of nursing care required it is also extremely traumatic for the patients as they discover at some point they have to let go of the choices they have been making and surrender to the care of others.

533. The more we come to realise that the state of our health care system is there as a reminder and reflection of how we are using or abusing the system, then the sooner we may actually opt for making some true changes. And it is certainly time for change…When we come to realise that our own health and wellbeing is not something we can just hand to someone else, then we will perhaps begin to look at taking responsibility for the situation, and actually begin to actively care more for ourselves. What a day to celebrate when we all begin to do this…

     1. That is excellent. Yes, we are responsible for the health care that we receive. Singularly and collectively.

534. One of the challenges in our medical systems is that many of the Doctors themselves are dealing with the same issues or dependence on things like alcohol, cigarettes or certain foods as their patients. Therefore, it’s near on imposible for them to provide true support to patients if they themselves are not dealing with their own ‘stuff” so to speak because there is no inspiration there for the patient. When something is lived, this naturally offers someone inspiration but when it is told from knowledge, the other person feels the empty words with nothing behind it. So a starting point is for people in our medical systems need to lead by example.

535. we have nothing to lose in considering the possibility that self-care and looking at our lifestyle choices is the key to turning our health statistics around.

536. The whole entire world would do well if we all took responsibility for how we are feeling, living and being by bringing some much needed honesty to our true quality of living. The exorbitantly high costs of health and wellbeing is a cost of our irresponsibility.

537. ‘We know that lifestyle is a major factor in the reason for the rising rates of illness and disease, and with this comes the responsibility we have for our own lives and how they affect not just us, but others too.’ – It is interesting to observe how we have created a society where we seem to completely dismiss our own responsibility and the part we play here and place the entire responsibility for our health and wellbeing in the hands of the government and the national health system.

     1. Well said Eva, particularly this ‘ we seem to completely dismiss our own responsibility and the part we play here and place the entire responsibility for our health and wellbeing in the hands of the government and the national health system’. The word ‘dismiss’ sums up the deplorable state we’re in. Corporate multi-billion businesses take very seriously their responsibility to continue to tempt us with endless attractions, consumer goods and unhealthy foods that make it so easy for us to do so. In other words, they say ‘If you don’t know what to do , we’ll tell you what to do’. What we’re offered benefits their interests and profit margins, not our health and well-being. Imagine the impact of true corporate responsibility if it’s purpose was to benefit the health, well-being and welfare of all, not just shareholders.

538. There is so much to consider here Jane. Our every choice contributes to our state of health and how we feel.

539. ” The moment you stop and ask yourself – why do I live like this?” is the moment we finally declare our willingness to assume responsibility for something that has always been and perpetually will be our responsibility to take charge of, the quality of our Health. After all we are the ones who choose to eat and drink what we do, we are the ones who decide how we are going to treat our bodies and there is no-one else who will do this for us. The National Health Service is here to support us in our health care, not substitute our lack of it.

540. Taking our life and our health into our own hands simply makes sense and it makes sense of life also. It would reduce the burdens on society as a whole and the appreciation and responsibility that is missing in the world currently to bloom.

541. Our lifestyle choices have to come from ourselves, it is up to us, equally and with responsibility, who else can make them? Sometimes we may want to blame others or dislike what has happened and want to blame others, but the buck stops here. Our health and well being is 100% up to ourselves.

542. Thank you Jane for highlighting the measures that the NHS need to take to ensure the service stays afloat. Sometimes we all need a wake up call. The NHS is a victim of it’s own success and we have all learnt to rely on it far too much, It has always been there to pick up the pieces when we have gone too far in neglecting our health, overloading it with alcohol sugar and excessive eating. There may come a time when the NHS no longer has the resources to cope, and then those that truly need it will not get the support they require.

543. For me it makes so much sense that our health and wellbeing is in our own hands and that is truly empowering. For me the turning point in years of suffering back pain was when I chose to look at my life as a whole and the changes I could make to support me and my back which enabled me to turn my life around and take responsibility for the choices that had led me to that point. The NHS is obviously struggling to get its self-management message across but the more we individually make more responsible choices then the power of reflection is magnified, rather than people feeling they are being dictated to and reacting to that.

544. Medical practitioners must feel so torn with this issue. On one hand they know that they have a duty to treat and care for absolutely anyone, but on the other hand they must be aware that so many people who appear in front of them are totally responsible for their own illness, will not change their ways and will continue to expect to be treated. A very frustrating position to be in.

545. Looking at our lifestyles choices would go a long way to ease the burden on the NHS and get us to take more responsibility for our own health. The NHS is like an overwhelmed parent who has millions of children who refuse to grow up, but this situation can only go on for so long, and from all accounts it sounds like the NHS is limping along already.

546. Our current idea of health is a mish mash of mis-truths, false beliefs and down right lies, without overhauling the entire thing I feel that trying to correct one single part will only lead to more imbalance, confusion and ultimately ill health. For example if more people were encouraged to take more responsibility for their health without first understanding what true health is then they will unwittingly be pushed into yet more unhealthy pursuits, such as drastic dieting and strenuous exercise. What is needed is education about what true health really is, from this a person will then be able to find their own true health and not some imagined picture of what health is.

547. Thanks Jane. I have felt for some time that avoidable diseases due to lifestyle choices should not be covered on the NHS, but did not know that this had been implemented in some areas. It would be interesting to find out more to get a sense of the bigger implications in introducing such a policy across the board.

548. “A while ago, a healthcare organisation in the UK made a decision that it would no longer treat patients who are obese or who smoke – unless they have been/are on a programme to do something about it.”
     Jane, this is actually quite amazing because it calls everyone to step up to more responsibility, and essentially this is no different to a parent laying down the boundaries with a wayward child. Only as adults we don’t really have parents any more to call us up on any waywardness and so we need to be here as a society to support each other by calling out when something is not appropriate anymore.

549. The health care system shows clearly that we have to come to other terms with ourselves as how these systems have been been set up are not able to support us anymore. To bring back the responsibility for our health to the people is a natural way to go but needs a change in thinking and how we behave ourselves in life, but to me is the only way to go for a sustainable change in the overall health of the people in our communities.

550. When there is any economic down turn, health promotion is one of those fundings that gets a hefty financial cut back, which is nonsensical, as illness and disease do not halt at the same time as a change in financial situation.
     It appears we base economic health above human health, but when you consider this for a moment, economic health is actually driven by a having a healthy population. Just consider exhaustion and absenteeism from work alone … this has an enormous impact on the economic health of a community, even a country… so perhaps funding health is a must what ever the economic climate is, perhaps even more so in when there is an economic down turn…

551. This is such an interesting topic and one I have considered a lot having worked in the area of health promotion for a long time. What is nonsensical in all this is how little money is used to fund education and health promotion for prevention of unhealthy lifestyles. We spend billions on treatment for condition of ill health and yet schemes that impact health in positive ways have to scratch around for scraps of money, even when they have proven the difference they make. Of course in all this personal responsibility is key, but having worked in this area for so long from the prevention side, it is almost as if the governments want the people to be sick, given how illogical the approach is to healthcare and how prevention through smart health promotion programmes is always given lip service.

552. Everyday the NHS is in the news regarding how much pressure it is under and how bankrupt it is so yes we all need to start to take responsibility for our health and the lifestyle choices we make including overeating, eating fatty foods, eating sugar and smoking. It reminds me of politics … it shouldn’t be up to one person or a group of people it is up to all of us, we are all in this together. What I have learnt regarding self-love and self-care from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine is absolute gold and this is forever evolving. It is far more loving to look at and deal with the underlying emotional issue instead of reaching for sugar or a cigarette etc.

553. It is actually feels like a great decision the NHS has made to call the population to be more responsible for the way they live – in the end there have to be people making the choice to live healthily and lovingly for there to be anyone left to help when someone does get sick! As you say Jane, ‘according to the Hippocratic tradition, the guiding principle for physicians is “first do no harm,” or non-maleficence, which is closely followed by the obligation to “do good,” or beneficence’. By encouraging people to look at how they are living that is causing their disease (in a non-judgemental, non punishing way) seems a very reasonable and healing thing to do and not discriminatory at all. Obviously emergency help must be given but then a program to self-heal does need to be part of the way forward . . .otherwise our future is pretty bleak as we keep on repeating the same over and over again. But it is an interesting question that you ask here Jane and well worth an open non-argumentative debate.

554. It seems there is only one way the future can go with the NHS and that is for lines to be drawn between lifestyle inflicted diseases and those that have come about more organically. People are wholly irresponsible for their health on a mass scale and we just keep shrugging our shoulders and carrying on as we always have. But it is broken and broke. The bucket has endless holes in it and cannot be fixed, the only way for us to move forward is to get real and stop putting out the mattresses to break the falls as everyone keeps wilfully jumping out the windows, how will we learn and how else will we change. We can’t self manage as has been shown time and time again with seat belts in the cars having to be enforced with law, with plastic bags it had to be enforced a cost before we would start bringing our own ones in. We just have to get real about how irresponsible we are and face the facts.

555. “What if, simply by taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices, we can bring untold benefits to our own health and wellbeing and significantly reduce the burden on our pressurised health services”.

     What if this is true? Why is it that we like to think that all our ills and woes are because of everything or everybody outside of us? Could it be that we are to break the arrogance and ignorance and start accepting that we are responsible for our own health and well-being. If we take good care of ourselves and we get sick we bring – at the very least – a healthy body to the doctors so they can work with the body in order to support us in the way that is needed.

556. It is easy to see how the NHS is buckling under the pressure of the demand placed on it, and the fact that it is only going to get worse – how long can it go on like this before it collapses altogether. At what point will we start asking ourselves the questions put forth in this blog, and start the healing process for ourselves.

557. Medicine has fostered a culture of power imbalance for a very long time – ‘we know what to do and we will fix you’ with people handing their power over to the medical profession… and we are now reaping the consequences of this imbalance. It is way overdue and time we each take full responsibility for our own health.

558. Great presentation Jane… this conversation is so overdue. We as a society have known about this blow out in healthcare for a very long time. When all the baby-boomers post-war were born clearly there was the realisation back then that this inequity in those working and those retired would be an issue, and only now when the budget has blown way out are we going OMG what will we do?!

559. We don’t look after ourselves but then expect someone else to do it for us but this also applies to many of those who work in health professions as they often do not take their own advice and also have unhealthy and disregarding habits. Surely we cannot expect people to follow recommendations from those who do not live according to their own advice also.

560. Taking care and responsibility of our well-being is very well worth considering and choosing. The quality of our everyday lives will increase for starters. Imagine millions of people turning up to work with a vitality they haven’t felt since their teens . . . before activities like drinking and smoking were introduced into their day? I know what a difference choosing not to do these things has made in my life. At 56 I am more vital, well and participate more fully in life than I could manage at 40. There is a lot of proof that caring and being responsible for our well-being makes a huge difference to our overall health.

561. I work in the homelessness sector and have done for the last eight years and we ask the same questions and have the same discussions. Just like anything in life we all repeat cycles of things until we learn what we need to, or get fed up of the pattern or see how we are creating it. Housing issues are no different and I say this from personal experience as I was near homeless once. It was only due to the grace of a supportive friend that this didn’t happen; however it would have been very easy for me to continue blaming others. However when I was willing to see what my Responsibility was in the situation and how I had got there I could clearly see that I had a pattern of running away in relationships when things got tough and for 17+ + years that’s what I had been doing; rather than face and deal with things – run away. Therefore in time this running away mentality meant that I was continually making poor decisions and so eventually 17++ years later I had to deal with the responsibility of living on my own, looking after my finances, putting the care of myself and my home as a priority and not relying on everything being done for me. My reason for sharing this is that I feel that health issues are the same, as there is always a part of us that is creating the illness and if we’re open to why, we can be the masters of our own healing.

562. I’ve always felt a bit sceptical about modern medicine until I met Serge Benhayon. When he introduced me to the fact that the best medicine is self-care and self-love, and we explored in depth what that means, my health improved dramatically. When this self care was mixed with the wonders of modern medicine it became clear that you cannot have one without the other for supporting your health and wellbeing,

563. Some consider it callous and unsympathetic to point out to someone that their own choices and the way they have been living has contributed to their health issues. I for one consider it the most loving, supportive and empowering act to help someone see that they are not a victim of the situation. If the person reacts because they do not want to face the responsibility that comes with such a gift, then that is another story.

564. This elephant in the room you speak of Jane, seems more like a whole zoo to me at times, such is our persistence to pursue this idea that life ‘just happens’ to me and you. How ingrained is this view of seeing ourselves as victims of circumstance and ‘destiny’? We may find better circumstances, buy a yacht or lie on a beautiful beach but this concept of seeing ourselves as separate from our choices, is a huge delusion. By choosing to perpetuate this irresponsibility we make ourselves ill in the greatest way.

565. To accept abuse from another is actually abusive in that you are in effect condoning the behaviour by accepting it. We can apply this same understanding to accepting irresponsible and self-harming behaviour (which is of course a form of abuse). Often a wake-up call is the most loving response.

566. And of course it goes deeper than this- why are we so reluctant to truly self care. When we do not love, appreciate and understand our bodies enough it is much easier to hand them over to someone else to fix. If we truly understood the part our bodies play in our own healthcare and how our bodies are communicating with us all the time, and we were shown how to read our bodies, our healthcare system may be very different.

567. Being responsible for our own health care and self care is an act of brotherhood in that it may lessen the burden on the healthcare system so it can manage the people who actually really need these services. I love how you have expressed this, Jane, as it makes perfect sense.

568. I agree Jane, there is now a case for looking at making Health service decisions based on the reality of our current situation. The fact that the NHS has finite resources that are so stretched now (and the deficit continues to mount), and the now many articles showing how lifestyle does affect our health and wellbeing, we need to find new ways that help wellbeing more sustainably.

569. Giving up smoking isn’t just about addressing the behaviour, we need to learn to love ourselves more, to appreciate our bodies and then the choice to not smoke becomes a no-brainer. As long as smoking is seen to be a cool thing to do, or people feel the need to fill the emptiness inside, smoking will always be a solution. It requires a completely different way of parenting and educating children, so opposite from the driven way we bring up our children now. Children need to be nurtured to feel good about themselves, and to be aware of their bodies and how they can look after them. As long as the focus of education is on achievement, our children will not know how to live with harmony in their bodies. Healthy Living requires a Lifestyle change, not a pill.

570. How did we end up so disconnected to our own bodies that we find it ok to hand over all the responsibility for our own health and wellbeing to doctors and institutions? Perhaps this is a question we need to ask ourselves?

571. Your article Jane asks all those questions that need to be asked. Isn’t it time that we take on the responsibility for our own health by choosing to be accountable for the impact that our choices have on our body rather than hiding behind the belief that illness and disease is random?

572. In championing our right and freedom to live as we choose no matter the consequences, and then expect another to fix it is the height of irresponsibility – but it is also overlooking the actual lack of freedom there is in this scenario – yes, you may have been free to eat to the point of obesity, but that freedom has now taken away your freedom of health, quality and longevity of life etc – freedoms far more important to most. What if the NHS called us to be more responsible and in turn yes, some wayward freedom would need to be let go of, but in the end could a greater freedom be reached as a consequence?

573. When something happens which stops us behaving as we normally behave, like being unable to walk or go to work, we naturally want to return as soon as possible to our previous state and way of living. But when we view this more deeply, can it be that this is an opportunity to assess whether how we have been living is truly the way we want to continue our lives? The quick fix to return as quickly as possible may not be best choice to make. Instead we can use this time to re-evaluate and see whether we can take more responsibility for ourselves in our lives.

574. It feels that we are being offered a great opportunity here to take responsibility for our health and well being – and to realise how empowering it feels to not be a victim of an addiction to a way of life. I know this has been my experience as I slowly realise that any health problems that I have are caused by the way I have been living life. Yes, I do still need the support of the NHS but by being proactive I can follow the advice and guidance I am given to support me to live a life that is full and active at any age.

575. It’s very difficult to give effective treatment to those who smoke or are overweight with long term/severe conditions that relate to their smoking or lifestyle, and by offering them the opportunity to better look after their OWN wellbeing through changing their diet, exercise and regular routine it supports them so much more in the long run instead of prescribing pills or a short term ‘solution’.

576. Thank you Jane for expanding my understanding of this ‘according to the Hippocratic tradition, the guiding principle for physicians is “first do no harm,” or non-maleficence, which is closely followed by the obligation to “do good,” or beneficence’. It could be argued that by constantly patching people up so that they can go back to their self-abusive ways is contributing to greater ‘harm’, that is it is not of benefit to them. I am not trying to put the responsibility for our current situation onto the medical profession here but just raising the point that sometimes saying No is the most loving thing to do.

577. At the heart of true health care is our inner heart. Each step we take towards living from our inner heart, is a step towards better health. Illness and disease are there to support us to return to true health and once we embrace this fact then our return journey will be speeded up immeasurably.

578. Every-thing is in our own hands. It is by our own hand that we are where we are and we are the only ones that can get ourselves out of this mess.

579. To consider that our health is in our hands and not just with the doctor is a game changer. I know that I have looked in the past for the doctor to fix me up, patch me together only to return to the same choices that got me ill in the first place. I have also felt frustration when I have felt the doctor brush aside symptoms ‘as one of those things.’ By taking greater responsibility for my health, my attitude has changed in the knowing that I am working in partnership with health care professionals in the support of me…that I need to do my part. From that point my appreciation of the medical profession has sky rocketed!

580. ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ I feel this is very true Jane. At our surgery there is a notice board that states how many hours are lost per week due to people not attending GP or nurse appointments. It is a staggering number of lost hours and exposes a deeper level of irresponsibility for self and others that goes on in a society in which these resources are limited. Taking more responsibility for our own well being is key and a great starting point for us all.

581. Coming back to this blog, the sense in it resounds so loudly. Yes there are finite resources and there is not enough to go around due to the ever increasing diseases and illnesses we are facing. At some point the tough decisions have to be made. If feels like basic common sense to ask those who generate their conditions out of lifestyle choices to be responsible for that and to pay for the services they need.

582. Great article Jane, the NHS can’t continue this way, if they are in deficit already and with more people becoming sick and needing care and this will only increase. I wonder could the NHS communicate to younger people (who are not yet sick) that there is a change in policy and that if the illness and disease is related to for example, smoking and excess drinking (alcohol), then these treatments need to be funded by the person and will not be covered by the NHS, this could act as a preventative and gives young people the choice whether to smoke or drink knowing that they will have to take responsibility for their actions if they become ill as a result.

583. “In recent years the numbers of those needing care have escalated, and the NHS is now bursting at the seams and in financial deficit.” One wonders how much longer it is going to take for ‘the powers to be’ and the general public to accept that the present response to illness and disease is not working and that a different approach is required. And that a foundational aspect of that new approach is to take responsibility for one’s own health and wellbeing.

584. Another newspaper headline ‘Poor diet and lifestyle are bigger dangers than infections.’ According to the Lancet, a leading medical journal, ‘7 out of 10 deaths are caused by poor diet and lifestyle’. Additionally the article states that ‘while death by infectious diseases fell sharply, the proportion directly linked to lifestyle has soared’. Serge Benhayon has presented on dramatically rising illness and disease statistics for a decade or more and supported many to understand the root cause of illness and disease and take responsibility for their own health. Now scientists and World Health Organisation are saying the same. The challenge is knowing what the problem is, but not how to inspire and re-educate people to make different and self-caring life-style choices.
     Daily Telegraph 7th October 2016

585. We easily fall for the illusion that we think our own thoughts which we do not. But we don’t easily accept that we are in charge for our health, which we are!

586. “So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?” This is a great question Jane, and although it may be an uncomfortable one for many, it is one that needs asking. How much longer can we depend upon our health system to pick us up and put us back together, when the choices we are making with regard to our own health care are not responsible ones? As you have so clearly pointed out, our health sevices are reaching saturation point already and are struggling to cope with the increase in numbers of illness and disease that are coming through the doors. At what point do we stop and realise that there may be another way, that perhaps we have a part to play in this increase and perhaps there is something we can do about it as individuals.

587. Jane this is just one example of the struggles faced across the globe, I know it is very similar in Australia with healthcare professionals pushed to their limits and beyond to cope with the demand for services. Education is not the key it would seem, as we have taken that approach for at least a decade now, with no turnaround in the current trends. I love the simplicity of what Serge Benhayon has posed… That the answer lies in a couple of key questions, asked with genuine intent, and opening up the potential for understanding and through this, the potential to choose differently.

588. Caring for our own health has a direct impact on the health standard of any community or country. It is possible that the variation in standards of health status within a community could be reflected by the many different definitions and ideas on the word ‘Care’ . “Self-Care’ is an important first step for health and wellbeing.

589. A huge conundrum – can we refuse treatment to a patient because of their lifestyle choices? And might it be that at some point we need to draw a line in the sand because our health systems worldwide just can’t afford to treat the proven lifestyle-related illnesses any longer? And who or what agency will make that decision? And if it were to happen, can we as a society do it in a way that is not about punishment or exclusion? And how can we fully support and inform a patient to take the necessary steps and find the true answers – as offered by Esoteric Medicine and The Ageless Wisdom.

590. ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ Brilliant question Jane. A question that every person without exception needs to ask themselves. Life is not a rushing river that we just succumb to, to let it drag us along through floods, storms and dangerous logs in the way. Life is something that we choose moment to moment, am I living and moving gently, lovingly? Am I observing the cause and effect of everything I think and act on? Only such a deeply philosophical, religious and practical approach to life will turn our health and so our health systems around.

591. I wonder if finding ways to allow patients to behave more responsibly is the most cost effective health measure that is available at the moment?

592. Why is it only the minority of people who will do for themselves what is required to support their health and wellbeing, even when supported and advised to do so by highly trained and dedicated healthcare professionals? Even having been told that a particular activity they do causes the problem they are suffering from and that they should stop in order to support recovery, many will continue and expect the healthcare system to provide treatment to allow them to continue and apportion blame to it when their quality of life suffers. I almost wonder if we would be better off without the healthcare system – at least then we may pay more attention to how our own choices and actions affect our own health.

593. The NHS is just one of example of the many healthcare systems across the world struggling to cope with the increasing rates of lifestyle related illnesses and conditions, and as you’ve shared Jane it’s unclear to determine what will happen next… Will we plunge into greater debt and further cripple our healthcare services and staff, or could it be time for us all to re-evaluate our choices and see what we can do to take responsibility for our own wellbeing? The choices we each make in regards to how we look after ourselves could make all the difference to our national and global services and systems that are there to SUPPORT our health rather than be relied on to take care of it for us.

594. I need to also add here that in my practice as a complementary health care practitioner, I encounter people each and every day that are looking for a quick fix. They are not really seeking to address the deeper issues or problems that are happening for them, and they often see what is happening for them as a nuisance and inconvenience rather than an opportunity for learning and change. But as people we fear true change and we often resist taking responsibility. And yet these are the two things that allow us to grow and evolve and hence grow and evolve others too.

     1. Yes agreed Henrietta, unfathomable as it may seem, both to me and even to those who are seeking complementary health-care services, many are still not wanting to look beneath the surface for what underlies their condition. There is a pervasive attitude for sure that the body should just keep up with however we choose to run it, and when it doesn’t, it just needs fixing so we can get back to the way things were. I see this even in serious health conditions that are very immobilising… the motivation is to restore life as it was, free of whatever bodily hindrance exists.

595. We are all responsible for our own health and our bodies hold us to account for this, yet we have amazing medical advances that mean that we can avoid this accountability by getting the fix for our choices. This blog has highlighted to me the true depth of the responsibility of the choices we make, in that, the choices we make affect not only our own health, but all of humanity. Our choices each contribute to the cost and provision of healthcare for all. This is a huge responsibility, so when when I make a choice to harm my body, such as eating something that is not good for me or smoking, I actually harm all of humanity with that choice.

     1. I agree, it causes a lot of harm to ourselves but, in addition, to others as well. It is a form of selfishness – as if I have the right to hurt myself as much as I like and you have to pay for it.

     2. Great point Lee, understanding responsibility in this very practical way is important, as it’s easy to think that our choices are fine because they only affect us. We need to become global-thinkers again, choosing to remain unaware of the wider ramifications of our choices is not working.

     3. What a difference it would make to the whole of humanity if everybody had the same awareness and accepted the same level of responsibility as you do, Lee. How bad has it got to get before people realise this?

596. Jane this is a very pertinent blog and makes a clear statement that exposes the lack of ‘want’ in our society to actually improve our health and well being. I recently ran a stand at a local health and wellbeing expo and though we had several people genuinely interested in improving their health, I could not help but notice that they were in the minority. The vast majority of people were not really there to take advantage of the opportunity to learn more about their own health and well being, rather they seemed to just be there to have a social time. This was interesting to observe and is in line with what you have shared in your blog that on some level people have and are dis-empowering themselves, giving away their care for themselves and in the process making themselves reliant on another. There is a level of responsibility that we all hold when it comes to our own health, and the more active we can be with it, then the more it feeds us back, and hence in the process is all the more supportive on the larger scale too. I suppose the accountable question to ask is: “If I do not place my own care in my own hands, then (a) what example am I setting for others to follow, and (b) how many other people am I affecting by my irresponsibility?”. Confronting to ask, but very true and pertinent in our times.

597. This article is so true and the medical staff must have so much patience when they see some people returning regularly with the same ailments and do an amazing job with all that is offered. However if everyone did start looking at their lifestyle choices and or this kind of consultation took place with the doctors in the initial stages of meeting, health would definitely start changing for us all and then the NHS could offer whats needed to those in true need rather than always firefighting and fixing so we can repeat the same old same old again and again.

598. The ‘Hippocratic tradition, the guiding principle for physicians is “first do no harm’, causes me to question how asking a person to investigate how they live and whether their lifestyle contributes to their level of health could fit into doing ‘harm’. To trigger the consideration that there is another way and that each of us can be active and take responsibility for the choices we make makes so much sense. So does it mean that to continue means the NHS is setup to fail as a health system and is already failing? This system could encourage and support humanity to dig deeper and to look at choices that are loving and supportive and discard those that are abusive – it could be more honest rather than continually enabling poor choices to be lived.

599. This topic is fundamental to our future as a society. Until we have more serious discussions about our personal responsibility for our health, basically the slow suicide of millions of people is occurring. We do have a choice about how we live and Serge Benhayon is leading the way on what makes this choice natural, not a chore! We have abandoned our true nature. Is that really possible?

600. So if the responsibility is in our hands, we could ask ourselves the question what it actually is that we need to take this responsibility. It’s a simple question, but changing the way we are with ourselves and each other is quite a thing to deal with. The best support for me personally is to not judge or be hard on myself and if I still do it, that I can call a friend who’s willing to just listen and appreciate me for who I am. Either in stillness or appreciating me in words. There’s not a lot that I need, just a simple and clear understanding is usually enough. And accepting that I do make mistakes and that I’m fully allowed to make mistakes, rather than holding on to an image that I’m somehow perfect. True healthcare change starts from within. One by one.

601. “Lifestyle choices and responsibility for our healthcare – whose hands is it in?” I gladly take responsibility for my health into my own hands and feel that there is a responsibility to do so. This means I make choices with as much awareness as I can of my body on a daily basis, and consult my GP or specialist when I notice changes that might need further professional consultation.

602. To invest in a healthy lifestyle is the best investment I ever did. It is an investment that is not selfish, because a healthy lifestyle has a healing effect on all of us.

603. Like any system the NHS functions because of the people in it. To disregard and abuse a system means we are disregarding and abusing the workers who are a part of it and asking them to clean up after the people who use it.

604. Potentially controversial conversation but a much-needed one. The power has been handed to the medical profession and with it the responsibility to care for our own well-being. It is a model that is in essence bankrupt and in need of changing. Self-responsibility is the best way to support consumers and practitioners a like

     1. Yes Joel, and the handing over (and acceptance) of responsibility to the medical profession has come at an enormous price for both patients and professionals. Nobody wins in this transaction… the patient remains disempowered and seeks relief only, while the professional is over-burdened by the inappropriate proportion of responsibility and over-worked due to the increasing demand.

605. ’So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ – In my experience this is the ONLY way we can regain and maintain true health and wellbeing.

606. Obesity and smoking are very visible signs that a person is choosing to not deal with painful situations in their past but someone who is addicted to sex or other things that are not so visible would be able to keep the fact that they too are not dealing with painful feelings from their past much more hidden. The truth is that all un dealt with pain leads to ill heath and so to withhold free medical treatment to a few hand picked groups would be rather discriminatory.

607. Jane this is a huge topic that you have brought up and one that really needs to be discussed, however I can feel myself pause and the reason behind that is this. It has taken me a very long time to understand what true health is, mainly because we have not only been fed a lie about true health but we have readily swallowed it too. At my sickest I was following what many would have thought was a lifestyle engineered to bring about true health. Not so. So what if I had been turned down for free health care because my lifestyle choices of strenuous exercise and copious amounts of salads and juice were contributing greatly to my ill health? I wonder if the topic is as clear as many would initially believe it to be.

608. It is up to us all to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing.

609. This article brings home the fact that we are the product of our choices, no such thing as bad luck.

610. “So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?” This makes sense Jane, but it seems as a population we don’t want to go there, and whatever we are doing, clearly its not working!

611. It seems like we have explored nearly everything to fix up our bodies when we get sick, we have incredible medicine, amazing doctors/nurses and great facilities in the UK and most parts of the world. Your article brings us full circle back to ourselves and helping everyone understand just how much our health lies in our hands. It will be a bumpy ride to get there, as nearly all of us do things we know are not supportive or loving for our bodies yet do them anyway. It seems clear that the next big leap in medicine is very personal and it starts with our own relationship with ourselves and how we live. The great news is it costs nothing and in my experience has the potential to change everything.

612. I love this blog and quite frankly it is a conversation that needs to happen. We have to ask ourselves where our attitude of “I can do what I want to my body and someone else will fix it” comes from? It really does expose our irresponsibility and when we are confronted with this we often find it distasteful and difficult to accept. You are quite correct Jane when you say that the health service all over the world is bursting at the seams and cannot afford to keep going as it is now.

     1. Spot on Elizabeth – Responsibility is the key word here – and I love the way you have worded it so honestly by saying “I can do what I want with my body and someone else can fix it”. What an arrogance we all live with, with no consideration for others.

613. Taking responsibility for our own healthcare is certainly worth considering but at present so many people do not want to do this as it would mean they would have to look at, and take responsibility for, how they are living their life. For many this seems just too overwhelming but they are only delaying the inevitable.

614. This is so worth considering. It can’t be ‘normal’ to have so many chronically ill people in the world. This is not our natural state. It has become the norm to self-sabotage and then seek help. When you think about it like this it seems totally crazy.

615. The condition of the NHS is a typical example of the arrogance we have towards anything that is ‘free’ i.e that we can just use and abuse until we cripple it. What the NHS offers is quite astounding and I for one have changed my attitude to it immensely. When I didn’t take care of my health, I was equally dismissive of the NHS and what it offered, because I wanted some one else to fix my problems. Now I have resumed responsibility for my own health and take immense care of my body and well being, I really value what the NHS offers because I regard it and all those who work in it as an immense resource and support to help keep body and soul together. Whereas I used to have a ‘Patient Dependant’ attitude I have now created a Health Partnership with the NHS and like all partnerships it requires effort on both sides to make it work. Maybe it is time that we re-consider the starting point of ‘free to patients at the point of delivery’ if the patient’s starting point is ‘free to use and abuse myself and the system’.

616. Could it be that “Self Management’ of our illnesses is still down to treating ourselves like cars? They are just something that allows us to function and live in the way of our choosing, and when it breaks down we just want someone to fix it and move on? People are starting to see the forest through the trees with the rates of cancer soaring but still have not embraced their responsibility in this equation. It will not be the meek that that inherit the earth, it will be those as you have said Jane, the ones that take full responsibility for our lifestyle choices!

617. My feeling is that all health insurance organisations will come to this point to ask their members for more responsibility in lifestyle choices, as illness and desease are increasing and not any more to manage financially. Equally there is reaponsibility required from everybody working in the medical field in order to be a role model.

618. Lifestyle impacts our health more than anything else. Some of us may not have come round to accepting this as a blanket rule for every illness, but society has accepted it for pretty much most of them. So instead of spending billions and billions researching the cause of specific diseases, why not study the reason behind so many of us knowingly making such terrible life choices in the first place?

619. Jane, thank you for bringing in the wider picture here, I’d never considered that in us taking more responsibility for our own lives we actually support others, so us taking care of our health allows our health services to be used by others – now if we all applied that to the best of our ability, in whatever way we can do, it would be very different for both our health service and the wider world at large.

620. Great article and call for us all Jane, to look at how we are living our lives and what drives some of the choices we make, for we are now all living with the accumulation of those choices. We all play a part in the deeper healing that is necessary, starting with our own bodies and responding to them.

621. “This tactic has been tried before, and each time it causes a bristle of comments, discussion and reactions.” This is what is needed at times to start the conversion, but there also needs to be follow through. We all need to take responsibility for our own health and the state of health of all of humanity. Part of taking responsibility includes dealing with the consequences of the choices we have made, which may include paying more for healthcare.

622. Jane I was moved to tears reading this today…..especially this part “More so, if we all started to observe the way we are living our own lives, and the responsibility we currently do or don’t take for ourselves, we not only support ourselves, but in doing that, we will be supporting the health service – and our fellow brothers in humanity – as, if we decrease our own burden on the health services, we allow others, more sick or elderly, access to the care they need.” I felt quite deeply that this is what is needed and how we are are all to live. To take great care of our own-selves so we free up the services for what is truly needed.

623. There has to come a point when we have to look at how we are living and the effects this has on our health. I think we pay more attention to our cars as we know that if treat them in a disregarding way and not have regular services they soon start going wrong. It’s time we showed the same care to our bodies.

624. ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ There will always be debate as to why we should not be more responsible in the way we live. Yet, the exhaustion of the current health care system is clearly showing us that change is needed. And self-responsibility is the first (and much needed) step.

625. By involving the patient in the decision-making of treatment it is very easy to share within this the responsibility the patient has for their part in healing… however, how willing the patient is to take responsibility is another matter. Our current model of care has the patient handing power over to doctors, and doctors are trained to ‘fix’ people, to find solutions… when in reality we as patients know our bodies best and need to convey this when developing a care plan that works for our situation.

626. I know that in the past I had an irresponsible attitude to my health. I reckoned that I could do anything I wanted to and then when something happened to my health, I could just go and get fixed. I don’t think I am alone in this. Asking people to take responsibility for their health is not a terrible thing and is something everyone needs to do for their own growth as a human being. Taking responsibility is the best feeling and creates a sense of power in your life. Taking responsibility brings a sense of freedom and expands our choices and enriches our lives. It is a very worthwhile thing to do.

627. I absolutely agree Jane. It is ‘we’ who choose the lifestyles we want to live, regardless of understanding and research that is available to us all, about the effects that these lifestyle choices have on our bodies. And it is ‘we’ that are continuing to choose them. ‘We’ then have the expectation that someone else, our health and medical services have the responsibility to take care of and quickly fix the dis-ease that has followed from our choices, so we can as soon as possible return to our chosen lifestyles. This does not make sense in any way. Unless we begin to take responsibility for our health and well-being and honestly look at why it is that we make choices knowing the harmful effects it has on our bodies, and our society, our collective illness and dis-ease will continue to escalate. Self-responsibility is the key for us to move onward in a way that will support us all to live with more vitality, well-being and true care for ourselves and each other, freeing up our health and medical services to be able to work with bodies that are open and ready to truly heal.

628. Yes it would be a great benefit for all if we all would take the responsibility for our health in our own hands. Not just supporting the health care system by (here in Belgium) paying our monthly health insurance but also looking honestly at what we could improve in our own lifestyle and dealing with the issues that we have underneath our unloving lifestyles. Because I found that if I do eat too much for instance, it is because I do not feel good in myself and that that is what I have to (lovingly) look at not the food alone.

629. The disempowerment of patients and our consequent demand on health to fix us, has been in part fostered by a biomedical model that sees the patient as a victim of their circumstance, a passive recipient who is expected to cooperate with whatever treatment is offered. However, we as patients have a choice – to be disempowered or to take responsibility for our own health.

630. Awesome blog Jane – stating it how it is. It is quite arrogant really, and self-centred, how we expect the healthcare system to constantly provide for us and yet take no responsibility for our part in our health.

631. It is only when we need to go to hospital for something that we appreciate the incredible service the NHS provides and even then we either soon forget or don’t full appreciate what we have on offer in this country. Imagine if each and everyone of us started to take responsibility not only for our health but our children’s education, our finances and the well being of each other. The world would look completely different.

632. ‘Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?’ – I agree this makes no sense, why is it that we don’t see the value of taking the lead of our own health and well-being? To me that is the only way that truly works, if I’d put all the responsibility for my own health on the doctors and the National Health System, I would be giving all my power away which certainly would not benefit my health.

633. “A while ago, a healthcare organisation in the UK made a decision that it would no longer treat patients who are obese or who smoke – unless they have been/are on a programme to do something about it.’ This makes complete sense to me. The fact that people don’t like it is simply a reflection of their unwillingness to accept the responsibility of their choices. It’s like allowing a child to make a huge mess and then tidying up for them afterwards without ensuring they take ownership of their actions. In this case we are not supporting the child to look around and clock the effect that mess has on both themselves and everyone else too. When we indulge children and then moan about their lack of commitment to life or the fact that they are irresponsible then we are equally as culpable for this. Same thing for all of us. We can’t afford to indulge in allowing others to be irresponsible any more.

634. Yes, agree. If we take a look at public health from a broader viewpoint, the ill-health of an individual has an effect on their immediate family, which has an effect on the community, which as an effect on that town/region…. that then affects that country’s health standard, and each country in the world collectively impacts on the global statistics of illness and disease. Everyone everywhere is affect in some way, on the lifestyle choices of another. So… our contribution to public and global health is directly impacted by our everyday choices… “Ahhh… just one more beer?” or .. “just one more smoke… that wont matter?”….
     But… it does.

635. I wonder if one of the biggest causes of the cost of healthcare is patients being irresponsible and it could be a very expensive luxury to treat people no matter how irresponsible they have been; the expense of treating the consequences of certain lifestyle choices is vast.

636. The existence of the NHS has made us lazy and dependent on them for our health and wellbeing instead of us taking full responsibility for everything that happens or has happened in our bodies. It’s time we woke up and appreciated the millions of doctors and nurses who are exhausted looking after us when their time could be better spent looking after people who truly need their services.

637. I remember when I used to have really bad back pain before coming to Universal Medicine. While I recognised that the NHS could not really help me, I still sought outside help from osteopaths and various modalities to try and fix me. It was only by coming to Universal Medicine and being aware that it was how I was living that was contributing to the pain that I was able to change, and the back pain disappeared. To change life style habits we need to bring this into our education system. The schooling system is still very much about getting good marks and being high achievers, and it doesn’t at present ask us to take responsibility for our health and wellbeing. As you say Jane “So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?”

638. The NHS is under severe pressure and is significantly drained when we refuse to develop greater responsibility for our own lifestyle choices. Well worth appreciating the impact on our health service and everyone else in society if we don’t take the steps necessary in our own lives to build true health and wellbeing.

639. Jane “… taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices..” is well worth considering! It is easy to do and yet we resist it so. With the current crisis of funding in the NHS it may be that we will be forced to, as the system will simply not be able to function if we don’t!

640. Have to say it again Jane. Brilliant expose of the state of the health service. We now know that the unhealthy and over-burdened health service reflects an unhealthy and self neglecting population: a consequence of the people it serves failing in their responsibility to serve themselves.

641. The irony of the situation is that if we continue living in such an irresponsible way, we are going to be forced to take responsibility for our health because this amazing health service is going to buckle. It really is time to stop and take stock of some very out-dated assumptions about this service. Should something be free at point of access if we are there because we have abused our selves? What is it we are expecting the service to do for us if we are continuing to poison our bodies with tobacco, alcohol and sugar to name a few. If we want that miraculous cure, we need to start addressing the way we treat our bodies as our most immediate form of medicine and then when we have cut out the toxins, poisons and rubbish and we still need help, then we can head off to the doctor to ask for their assistance free of charge.

642. I visited a GP surgery at a county location yesterday and noted how the waiting room table was full of magazines, high end fashion, cars, homes, gardens, not a single one on health and well-being. It occurred to me that this is a missed opportunity. GP surgeries around the country could offer magazines, articles, blogs, videos on true health. An article such as yours could be one of them! Instead of patients attending GP surgeries being guided on how to self care, they are fed the same consumer and need driven literature that fuels unhealthy lifestyles and keeps them exactly where they are.

     1. Each time we have these conversations and share our vision of what is possible, we leave an imprint in the energy field that remains. How powerful is that. I agree, 1.3 million NHS staff on a self-care programme would be a national health investment that would reap lasting health benefits for staff and the patients they serve.

643. It is a very easy thing to lay blame for the state of the health system upon government. But delve deeper into what is actually causing the logjam and you realise that to a very large degree it is the absolute callous way we treat our bodies as a society. Most of the diseases facing western society are largely preventable, and yet they are escalating out of control. That on its own speaks volumes about the fact that there is something very flawed about the way we are living that makes no sense to our base level of intelligence.

644. It is so sad that the majority of people expect to be able to live in a way that does not take care of their health and then expect the health services to pick up the bill. It’s the perfect way to absolve responsibility. No wonder it causes ripples when there is talk of taking certain services away. It would be a harsh wake up call for many.

645. A very informative sharing on the NHS and our responsibility for our health and life style choices. The NHS is an amazing support to our lives but is more than struggling to cope with the rising levels of lllness and disease. The true appreciation of it that you highlight here Jane that is missing is much needed to be seen. The appreciation and love for both ourselves and the NHS comes hand in hand.

646. The simple question you pose here, Jane – “Why do I live like this?” if asked in earnest would change everything. The trouble is that a large percentage of people do not want to ask it of themselves, and so we continue to support their unwillingness to look at how they are creating their own illness and disease. I agree that something needs to change.

647. Just last week I attended a meeting to help plan NHS services in the area where I live. It was very apparent in this meeting that the biggest challenge facing all health care services is the amount of money available versus the overwhelming and increasing demand for health services. It seems something really has to shift in how important we view our own health and wellbeing or the gap is only going to get wider and wider. We are already at breaking point with this and decisions are already being made to treat this and not that, by rationalising resources.

648. There are tentative programs being trialled by medical providers to address their staff wellbeing with the burnout rate from being overburdened by the amount of illnesses being presented by patients. What if medical staff can become the reflection for the word to be spread of the changes that can happen with self-responsibility that can assist in the prevention of conditions?

649. As health budgets continue to blow out and potentially bankrupt some countries (as has been predicted), it will be interesting to see how we as humanity respond. Refusing to treat someone because they smoke etc is contentious and seems to go against everything health professionals have been trained to do. And whilst there are the obvious lifestyle factors like smoking and its causal relationship with lung cancer or vascular disease, what about the energetic cause of diseases that we are yet to see the part we play in? One thing is for sure, we need to become a lot more aware and respectful of our bodies and start to feel what we can do for ourselves.

650. It was very interesting to read this blog as I have been reading lately about approaches to public health. It seems to me that we are missing a few significant pieces of the puzzle in working towards improving global health. One is an understanding from our own bodies of what true health is. So many of us have settled for health as being ‘not sick’ or even ‘not sick compared to people who are really sick’ The WHO definition of health as total health and wellbeing is criticised for being idealistic. Perhaps we have simply dropped our standards so low we can’t conceive of this being possible. The other standout that is missing from the literature and research is energy. We know that energy is the foundation of all things and everything that happens in life. Yet we gloss over it and prefer to look at other causes, be they social, genetic, environmental etc.We will continue to spin in circles, looking for solutions until we embrace this fact and what that means for our health.

651. Absolutely worth considering Jane! I really appreciate the way you have presented this possibility – there is no hype in the crisis that faces the NHS and no ‘boot-camp’ in the way you appeal to people to take responsibility for their own health. The questions posed are indeed a doorway for anyone who is ready to make the lifestyle changes that serve them, and, as your beautifully point out, serve the NHS and all of us simultaneously.

652. “…We know that lifestyle is a major factor in the reason for the rising rates of illness and disease…” Yes, which is where Self-Care, which supports re-connection to our body, is an important and even is the missing link in health.

     1. Especially if a person makes a decision to consider treating their body with a certain level of respect. That is a big step in itself.

653. It is interesting finishing reading this blog and in particular the words “full responsibility”, the doubt came up, sure some, even a lot of responsibility, but full? The tendency to measure and compare my lifestyle choices to another’s so I can feel better about the choices I am not making is a tricky little game. Despite all the great changes I have made, the fact that I do not choose to bring my quality of life to its full potential, is still an important one to ponder and to address.

654. Excellent account of where our health services are at and where we stand as a community not wanting to take responsibility for our own health, by looking at our lifestyle choices, therefore unnecessarily burdening it further. Illness and disease continues to rise despite all the research done and modern medicine available.
     It makes sense that we look deeper into our own personal lives and take responsibility for our health.

655. Unfortunately smoking and food are not the only ways we choose to abuse our bodies. There are the obvious ones like alcohol, drugs and self-harm, but few could claim to live a life sans self-abuse and irresponsibility. What about over-working, over-exercising or not exercising enough? What about being in constant emotional turmoil or taking on the emotions of others? The list could go on and on because any choice to not live from love and with responsibility is abuse.

656. Thanks Jane, this a great piece of writing. This is a newspaper worthy article. Everybody, including doctors, health care workers, administrators, politicians, old people, young people, absolutely everybody, as well as those suffering illnesses, need to read this as we all have a responsibility to ourselves and others to take care of our own health by looking at how our lifestyle choices are affecting us instead of doing what we like and expecting someone else to fix us.

657. ‘…if we decrease our own burden on the health services, we allow others, more sick or elderly, access to the care they need.’ This has really struck a chord. Where in my life am I taking when I have no need to should I choose responsibility? Thank you Jane

658. This is the sensible, practical and common sense approach we all need to take when looking at our health and wellbeing.There is a tremendous arrogance in us that believes we have the right to do whatever we like to our bodies and then when they break down, we also think we have the right to be fixed by our medical professionals. My quality of life and my health is due entirely to my choices. No question. Surely we have a responsibility to our society, and ourselves to live in a way that understands this and puts it into a living way of being.

659. This is a conversation well worth having in every country of the world for there is no denying that our health is in our hands for we are the ones making every choice and living with the after effects.

660. Thank you Jane for writing this great blog. We tend to see the National Health Service as something ‘over there’ that will help us when we need it, yet we do not fully value our own inbuilt ‘health service’ the wisdom of our own body that is in constant communication with us. When we start listening to it we begin to get a clearer picture of the choices we are making and how they are affecting us. What a great opportunity we then have to take responsibility in our own ‘health service.’

661. If we realised that as presented by Serge Benhayon, ‘life is medicine’ then our current healthcare system becomes a support as we take full responsibility for our own health and wellbeing through our choices.

662. For me this was the most glorious revelation I could be blessed with. My health is my responsibility, not the doctor’s. Within 2 years I became healthy and this is a deepening process until today and beyond.

663. Thank you Jane, great call for responsibility. Health care is in crisis, we each as individuals, families, groups communities and countries need to take responsibility for how we each contribute to the current state of health. Even if we are ‘healthy’ ourselves, simply by seeing ourselves as separate and healthy while others are not, is not taking responsibility for our role in the health state of humanity. Responsibility is huge.

664. We are all responsible for the state of our health systems and we pay taxes to have them in the first place to support our communities when they need them. This doesn’t give us the right to blatantly abuse our bodies and then call on them to fix us when we get ill because of our own choices. I’m all for supporting everyone, but it’s a bit like someone breaking something, and someone else replacing it – over and over again. At some point you have to say no, that’s enough otherwise there is no learning or healing for the person – no evolution and no call to take responsibility.

665. This understanding of responsibility applies to us all whether we are in an extreme health category or not.
     A ground swell of responsible choices will lay a foundation and support for those who don’t find it so straight forward. Bringing awareness to this so we don’t turn a blind eye with an attitude that I’m ok is essential. Otherwise it remains as something that is proposed as a mental solution but not truly lived and embodied for all to feel

666. Our level of health is hugely impacted by our lifestyle and our lifestyle is made up of the moment to moment choices we have made – it makes sense that the healing of illness and disease starts by ‘healing’ our choices, the way we think, the food we choose to consume and the drugs and alcohol ingested upon our saying yes to this – it follows that it is time for us to take responsibility for our level of health and to work with the system and not against it.

667. The truest empowerment is to confirm the grandness in another, inspire them to embrace the power and wisdom they have within them, and offer the support for them to apply that in life. For far too long have we kid ourself that to assist someone is to take away the challenge they are facing. That does not support. That dis empowers. It creates people dependent on others with no trust nor inclination towards expressing their magnificence.

668. Irresponsibility is an illness in itself really. When I consider the irresponsibility in my own life, there is something else underneath that I am not willing to deal with or aware of that needs healing. If we could have conversations about this type of healing, so many of the physical ailments that arise from being irresponsible could be healed as well.

669. There is a part of us that expects to turn up and a get a ‘good life’ for free. Its true to be healthy and wealthy and wise is a natural state for you and I. But the fact is we have fallen a long way away from this quality day to day. To return to who we truly are, requires discipline, care, attention to detail and internal resolution that this Love is what we deserve. If we are unwilling to bring this to bear, then the simple fact is we don’t truly care. Thank you Jane for making our responsibility clear.

670. i have always seen medicine and hospitals as huge institutions, pillars in society. Now that I have started to work within them I can connect with the humble beginnings of medicine. The system is currently majorly jammed, it would help if the healthcare workers appreciated everything they do and the service they run as well as the public taking more responsibility for their choices.

671. Absolutely Jane, this is well worth considering, ‘What if, simply by taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices, we can bring untold benefits to our own health and wellbeing and significantly reduce the burden on our pressurised health services – well worth considering?’, This completely makes sense for us and our wider community, changing our lifestyle choices to more loving and healthy ones can be much more simple and enjoyable rather than ending up with illness and disease and having to get treatment for this.

672. I was in hospital recently and looking around the ward I was in,apart from two elderly gentlemen the rest of us were more than likely in there due to poor lifestyle choices. I was quick to judge someone that had been in a knife fight and two other younger overweight guys in for a bad knee and a bad back, but then suddenly had to take a deeper look at why I was in there with a burst appendix. What lifestyle choices had I made to be in this situation and what could I change so that this sort of thing didn’t happen again so that I wasn’t an extra burden on an already overburdened health system.

673. I agree Jane, it is definitely worth considering for to not do so allows people to stay in the irresponsibility of their choices that put such pressure on the system, that at some point… will burst…. An unavoidable repercussion of a fix me mentality… yet avoidable should responsibility be taken for our own lifestyle choices.

674. ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ – Jane, that is literally a billion dollar question. It becomes very apparent that the NHS or any other national health or medical service world wide will be unable to meet the future demands from the rapidly increasing illness and disease.

675. Jane I had no idea that as a Doctor one holds the responsibility to treat someone no matter what choices they make even if what they are doing is the direct cause of the condition. I can see the merit in this but with stretched financial resources it is something that whilst ideal, is very difficult. It also doesn’t fully support people to learn to take deeper care of themselves if they can “carry on” as before.

676. Well researched and presented Jane, and a great case in point for these crucial self reflective questions posed here by Serge Benhayon
     “why do I live like this?
     Why do I eat and or drink this way?
     And, why do I self-sabotage so much?”

677. It is a very interesting point you raise here Jane as our traditional thinking with the NHS has always been to offer free health care, at the point of delivery, equally to all irrespective of their health or lifestyle choices. Unfortunately having worked in the NHS myself, this noble idea has led to irresponsibility and a lack of accountability for our health among our general populations. We have become complacent and disengaged from our health and lifestyles believing that the NHS will always be there to pick up the pieces and offer a solution to our health problems, a growing majority of which we create for ourselves. It is becoming increasingly clear that the NHS will not always be there if we carry on with this current way of thinking and that the consequences of our irresponsibility with our health, are rapidly approaching a crisis point and we have to rethink this model of health care.

678. Great questions that you ask Jane. It is so easy to blame – the doctors, the NHS, anyone rather than look in the mirror and see how we can make adjustments to our health, by making different lifestyle choices. I know intelligent people who still smoke – yet suffer from ill health. We have to look behind the symptoms as to why we need to smoke, eat too much and the ‘wrong’ foods etc, otherwise it is all too easy to substitute one bad habit for another and there is no true healing. Enter Universal Medicine therapies…..

679. You eloquently express here, Jane, the need for self-care and the benefits it brings not just to oneself, but for humanity as a whole. As you say this is ‘an elephant in the room’ that needs to be exposed and openly discussed if things are to change.

680. It feels like most are only interested in what they can take rather than understanding what they are affecting when they are taking. Unless we are prepared to start taking responsibility for our choices and to be open to seeing the bigger picture we are not going to evolve as a society.

681. ‘So what if the key to health service reform and improving health and wellbeing rests more in our hands than we currently like to believe or consider?’ Said in one Jane. Instead of pouring billions into the health service, that is broken, struggling and failing what about addressing the root cause of the problem? Too many people living irresponsible lives, playing Russian Roulette with their health and expecting the state to fund health care bills when they are sick. In the long-term this cannot be sustained. Could it be that universal healthcare provision created to support people who could not afford to pay for health is now being abused on a massive scale by millions of people who refuse to care for their health and thereby preventing or minimising the onset of serious and chronic ill-health.

682. Whether we are victims of this life or we are responsible for it seems to be a rather fundamental question. Perhaps we like to sit on the fence on this one. My experience has been that when I embrace responsibility I embrace the power that is innate in me – and the more responsible I choose to become, the more power I can access.

683. What if we would start the conversation about the fact that our illness and disease are the effects of our own choices. Not as a critique, nor as a blame. But only to start to be honest about the ignorance and arrogance that illness and disease are coming to us at random. Of course this isn’t true. But I also have experienced myself how difficult it is to break through the ‘rules of the system’ that we’re in. If we’ve always been smoking, taking drugs, eating far too much and suddenly we start taking better care of ourselves, there’s a lot of people reacting to us. Usually in the form of joking, but nevertheless are these comments often enough to fall back into our own patterns. But if we would have standard dialogues on this topic, how different would it be? And if we don’t, any medical health system has to say stop at one point. Simply because we can’t afford it. So the question is really simple: are we choosing to take responsibility or are we choosing to do whatever we can choose and let money dictate whether we get (medical) support, warmt and care from our nurses and doctors?

684. Brilliant article Jane! Just brilliant. I reckon it should be published on UML too, to reach any many people as possible. Life-style illness is indeed the big elephant in the room, and one which many desire to keep on ignoring as it will necessitate a complete change of lifestyle, the kind of change one usually waits to make until diagnosed with a terminal illness. We drift along in ignorance unwilling to disturb the fatal comfort we have slipped into. It’s time to change direction and return back to the divine vitality that is natural to us.

685. There is a worrying trend here – in the past and I mean right back to Hippocrates, it was possible to support normal levels of illness and disease. However, in the last 20 years what has become ‘normal’ has become serious problems like diabetes, obesity, smoking and drinking related diseases… all of which are a direct result of lifestyle. As difficult as the shift is, the NHS is sorely in need of help and this has to be one of the areas to look at – effectively a direct tax on lifestyle choices by making people pay for certain appointments related to how we live.

686. The adage of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is very relevant today. How much money is spent on cures and at the same time is made by companies selling them?

687. What you are sharing here, Jane, is of important relevance as it does not stop at people with obesity or smoking but is including everybody with any symptoms which needs medical care. I agree, everybody is responsible, as minor as the symptoms seem to be. Then we can not talk any more of injustice, but of an evolvement, and as such a support, every one of us is given.

688. It is interesting to me that we have created a world where it is easy to not take responsibility for our health. Why would we do that?
     Before our modern medical system, when help was not just a phone call away, we were much more responsible for our health and better informed about how to take care of ourselves.
     Modern Medicine does amazing things but it is not going to survive financially unless we do something different.
     Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine is presenting a way of being that complements our medical system and supports us to take more responsibility for our own health.

689. In the end, it is very much like how we would raise a child – if they continue to throw their food on the floor in a tantrum you wouldn’t keep replacing it for them to simply throw on the floor again – we teach our children about having to take responsibility for the consequences of the choices – if you don’t pay your bills, your electricity will be cut off, if you don’t go to work, you will most likely get fired. But currently, if you choose to make lifestyle choices that are known to cause illness and disease, cancer and possibly death, we have a health service that will step in and prevent or alter the consequences, but how are we supposed, like children, to learn not to continue to make the same choice? When our health service is past cracking and is positively crumbling under the pressure of mounting illness and disease rates, something has to be done.

690. Thank you Jane, this public concern needs more than just one voice. We all certainly are responsible even if I am in another country. This is a way you have so clearly outlined and should be put forward to the authorities of the NHS. Once we understand there is simple facts, questions and a responsibility we all hold in this an effective plan can be implemented.

691. Any health service is a fix, in the case of the NHS an impressive fix in my view as it works under huge strain and yet is free to all. But what I mean by fix is that it can address a symptom, but to get deeper to the root cause is never going to be its job, that responsibility lies with ourselves. So you can treat illness but if the lifestyle remains the same the illness or another in a different guise will return in its place. Responsibility for how we live is the only way forward to truly improve our health and wellbeing and by effect reduce the burden on our healthcare systems.

692. Working in health for over 20 years I have heard and seen much. One of the things that first come to mind Jane as I read your article is that of entitlement. Australia has a similar health system to that of the UK and we are also heading down the same path. Really we only need to look at the NHS to learn and understand what is going to happen here also. But I have heard many people over the years say…”I have worked hard over the years and I have paid my taxes so I deserve……”Whilst working hard and paying taxes is hugely appreciated by our wider communities (for they would not function without this) there is still a level of I will live as I choose and know that healthcare will be there when I need it. The way health care is going across the world we are actually being told we can no longer afford this. The question is are we listening? Your article Jane support us all to ask ourselves to look at this and question our own contribution to this.

693. “Lifestyle choices and responsibility for our healthcare – whose hands is it in?” The answer should be – OURS 100% but sadly this is not the case. Most humans choose to live in state of ignorance and to live in disregard of ourselves and others and when things go wrong or ill health strikes we want someone else to fix it/us!

694. A bold stance by the NHS one that is much needed to strip the bandaid off, if this is what it takes to look at the lifestyles we choose to consider change to benefit all, perhaps it should be introduced across the board.

695. It is easy to blame all sorts of circumstances and situations on outside factors. As a race this seems to be one of favourite past times. But if we were just to look back at our history with clear eyes, what we would see is that we always have a hand in ‘fate’, always play a role in all, consistently choose to make a choice that leads to everything that unfolds. It’s pretty awesome what you point out though Jane, and not something we should focus on with blame, as this just shows we all have immense power to improve our health, change our life, and make our way about living truth.

696. I love how you ask question after question. It gives you an opportunity to stop and think – it makes you consider your choices and responsibility. And it actually makes me worry about what is to come (for the NHS) if we don’t begin taking a little more responsibility for ourselves. Great article, Jane.

697. Love the forthrightness of this blog Jane. The disregard that we have for ourselves and others is like a plaque upon the earth and it’s time we woke up that this lack of self-responsibility is the cause of most of our illnesses and disease. Choosing to be responsible for our lifestyle choices is key in dealing with the health issues amongst the many other man-made issues that plague the earth. Is it case of what and not if it will happen when the Health system collapses? This is in fact the choice we are making when we choose to keep on self-indulging and not accepting responsibility for our lifestyle choices.

698. If we were to take more responsibility for our own health, by what we eat and how we live, we would feel so much better. But we have to care enough, care for ourselves and care for our bodies, and be proactive in our own decisions. It’s the easy way out to go to the GP and blame genetics or external factors for what happens to us. The doctors give us options and support, but it’s for us to decide on the action and heal ourselves. This subject encourages a lot of discussion, well done Jane.

699. Thank you Jane for posing this question and it is well worth considering. It does seem rather strange that on the one hand we accept our self harming behaviours and on the other agree to treat many self inflicted conditions for free. The government draw immense taxes from tobacco sales, which just end up being poured into the seemingly bottomless pit of NHS funding to treat people for tobacco related diseases. Are we missing some thing here? Lifestyle choices play a fundamental role in our the quality of our health, maybe it is time we start to pay for our health care if we choose to abuse our bodies with tobacco, sugar, alcohol, medicinal and recreational drugs and the like. It might actually get the message across to both patient and doctor that we do have a responsibility to care for our selves before we expect anyone else to and if we want free health care, we have to stop abusing our bodies.

700. I feel our lifestyle choices definitely contributes and can be a major factor to why so many people are ill. My understanding is that Illness and disease doesn’t just develop overnight, they are a sign that our body is very sick and in disharmony because of the choices we have made. So, if we embrace responsibility and choose to actively participate in healing our bodies with a more loving, nurturing and caring way of life, then our health care system will not be overwhelmed and our health will improve dramatically, effortlessly and naturally. Teaching people to take responsibility for their lifestyle choices and for their health I feel is key to solving not only our current healthcare problems but many other issues and crisis too. As more and more people choose to restore harmony back to their body, everything else around us will also be impacted in a truly positive way that will naturally shift the disharmony in our world because everything is intricately connected. The only place I have found that teaches and inspires people to take lasting responsibility is at Universal Medicine. It is universal because it is for everyone and everything, and medicine is a way of life that supports healing. So, the way we choose to live can either heal or harm our body.

701. In my opinion this is a necessary measure that can’t be avoided, and is only supporting us to bring a deeper understanding to how we live. Taking the responsibility for our own health is very much needed. It is a great thing to find out that it is all about how we live, and when we start the detail to which we determine how we feel is incredible to see.

702. This would be a great conversation over any family dinner table or workplace lunchroom – to ask the question of ourselves ‘why are we not taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices?’. The responses may not be pretty, but it’s a great starting point to raising awareness of our habits and patterns.

703. Jane, this is the same in New Zealand -a global problem. I love what you have shared here -simplicity is the answer to complexity. When we do not take responsibility for our own health the health conditions increase and become more complex and expensive to treat and then there is complexity in how we decide the resources are to be used. When we each own our own bodies and are responsible for what we are putting into them and how we move with them there is a simplicity in any treatments as it is a true partnership between the person and the practitioner and many of the answers to the issue are solved by us as individuals.

704. Brilliant article and with some great points raised. Even if we took responsibility at the point of illness or disease the burden would be lessened as we would move forward knowing that what the NHS provides is only part of our healing thus removing any expectation of being fixed as we would recognise how our part is to look at lifestyle choices that led to the condition and for the condition not to recur changes in our choices are necessary. Thank you Jane.

705. Hello Jane and it is well worth the consideration, “What if, simply by taking full responsibility for our own lifestyle choices, we can bring untold benefits to our own health and wellbeing and significantly reduce the burden on our pressurised health services – well worth considering?” With many systems like the NHS the way they are run needs to change, how that looks I have no idea but the basis of what you are saying is responsibility for our choices and I don’t feel this should be limited to the patients. People that run and are a part of this system need to take the same ‘medicine’ in that they need to take a look at how they are living as well. This is not to be critical but to say the onus is on all of us and not just a part of us. I’m sure that this would support the patients also and after all ‘practice what we preach’ and ‘walking our talk’ is important when it comes to looking at the responsibility of another.

706. A few years ago I would have found this quite confronting as I did feel a bit helpless with regards to the conditions I was experiencing. Through Universal Medicine and gaining a deeper understanding of these conditions I was able to have more understanding for what was going on and from that place able to make different choices and this saw great change in my health and wellbeing.

707. I think it is fantastic what the NHS have done. The responsibility for our own health lies in our own hands. When we need support or in emergencies yes lets have access to free (if possible) health care. But if someone does not take responsibility for their health and then has access to free healthcare what are we promoting? It is actually hugely loving to hand the responsibility of health back to each of us as that is where the true responsibility lies. At the end of the day we are the only ones who are capable of healing ourselves. Yes we need medical support and assistance but we are an equal part of the equation.

708. Great blog Jane, I love it. We each need to take personal responsibility for our own health, to support ourselves, the various health systems and humanity. The health care professionals need to start caring for themselves too so that they role model and offer a reflection of health to all.

709. This is a great article Jane. If we enable people to be irresponsible and burden everyone else with the impact of their choices no one wins, their is no learning or evolution in it . I would not be surprised if other countries follow suit for irresponsibility is a pandemic disorder that is draining us all and the only way forward is to encourage responsibility to self and to others.

710. I would only welcome one of these changes. If we know that lifestyle is a big contributor to many illnesses and diseases like forms of cancer and type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, is it then not almost the responsibility of the NHS or any health organisation to put the conditions like you mentioned on the access to certain health care services? To me this would be truly caring for people and their health.

711. The quote says it all. This is so powerful to apply to all our ill choices in life. We hurt ourselves and others so deeply otherwise and we perpetuate more hurt. l feel it all stems from a lack of self love and self care first. We search to be filled up from the outside, we are so sure that is where we get love from, that we so dearly crave for ourselves. When all along it starts with loving ourselves first. This realisation is revelatory and allows for the “follow through” actions to be initiated and for true healing to begin.

712. The number of cigarettes I see outside the local hospital is shocking. It almost juxtaposes the hospital, the place of health and regeneration of well-ness and vitality right next to it. Has accepting this allowed for and continued to allow for a mechanical, functional and irresponsible way of living simply because we are never asked to take the quality of how we live into our own hands? Is the deceit of the health service the cost of our irresponsible ways?

713. Well worth considering indeed and what you’ve shared here Jane makes for some pretty common sense reading. In the countries where medical treatment is charged for I do wonder with illness and disease rising not just in the countries where medical treatment is free how do they manage? And does it have to get to the point where the NHS collapses completely or countries to become bankrupt before we start to take responsibility for our own health?

714. Great article – We get so angry that the government aren’t doing enough to support and failing health system, but it seems to me that we are like children having a tantrum. We really need to take the blinkers off and starting looking at all aspects of our lives and truly taking responsibility for our health. The way we are living is killing us and is not sustainable on many levels.

715. It is time that we ask ourselves the questions – why do we make the choices we do. I love what you share here Jane because it is a call for us to take responsibility based on what is happening in the world at the moment and the reality that we are too reliant on getting fixed rather than looking in the mirror.

716. Blogs like this are great. The culture of blaming others for our predicament and expecting to be rescued when we are in trouble, without wishing to be accountable or responsible is huge. Agreement for finding a scapegoat for our predicament is readily available.
     Conversation such as this is invaluable, by revealing how this way of living keeps us trapped in a reduced quality of life and has led to a health system that is on its knees.

717. Thank you Jane. When someone has a hangover people say they have no sympathy as it is ‘self inflicted’. When someone has the flu, or cancer or some other illness the response is often sympathetic and supportive yet these conditions are also a result of our choices. Everyone deserves to be supported but each of us must take responsibilty for the state of our own health. Not many people want to admit this.

718. You raise an important issue here Jane, how we keep looking to medicine for solutions for our health issues and don’t look towards how we are living that may contribute. It is also another level of responsibility to make changes in the way we live before we manifest disorders and illness.

719. Great blog Jane exposing the need for us all to take more responsibility for our own health and well being. Taking care of our own health is something we have let slip over the years, expecting the doctors and NHS to fix us so that we can return to the same life style without a willingness to make changes. I know for myself, that taking better care and being more aware of my body has supported me in my health and well being. By the NHS making a stand and withdrawing medical support for those that are not willing to make life style changes that are at present causing sickness and ill health makes sense to me. This would be a great wake up call for many that rely totally on the NHS to fix them and who are not making true steps to take responsibility for their own health.

720. This is a game changer, thank you Jane for sensibly and lovingly asking the questions we need to ask ourselves if we are going to support our own health and well-being. The health systems in most countries including Australia are groaning to a stand still from being over burdened in treating increasing numbers of people with more complex illness and diseases. As the WHO have stated many chronic illnesses are lifestyle related – which means we have a big part to play in our own health. I love how you bring to the reader the simple ways of unburdening the health systems by us taking more personal responsibility for our health and how that supports the very ill that need the immediate care from the public health systems.

721. This is a must read sharing Jane. I would say most of us need to ask ourselves some hard questions concerning our lack of self responsibility where our health is concerned. Surely it is better for all if we make this effort and consider our equal brothers’ needs, as well as our own, where a failing health system will spell disaster for all.

722. Thank you Jane for this very needed discussion, we cannot keep relying on the health care system to patch us up as the health care system is on overload and on the brink of collapsing. It is time that we take responsibility for our own health and contribute from our side what ever we can.

723. This is well worth considering Jane – At what point and what has to happen before we choose to take responsibility for the choices we are making? We create the life we live and this plays out in our mental and physical wellbeing. Does the NHS heal or does it supply a bandaid to illness and disease, enabling us to keep on abusing ourselves?

724. I’m so with you on this one Jane it makes perfect sense and is extremely practical and if we deeply look at this, it’s ultimately more LOVING for us to take responsibility with our own health and lifestyle choices. With the NHS under so much pressure both financially and work load wise, this makes absolute sense. Although it is a different context, it is like plastic bags in the UK. Instead of giving them away free and millions and millions of plastic bags being used and binned in the same day, charge 5p for them instead and now …. very few people use them because of the cost (even 5p), they bring their own. What this says to me is that when something is put in place in benefit of the bigger picture, like us taking responsibility for our health if we smoke or are overweight and need hospital treatment because of this. It should be a joy to take responsibility for our health and how we live, not a burden!

725. We underestimate how much we can individually contribute to the whole of our health conditions just by starting to take better care of ourselves. Each of us needs to start to take more care of ourselves and take absolute responsibility over our own life and well being, only then will we bring change to the whole.

726. Jane you have some great points, just by taking self responsibility we can support the change in our own health and well being and not put pressure on the health services. This way we allow the health services to work on those critical patients that need medical care.

727. Awesome blog Jane. You raise a number of significant questions here. ‘Why are we unwilling to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, and to take part in the management of our own illness and disease?’ It is so important as you say that we start to look at this especially, as you point out, we are draining our NHS resources by not doing so..

728. The white elephant in the room – lifestyle related disease. The answer to our growing predicament is of course quite simple – the application of course besieged by complication. Most struggle with making very simple, very basic lifestyle choices that are clearly beneficial to their health. This of course begs the question as to why. The answer to that is also quite simple. There is an ongoing tension in life that we all feel, and we will do anything to varying degrees to avoid it. In this way the drug addict, and person who runs a marathon, and the person who cannot resist their coffee and cake are all essentially trying in their own way to deal with the same thing – avoid the underlying tension that they do not want to feel. And this brings in why the esoteric way of life is so focussed on making “self-loving” choices, and in the beginning seems to require a certain application of discipline. For by removing the crutches that we rely upon as a society to numb ourselves to what is going on around us, we once again allow ourselves to build a relationship with that tension, and in doing so we actually find in time that we have the strength to deal with that tension, born from the fact that in opening ourselves up to feeling ALL of life, we discover something innately beautiful about ourselves, and that gives us a foundation from which we can deal with the tension that we once craved to avoid.

729. For many people when it comes to the point of needing treatment, getting fixed up we sometimes go into a blind demanding to be treated without considering why and how we have ended up where we have. It seems very logical if you have done something that is contributing to you being sick, first address that rather than the sickness or at least look at them both. In my view it makes complete sense that treatment is offered to those that make steps in their own self responsibility for their care first and foremost – otherwise we face the entire collapse of the healthcare system. It will be a difficult period of adjustment when this does come into play but one that is very much needed.

730. This is a way to learn to take responsibility. If we are called to live in a healthier way because we will not be paid for the damage we create – so no insurance for our bad choices – will we really change? Is money a bigger inspiring than our health? We damage ourselves and now we get forced to bring a change here. I am interested to see if that will work. I was changing my life at the point I really nearly died AND got an inspiration to live differently. I met role models who showed me that it is possible and a joy to live healthy. This was very much part of my turn. So maybe it can not stop here to say: you have to change – but to live this change and inspire. We not just have to say ‘no’ but also to live the ‘yes’ of something else and so have an activity of healthy living and not just words and rules.

731. Great question Jane, and the answer for me is very simple; it is in my hands. It is my responsibility, and mine alone, to ensure that I live in a way that cares for me deeply, and to acknowledge that it is not up to someone else to fix me if I live in a way that abuses my body, leading to illness and disease. For far too long many in society have adopted the attitude that the ‘ambulance will be at the bottom of the cliff’ to catch me when I ‘fall’, but this is one very selfish and irresponsible way of living, one that cannot longer being countenanced by the medical providers, in the UK or anywhere else in the world.

732. Whenever I consider the subject of lifestyle choices I am left pondering where exactly our lifestyle choices begin and end. It seems fairly obvious that a person who is obese is making a choice to overeat and that those who smoke are harming their lungs. But what of the more subtle choices? What about those who suffer with anxiety or stress? What less obvious lifestyle factors contribute to their issues in life? What of those who stay up late and get inadequate sleep? Where exactly does an organisation like the NHS draw the line between an illness or disease that is lifestyle related and one that is not?

733. This is a very pertinent blog Jane and I love the quote from Serge Benhayon.
     I have found this to be a very true and real way forward in addressing ill health, it has worked for me. By treating my body with a curiosity, much like a science experiment of my very own, and taking gentle and careful responsibility for my self and my lifestyle over the past 13 years, I no longer have chronic pain, arthritis, overweight issues, weekly debilitating migraine headaches, digestive issues, anxiety, lots of minor accidents or depression. These gradually dropped away as I became more and more aware of my body and more honouring of it in what I put into it, how I am with others and how I rest and work it. Feeling vibrant and alive and full of joy is the outcome and I will not give up on that for anything.

734. The medicine that is the way we live our daily life is certainly something to appreciate and consider that we are the only ones who can administer this for ourselves… And in doing so we support not only ourselves but all of humanity as you say Jane.

735. Great post Jane. Taking more responsibility for my own health and wellbeing meant making different lifestyle choices. The impact this made on my health and vitality has been huge. Discussing this with friends however resulted in ‘ oh, I could never do that…’ i.e. removing gluten, sugar and dairy from their diets. We love our creature comforts too much. Only when faced with a crisis do we sometimes wake up and do a radical re-think, change tack and have a different way of living. The NHS cannot continue as it does unless we all take some responsibility for our health. Funding is finite. Difficult choices will have to be made.

736. Thanks Jane. I read an article on this yesterday. One health authority due to public outcry was forced to ‘abandon plans’ to deny surgery to people who smokers and obese patients for a year. A second has now said it would only offer surgery to people who are obese or smoke if they agree to go on a six month ‘health optimisation programme’. As you rightly point out there is a cost implication that affects all of us and health budgets are finite. This particular Clinical Commissioning Group is honest when it says we cannot afford to treat you, if you are not prepared to help yourself. They say ‘We are encouraging and supporting patients to undertake a lifestyle change which will provide them with the best clinal outcome’ (1) It is only when hospitals and society say loud and clear that health is a shared responsibility and everyone must show willingness to help ourselves first, that things will begin to change.

     (1) Daily Telegraph Friday 7 October 2016

737. It sure is well worth considering Jane and for me makes complete sense. Something I found growing up was how doctors, whilst they have a wealth of knowledge, do not have all the answers and so do their best to categorise you or fit you in a box so can treat you with x, y and z and then prescribe you this or that. Time for consultations is a consideration as well but are we actually going to the doctor and truly asking for support to overcome whatever we have and then actually take responsibility for our lives? Or do we want a pill, a quick fix so we can continue on living the way we have been? If it is the latter no amount of time, or advice will make any difference. We have to actually want to change. What I have also found is that it is not about words but rather the quality of what is being said – i.e. if a doctor who smokes says to not smoke – even if you do not know they smoke, it comes with no quality what so ever, etc. etc.. We have to live it, then and only then can we present it back to others.

738. ‘But, what if this decision is made, not on the basis of whether someone disagrees with a lifestyle choice, but on the basis of other considerations:’ this is a great point to pose Jane. It could be well worth considering how a drastically overstretched NHS is affecting those people requiring treatment who are making an effort themselves to live and be more healthily and are having to wait an extended amount of time for or possibly declined the treatment that would help them due to a system because it is also struggling to keep up with the number of people who require treatment because of their own self harm and disregarding behaviours such a smoking, drinking and taking drugs despite repeated advice and the offer of the necessary support to overcome these.

739. It makes total sense to encourage people to look after their own well-being. After all, why would anyone not want to be well? There is no magic cure, only the medical ability to manage and ‘fix’ for a short period of time. Why would anyone want to rely on this instead of empowering themselves by preventing illness in the first place?

740. Being prepared to look at the way we live as well as the root causes of our choices is a great place to start in taking greater responsibility. I know that my health is much better since I have stopped smoking and drinking alcohol. Observing my food choices and changing what and how I eat has also had a huge effect. We have more control over our health than we care to see.

741. You pose some great questions Jane. I have had many debates where the competition for resources and people’s self inflicted diseases come up. Who should pay? I know that the NHS is under severe financial strain and we probably don’t know how bad things are, bu the way we are going is not sustainable. I agree that we need to consider how we can become better at living in a way that prevents disease, rather than thinking that when we get ill, the NHS will fix us.

742. ‘And, why do I self-sabotage so much?’ This is such a great question as there are so many ways in which we self-sabotage and the moment we ask why we can see that we actually have a choice. A choice to continue on the same path or to look at why and make a different choice. The moment we make a different choice it is incredibly empowering and supports us to make the next more loving choice.

743. If we taught our children from young that looking after their bodies and well being is something to start learning from young, the consequences of what happens when we do not look after our bodies and that we may well not have a free health care system like there is today when they are older then perhaps we would become more careful which foods we give to them as ‘treats’ because perhaps these are not ‘treats’ after all but something that could have a significant impact on their health later on in life.

744. Super well worth considering Jane. There is so much change we can bring to our own health and well being by taking the first steps to look at what we put in to our bodies and why we choose these, and how we treat ourselves – with gentleness, or are we simply oblivious of the way we move through the day? These steps made the world of difference for me as I began to experiment …and step away from my old ways.

745. We have a tendency as humans to live in a way that puts enormous pressure on the health and vitality of our body, but rather than take a good honest look at these choices, we instead look to technology and others to fix the mess that we have created. All this to mask the fact that we do not truly want to take responsibility for the fact that the choices we make in terms of how we live, are working against us and not with us. Thus, the key to us truly evolving is found in responsibility and not the lack of it.

746. If a client is to seek the help of health services, it highlights that they recognise something is not right in regards to their health. As our health is largely determined by the way we live on a daily basis, it makes sense that paying astute attention to the way we live and the choices we make is paramount in addressing poor health – equally to seeking medical support where needed.

747. Oh my goodness, I love this Jane. What a clear and simple presentation on the state of the health service and what we can do about it. Responsibility for our own bodies and for the knock on effect of our choices is necessary if we are to turn things around – “with this comes the responsibility we have for our own lives and how they affect not just us, but others too”…brilliant.

748. ‘A while ago, a healthcare organisation in the UK made a decision that it would no longer treat patients who are obese or who smoke – unless they have been/are on a programme to do something about it. ” I absolutely love this – this is true love and responsibility. It’s amazing to ask people to take responsibility for themselves, because it shows that they actually want to take care of themselves. There are many people who use the doctor for a quick fix, whilst blaming others for their ill health and making no attempt or wanting to take responsibility for looking after themselves. This can often be because we don’t want to feel the unloving choices we have knowingly made that got us to this ill state in the first place, and the way we have abused, overridden and treated our bodies. For some it would be a lot to take. It’s asking us much more than looking at why we have the illness or addiction in the first place.

749. Well worth considering Jane. In the UK the NHS is the most treasured support system that we have and many take it for granted that it will always be there. If the NHS was not there we would all have to take far greater care and responsibility for our own health.

750. Where I live (Japan), there is a healthcare system in place that subsidise the cost but we do have to pay for the medical treatment. So, it’s slightly different in a way that some hospitals/doctors are rather ‘business’ orientated and very willing to offer tests and medications where they may not be needed, and the patients are more like ‘customers’. Yet there is a significant, increasing pressure on the system that is calling for attention. More information is becoming available about how to avoid certain diseases and keep a healthy life style, so awareness is raising in one way, yet there are more people who are not well. Interestingly, we have a major beer company who has their own range of so called health products such as supplements. So they want us to spend money on alcohol first – which is a poison to our body – and at the same time promote ‘health’ and offer other ranges of products for us to further spend money on. We really need to wise up and stop being such ‘good’ unquestioning, consumers, and be responsible for our own choices.

751. Your end list to ‘ask yourself’ should be a fridge magnet to be prescribed by every physician for reading before every meal.

752. Jane, to ask ourselves the questions you have posed is to already have accepted responsibility for our health. To ask the questions and respond to what we feel brings the acceptance of the responsibility for my health to the most needed point if living responsibly. A learning that I am now finding myself exploring.

753. Well worth considering indeed – it doesn’t look like we can go on like this, supporting uninformed and oftentimes irresponsible lifestyle choices that bankrupt our health systems worldwide. Everybody is deserving of support but it needs to start well before the official diagnosis and hospital admission.

754. Jane, these are excellent questions. I wonder if patients are not being asked to be responsible for the simple reason that health care providers and administrators would also be asked to be responsible?

755. Very pertinent and important food for thought here. There’s a responsibility here that is being called for, and necessarily so. Our lifestyle choices have an impact on our bodies — we cannot deny this — and on everybody else. The burgeoning health crisis bursting at the seams is why this is so, we are stretched as a global society financially and in so many more ways because of the irresponsibility that has been allowed to reign.
     So from that point of view, change in the National Health Service is inevitable and necessary.

756. Very salient points, we tread very carefully in this area and the issue of the rights of patients to treatment is always foremost, but as you describe Jane the NHS is overburdened, and it may get to the stage where those who are responsible in caring for their health will miss out on the care they could get due to irresponsibility on the part of those unwilling to help themselves. Of course few people want to be obese or suffer ill health, so there is the wider issue to look at as to why so many of us are choosing things we know leave us feeling less well than we could be.

757. The difference between solutions that mask and exhaust the system and taking the responsible steps to uncover the root cause is clear to see, as evidenced by this blog too. The system may take a long time to change and heal itself as we, one by one, claim our place within society and our responsibility as one (equal) part of the greater whole. The fact that there are those living in a way that reflects and inspires this responsible way of life, without perfection of course, is a great thing and a pioneering way to lead all of humanity to know for themselves the choices they really do have. When our choices aren’t reflected back to us by another, we can otherwise not be aware or realise just how many choices in life we can make differently.

758. You raise some great points Jane in that asking people to be responsible and even bringing that possibility to their attention could actually be offering them the best treatment and true healing. Once that step has been taken many other possibilities open up.

759. The Hippocratic oath, “First do no harm”, should not be the preserve of medical professionals. It should be an understanding and a way of living every human being takes on for themselves.

760. What if patients were handed a series of questions based on those quoted here by Serge Benhayon in addition to their medical history form? It doesn’t make sense that we continue to ignore what is really going on – a lack of personal responsibility – while we watch our health care systems stagger and collapse. Then we will have no health care systems but even more people with preventable illnesses to attend to… a scary and not too distant future, it seems.

761. To me, the NHS is like a loving parent, to say no first to its patients’ (children’s) behavior that stretches its resources thin, and therefore first bringing back love to oneself. With first loving oneself, it encourages patients to take self-responsibility. And when this is brought out with care and understanding, such as the decade long and counting ‘self-management’ of chronic illness and disease programs, it is allowing patients to really take back responsibility of their own day to day choices.

762. Jane you have opened up an important area of discussion here as it is clear that health services are a finite resource. We have our part to play in our own health. I can say that Serge Benhayon has inspired me to build self-care into the way I live my life, and that I have found my health and vitality reflects how deep that care is on a daily basis. My health and vitality has increased, and some ill-health conditions that were beginning to appear have reversed. I invest my money and time in activities that support my overall well being these days. The health system is there to support me in health maintenance and dealing with any issues as soon as they arise in partnership with the medical system, rather than expecting it to fix the mess, or avoiding getting support until things have become more complicated.

763. The health systems of the world are pushed to their limits. A clear shift in the way we view health care is paramount.

     If all lifestyle relating diseases were minimised through the hands of the people our direction in the future of real health care and not just disease management would be fast tracked.

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