513 thoughts on “Are we sicker than we look?”

1. Do we now live in a way that we expect to get fixed by the medical system and rely on the system rather than taking care and being responsible for ourselves? If there is a demand there will always be a supply.

2. Joshua this is interesting in what you have observed in Ghent and questioning why there are so many hospitals and chemists in small town, compared to where you originally lived, New Zealand.

   And if we did not have the fix us up services, as in the medical and pharmaceutical services, what would this mean to us. Would we actually take responsibility of our own health and wellbeing more? A hard question for most people to answer. And yet for a few, it wouldn’t be a problem especially if we have included this in our daily life.

   I know the way I live has changed and for the better, and even though it isn’t perfect, I take more responsibility in everything I do and be. What would the world look like if we all did our bit towards taking care of our own health and wellbeing?

3. It feels like we are protecting the illusion that everything is ok when under the surface we are simply getting more and more sick. How sick do we have to get as a society before we admit to the reality of life as it is and how we have made it?

   1. Michelle it’s like that saying when we’re often asked, ‘how are you’, and the common response is, ‘I’m ok’, when deep down inside we are not. Who actually wants to hear that you are not ok, when they themselves are struggling. How can we truly care when the marker of our health and wellbeing keeps being moved and exhaustion is within the many and that standard is now our norm and we accept it…

      1. ‘Who actually wants to hear that you are not ok, when they themselves are struggling?.. and I could add when who themselves can’t admit that they are struggling? With the pictures we have of how we think life should be, we quickly dismiss the truth of our fragility and vulnerability.

4. Yep we sure are sicker then we look, crazy how our life styles are built around covering up how we really feel and what is going on.

5. Reading through the blog I was wondering how we might treat our bodies if the medical system wasn’t there to support us, would we take our daily choices to care for ourselves more seriously knowing the consequences if we harmed our body in any way?

6. ‘Are we sicker than we look?’ This is an interesting question to explore. What also comes to me is what we accept now as normal. Years ago stress was not commonly spoken about and no one admitted to being stressed but now stress is well known and most of the population within the world have either experienced this at some point of their life or live with it pretty much most of the time! Some even say that stress is a healthy thing! So how are we living then that our health is getting worse not better? In the UK it is quite normal for there to be at least 1 pharmacy on every high street normally there are about 2 or 3 as well as the never-ending amount of coffee shops which keep appearing …. which again tells us something about how we are living. Definitely room for improvement here!

7. “… why do we need such a large range of healthcare services just to function as a society?” A good question Joshua. If the health facilities were also about prevention, including good nutrition and making improved lifestyle choices, I’d have no qualms. However they pick up the pieces after we wreck our lives. There is still denial by many doctors of any ‘evidence’ that lifestyle changes improve outcomes, yet there are so many ‘bodies’ that can say different.

   1. This is such a great blog in terms of picking up on what is really going on. However much as a society we try to deny that we are sickening the proof is very much in the number of band aids we are using. We absolutely need to start questioning why we prefer the band aid to the healing.

   2. You have to wonder about the doctors who deny the impact of lifestyle on health, maybe they don’t want to look at their own lives and take responsibility, or could they be invested in the status quo? It’s hard to say, but it’s definitely a topic that needs to be discussed further.

   3. So the question then becomes why do we so utterly refuse to see the wood for the trees?

8. Yes the ‘R’ word! heavens it is a challenging word if we are not prepared to be honest with ourselves about just how powerful we are with our own health outcomes.

9. When you look at maps of health services across an area, you can see patterns related to health and wellbeing. The functional way of living is killing us and putting an unsustainable load on an inadequate health system.

10. It seems that we have become so used to having a low level of vitality that our perspective of what true health is has changed.

11. Our health is a reflection of our life and our choices that shape our life. It’s so simple and yet many do not put 2+2 together to see the interrelationship between them. But nor did I until I started reconnecting to that which is living life, my body. Life in the mind blinds us to so much.

12. In our area, there are quite a lot of chemists but they never look as though they get enough customers to warrant staying open and yet there are always at least three members of staff. They must be very busy dealing with prescriptions for those who cannot get out and about which in itself is an indication of how sick people are but unseen.

13. The need for more doctors offices, chemists and hospitals has definitely increased over the years. This is one area where the supply and demand is growing faster than the government can keep up with, in the UK at least.

    1. I would agree with you Julie
       I was talking to a patient recently and they had come from one of the city hospitals to a smaller hospital to recuperate after an operation. They told me that the hospital was so busy that people were lying on trolleys all over the place as they waited to be seen and the nursing staff was at full stretch trying to cope. I have many conversations with patients who say the same thing it would seem we need more medical staff and more hospitals so that we can cope with a society that is very sick. It is because we have such an amazing health care system we don’t see how sick we really are.

14. We are very good at advancing technology, medicine etc. but do not equally care for the responsibility that we all hold and carry.

15. I have always had this sneaky feeling that this society is designed to function by keeping people unwell, in need and fear of many things just to be able to survive, so that they keep offering people whatever to cover up the tension and be numbed, and many of us are quite happy being a willing consumer in that set-up. It is sickening.

    1. Yes, it does seem that we are not encouraged to understand how we can contribute to our own health beyond fads and spurts of health ‘balanced’ by fun and indulgences.

16. The chance of getting cancer has gone up by 26% in Australia in the last 36 years and this is despite the strong reduction in smoking which is one of the largest causes of cancer. In other words, the true increase may be much more than 26% – in a single generation.

17. An extremely revealing article Joshua… You have just taken an insight into one small city observed, and reflected upon the anomalies, and the glaringly obvious… like the number of pharmacies… And of course this can be extrapolated all around the world.

18. Today I was having a conversation with someone about the signs of a developing nation. One thing that is considered to measure this is access to nutrition, yet there are many countries in the developed world where people are malnourished because of the amount of junk food they choose to eat. Another thing that is considered to measure development is access to health care, education and so on, but are we really developing when we are getting sicker and sicker, where mental health issues are increasing and where we are teaching our kids function over quality. Sometimes it seems to me that the more simple life is the more space we potentially have to work on that quality, but ultimately a developed nation doesn’t necessarily mean a more evolved one.

19. The fact that there are so many great healthcare services now is wonderful on one hand but on the other hand what does it say about the way we are living and the choices we are making?

    1. So true JennyM and what would be possible if we took the same care of our health as we do our ability to checkin with our phones? What would happen if we combined great healthcare services with great individual health care and commitment to live love.

       1. A great point raised here. Our obsession with phones would be our obsession with true health and vitality!

    2. We want to live as we like and want to be fixed and helped so we can carry on on our way of doing what we want.

20. With so many pharmacies, this must mean that there are also a lot of pharmaceutical drug companies too, which opens up a discussion about what is really going on the behind the scenes if how we look is not true to the reality of the actual health our bodies are experiencing.

    1. Yes and who is funding the research into the medicines we take and I’d like to question the so-called ‘side effects’ of many drugs. Yet simple lifestyle changes are not prescribed by doctors as they have no real training in nutrition etc. Why not start with the simple – and cheap things first? It does come back to responsibility – how much we want to make changes for the sake of our health. I know many who after conventional cancer therapies just go back to their old way of living. No wonder we have metastases.

21. That our ill health can be disguised between a mask of looking ok to the untrained eye, is a sign of how far we have drifted from our true norm and how we have settled for a great lessening when we are deserved of the more we in-truth are.

    1. That is true but it can’t be hidden from the trained or the aware eye and the more aware we become, the more we see these changes.

22. The question of ‘are we sicker than we look’ is a definite yes. All you have to do is look at the statistics of chronic illness and major health conditions to know that the man you work with or the person serving you at the shops may look ok and still be functioning but has every chance of having at least one of these conditions. And as a nurse having seen just how many pills people come to hospital with, before their acute condition is treated, I have seen just how much we are being propped up by pharmaceuticals.

23. This is a great observation and question: what would our health be like if we did not have so much medical support? But also how well would we be coping if we did not have so many coffee shops, and how would people fare if they did not have access to their cigarettes and alcohol? And let’s not forget the excess of entertainment that we use to switch off from daily life with…. The list is endless. We have to be honest here. The world we have created is not working.

24. I love how you bring it up because it can become so normal to have indeed four hospitals in Ghent and a whole lot of additional health care specialists spread over the city. It is like the frog that does not notice it is being cooked when the water heats up slowly. I love to question these things and bring awareness of what is truly going on.

25. The propping up with medical drugs is indeed a cover up of the state of or health and well-being. Not suggesting we take them away but if we were to truly feel where our bodies are at and be honest then we may consider to look at healing the root cause at the same time. I have learnt this with Serge Benhayon and how he approaches life and our relationship with our bodies and it sure is a way that has healed and dealt with the issues at its root.

26. I discovered tonight while having a conversation with people who came from Iran and who now are living in the West of Europe that they actually didn’t know what ‘burnt out’ meant until they came here as there was not such a condition over there, and there is no word in their language to describe it either.

27. Interesting to see my country, Holland has a similar situation, through your eyes. And yes on the surface it looks like the streets are not crowded with crippled people, but indeed if you go under the surface most people are suffering from some kind of illness, disease or chronic physical, emotional or mental pains. It is part of life. And pills keep it manageable. I am a supporter of health care (current system of curing people) ánd I am supporter of preventive medicine which is not given equal attention – it is slowly getting more ground and needs to be given more attention. What are the daily choices we make that mounts up to all these pains? How can we support each other to start at the root cause instead of waiting till it is way out of hand and we indeed need several hospitals to support us of all the after-effects?

28. England has pretty much the same picture, our healthcare on the whole is marvellous yet many of us in the UK don’t recognise our responsibility to our own health and there is an unhealthy general conception that we get ill and the doctor will deal with it. This kind of cultural thinking puts an even more heavy burden on our already struggling heath care system.

29. Perhaps as a society we focus more on how we look than the actual honesty of how we feel and live.

30. We are indeed experts at covering up our conditions – even everyday things like being tired. How often do we say “I’m fine, I’m good” …when we honestly feel exhausted, burnt out, stressed etc.

31. Absolutely we are sicker than we look… and then there are those who take a zillion supplements and say they are healthy too! Why take so many if we are truly well?

32. Not only can we take the burden off our health care services by taking care of our selves we can inspire others that there is another way to live.

33. Hi Joshua, I think you would find that there are excessive pharmacies everywhere in Australia also. I live in a small suburb of a country town and in this whole area there are 8 chemists in the CBD and two in the small suburb of that town and one of this is a huge chemist warehouse. And this area is not as highly populated as in Europe! People are taken aback if you are not on medication if you are over 60.

34. It seems that we have re-defined what well-being is and reduced it down to ‘just getting by’ and as long as we do not have a serious illness we say we are doing ok – even though we may be using all the facilities provided from the healthcare profession.

    1. And even though it is our favorite topic to talk about when we meet someone in the supermarket or on the street.

35. The other day in clinic I had a 75 year old client and I was blown away by the fact that they were not on any medications and were in pretty good condition compared to most from that same age bracket. Why is it that our elderly are not all this vital and well? What happens in our society where we allow our health to slip and slide downhill from a younger age and then accept that we should be on polypharmacy (multiple drugs) when we get older? Does this not show that we have dropped the ball when it comes to taking responsibility for our health? We can all be inspired by this 75 year old and realise we can all make choices that will support us not just now but later on in our life.

    1. Since the weather has been so hot in England this summer, a lot of people have had a lot of skin exposed. I have been shocked to see the number of enormous disfiguring tattoos people are now going for, both men and women. Currently, we are certainly checking out much earlier and displaying more extreme behaviours as normal. When this generation gets to be 75 I am wondering what exactly they will be reflecting to the generation coming through?

36. We so often walk around with a myriad of issues health wise developing or developed and think it is normal to get sick, like the body has let us down. Rather than looking at it from the other direction.

37. It such an endless tiresome cycle we as a humanity are stuck in, we seek solutions to fix a problem in this case drugs, we wait for the relief and then we can pretend it never happened. Saying no to this pattern and wanting to look at the root cause is exactly what Serge Benhayon presents. A way of living that brings honesty to ones life.

    1. Well said Natalie – when we are unwell and seek a fix, this does not address the underlying issue and so the illness or disease will come back on some way or another till such time that we are willing to face what it is actually telling us. And this I have found can be applied to so much in our lives – be it relationship issues, work related problems etc – when something comes back time and time again, it means we have to look at it deeper rather than seek a quick fix. So much to learn in life and so many opportunities offered to us for our growth.

38. If our health services went to a GP for a consultation they would be rushed to intensive care.

39. It’s like with the iceberg, what we see is only the tip of the underlying sickness; often there are abysses one cannot surmise before actually seeing them. As multidimensional beings much of what is going on is not perceivable to the 5 senses.

40. The amazing increase in hospitals, chemists and pharmacies and the increase in size of the medication section in supermarkets is a real reflection of the sickness we all live with and the medication relief we seek to manage and masks the truth of how we are living and the depth of what is really going on. The acceptance of this in the world that really does need to be exposed.

41. I reckon that we get used to what we see around us, obesity would have been a rarity years back but we now normalise it and think people are strange or special if they are slim. We normalise ill health and it is all around us, whether it is the obvious weight issue or the more hidden issue of having a mix of a drugs prescribed as long as your arm by the time we are in our sixties, just to keep us alive. This is an issue to look at.

42. Is the way we look at life a huge part of this sickness? If it is, is it any surprise that what we think illness looks like is also skewed?

43. “No, on the surface society seems to be doing well. ” If this is so why is the state of our medical system overloaded and nurses and doctors are at a burn-out stage? Looking deeper into society we find that all is not well at all. We entirely ignore the energetic factor at our peril. We are not merely physical beings.

44. “No, on the surface society seems to be doing well. ” But inside are people doing so well? If we are why do we need so many coffee shops on our high streets? It would seem that people can’t do without their caffeine hit in order to get through their day.

45. In England at the moment we are having a great summer the longest without rain since 1977 or something, someone asked me why I didn’t water my lawn and I said it was because I was saving water and that we all should conserve water because if it doesn’t rain we could run out of water , at very least have hose pipe bans, but still there are those that carry on using as much water as before doing nothing until possible it will be too late. I think our health is similar to that in that there are so many of us that carry on without responsibility doing or using anything we please until we get to breaking point and then wonder how things got this bad being oblivious to the warning signs until it is too late.

46. Clearly our standards of what it is to be healthy have grossly dropped in order to accommodate our continuing decline in true health, well-being and vitality. But if we were to honestly look at how we are moving as a society in general, our physicality alone will reveal the quality of health, the state of well-being and the lack of vitality and vibrancy we are living with and accepting as ‘normal’. This is quite revealing of the fact that we have said ‘yes’ to making life about being propped up by the medical sector in our society, in order to avoid taking responsibility for our health and well-being as such the quality of energy we are aligning. Regardless of how hard we try to mask it, at end of the day what we are investing in or aligning to is the quality of life we end up living.

47. How profitable a business is the health care system when it thrives on people who are not so willing to take responsibility for their health? A good question to ponder on, as well as the role of the pharmaceuticals in all of this too…

    1. Great point Henrietta – we are definitely not encouraged to take responsibility for our well-being or lack of, but also, we are willingly part of a vicious cycle of supply and demand which we are not wanting to step out of regardless of the distress we are living with daily. It is time for us all to take a much needed reality check to see our role in the ill-state of well-being that we are accepting and glamorising as ‘normal’.

48. Popping a pill is an ‘easy’ way out of pain and illness (at least on the short term)…and this does not really ask you to take responsibility for how you live. This is not to say that you should not take medications, but more a caution on how we can abuse this as a source of relief for our conditions. And though diet and exercise are equally important in the equation of health and well being, a larger portion of the equation holds the energetic choices that we make in life that are really the ones that determine our true lived quality in life and hence the effect on our health and well being and vitality.

49. Our medical system and treatments and medications are getting more and more sophisticated but so too are all the illnesses and diseases becoming more complex, multi factorial and difficult to treat. People are getting sicker despite all our technological advances. What does this say to us, what does this deliver as a message? Is it not time for us to be brutally honest, to stop and admit that despite all these advances, perhaps there is something we still have not gotten quite right in the equation…that there is something missing….Or are we too caught in an arrogance that wants to put technology and science first above and beyond our health and well being?

50. ‘So, why are we getting sicker when today we can have so much at our finger tips,’ such a good question. We have so much at our disposal, like really anything we desire – even rent-a-family to pretend to be your relatives – to any food TV etc. But also the most advanced medical technology, expertise etc. and yet we’re in a real state of dis-ease but don’t want to admit the rot of what’s going on in full. Until we admit all that we can ever conjure up isn’t it, there won’t be the humility to say enough is enough and cease creating problems through the pursuit of perfection, fulfilling our desires, having a life that’s comfortable but we’re stagnating etc.

51. Responsibility is multilayered. By accepting responsibility for our choices and the way we care for ourselves we are taking care of the whole community and the health system itself by reducing the burden. The health system is very stretched and with any more weight it will snap. How long it takes depends on us.

    1. Spot on Jennifer, and as I have mentioned in a comment above, there is a profitable business in people being unwell and unwilling to take responsibility for their health and well being – you do not have to look far to see who profits especially considering the pharmaceuticals that are consumed by the many ill people seeking relief. We have much work to do to un-do what we have allowed as a standard of health in our current society.

       1. It would be an interesting study to see who is doing well out of the illness and disease industry. This would need to be beyond the financially doing well and include personal, relationships etc. We would see that although certain industries and professions may financially profit from illness in looking at the whole thing we would see that no-one is actually doing well. If we look at health professionals for example, some of whom are well paid we still see very high rates of depression, burnout, even suicide in some cases. Thereby breaking the myth that you need money to have good health.

52. I love this blog because when we see so many hospitals in one town it is easy to think how great that is, that society is so well catered for but hold on why is there such a need? What are we doing to ourselves that we feel we need so much support? This turns the responsibility of our own health firmly back into our own hands – not just individually but as a collective…..how are we living, because we know that lifestyle is a huge factor in illness, and how can we turn the tide on this increasing reliance on creating systems to save us.

53. It only needs a look at one person on the street and you know, you have to reflect a different way.

54. I love your innocent review about the increase of all the pharmacies/ hospitals etc. The mentality of – I live life- fix me- is huge nowadays. Something totally goes into the wrong direction, and it does not needs more “fixing” stations but more honesty within humanity. We are all accepting the decrease of health as what humanity seeks the most is : staying in their comfort, no matter what.

55. If the true measure of health is that there is no dis-ease or disharmony in the body then we are very sick indeed.

56. Imagine if exhaustion was visible – and more than just dark circles and an obvious lack of energy. So many people are bone tired and deeply exhausted, and yet can with the help of sugar and caffeine and other stimulants, maintain a level of function. But what if like a bruise, we could not truly hide the exhaustion we felt? How healthy would society look?

57. Its great to question the normal expectations like this. Is illness normal? Well it is common, and normal to be ill, but should it be the norm. Or is there another way of living and being where the norms we have applied to illness are different from what we as a race experience today.

58. Yes indeed… Just imagine we have responsibility for our health, especially when something happens to us.

59. In the sea of humanity we sail among every day, what does healthy look like? What is the new mean? The new normal is fluid and regularly being moved. We know what healthy doesn’t look like, visit any A&E waiting room that has clocks telling you the expected waiting time! Has the standard or top of the bell curve for looking healthy, become a cliff, because of our choices of how we are living?

60. If you walk through a shopping center at midday and you see the many extremely overweight customers and staff who often have major difficulties walking – if we are sicker than we look then the situation may be dire.

    1. True Christoph – when so many people have multiple illnesses or conditions, even if we can observe the signs of one there may be a number of others present too.

61. It is great that you bring this up Joshua because sometimes we get so numb that we don’t see clearly more what is going on in society. And how the many hospitals we see as normal are actually not normal at all for us as a so-called well advanced human beings.

    1. So true, we accept the increase in the erosion of our health as normal because its so widespread, what if we saw it like it truly was?

62. Once again if these amazing health systems that are bursting at the seams with patients and their employees leaving in droves due to stress, did implode go bust or simply had to cut back on services offered would we still be so reckless with our health?

    1. Great questions posed. As a society we have become so compliant with – ‘everything will be taken care of” but what if it hasn’t? There is more here to ponder on the responsibility we all have to bring our own levels of health care to account.

    2. Maybe our health service going bust would be a wake-up call for many because they would have to stop and ask themselves what they are going to do to manage their own health. Looking at our health in a new way would be the obvious answer.

    3. Kev, let’s get back to to basics of deeply caring for and loving ourselves. It is the remedy for our health system.

63. The enormous increase in sickness, disease, ill health and our living way of disregard and abuse so hidden in society, really is calling for another way of living with the fact that we are all so much sicker than we look.
    A reflective and inspiring sharing on the truth about life and where we all need to bring our awareness to what is really going on.

64. Great points you make here Joshua – we are as a society getting sicker and sicker despite the many advances in medicine etc. It is certainly time to consider this and ask if there is more to healing then just taking a drug or having surgery…have we forgotten the other half of the healing aspect which is the way we live, our life choices and how complementary medicine can support with making these changes so that we have long term and true changes embraced in terms of our health and wellbeing.

    1. I love this Henrietta as with everything we can’t ignore the part, we have to look at the whole – to ignore any part is to be incredibly ignorant and stay stuck.

65. It’s true, we don’t look sick from an external view. But the doctors surgeries, specialists and hospitals are packed. What is going on for us internally? It seems our illnesses and conditions are not out in the open or obvious, but at the same time requiring medical services seems to be the norm.

66. Yes, with improved levels of sanitation and medical advances of modern times there really is no reason for our healthcare crisis, other than what Universal Medicine has been saying from the start – that we create our own ills when we do not live in accordance to our true nature.

    1. Janet a great point, we have all the ‘mod-cons’ and so, in theory, we should not be so sick, not be in the state of illness and disease but we are and so what comes to light is that we people are in disarray, not content and missing that feeling of settlement which is underlying many of our conditions. As you say we create the ills and yet we are also the only ones that can heal this.

       1. Agreed, David. If humanity is in a greater state of dis-ease than ever before, why are we still not looking for the true origins of our unrest? Universal Medicine has the answers whenever we are ready…

    2. It is more that, as fewer of us die early, other issues get uncovered though there are also many diseases on the rise regardless of age – autoimmune diseases, obesity-related diseases etc. So we have a double influence here raising the prevalence of especially chronic diseases.

67. Great observation Joshua, that we are getting sicker but are not willing to look at the reasons why.

68. I listened to an interesting documentary about the NHS in England, and how it was set up so people would be more healthy yet over the 70 years from its beginnings we are a much sicker society and at some point someone needs to ask the question – is it the way that we live now, with takeaways on redial, checking out with tv, computer games, films, and settling for a more sedately life style, time for all of us to start making changes to how we live.

69. The world is stepping over itself to offer new ways, new lotions, potions, surgery, and more, to ‘look good’ without considering the true state of our body or being, and the simplicity of way we need to live to be truly healthy and fit for life.

70. When I googled pharmacies within my own area there are twelve under 2km which is a lot when you consider how condensed North London is. The ones I personally visit are not on this list and yet when I go, there is always an abundance of staff looking very busy. So, the supply and demand must be there to pay for the upkeep of a shop and to pay wages.

71. We all need care and support but abusing this can be a cheap tactic to cover up the true rot in the way that we live.

72. We are able to live longer than ever before whilst our body carries an illness, however this is not a reason to become more relaxed in our self care or neglect our responsibility to look after ourselves, but even more reason to pay more attention to our health as we will be living with our body for longer.

73. Yes, modern medicine is doing its best to deal with the healthcare crisis, but there will come a point in time which may not be so far off, that they become overwhelmed and will need to look at other approaches. Esoteric medicine is the missing ingredient, as it heals the origins of illness and disease rather than just managing symptoms.

74. When we notice these discrepancies, it’s worth asking a deeper question – like yours Joshua ‘are we sicker than we look?’ We could look around the supermarkets and high streets and ask similar questions, like ‘are we more exhausted than we think?’ The answers are always there as there will forever be the evidence of the supply for the demand we place.

75. Yes, Joshua, interesting observations…I live in a city and the ambulance sirens are the most frequent noise day and night, which feels like a reflection of our global healthcare crisis.

76. Recently I was shown a fun photo of youngsters taken several decades ago alongside one taken of youngsters today. The difference was shocking with a huge drop of vitality, ease and natural expression. The fact is if we are honest with our observation we have all the signs that we are not well and have been getting sicker on many levels. The fact that so many people are walking around with big take-away cups of coffee all the time in itself is a big sign.

77. Very interesting observations, Joshua. As I walk through the city where I live in the UK, I do notice that a large percentage of people are looking sick – either very overweight, with reduced mobility, hunched over or with a sickly pallor. Some even have distorted expressions on their faces as they must be in a lot of pain. I thought to myself recently that walking down the street was like a horror movie…no joke! As we are slowly killing ourselves through our choices, surely the governments must at some point come together and seek true answers to what is happening to humanity.

78. Joshua, I love what you share here and what comes to me is just how many people don’t get medical support until they really have to so it does beg the question ‘are we sicker than we look?’

79. We can only put a bandaid over an issue for so long until such time that we are forced to look at the issue and deal with the root cause. Serge Benhayon and the teachings of Universal Medicine are focused on healing the root cause and work with western medicine for the most supportive process possible.

80. The thing is we have become so used to people looking tired and exhausted that we have to be on our death bed before we admit we are ill.

81. It is an unfortunate situation whereby as soon as we are born and start living/functioning to fit into the world we gradually erode our health to be far sicker than we look. Our vitality and aliveness starts to fall away, not only due to the very medical conditions that the world is so good at managing but simply because we are not ‘spunky’ and enjoying life like we could.

82. With the ease of access to medication and the way they are given out to fix the symptom but not look at what the root cause is and healing this, we really don’t have a true marker of where our health is. Taking responsibility for how we live and how this in turn affects our bodies is what a lot of us don’t actually want to do, or we go there a little bit but don’t really look at the energetic reasoning behind our choices.

83. I love your observations Joshua and this is indeed “a much needed topic for us all to consider”.

84. Sickness at work is going through the roof. I was surprised to find out that you can be legally sacked by being ill after extended periods of time off… I just assumed that sick pay was something that was there to protect the employee. Some diseases like cancer are covered and come under the entitlement of being ‘disabled’ and the employee is protected. Some problems like chronic fatigue are not and the employer can legally fire you after 3 different stages of investigation. Humm… this isn’t the most supportive way to support another person to get back to work.

85. There is a GP surgery near where I live where they are now not seeing patients in person but doing a lot of phone consultations instead such is the demand and pressure on the service. Rationalisation of resources is only a short term solution and is not doing anything to look at why our populations are getting sicker and sicker.

86. We have more opportunities to be healthy today than ever before, but in the UK the people were reportedly the healthiest ever just after WW2. Rationing was in evidence – no junk foods, we walked a lot more, worked in a more physical way – fewer household appliances, no computers or TVs to veg out in. We socialised with people more in and out of the home. Yet free health care on the NHS was still a remote concept. We have more choices than ever today, yet what do we choose? Where is the responsibility for our own health lay? Does it lie with our medical carers – or does it lie with us? I would suggest the latter.

87. I’ve had several conversations recently with people who remember conversations back in the 80s and early 90s about how technology was going to transform the way we live and work and make everyone’s lives better, and that we’d have no work to do. It seems to me like it’s not so much the volume of work that is a problem, but how we work and live, and how we use technology, that creates the health issues: are we aware of how our bodies feel as we work, or do we lose ourselves in the screen for hours on end? The technology is there for us to connect more with one another.. perhaps it’s time for us to learn how to use it in that way, and how to work in a way where we stay connected to how we feel and feel rejuvenated at the end of a day.

88. Arriving and living in a foreign country is probably the closest we get to taking a detached look at the way our species is living. I live in a regional town and can think of 5 chemists within a kilometre of each other. If I ever go in they are busy with lots of people waiting for scripts. It seems that living on medications to keep us functioning is the norm, rather than looking at our lifestyle and becoming more respectful of our body and health.

89. And yet as a group of people the student body of Universal Medicine reflects that changing our choices and movements to be more loving and regarding of universal laws means that our health improves to reverse all the trends in humanity.

90. A well needed wake-up call Joshua, thank you.
    The picture is in fact so much more severe. The increasing number of pharmacies are the tip of the iceberg showing us the number of physical ailments people are willing to own up to and seek help for.
    We have lowered the bar of what we accept as being well so much. Simply the absence of vibrancy in someone’s eyes, the lack of vitality in their walk and relationships devoid of joy and absolute love with every other person in their life ought to flag that something is not okay. If we return to such a definition of health, most of the planet’s population would be rightly seen as chronically ill.

    1. Yes and the medical ‘norms’ are being changed, to accommodate the changing health of society. Blood pressure norms are moving up, as society’s BP rises, so more people can be placed in the average bracket, rather than being called unwell. What is regarded as healthy today – ie an absence of a major illness – was categorised as ill health not so long ago. Exhaustion is a major plague today – witness the rise in coffee shops on the high street. Everyone has tea or coffee on their work desks, rather than waiting for an ‘elevenses’, a term which many won’t have even heard of!

91. Are we sicker than we look, or are we grander than we pretend?

92. Gill so very true, if we took away all the medication, doctors and support systems that we have we would end up in a totally different space. One where we would be showing the signs on the external of the sickness we allow on the internal.

93. Function is not health. Getting by is not vitality. Not getting a serious disease does not mean we are well. This brings so much honesty and humility to our face.

94. If true illness is measured by how disconnected we are, this world is in need of emergency attention.

95. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to observe everyone walking down the street and feeling their true state of health rather than being deceived by what we think we are seeing.

    1. Or offering products that serve the levels of comfort in ‘thinking’ we are healthy.

96. Perhaps we have changed our meaning of what it is to be well and healthy, losing the baseline of being vital and full of energy in life to merely not having a serious illness and disease?

97. ‘What if the downward trend in our health is related to our way of living? The two are not exclusive, as what we do more than anything is to live life.’ This makes such obvious sense and yet how many of us are willing to admit the truth of this? From a bumped knee to a terminal illness, all disease is an outward outplay of an energy we have chosen to align to that is disruptive to the natural harmony in the body, which then has to release it.

98. We can say that the medical system has got better at diagnosing illness and disease, which is true we but we also need to be honest and admit that our health is not improving and younger and younger people are suffering greater quantities of illness and disease.

99. Prostate cancer is just another killer disease that hides so well if we ignore the bodies hints that there is something wrong! Regrettably, it is becoming commonplace for knowing someone that looked healthy and discovers that little niggly feeling was cancer that had spread everywhere. At this juncture, the ticket for your terminal departure was bought and paid for and just waiting for you to board!

100. If we stand around in a pharmacy for a while we get to see how ill people are as they come in to fill their scripts. Pharmacies/medical centres/hospitals – they all tell us where we are at in terms of our state of health as a society.

101. Quick fixing GP visits or are we willing to go further and ask what are our lifestyle choices that are causing the increasing levels of illness and disease.

102. The rate of bulk building of surgeries around the world is clearly showing the rates of illness and disease.

     1. True, it’s the new way we work in the world, one where we are starting to see how our health is everything yet still refusing to change the quality and care in which we look after ourselves.

103. Very inspiring to take full responsibility for our health and well being and start considering deeply how we truly live and the ideals and beliefs we have with this.

104. Getting honest about the true state of our health. Thank you, Joshua, this is a refreshing and inspiring article.

105. The medical system is definitely oversubscribed where I live and it’s very difficult to get an appointment. It’s easier to drive thirty minutes down the road and go to the drop in centre at the hospital than it is to get a GP appointment within walking distance of my house.

     1. There was a recent news item here in the UK where 1500 oversea doctors were denied visas in three months even with having a job offer working for the NHS because it exceeded the monthly limit the government allowed! New buildings are useless, without staff to fill them!

106. Very revealing how we judge our health by the way we look instead of the quality we live. The fact that we can look smart but have the most toxic relationships speaks volumes.

107. Great observation Joshua pointing out that is it possible that by the increase in pharmacies and availability of health care specialists in our society today is actually showing us that our health status is worsening, but we are being propped up, instead of blatantly asking ” Why are we needing these services more? Are we being responsible for our health? And if not, why not?

108. Looking around me after reading this very real blog I too see the chemist / pharmacy shops everywhere increasing all the time with what must be the demand and the hiding of the real amount of illness and disease kept a bay and accepted as normal when it is absolutely not.

109. It is a great observation that you have taken, in regards of healthy looking people and yet the sheer number of pharmacies and health care facilities abundant… It highlights a kind of band aid effect going on, all looks clean and well from the surface, but what is really going on with population health when we rely so much on pharmaceuticals?

110. To me this highlights how normalised quite extreme changes in society become when the change occurs gradually. A very wise man I know said that what accept we become and in this example, we have become sicker by accepting this as normal – by accepting that it is normal to use pharmaceuticals to continue to function and for many of us to live with multiple illnesses and diseases. Like you Joshua, I’m not suggesting we don’t take medicinal drugs if we need them. I am questioning the normalisation of the acceptance that this is just the way it is when we age – the inevitable breakdown of the body which requires treatment to function.

111. We may be living longer and there may be more access to medical services than in the past however is our natural state of wellbeing much less than before?

112. Medicine and medical procedures have improved so much over the years that we use this to tell ourselves we are getting better and the quality of our lives are improving but how can this be when there is so much demand on hospitals and drugs so much so that our current drugs are no longer working.

113. Interesting angle here in this blog. We could look at the increase in health care facilities and access to health care as a sign of a modern advancing society and it is indeed a good thing to have great health care, but if we dig a little deeper and consider why we are needing more and more health care to keep going then suddenly we realise that it is because we are getting sicker and sicker and therefore not advancing as we may have thought but deteriorating as a species.

     1. Not many would see the fact that we need more and more health care as a symptom of us all getting sicker, which seems so obvious when its written in the cold light of day. To see it as a sign of modern advancement is just a smoke screen for what we do not want to see.

114. This is a great observation Joshua.
     “I have observed that there is very little in modern-day life, with so many technological advances, that ought to be making us sick by circumstance alone. By this I mean that we have so many tools at our disposal to make life so much more physically supportive than was available even 50 years ago and because of this we should be less sick. Yet it is apparent there is more, yes more, sickness now than there was back when my parents were my age and this is not just true by statistics alone but also in the fact that so much has changed even in the twenty years since I was born.”
     My question has to be why are we choosing to live such stressful lives?

115. Not that I would like to see it, but I wonder what society would suddenly look like if all the medical facilities and pharmacies closed and said take responsibility for your own health for a change. Maybe like a scene out of the Return of the Living dead.

116. Are we truly willing to look at the way we live? Or do we prefer to continue on until we get a illness that stops us in our tracks and makes us wonder why? The sickness isn’t the end result but this second approach.

117. Every person we meet on the street will usually have something to complain about regarding their health. It is very unusual to find someone who is bounding around full of vitality and joy with no health complaints in sight. This begs the question – ‘how are we living?’ that contributes to the state we find our bodies in.

118. Yes, especially when we can perceive the mental status of a person.

119. We can be much sicker than we look, perhaps not to the trained eye but people can have terminal diseases and, in the beginning, still look quite well.

120. These are good questions Joshua. Where I live I would say it’s quite the same. On the surface everything seems to be going well and people would probably say it is but yet still people get sick, people die and it’s like we don’t really think that we have any power to change things around. We seem to have the approach that life happens and we have to accept that and adjust, instead of linking two and two together and see that the way we live on a day to day basis affects our lives, as in what we eat, what we do to our bodies, how we engage ourselves in life, how heavy things do we pick up during our day. These things we tend to think doesn’t matter but in my world they do, very much so. It’s good to talk about these things because it lifts the haze we have in front of our eyes. A haze making us see and think that everything is hunky dory when it’s not.

121. Awesome sharing Joshua. And the question that arises for me is – are the people of Ghent, in this case, being responsible for their own health or are they simply relying on all these medical facilities to keep them well? We can have many hospitals, many medical centres and many pharmacies but if we are not bringing a deep level of care to ourselves then all these facilities are providing is a bandaid, which like all bandaids are only temporary and what is brewing away underneath will finally be revealed.

122. When sickness becomes a worldwide standard, suddenly wellness can mean just not being hospitalised. But if you understand true health to be based on how much you express love in your day – then this world is collectively in need of emergency treatment and a heart transplant.

123. Being in a position as a health professional to read people’s health history, I can absolutely agree we are sicker than we look. We are still functioning through things like caffeine and pharmaceuticals but our bodies are under strain and far from being in harmony.

124. Pretty much all of the time we do not divulge exactly what is going on with our health and we certainly as a general rule do not take note of the small things that we’d now consider ‘normal’ – either because we’ve lived with it for so long or because so many others have the disorder in their bodies too. The disease and illness statistics show marginally better than this day to day honesty and yet these stats are not nice reading at all. So what then is our true state of health if this is the situation? I would answer yes Joshua, we are sicker than we look.

125. Are we sicker than we look? A great reflection of how we are living and the acceptance of illness and ill health as normal with the huge increase everywhere of pharmacies popping up everywhere and the similar sections in supermarkets and small corner stores. Are we surviving and calling this wellness because we do not have a critical disease or are we enjoying vitality health and true well being choosing a loving quality of livingness everyday.

126. The truth is no one can heal us or save us but ourselves. Conventional medicine is offering us a lot of support, but on its own it can never truly heal us unless we are aware of the consequences of our choices.

127. “What if the downward trend in our health is related to our way of living? ” Good point Joseph. What choices do we now make in comparison with how we used to live? AS a child I dont recall even one takeaway being on the high street and a fish and chips out was a special treat. Nowadays it’s an everyday phenomenon. Could there possibly be a link?! And as for sugary fizzy drinks?…….

128. What would 2 billion hospital beds look like? Where would we build the buildings to house them? Where would the staff and support services come from? It’s estimated that we will hit 8 billion in six years and 9 billion by 2042. Would the 25% be the tip of the iceberg?

129. ‘What if the downward trend in our health is related to our way of living? ‘ This is a question many do not want to consider, but as medical technology isn’t keeping up with curbing the increasing rates of illness and disease despite valiant results, we are going to have to ask this question earnestly.

130. It is so true so many people are on a range of medications these days. It is great that we have pharmacotherapy to support us in our ailments, but when do we stop to consider and change the way that we are living that may be contributing to our ills?

131. I was talking to a lady the other day who felt she was very fit and well, despite her arthritic body and IBS. When I asked her about it, she replied, ‘well apart from most of my joints and my back aching, and my indigestion most of the day’. She had accepted the pain her physical body was giving her was normal and good health because she wasn’t having a heart attack or needing urgent medical care.

     1. Yes, nowadays people say they are ‘well’ despite having a disease, intense pain or on a whole gamut of medications…..

132. We might be band-aiding a lot but all that will do is turn us into mummies 😂

133. It makes me ponder on how Universal Medicine plays an important part to help us take responsibility for our lives. I used to live in a way where I wanted to get fixed. I didn’t, like so many, want to take responsibility for my life but I kept on receiving the Sacred Esoteric modalities and eventually it clicked, my relationship to self started to change. I began to see more clearly the connection between how I was living and my state of wellbeing. Unless we take responsibility for our lives then there is never going to be any real and true change.

     1. Very true Caroline. We want a quick fix and blame our doctors and our medical systems for not being there to sort us out – rather than take responsibility for our own health. The rise in obesity is blamed on sugary drinks and takeaway meals. But we have to choose to ingest these – we aren’t force fed!! Responsibility – as you say…

134. “What if the downward trend in our health is related to our way of living?…” now this would be a worthy qualitative study to answer this question.

135. Until we are prepared to give up solely relying on the band-aids and go straight to the cause we as a society are just going to get progressively sicker.

136. I would say we are sicker than we look and if we were to just take away all over the counter medicine, all stimulants such as caffeinated drinks, sugar, alcohol, starchy foods for just one month around the world we would get to see just how sick we are in reality.

137. It really shows that our health is something we have to care for collectively and we have to all play our part. When we put too much on the health care system alone it will bankrupt because it can’t keep fixing us up if we are not taking responsibility for our own part in it, our lifestyle.

138. This is spot on Joshua, because when we feed animals our fast food diets they also get extremely ill so maybe we can learn from these types of experiences and go back to a natural diet, which comes from how our body responds to what we have eaten.

     1. Is there a reflection from our cats and dogs with what we eat, in the diseases, they are developing? Dogs have historically been the floor hover under the dinner table. When I was small the only thing my dog would not make vanish from my plate that I did not like, was Lima beans. Our pets are; obese, getting cancer, Dementia, food allergies and the list goes on. There are some of the same drugs that we use, that are now used by them. Are we, no longer satisfied with slow suicide for ourselves and bringing our pets with us, with our food, we are giving them?

        1. Spot on Steve, what will it take for us to see the light, maybe if the animals all committed suicide like lemmings so they started jumping off cliffs?

139. A comfortable life can dull us into a complacent imagination that all is well when we are far from it. This is a great example of how we could have a greater level of observation. Yes why do we have so many successfully busy pharmacies? In fact we can ask this about many other things such as why do we have coffee shops popping up everywhere? ….or how come we have such a booming entertainment industry? The immediate answer is “because I enjoy it”, but in my view if ever I find myself unable to go a month, a week or even a day without something, that is not just enjoyment , it is a clear need.

140. ‘I can remember going to the doctor and talking about anything and everything, and yet feeling like the doctor was not rushed off his feet’ a friend of mine recently tried to make a doctor’s appointment and was given a date over three weeks later as the next possible appointment. I know that the health care system is not the answer to our health problems, we are, but when you do need to seek support we should have a system which is able to respond in a suitable time frame. Perhaps we are not doing our part an expecting the system to pick up the pieces.

141. As a wider society, we don’t want to look at how sick we really are compared with the natural vitality and joy we really have the capacity to be. We have certainly accepted a lesser version of life and called it normal.

142. I would be interested to know whether New Zealand has had to start building new or expanding the Hospitals they already have because it seems to be a world trend that we are all getting sicker and sicker even though medicine continues to advance. I grew up in New Zealand and I can only remember being surrounded by healthy people, cancer was virtually unheard of and now it is rare not to know several people that have been effected by it in one way or another. We do have to seriously look at the way we have gone from then to now and what has changed temporally as well as energetically.

143. Some of us are simply not willing or able to take responsibility for how we are living as we are still holding on to our deeply held hurts and letting them go would mean we would have to own all the ways we have protected these hurts at a great cost to the body. It is important that we who do see the way forward pave the way and show all that it is possible.

144. If we are complacent in living our own individual lives, blinded by the borders of what matters to us and ignoring the issues that are the ‘concerns of others’, then as a humanity we will never get out of the rot and dis-ease you’ve described in your blog Joshua. It’s important to truly see what is going on.

145. Being unwell seems to have become the new normal.

146. If children were given this basic information about taking care of themselves at a young age, and encouraged to take more responsibility in general, it would surely impact on everyones health and state of well being.

147. The number of pharmacies we have are a dead give away about how dependent we are on drugs. It’s actually astounding to think about it. How has it become normal to be reliant in this way and to not be super fit and healthy. It says a great deal about the state of the world and the state of people’s bodies. Why do we settle for this?

148. ‘Recently, I have become more aware of the importance of self-responsibility in life and how it is not common for us to live much, if any, true responsibility for the quality of our well-being’. This is so true Joshua especially when we realise that taking responsibility for our own health is a very empowering step that we can all take. Responsibility is a word that is not embraced fully but rather seen as a burden when in truth it lifts us out of being a victim of life and allows us to feel the joy of being alive.

149. Taking our own life into our own hands by looking after ourselves is fundamental to changing the increasing issues with the medical systems. Taking responsibility and making loving choices is the only way.

150. Yes you have to wonder how people would manage without all the drugs and that includes not only what is sold via pharmacies but also coffee, sugar and the many, many other stimulants on offer.

151. Great blog Joshua – this is true medicine. YES it is way past time we started to take responsibility for ourselves and our health and well-being.

152. Brilliant blog here and a much needed conversation about health care. The ‘life just happened so fix me up’ mentality is strong in health care both among patients and also the medical professionals themselves but everything as you say is pointing to the fact that this way of approaching medicine is not sustainable and it will collapse eventually unless we start seeing all of life as medicine and how we live has the potential to be our best medicine.

153. I particularly notice the difference with elderly people: students of Universal Medicine who are in their 70s and 80s are walking without a stick whereas many people in my local area use walking sticks, wheels walkers and in some cases, wheelchairs. For me it proves that our bodies don’t have to get so decrepit as we age.

     1. Carmel, I have noticed also the light in their eyes, how healthy they look and how committed to life they still are. As a reflection for how life can be at this stage in life I can’t think of anything more inspiring; these beautiful people are communicating purpose, joy, wisdom and so much more. It says to me that with aging there is a lot to look forward to!

     2. Carmel a great point, we have all these views on how things are going to go – what will happen with us, how we get sick and how we get old. What if, as you say, there are other ways, other ways of living that mean we set the true trend not follow the trend?

154. We are at a point in evolution that we have to take responsibility for the way we live, and not pretend that the way we live has nothing to do with our health or dis-ease process. It’s an equation of cause and effect… simple bio-chemistry.

155. I have been very inspired by this article, and since reading it for the first time I have been looking more closely at the larger movements of people in society with relation to the healthcare services on offer and it is true that there has been a very noticeable increase in what is on offer, which I had not associated before with the increase in demand by a population that also seemingly has available a huge range of services that offer support for what is considered healthy living. And so there is a ginormous question here that really does need to be asked about why we are still getting so sick.

156. Do we treat our life as a pencil? Do we put to much pressure on it and have to continue to grind it down to make it thinner? Make mistakes that cause the erasure to become a stub surrounded by metal that renders it useless, that causes us to cross out with the pencil and leave scars on the what we have written. When we have exhausted everything we can and to the point, it can no longer support us anymore, do we get a mechanical pencil and still not address why we wore out the original one that was meant to last a lifetime?

157. How far will it need to get to before we all start taking responsibility for the way we live and not living exactly how we please, leaving the Health systems to pick up the pieces and patch us back together?

     1. Kev I wonder, hopefully we will start to do these things sooner rather than later, or we will have no health system left.

158. We have more health care facilities, health care professionals than ever and yet we do not have enough to provide what is needed. We are at that point where we need to really consider how we are living and the choices we are making, for they directly influence our day to day health.

     1. Not only this it is how our relationships have changed over the years. Years ago there would be a relationship with a GP in that they would know you and when you booked an appointment to see them spend time with you in why you had booked that appointment, now the system is ‘next please’. Also if you have 3 different things you would like to discuss with your GP you need to book 3 different appointments! This clearly shows how much our healthcare system is under pressure and not coping. It also shows that over the years despite all the billions of pounds that is pumped into research etc., our health has not changed … in fact it has got worse! Yep something definitely has to change.

        1. Very true Vicky. I live and work in a rural area and fortunately still very much see the ‘old fashioned’ approach to medicine – the family doctor. Doctors who have and still do care for the family from cradle to grave. But with the pressure of medicine the way they are even this is something that is bowing to the pressures. Not in every case, but what we see now is ‘medicine by the clock’ and payments by the clock too.

159. ‘What if the downward trend in our health is related to our way of living? The two are not exclusive, as what we do more than anything is to live life.’ This could not be more important to realise as everything we do in life has an effect and it is crazy to believe therefore that our choices do not affect our health and from here it makes simple sense to know that in fact our health and wellbeing is entirely result from our choices.

160. Imagine what would happen if for a few days people did not ingest sugar, coffee, alcohol or other stimulants that get them through the day? Now imagine if for a few days people could not get the medications that they need to keep them alive? We would have a huge crisis on our hands.

161. I watched a documentary about the history of the treatment of mental health in the UK. There was an effort to push treatment into the local communities and the responsibility to care for the patients. By removing the beds from the wards every time someone left or died, that meant there was never a bed available for a new person and in no time the sanatoriums were empty and abanded to be later turned in to condos. The process only emptied buildings and moved the problem of care elsewhere. By building all these medical facilities with no staff to run them, is this just another way of not being able to deal with our disregard for how we are living?

162. When you walk in the supermarket and see all the over the counter medications that are available, you know we as a society are not well.

163. The family member of a friend recently got diagnosed with a terminal illness – up till a sudden collapse, they had seemed ‘healthy’ with nothing seemingly wrong, and yet under the surface of the skin, brain and lung tumours were growing and since the diagnosis, they are deteriorating very quickly. It always makes me wonder about our definition of health, and if there were warning signs and a lack of real health before the collapse, be it headaches or slightly out of breath or tired a lot for example, that we just don’t pay any attention to, saying we are healthy in spite of the parts of our health that are not okay.

164. What is interesting about how sick we are as a society, is that our bench mark for ‘being well’ has changed. It seems so many people have so many different ailments, that if most of their symptoms are fairly low key and only exhaustion for example is current then they consider themselves to be feeling well.

165. Depending on what we make the marker of health we can make it either an absolute value from where we know exactly where we are or we can make it just as relevant and relative as we want it to be to not be too disturbed in our comfort of trotting along as we have done for so long.

166. ‘Are we sicker than we look’ is a great title for what you are sharing here, as it makes you realise how we actually have to ‘look’ at ourselves, look inwardly, to be more honest with ourselves in order to address our health issues… rather than only rely on the external health services to give us the answer and for them to fix a health issue.

167. Perhaps our measuring scales for sickness are also now not accurate. Should we not be measuring our health and wellbeing against our full potential of living joyfully and full of vitality and energy constantly everyday as we now know is possible and have living examples of this amongst us from a way of life we can choose.

     1. Well said Michael, our scale is totally backwards, measuring off of our worse illnesses and states of wellbeing, if we lack a condition we are healthy, rather than if we are living our full potential.

168. There is a great beauty in the way the global health systems are being over-taxed by people getting more and more sick in complex ways. And that is that it precludes the dawn of a new way of living with true love and responsibility for all our movements and actions in a way that considers everyone. Because the outplay of things continuing as they are without consequences is truly ugly, and the over-load of the health system will most likely be the big wake-up call that we all have to change our ways.

169. Great point, there is an attitude out there of life happened, fix me up so I can get out there and do it all again. But in that where is our responsibility for what we created in disregard to the body.

170. There are a few steps back that need to be taken here as there is a reason we make the choices we make that needs to be examined otherwise we simply replace one choice with another and never ever scratch the surface of why we are choosing what we chose in the first place.

171. It’s interesting as well to see how different healthcare settings work together (or not so) in towns and cities. For example, what the relationship is like between care homes and hospitals, GP practices and other clinics for sexual health and the like. This can make an enormous difference to the delivery of care and the
     community.

172. What we present and how we actually feel are two different things entirely, when we go to the doctors or practitioner we give the bare minimum of what is going on but we don’t want to be really honest, not even to ourselves because deep down we know that the choices we have made are what has got us there. So it can be a bitter pill to swallow. One that is worth taking because once you realise that it is a choice to get there, it is also a choice to make different choices to get you out of there. No matter what the situation our energetic choices will have the final say.

173. We can so easily hide our symptoms, most people say they are well when asked. It becomes our normal to be unwell, “Oh I have high blood pressure, and psoriasis, high cholesterol, arthritis in my joints and a cough, but other than that, I’m fine”. Because a lot of symptoms are controlled by medication, we tend to ignore our illnesses.

174. The beauty and gift of Universal Medicine is changing everything in bringing our awareness to true health and vitality and how we can come back and live this for ourselves in harmony , contentment and love with the understanding of energy and our responsibility in life.

175. As long as we measure our state of health by the extremes of illness and disease we will not know what health is and how our true state of health actually is. The moment we make love and harmony the marker of health everything that is not of that health is exposed and healing at hand.

176. On a global level, access to healthcare seems to be used as one of the markers of economic health. People keep crying out for more services and governments seek to provide them with the resources they have. We have forgotten that we are the central character in our health. If and when we return to this truth, there will not need to be a pharmacy on every street.

177. The hospitals finance books certainly say we are sicker than ever before. Yet, medicine is more advanced than ever before… Perhaps western medicine is not the be all and end all.

178. It is an interesting proposition to imagine a society where everyone is vibrantly well and healthy. What would our medicine and pharmaceutical industries look like then? Evidently there would still a call for their services, but would they be so mainstream if the majority of the population were truly fit and vital and the minority were sick, instead of it being the other way around.

     1. Poor lifestyle choices are the cause of 7 out of 10 deaths. By living what the body needs and in our wellness, would that be the death of many Pharma companies.

179. Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have taught me and many many others much about what it means to truly live well.

     1. I agree Vicky – and in doing so just how much society has accepted a lesser version of what is wellbeing. Amazing that not only has Serge presented this but is a living example of everything he says in his own life.

180. Joshua, you are quite young, yet you noticed this very large change in our need for healthcare. At this rate, where will we be in 10, 20 years?

     1. In the future, if nothing changes; will medical stations compete for space like coffee shops… with one on most corners?

181. I was talking to a farmer who told me that sheep live for about 8 years but sheep reared in an organic way only live to about 6 years because they don’t have all the medication pumped into them. It made me wonder whether we are being kept alive as humans in a similar way with so much medication, because we can, but not discerning the quality of life we have.

182. We have to redefine what we determine as ‘sick’. Most people would not say they are sick, but they do not live healthy, harmonious and joyful lives. If to be healthy, joyful and vibrant is our natural way, then anything else can be termed as ‘sick’. If we look at it like this we can say that most people on this planet are sick.

183. We are indeed so much sicker than we look… And there is so much medication happening in the world so that we are not aware of this.

184. So even countries that have set up systems designed to take care of you when unwell, are not doing so well on the health front either. This being apparent when you observe what is going on in society as this blog reveals. This to me shows that what we have been ascribing our health and ill-health to, is not it.

185. Are we going to wake up to what is truly going on with our health or do we have to learn the hard way and watch health systems get so overwhelmed that they can’t provide a service for anyone?

     1. Isn’t that already happening in many ways? Everybody being in perpetual crisis mode?

186. If we knew how sick we were as a race, we would have to stop and take notice and make change yet we carry on regardless compounding a lie that says we are ok.
     Let’s wake up to the mess we have created so we can finally choose another way. A way that is about true care of all people.

187. A much needed observation on the current state of health of the world and the ever increasing pressure to keep function and fix it ways of covering up the real truth of how we are living and how this is adversely affecting our health and the true quality we are living. The barely coping of doctors and the health system speaks volumes of the lack of responsibility, love and care we give and live ourselves as individuals and the true changes that are needed to come back to who we really are by changing how we are living with true quality and energetic responsibility for the all.

188. Joshua, I love what you have presented here. Through your observations in Ghent you show that a proliferation of health services is not a measure of progress, but a decline in our relationship with health. We do ourselves a dis-service when we make others responsible for our health, rather than live in a way that generates health and makes us less dependent on health services and drugs.

189. If we could see energy then it would be impossible to ignore or not know just how ill humanity is and all that contributes to the state of disease we find ourselves in.

     1. Yes, and in some way we do see energy as the human body displays the consequence of the energy it has chosen.

190. “are we sicker that we look?” Another question is ” are we sicker than we need to be?” And the answer is yes. It could be said it’s in the interests of drug companies, pharmaceutical industries and health providers to have rising illness and disease rates. As long as medicine remains associated with multi-million pound businesses, the existing status quo will continue to exist.

191. Is that bright thing in the sky the sun? So, are we sicker than we look, need we even ask this question? We can lie to ourselves all we want, but it doesn’t change the truth that our demands are outstripping supply of medical care because of the disregard we allow into our lives. Buildings are easy and faster to build than it is to train the people that work in them, plus the years required to become competent in their trade!

192. I like the view you bring with coming to Belgium with the fresh eyes form coming from New Zealand. Because when you are used to a situation you have grown up with, it is a normal to start from which you will rarely question. That said, it is important that we question ourselves more on what is our normal, if that really is our natural normal and I can imagine that the answer in many cases would be no, this is not our nature, this is not our true normal but a way of living we have created to have comfortable lives without taking too much of a responsibility for.

193. It is really to question where we would be without the health care system we have built and which currently is bursting at its seams. Would we still be so proud of all the achievements and advancements we make as a species and in our societies? To me it needs some honesty and especially courage to open up our eyes for the reality we live in. It is not normal that so many people are ill and become more ill in time. It is not normal that the pharmaceutical industries are such wealthy conglomerates, it is not normal that the people in medical services have to do their jobs under the pressure of the demands society are putting on them. The demand of ‘doctor I am ill, make me better’ mentality many people express because we have not learned to truly take care and take responsibility for our health in the first place.

194. We think life works in dramatic changes – but it’s all incremental. As you show Joshua, as things deteriorate we get used to it as ‘normal’ but it’s not at all. If we start with how we feel inside, we’ll begin to know what it is to be truly well.

     1. This is an important point to make Joseph which explains how we came to be in this state but also how we get ourselves out of it too – step by step we can reverse all that has occurred and the effects of it until we are living that joyful vitality which is the expression of that which we are within.

195. True Joshua we are very good at restoring function in healthcare but it is very obvious that it is not enough and we cannot keep on going like this, the overall state of our health is not great but also the system cannot cope with it anymore so we have to look at another angle of healthcare and start to be open to go the root cause, that it is never function on its own but an underlying energetic cause and we all have the ability to take responsibility for this part in the cause of our health issues.

     1. I agree with you Annelies, responsibility looks like a dirty word for many but to me will be one of the true answers to the ill situation we unarguably are living in.

196. Are we getting sicker without that being obvious? Is the obesity epidemic hiding an increase in sickness or a sickness in and of itself?

197. It seems the improvement of managing skills makes us blind to see the rising problems that are managed better and better. It is a selective awareness: focussing on what makes us ‘feel good’, and having a blind eye to what makes us feel uncomfortable.

     1. Have we allowed the tail of the dog that is our comfort, wag us?

198. Medicine is big business but only if we are ill.

     1. Exposes the willingness to stay invested in a cure for illness and diseases rather than understanding a cause and therefore prevention.

     2. So true, Andrew. What would happen if we don’t get so ill?

199. As we become more and more unhealthy, ill or develop multiple symptoms, healthcare and related products and services these days are big business. It begs the question though, why isn’t there overall improvement in our state of health, and why is it that health issues or complaints are more complex in how they present? We talk of preventative measures but we are clearly not going back far enough to be truly preventative, we must start to take far more seriously our own role and choices in the health we enjoy, which means wanting to know what true health is and being willing to take responsibility for it.

200. To consider that the number of health facilities is an indicator of how we live is very apt – many will complain when there are not enough local health care facilities (and yes we do need them) but we’re not taking it to the next level as suggested here and asking how we’re living that we need so much healthcare? There’s a huge irresponsibility here in that we expect to do as we wish and then be fixed by our medics. All that is happening now with our health is a wake up call asking us to look again at how we live and its impact on our bodies and the quality of what we show in all we do.

201. Interesting how we can be so used to what is getting dictated to us by way of normality that we don’t even stop and pose the question is this really it, a way of existence that is to manage a way of functioning. Be it pharmaceutical, natural or recreational drugs – they can be used to support a life of numbing and disconnection to our true innate and vital beings that we are.

202. There is a fungal disease that causes the wood at the centre of the trunk and branches that enter through wounds in its bark and is called heart rot. Is there a similarity in what we allow in our bodies that slowly eats us away?

     1. I would say ‘heart rot’ or not living love is at the root of all our illnesses and diseases.

     2. That doesn’t sound very nice at all, I do wonder if we were honest about how we are feeling and living that we wouldn’t find the same rot though.

203. Much can be seen in how we look, in our faces, posture, movements, complexion, but even more can be felt and recognized of how well or not so well we really are. What can be perceived by the 5 senses is the expression of an even longer existing energetic state of unwellness.

     1. That is a great point. We can also simply feel another person and that can give us a lot more information.

204. It seems that we are sicker than we are prepared to admit.

     1. True Rachel, we need to be willing to understand dis-ease as the illness it is.

205. What a clear indication offered by this blog that we can go around choosing to not see what life is plainly reflecting to us. When I look back at the recent history I have been part of in this life, I find that there have been many outrages, complaints, demands when support systems are ill funded or cut back. People at times get behind causes and missions to increase and improve such facilities. Yet very rarely such dedication goes towards reflecting on why are we in “need” of such extensive support in the first place.

206. It is the same in my area too, the pressure on the system is so great and the policy makers are trying to accommodate the demand. BUT it is not possible for doctors to maintain that level of work without it affecting their own health and they burn out or they leave earlier knowing this way of working is not true care.

207. People are certainly living with their illnesses and accepting them as the normal, thinking they are all to do with the ageing process and they have no way of changing them. We seem to have lost connection to the fact we are in charge of our own bodies, can choose whatever treatments we feel are necessary, and take the responsibility for the outcome. The ageing process is a part of the learning process, not the giving up stage of our lives.

208. At some point it will roll over, either when we have taken our health services over the edge or cancer gets to a 1 in 2 ratio, we will accept that the way we treat our selves on a daily basis is our biggest form of medicine. In my experience over the last 11 years, there is no ‘every thing in moderation’. Our bodies are not designed to cope with moderate amounts of toxins such as coffee, alcohol and sugar they are too finely tuned and incredible for that.

209. Great subject to bring up and the bottom line is there is so much we can do to relieve the burden on the health systems around the world and the main one is what we shovel down our necks and this is all our responsibilities; Coca-cola and McDonalds aren’t going to keep producing foods and drinks if nobody is consuming them.

210. It makes a huge difference having your own personal marker of what feeling truly healthy is like and how your body operates and even looks when it is nourished rather than neglected. It’s not about focusing on weight or appearance, but there is a quality of vitality that is recognisable when you look in the mirror, and having this as something to check in on can be a great exercise in looking after your own health and not waiting for an illness or injury to make us pay attention.

211. Yes I agree Nicola and Marylouise it is awful and wrong and even though this clinic will lose a good doctor, and I personally will miss out on working with him, I was also inspired and encouraged by his determination to continue doctoring and working with people in a way that felt true to him…..it just reinforced to me that there many doctors out there, (as opposed to those already working in this and many clinics like it that have succumbed to the pressure put on them by management), that truly do care, will stand by their principles and will lead the way in the inevitable change.

212. Health care has so many variables Jane, that the short and long term effect of this system has many areas we can research, so a simple search found. “The longer the doctors’ strike continued, the more the death rate fell. In some locations, the death rate dropped by an astounding 50%” Is it possible that part of the problem is the lack of true Love in a system that is ailing? And if health was opened up to a great level of responsibility then clearly things would change.
     https://healthwyze.org/reports/502-death-rates-drop-when-doctors-go-on-strike

213. What if we took the budget out of health and as you have shared Joshua, take responsibility for our own part in the way we want to live, for our own ‘benefits’ and health. Could this also then lead to us know longer needing ‘benefit’ schemes, that help prop up ailing heath care systems?

     1. Yes Jane, and may I add, that it seems as medical therapies advance we become more complacent and reliant on a quick fix, instead of being responsible for our life-style choices that are causing so much illness.

214. Why don’t newspapers give you the real figures about illness and disease and how come more of us did not pick up on the observation offered in this blog? Humanity is getting sicker and sicker and we have been so complacent about it that this descending level of health has become our accepted normal. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The teachings of Serge Benhayon and the living example offered by the students of Universal Medicine are a confirmation of this.

215. Just one day… imagine that!… there would be a pandemic health crisis for sure, exposing just how much the health system is used and unfortunately how it is also abused

216. At my local doctors’ surgery it is very hard to get an appointment as you can only personally book them on a Monday, and then, you may not get in until the following Monday or longer. So, if you have been ill for a week already and you feel to see a doctor or just reassure yourself that the condition isn’t serious or getting worse, the doctors’ surgery is not the quickest route to being seen. The only other alternative in my area is to go to the walk-in clinic in a nearby town, which could mean waiting for 4 – 5 hours to be seen, and when you are really ill that’s the last thing you want to do. I have done this on two occasions, as an alternative to waiting two weeks for a ten-minute appointment with my GP. The service you receive is streets ahead of the doctors’ surgery, as you see a nurse first who takes your vitals and asks questions about your condition, and then when the doctor is available, you get to spend more than ten minutes explaining your situation. It is easy to see that the demand for the GP services has increased and the system is not set up to truly care for the staff or the users of the services.

217. We are sicker than we are aware of as we yet need to expand our understanding of what true health is before we realize the extent of illness and disease we have accepted as being normal.

218. It’s hard for most of us to wake up from our self-imposed stupor because we have dedicated ourselves to making sure that our entire lives are set up so as to never offer us a glimmer of a possibility of even so much as stirring. We purposefully choose other sleep walkers to live alongside, so as to aid and abet each other in our complicit determination to remain asleep for as long as possible. But with more and more people slowly starting to wake up, there will be more and more reflections of what being awake looks and feels like and it will eventually become nigh on impossible to choose to stay asleep.

219. The way we are going there will be a greater need for bigger and better hospitals, but where is the money going to come from to build them?

     1. True Kev but it could also be said that the way we are going there is a need for the hospital system to acknowledge it can do no more as it is at its capacity and for the answer to come from us having to take responsibility for our choices and the consequences they lead to.

     2. Are we trying to build houses of cards and sustain them? How many hospitals have shut down wings for lack of staff? An independent review of the NHS that was done a year ago found the burnout of countless healthcare professionals cost £2.4bn a year – excluding the cost of agency staff to fill the gap! Until we address the cause for the demand, what is the prognosis for our house of cards?

220. There is a saying that ‘you are what you eat’. We are much more than that but I know from first hand experience that what I eat has a massive effect on my health and have subsequently pulled myself back from the brink of diabetes by addressing my diet and sugar consumption. We have so much to truly learn about how our modern day processed foods and drinks are killing us, it’s a bit like slow release suicide.

221. True Joshua , we patch ourselves up and carry on, trying as hard as we can to stay oblivious of our decaying health.There is no true healing in this approach, and no true honesty of where we are at.

222. Thank you Joshua – definitely an astute and much needed observation that warrants further exploration as an imperative. There are voices sounding the alarm, but the vast majority do not want to hear the call, preferring to stay in the comfort of studied ignorance and the wilfullness to continue our irresponsible ways. A surefire spiral into illness and disease.

     1. The bell is ringing and alerting us to the danger we are creating by the way we are living, and all we hear is the bell to bring out the dead.

223. Never before have I seen so much access to facials, juice diets, makeup, gym programs – all these things that make us look aesthetically OK – and yet you wait all day to even book an appointment with a doctor because they are just flat out. It shows where we are as a humanity – ticking the boxes on the surface but struggling underneath on a healthcare system that is fast collapsing.

224. “So, why are we getting sicker when today we can have so much at our finger tips…” Great question, and one that shines a light on the way we live – as in all aspects of our life and relationships as they all feed back into our state of being and health…

     1. Yes Fiona I agree this is a great question…why are we getting sicker? I feel we can point the finger at many areas…poor nutrition, lack of exercise, overuse of drugs and alcohol etc., but the underlying common denominator that I see is a lack of connection to self and a huge lack of love and brotherhood in today’s world, when these ingredients are missing society will inevitably become sick.

225. I am sure you will have doctors and health professionals saying thank you for this one! We need to take some personal responsibility for the way we are living because it is putting so much pressure on a system that is already not coping.

226. With so much more support, we should be less sick but the figures say otherwise, so something isn’t working. We appear to be approaching the issues of health from managing the illness, rather than from what was going on in life before the illness that has contributed to making us unwell. It’s the sticking plaster syndrome.

227. I remember reading a book as child about a future time when people were really sick and hospitals were full or over flowing – it was an epidemic but no one was really paying attention to it. I remember thinking we weren’t that far away for that as a reality already, and since then health has only continued to decline and yet we carry on until it directly hits us or someone close to us.

     1. ” we carry on until it directly hits us or someone close to us” and even then Rebecca, often we still ‘carry on’. In fact it’s common for people to pride themselves in their ability to either carry on, despite being unwell or their ability to get back to all of their commitments as quickly as possible following a major illness. In getting back to life as we were living it prior to being sick, we completely miss the messages that our body is conveying through the illness about the way that we are living. Illness offers us the opportunity to make different choices and when we don’t, then the body has no choice other than to get sick again.

        1. I agree – we want to get back to normal without considering that it was the ‘normal’ that got us in the mess to begin with

228. We are so used to responding with ‘I’m fine thanks’ when asked if we are ok, and we have gotten to the point where we know that a truthful response is not being asked for. Because if we did respond truthfully, we would be there for ages explaining the different ailments the majority of us live with on a daily basis. Maybe, it’s time to stop putting band-aids on everything and let the air and the daylight do its thing.

229. This highlights are focus on appearances rather than what we know and can feel. This is another reason that we do not talk about the illnesses we have with others, we try to stay in the comfort of not having to be aware of and take responsibility for the state of humanity, ourselves and all of our brothers.

     1. ‘I’m alright Jack’ is one of our favourite mottos but we’re far from being alright. Very far indeed.

230. We’ve forgotten what true health looks/feels like and settled for pale imitations based on what we’re told and is marketed. True health starts from within and flows into everything we do. It’s the quality of relationship we have with ourselves and how we live 24/7.

231. It might be easy to write off the question of how many hospitals there are in Belgium as they must be more advanced, stronger economy or have a better healthcare system. However, having a pharmacy every block is a giveaway. We are definitely propping ourselves up with pills. I have seen this very clearly over 30 years of nursing where most people used to come into to hospital with none or very few regular medications. Now they come in with a handful of daily medications – and we add to this to treat whatever the acute condition is! I am sure we would have a much more realistic perspective on our actual health and be looking a lot sicker if this pharmaceutical crutch was taken away. It’s not that we should be, but we do need seem to need a wake-up call from the honesty of our bodies.

232. What if it’s the way we look that makes us sick? We think we glance out at all that’s there when in fact we receive life. It comes to us not the other way around. So if you have pictures in your head, it’s like like you won’t accept everything that’s there. A great first step to healing then is realising there is a huge part to life that can’t be seen, and so we shouldn’t measure objects and physicality only.

233. We must be sicker than we look because we keep putting on weight and many chronic illnesses are not easily visible to the naked eye with diabetes being one example.

234. I too can see that in many instances medicine is actually propping us up, in that we can take a pill or have a procedure for a certain ailment and the symptoms may ease, or the illness may go away but if we do not deal with why we have these symptoms or disease in the first place we do not truly heal. To truly heal we need the marriage of Universal Medicine Therapies, which look at the root cause of any disease and conventional Medicine with its medicines and medical procedures.

235. Any member of the medical profession will confirm what we all know deep down – the level of illness and disease we have now is already extreme and reaching a point where health services simply may not be able to cope despite all of our technological and pharmaceutical advances.

236. It is interesting you talk about the difference in the time the doctor can spend with you now and back in the days you were younger. It has become so normal doctors are rushed nowadays and I am wondering if this is not part of our society becoming ill. It is the quality we are living in that we need to start looking at, all of us, doctors and health professionals included.

237. If we really take a look at our collective health, we can’t shy away from the fact we’re not doing very well. Yet, not many are asking why.

238. It is fascinating how we can portray and make out we are all fine and good but in actual fact under this facade we are not good at all and that we have illness and disease and we are functioning as if this is normal.

     1. Natalie `I can so relate to this; not in a physically ill way as I have never had any real ill conditions to speak of but I can relate to it in an emotional sense. Over my life, I have been very good at presenting a facade that everything is ok when underneath I have been complete mush! Letting this tension hang around whether in the form of hardness, sadness, resentment, anger or whatever does invariably mean an ill condition later down the line. I feel very blessed that I have been given a window into looking at everything under the facade and have chosen to go there so I that I can heal those issues, which will definitely mean better health and a vitality to life.

239. Yes, it is quite ironic that in the ‘developed’ countries we now have the most advanced medical system, the most doctors, understanding of the physical body etc. ever in history yet we also have the highest levels of illness, mental and physical, ever recorded. Something cannot be right, when will this be accepted and an alternative be sought?

     1. Part of this is because we also have the oldest population ever and 70-year olds are usually less healthy than 20-year olds. However, there is also a deterioration that is independent of age and that is very worrying.

     2. The drum is also continually beaten for more funds for help in finding cures. How much do we spend on identifying the causes? Why are we blind, deaf and dumb when it comes to something so simple as our lifestyle choices!

240. Even our idea of ‘wellness’ or health in this day and age can still mean being on some kind of supplement, treatment or protein shake.

     1. yes and it likely to be an indication that our version of a healthy diet has been warped by marketing, media and politics.

241. When we really take a moment to stop and ponder on this, your observations Joshua turn our world on its head. After all we are supposed to be advancing as a race, but it seems not in the correct quarters. Rather than focusing on improving the quality of our lifestyle choices, i.e, how we look after our bodies and one another, we have chosen to invest billions of dollars into finding remedies for our disregard instead, and then label that advancement.

242. “if these medical facilities were not there in the many and varied ways in which they currently are, would we be able to cope?” Joshua, this is a very important question. It would certainly be much more in our face how sick we were. We couldn’t hide it at all and we would be confronted with the lifestyle choices we make. That’s not to say that we should not have the access to the medical care that we have, for it is very needed. But if we live in a country where it is readily available, then we are less likely to see the ramifications of our actions.

243. Are we sicker than we look? I was at a huge shopping mall last night and man I saw some pretty sick looking people.

     1. Yes it is pretty dismal out there, people do not look well at all and you often see them munching on some type of junk food. The standard lunch at my workplace for the staff is 4 pieces of raison toast or white bread toasted with butter and jam/peanut butter. Then they complain of not wanting to go back to work because they are too tired….mmm…wonder why?

     2. I agree kevmchardy, people are not looking all that well when you take the time to observe, and when talking to people you can often feel their underlying tension and anxiety and many will openly state the many stressors in their lives and the constant tension they feel.

244. These are great questions Josh, I was wondering the same thing recently here how so many small villages could have healthcare practices – and yet still sometimes you have to wait weeks or a month for an appointment – is the demand so high, and at what point do we start questioning what is really going on?

245. It must be a great business to keep this system running as it is, instead of approaching illness from its roots to truly address what started it.
     It seems that our society needs to stop and deeply revise what the word health truly means. Blogs like this open the discussion and makes us ponder on what is and is not working. It is in these reflections that we can take awareness and responsibility of what we are feeding as society, and things can start changing with our new approach.

246. Now you mention it I remember when I was younger the doctor had time to talk too!

     1. My local doctor actually made home visits when we were sick after hours and would spend what ever time was needed with you, unheard of now. Now you have to go to the emergency hospital and wait hours to be quickly ushered in and out as there is often loads of people waiting

     2. Indeed Nicola! I remember as a child my doctor coming to see me at home and sitting on my bed, holding my hand and chatting to me. And although I was obvioulsy unwell, I wasnt seriously ill. It seems there is little time for this kind of doctors visits/relationships in todays world.

     3. Money and business before people is a recipe for disconnection and relationship breakdown.

        1. And disconnection is the main ingredient needed in putting money and business before people; it’s also a vital ingredient in relationship breakdowns.

     4. I recently attended a surgery and consulted with a new doctor in attendance, I was so impressed with his care and the time he took to discuss issues with me that I asked him if he was going to be permanent on staff, he then told me he was leaving because he had been told he must see a patient every 10 minutes and he had a quota to fill for the day, this was untenable to him as this was not the way he wanted to practice.

        1. Gosh that is awful and what a terrible stress it puts on our caring doctors.

        2. So wrong isn’t it …..here is a doctor who actually cares about his clients and he has to leave because the management do not care about people.

     5. In many cases now they will call you by telephone and you may not even get an appointment to see your doctor.

        1. Our insatiable need to be fixed has clogged up the system and has caused stress within the healthcare profession so that as the end users, we feel we have been shortchanged. But isn’t it us who have generated the system we have loved to criticise?

247. Great blog just bringing to light the way we are living as a society and the impact we are causing to our health. We do need to stop and look at our choices and the way we live as a society, as we cannot keep going on this way.

248. Africa is home to twenty-four of the of twenty-six countries with the fewest numbers of doctors per capita. Liberia being the worst has ten doctors per million people. Service disparity is endemic everywhere, where even in modern societies, good quick medical care has become something that is only available at a price.

249. It is very clear to me that if everyone was taking responsibility for the way they live, which includes the quality of how they care for themselves, the statistics on the state of the world’s health would not read as shockingly as they do today. When we are told that a huge percentage of the illnesses and diseases are as a result of the way we live, common sense would indicate that if we changed our life-style we would change our health. So the question is – why aren’t we making that choice?

     1. I agree Ingrid and think that really is important – considering why that choice isn’t being made?

250. Someone walking down the street could look normal and commit suicide a few hours later – we are very poor at reading humanity and where we are at in terms of our mental health. A physically disabled person can be seen but someone with mental health difficulties may be very good at disguising their condition. The signs are always there but perhaps we are insensitive to them or we dismiss them just as we dismiss the signals from our own bodies.

251. In the UK there are a lot more coffee shops. It seems everything is about coffee!! In a well known supermarket you can also get a free coffee when you walk in which means you walk around the supermarket doing your shopping drinking coffee!!! I find this so absurd.

     1. Coffee has been one of the biggest increases to numb the exhaustion in ones body, the rise in coffee over the years is unbelievable. Its a quick go to for people…. rather than stopping and feeling what the body is saying.

     2. Gosh, we get over-fed with food and drinks in our society …. Who’s feeding who? is the question we have to ask… its that supply & demand cycle that gets you hooked unless you say ‘No’.

252. Great question Joshua and the answer has to be Yes and despite all the medical facilities that have sprung up to service our ill health we are struggling to maintain the level of service that people have come to expect but is it not time that we questioned why we have an ever growing need to be medicated or to self medicate just to get by in life? Thank you for exposing the level of dis-ease that we as a society have become normalised to and challenging the status quo as we need to start having these conversations and recognising that we all have a personal responsibility to look after our own heath and wellbeing so that we are not so dependant on our over stretched health services.

253. Life has literally become the bit that occurs between movies – the uncomfortable gap between apps and our next take away food. We say we have a good life when we fill it up to the brim with all these things – but what you show Joshua is this is a serious disease – for in truth life is spacious, grand and rich with a depth you’d never wish to escape and an amazingness lightness. We have been running from the beauty of the universe and champion those who run the best. How sick is this?

254. The amount of money that is being made through drugs is disgusting and yet we are the ones that don’t want to take the responsibility of our choices which feeds the corruption and greed.

255. I would say we are far sicker than we care to see or more so it seems we do not even care that much anymore but have accepted that there is poor health, vitality and quality of life.

     1. I agree Ester, its like we have given up and just accepted that we get sick in l life, so just pop the pills to prop us up.

256. I couldn’t agree with you more Joshua that there is more to living truly well and healthy than just mere function. Unfortunately we are encouraged to think that if we can function then that’s ok, but no real regard is given to the quality of that ‘functioning’ body and if indeed it is has harmony, stability and vitality, or is loving and joyful, does it wake each morning ready to give its all to the day? These are the markers that give us the truth of what living well and healthy is.

257. Being ‘sicker than we look’ is a quite an appropriate description because, not only do we see this in the rise of illness and disease, but we also see it in human behaviour such as the rise in the incidences of road rage, murder, kidnapping, slavery, verbal, physical or emotional abuse, corruption, theft, talking badly about someone behind their back, emotions such as jealousy, comparison that bring on ugly behaviours, … These examples of human behaviours are certainly not indicative of health and wellbeing… Maybe as a society there is more illness and dis-ease than the alarmingly high statistics we are seeing…

258. Agree Joshua, when we scratch the surface it is easy to see that as a society we are not healthy. This is all of our responsibility to deal with.

     1. It is the responsibility of the collective, we all need to take responsibility as an individual to cause a true change in society, we cannot just sit there and leave it to others to make the first move.

259. I’ve noticed lately that radiology centres are popping up all over the show – I questioned the same thing – are we that sick that we need 2 in one suburb with some in the town that is less than 10 minutes away also?

260. The trouble is our perception of what well is has changed so much that we accept more illnesses as being normal or things we have to live with, such as a backache, dull headaches, dullness and lack of energy.

     1. The line in the sand keeps moving and what is normal is based on the majority. If the majority of people are sick, even if only mildly so then that is normal. Yet what if we truly look at what our normal is – one where we are vital and bright. It makes our current normal not so normal.

        1. The dreadful thing is that we can’t even say that our kids are consistently ‘vital and bright’ anymore. At what point will we wake up to ourselves and ask what’s going on?

     2. Julie so true so many people are walking around with these kind of illnesses as if its normal to have and that one just lives with it. It is ignoring these illnesses has allowed for move complex illnesses to rise as we ignored the earlier signs our body was giving us.

261. “… on the surface society seems to be doing well”. But scratch beneath the surface and we will see a world dependent on medications to dull the effects of the life style choices we arrogantly continue to make. What a time bomb we are sitting on.

262. With all the extreme illnesses and diseases we are burying and ignoring the ‘lower level’ dis-ease(s).

263. Less is more. To have a proliferation of health services disempowers, leading us to believe ‘ doctor knows best’ and ‘I can’t help myself”. This needs to be turned on its head: We need less medical services and preventative medicine as a way of life, not an add on.

     1. This can only take place, if we as a society start to take responsibility for our own health and in that reflect a truer a way of living for others to do the same. We live by reflection and empowerment, so if we start to make truer chocies, we inspire others to do the same.

        1. Yes Amita, the answer lies within: deeply honouring and loving ourselves. Self responsibility and care provides health service for ourselves and families.

264. Do we keep piling on the pressure, or is there a point where the system fails and we are finally forced to become more responsible for our health by default. I don’t think the health system has any alternative looking to the future, and it would be a welcome step for each of us individually to look more closely at how we are choosing to live.

265. There is more technology, more machines, more expertise today than ever before in hospitals. What they can do is amazing and I get that medicine is always changing and growing. But what if medicine was left to the advances and left to support those with critical illness or rare diseases? What if we didn’t have so many people getting sick just due to an unhealthy lifestyle? Perhaps this would change the balance to the quality of healthcare, not the quantity – which seems to be killing the industry.

266. I was in Hospital a year or so ago with appendicitis and saw from the inside how sick we are and how it was so obviously down to lifestyle choices and how given up and stressed the Hospital staff seemed. You can’t blame them though as every day would seem like you are fighting a losing battle.

     1. I had a similar experience visiting the ambulatory care part of a hospital recently (the day clinic part) – I was shocked that I saw people whose bodies were so unwell they couldn’t move or speak, I find it surprising that we let ourselves get to that point without taking action or initiating some kind of change, it really highlights how a lack of education around self-care is missing.

267. All those hospital and specialists – how are we going to afford it all? Is our ill health not only going to bankrupt the body we live in but also our health systems worldwide?

     1. Exactly! Perhaps it will take for bankruptcy on many levels for us to consider our wellbeing.

        1. Well said Nikki, it may be this kind of shock that would get us a society to stop and take notice of our wellbeing.

        2. For now, if money is involved we seem to take notice – but not even do we take notice quickly as I’m sure if we looked at statistics it would be glaringly obvious that our health systems are on the road to bankruptcy.

     2. Is good health care becoming our evolutional leap forward? The demands of our ill choices on how we are living are crushing the medical systems that are trying to serve us. Money allows us to pitstop on life with a quick fix and then back to the same lifestyle. In the animal kingdom, the fittest evolve, what are we leaving as our legacy?

     3. Gabriele a great point, if we as a society start to look after our everyday health then if we get sick there will be far greater medical staff and support to help us heal.

268. A very sobering read Joshua that highlights how we are actually adding to the pressures of our health service by not living more responsibly. And the irony is that when we do not get the service that we feel that we deserve, we get impatient and complain about the length of the waiting lists to get treatment.

     1. Sandra you’ve expressed this beautifully. The call is for each one of us to give back to health services by living responsibly. Health services groan under the weight of relentless demand because too many people have become recipients only, not givers. In other words we save our health services by first saving ourselves first.

        1. My GP once said to me, “You’re not one of our frequent flyers.” If we lived responsibly, we could all be infrequent flyers to GP surgeries. This would reduce pressure on GPs and give them more time to support patients in greatest need.

269. In Belgium the numbers of people taking anti depressants and / or sleepmedication during a period in their life has reached in the 70 to 80 %, 20 percent of teenagers are using antidepressants. If this is our state of being there is no wonder that the body eventually breaks down as well. In a conversation with my GP it was clear that a large part of their time is spent on people with anxiety, panic attacks, recurring symptoms, depression and sleep problems. This is just a small part of what the statistics are telling us. When will we start adding it up to the point where we accept that radical changes to our way of life are needed?

270. ‘what we do more then anything is to live life’ this is so true and yet even when we do look at life we look at the circumstances around us in a way that makes us seemingly powerless ; the pollution of the environment, the business, its never quiet anymore, the stress at work, all the hobbies and classes our kids need to go to, etc ect. But rarely do we look within and observe the quality in which we ourselves move through life, no matter what it is we are doing. It is this that is key to our health and why Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon have been saying since almost 20 years “Life Is Medicine”

271. It seems like for years the NHS has had campaigns to point out how damaging drinking is, and how smoking can cause cancer and on the whole, we have been ignoring the messages to look after ourselves. In fact, I would go so far as to say that not only have we ignored the messages, but we have gone the other way with drugs, overeating and not exercising. So, we can’t really pretend to be ignorant of the facts of this excessive lifestyle we have chosen.

     1. Even with awareness and access to knowledge we still override the body’s signals preferring to stay on well-trodden and familiar paths and knowingly choosing to make harmful lifestyle choices. We have to ask ourselves, ‘Why am I doing this to myself?’ and until this is understood, we can’t move to the next level.

272. There is no doubt we are very sick as a society, much sicker than we like to think. We have all the tools to make us look like we are going well, doing well and yet take those away and we have a big wake up call going on. However with each year that goes by we are less able to hide the state of our overall health, or should I say illness.

273. I live in a big city in Australia thats absolutely flooded with medical centres, chiropractors, osteopaths, rheumatologists, dentists, surgeons etc. It is also awash with pubs, clubs, fast food outlets, betting shops, gyms, sports clubs etc and once upon a time I considered all of these things as incredibly normal and needed but now I am beginning to see that none of these things need to be part of our everyday lives to the extent that they are and also to see the correlation between our healthcare specialists and our lifestyle choices.

     1. Is anyone willing to join the dots or will there continue to be a collective defence that people have the right to pubs, clubs, fast food and so on.

        1. None of us want to join the dots because that will expose us as being responsible for our ill health and make it much harder for us to continue with our ‘lifestyle choices’. Our ‘lifestyle choices’ are also our medication, they are what we currently choose to anaesthetise ourselves from the constant angst that we feel from not living the truth of who we all are.

274. When something happens gradually it’s harder to detect. The declining health of the nation is just one example of something that has almost crept its way into our lives. Others include the increase in obesity, the decline in the everyday physical activity of people, the increase of sex in the media, the increase in foul language and there are many, many more examples of things that seem to have slid their way into our lives and become embedded.

275. This is a similar question Esoteric Women’s Health have asked in this months newsletter in ‘Is sick the new normal?’ https://bit.ly/2qh3LnX Looks like we need to have this discussion! Great blog and awareness.

276. We call it health care but really it is illness management – we have not yet as a society in general decided to truly care for our health hence the statistics and phenomena you are observing.

     1. Words are such an interesting tool – do we say it how it is, or hide behind a story that sounds like we have it under control when we clearly don’t?

     2. Yes Nicola, a paradox that the system we have doesn’t promote true health, it condones sickness.

277. I read yesterday on the BBC website that the NHS needs £50bn more by 2030 in England, a former health minister and leading surgeon says. Surely this is one indication that as a nation we are getting sicker. Surely there has to come a time when we call a halt and say what is happening here. Yes support the health service but at the same time take a long hard look at what is happening to our society why are we so sick?

278. We have accepted life as getting by and getting through, with much given-up-ness and withdrawal relying on our pharmaceuticals to get us by in that function. We have accepted a way of life far less than the vitality and richness we could be in, if we chose a greater self-responsibility.

279. “I can remember going to the doctor and talking about anything and everything, and yet feeling like the doctor was not rushed off his feet with patients to treat, nor overwhelmed by the ways of the system, or by complications…” – yes i can also distinctly recall those times too Joshua [and also home visits as well], and these days if i visit the doctor’s surgery it’s a 5minute meeting in/out, where i can feel how the doctor is as stressed, highly strung, anxious as the patient. Irrespective of what we do for a profession all of us are suffering from the way we are living life consumed by life’s system of created ambitions and ideals that lead to malfunction and dysfunction of our health and wellbeing.

280. This is absolutely a valid discussion and what is interesting is how each country have only ever known what they know. At the end of the day we as an individual have to take much better care of ourselves and honour what our bodies tell us. This means not checking out and numbing ourselves with what ever distraction we turn to.

281. What you hi-light Joshua is how much we in Europe have handed the responsibility of our health over to our already over burdened stretched to breaking point health services. We are demanding that the Health Services should fix us and they are supplying what we are demanding. When we stop demanding the supply will no longer be needed.

282. ‘It makes me wonder: if these medical facilities were not there in the many and varied ways in which they currently are, would we be able to cope?’ This is a great great question and I feel that all of a sudden people would start paying more attention and wanting to know what truly makes them unwell and perhaps even to return to living life as medicine as has been a way of life over the ages for those that have aligned to it.

283. It just goes to prove that however much we invest in medicine and the latest technology, we are not actually addressing the cause of our illness, just keeping pace with the level of disregard we have towards our own health.

284. Have medical facilities and personnel that are being stretched to breaking point, increasing the problems, with the quick fix with overprescribing antibiotics and pain medicines. One encourages the growth of resistant strains of bugs that are no longer treatable, and the other is the growth of drug dependency of opioids. Both of these are just examples of the tip of the iceberg, and we still are not looking at the causes of the storm that is already here.

285. On the surface life does seem to be going well for most but the cost of healthcare around the planet is on an alarmingly speedy increase and although it is mentioned here and there in the news, it doesn’t get the publicity that it duly needs for us to wake up as a species to the extent of what is going on.

     1. True, Kevin. If this was more publicly discussed there would be an opening to ask more questions, but it seems that we aren’t having that conversation amongst ourselves and therefore it can’t be out in the open more. Is it possible that this seeming inertia is because looking at the truth of the situation would be alarming and it’s easier to bury our heads in the sand than take an honest look?

286. Joshua I absolutely love what you have shown about our health system in your awesome blog. I only can agree: “Perhaps it is time for us to start taking responsibility for our choices and to live in a way that keeps us largely healthy and well, thus reducing the burden on our health care systems.” Yes it is really time for each person to take the responsibility for their way of living.

287. It would be an interesting experiment to see what would happen to our level of responsibility if we pulled all of the healthcare, including pharmaceuticals from our world. Of course I am not advocating that this happen, as the amount of physical pain that we would be in would be absolutely intolerable but even contemplating it, in light of responsibility is an interesting exercise alone.

     1. This is an interesting concept and there is the very debatable concept of not treating smokers if they do not stop smoking or obese people if they do not lose weight. No matter what we do something has to change, we do need to all take more responsibility for our own health before the whole thing implodes.

        1. By not treating the smokers and the over-eaters are we just bailing out the sinking health care system with a spoon? No one is looking at why the boat is sinking. Are we all on the Titanic and still dancing away?

288. This is such a responsible sharing on the declining health of our society today and the very real distress we are living under as a whole with doctors and medical staff unable to cope themselves let alone their patients. Taking responsibility for our health as a one humanity is the only way for the future and a connection and quality with in ourselves naturally occurs.

289. Brilliant observation Joshua, it is great to ask these questions because when we look around there are signs everywhere showing us that we as a race are very sick. We can see this all around us and we have made this the norm but in truth we are accepting a way of life that is way below what is natural for us. Our standard of health has dropped, I feel this will continue to drop if we are not willing to address these issues in full and take responsibility for every aspect of our health.

290. The UK’s projected figure for 2017/18 health care spending was £11.9 billion, and sizeable increase from last year and it is only growing. This figure alone should be all we need to see, to know that we cannot hide any more – we are sick and getting sicker and we have to start asking better questions about why.

     1. Agreed, Rebecca. We need to start probing into the why and let go of the acceptance… ‘this is just how it is’ and the given-up-ness of life. If we don’t begin to ask the questions and address the problem, just how far and how bad will it get?

        1. I agree – the excuse that our increased ill health is due to living longer is not the whole truth. Yes, a large portion of our illnesses occur in our elderly, most are related to lifestyle, and many more begin at young ages. And when we look at our youth, whilst we may not find some types of illness, their mental health issues are huge and only escalating – when a 10 year old has anxiety and body issues we cannot blame our rising trends of ill health on an ageing population.

291. ‘…we are very good at restoring function in healthcare but clearly the overall state of our health is not great.’ this is very true – where continuing to function takes priority over the quality of the life we live.

     1. I actually wonder if the restoration of function is necessarily a healthy thing. If restoring our function simply enables us to continue with the same dysfunctional way of living that lead to the lack of function in the first place, then surely we need to question the role of restoring function per se.

        1. Agreed; function is a bit of a red herring; it looks okay on the surface but feels heavy and burdensome to its carrier with a definite lack of joy and vitality to boot. Is it worth it? Solutions really don’t deliver.

292. In fact if we simply took our self medication away, for example the coffee, sugar, alcohol, drugs, chocolate, cigarettes, computer games, social media etc we’d soon start to see the actual levels of anxiety, depression, exhaustion, anxiousness, loneliness and sadness we are coping with as a society today.

     1. In a very small town near where I live, I have estimated there are approximately over 20 cafes and shops selling coffee and sugary foods. I was amazed at how many of these small businesses survive because of the low population. I realised this simply shows that the demand is there, people are seeking stimulation to perhaps numb the ‘anxiety, depression, exhaustion, anxiousness, loneliness and sadness’ etc. that we have not learnt how to deal with, therefore we tend to seek the stimulation.

        1. I’ve noticed that too chanly88, that in London huge areas of real estate are now developed with coffee shops and the likes on ground level and residential above, like the ‘foyer’ has now become the one-stop shop either entering or leaving your home, where you can get the fix.

     2. well said Rosanna, if we add the self medication to the over the counter and prescription drugs we will have to admit we are medicated to our eyeballs!

293. A question was once posed that got me to imagine the state of the world health if we took away all pharmaceuticals, stopped all surgery. I couldn’t help but see the collapse, pain, death and suffering that we would experience with out the work of our hospitals, surgeons, doctors, dentists and other health care professionals. The fact is that the true state of our health as a humanity is rock-bottom, with no sign of improving any day soon. Only when we accept that the way we live is true medicine – both preventative and restorative, will we start to see the health of humanity take a turn back towards true health and vitality.

294. Thank you all for your great responses. What is clear is that humanity sees things from a very limited point of view and often ignores the important details at play. For instance, not only do we have more hospitals, we also have way better health services than ever before and more advanced detection and preventive measures than ever before and we also have some of the most technologically advanced hospital systems than ever before and still we are sicker than ever before. This is a massive elephant in the room we are continuing to ignore.
     It would seem that we are all generally very good at looking at what is causing us to be physically sick but few have until recent times at least been willing to ask what the true cause of it actually is. We seem to have questioned everything but the quality of the way we live. It’s almost like that is the thing we never want to look at or much less question or change.

295. It would be fascinating to make a documentary that followed everyday citizens in a normal town like Ghent in their lives, meeting people in shops, going into workplaces and schools etc., and actually showing as a thought bubble next to them what medication or pharmaceutical drugs/supplements all of these people were taking. In 2013 the BBC wrote that “Half of women and 43% of men in England are now regularly taking prescription drugs” in the UK, a shocking figure that confirms exactly what you’ve shared Joshua.

     1. That is a staggering statistic Susie to consider that nearly half the population are regularly taking drugs that have been prescribed and many others are self medicating with substances like alcohol and very few are questioning our levels of ill health and what we as individuals can do to take responsibility for our own wellbeing.

296. In an overwhelming situation, we automatically want to find a solution that is quick, even if that solution means that we do not improve the situation longterm. This is what it feels like for the NHS in the UK. The doctors are given 10 minutes for an appointment per patient, and it’s very stressful trying to tell the doctor everything in such a short space of time – is it any wonder that it is reported that blood pressure rises when we visit the doctor. All the quick fixes (usually medication) for all the different ailments and before you know it there is a bag full of pills.

297. “Are we sicker than we look?’ – what a great question and something that I ask myself often as I work in a hospital. The answer is a clear Yes and the only thing that will change it is if we start to become honest about that fact.

     1. So true Elizabeth, I absolutely agree. We tend to think if we do not have any ill symptoms that this indicates we are healthy but how do we really feel? Do we feel, vital, full of energy everyday, joyful, love work and life?

298. Today I heard an ex medical consultant now peer in the House of Lords, who is on the cross party team looking to solve the problems of the NHS in the UK, state that he expects by the time he reaches old age he will have three major medical conditions requiring expensive treatment! The higher taxes and increased funding he is suggesting, although much needed, is the sticking plaster you mention Josh. He never mentioned the possibility of addressing the root cause of this incredible increase in illness.

299. The very fact that we should need so many medical facilities is evidence in itself that we are masking a huge problem. How would we function even for one week if our hospitals and pharmacies were to close down? Surely this proposition alone should be ringing alarm bells for us and is in my books quite a motivating factor to truly look at why our way of living has made us so dependent on medicine to fix so many of our self inflicted ills.

300. Many of us do not concern ourselves with our health unless we are made to stop and consider it, we take our bodies for granted until they say they can not handle what is being done to them any more, be it with disease, stress etc…I agree, more responsibility for ourselves and our bodies would have a significant impact on humanity. I for one did not used to care about my health, but I decided I did not want to feel exhausted and below par all of the time and that there was more vitality to be had and enjoyed in life, hence small steps towards a responsible relationship with my body….and what a turn around….

301. Imagine the chaos that would ensue if all forms of medication were taken away for a month; everything. Then humanity would get to see/feel just how sick we really are. Building more hospitals isn’t going to solve the problem that as a race of human beings we are getting sicker and rely on the medical profession to fix us.

302. I’m sure most of us are ‘sicker than we look’. We put on a fine front and pretend we are ok, even to ourselves, while our bodies are giving us signs that all is not ok. Be it a backache, headaches, sinusitis, asthma, or more serious conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer. We still manage to say ‘I’m ok thanks’. Why is it that we fight our bodies so? While we ignore them we create more of a separation to them that is then the cause of more illness. Why put on a front or lie to ourselves when honesty is the first step to healing our ills.

303. We are treating our life like light bulbs! When we feel the need for more light, we turn up the dimmer to the max and leave it on longer every day. When it quits working we replace, again and again, never considering the energy we are running on is the root problem, as our demand for more lamp stores increases.

304. There must be more going on than meets the eye at first sight; so many hospitals, pharmacies, specialists and other health professionals and only just coping with the onslaught of humanity and our illnesses and afflictions. And what about mental health? Not as visible perhaps but most likely equally as prominent and on the rise, is my guess.

305. Public health prevention campaigns perhaps will one day deliver the message of ‘responsibility’ – Responsibility we have to our body, our health, and to our community in the way we live and the choices we make

306. Joshua, these are great observations and beg the question what is the true state of our ill health.

307. There is definitely the expectation that the increase in hospitals, pharmacies, doctors and health specialists would reflect the size of the local population, and also that the size of such facilities would reflect the level of their health. The fact that theses do not necessarily correlate should have us stop and consider what else has been going on.

308. Many of our illnesses occur under the skin, where we mostly cannot see them. Imagine if every disease and illness showed on the outside, what if we could not avoid seeing the level of disease and rot in our bodies.

     1. I would suggest that the origin of most of our illnesses and diseases do show on the outside, as they are illustrated very clearly in our lives. For example if I have a problem with my liver, then it might be reflected in the amount of angry interactions that I have with people; likewise if I suffer from migraines then this may be reflected in how frustrated I get. The answers to everything are all around us, it’s just a matter of whether we are living in way that allows us to access them or not.

        1. I agree Alexis, our lives and way of living are full of all the signs of later illness – but they are things we find easy to override, ignore and make a normal part of life. And once the illness develops, it’s easy to see it as totally unconnected to how we have been with ourselves. I just wondered if I could see my lack of care and self-abuse as bruises on my own skin, I’d be more prepared to take care of myself, if our illnesses where more apparent to the eye, less easy to cover up and pretend like 1 in 8 women don’t have breast cancer and 1 in 4 men don’t have prostate cancer, or diabetes, or arthritis, or a heart condition, digestion problems – all the internal things that keep humanity looking like they are fine when on the inside we are falling apart because we refuse to acknowledge the way we live is having an impact

309. Your article makes me wonder what healthcare systems are really for, and if they are in fact able to stay true to their original intent?

310. “Nowadays it feels like doctors and health systems are just getting by and one day they may not be able to cope, especially if we keep getting sicker.”

     On a recent visit to a new GP, and as I was waiting I saw them come from their room, quickly finishing their lunch, return to their room, typing something quickly, body hunched over the computer, and then call me for a session. One of the things I noticed is how tired they looked. They were very with me and present and I could not fault the service, but I absolutely clocked how they are just getting by on this day, and could feel the pressure on them by us to ‘fix us’ and how hard they are working. You are right Joshua, the system is buckling under the pressure and it is up to us to reduce that pressure.

     1. If we started to look at our lifestyle choices with more honesty and took responsibility for the consequences of our choices rather than putting it all down to genes or bad luck, we might all be much better off, individually and as a society.

311. Take away modern medicine and we are in big trouble!!!

     1. Exactly it is the only thing keeping us alive, literally. I don’t see that as a bad thing just a wake up that what if we did not rely on it for everything, how much more vital and enjoyable would life be?

312. A great observation Joshua and I agree, we need to step back up and take responsibility over our own life and stop using and abusing the systems for our own benefit only. We can do a lot to keep our own health to a truer and healthier level than we are all willing to see and take action for.

313. “What if the downward trend in our health is related to our way of living?”
     A great thought provoking question posed here Joshua. If I don’t live in response to my body, it is very evident that my wellbeing is compromised. In answer to your question – it is a yes from me.

314. ‘What if the downward trend in our health is related to our way of living?’
     We have tried all the other options of looking outside ourselves, whether it is the air-conditioner, the microwave or something else. The one direction we refuse to look at is our own behaviour and the consequences of our own choices. I would say let’s give it a go and see what we learn and find out? What would happen if we treasure our bodies and do nothing to damage it in any way shape or form?

315. Such a great way to describe what is happening today:
     “‘life happened, fix me up’ mentality”
     It seems to me looking around at my friends, family and work colleagues that we do go to the doctor/ specialist and expect them to fix us like a car so we can go back out there and do it all again without taking any responsibility about what got us sick in the first place. I was very much a part of this mentality: life just happens I’m the victim. I have learnt to take back my responsibility for my life and look at the choices I make as they determine how I will be.

316. I love the call for honesty here. Why are there so many hospitals and pharmacies, also why are there so many coffee shops and why are there so many apps and games to distract people? If we stop and observe it is right in our face.

317. It’s interesting what you’ve shared about the healthcare in Ghent, Joshua! In the UK we are filling hospital beds and then some – there is a shortage of beds nationwide and building more hospitals simply isn’t matching the health requirements of the public.

318. Indeed we look for solutions by increasing our health care services and yet at what point do we look at our own lifestyles and take preventative action.

     1. The answer to every single dilemma that we face exists within the choices that we are making as individuals and therefore the only way that we can possibly eradicate every single problem that we have on Earth is for every single one of us to make different choices. And as daunting and inconceivable as it may sound, we will, eventually get to the point that every single one of us is on board. It will however take a considerable amount of time but I for one am in it until the end (of this round) and then we start the next leg and so it goes.

319. When looking into the health of a nation you have raised some great questions, and may I add if a system is thriving then it is us who are asking for and receiving this type of health care. Then as you have shared Joshua, we can all “start taking responsibility for our choices and to live in a way that keeps us largely healthy and well, thus reducing the burden on our health care systems.” Could it be that the health system could take better care of its self and be an example for us all to see and live by?

320. Healthcare needs to start at home, where we are brought up taking good care of ourselves, eating nourishing foods, taking suitable exercise, not overdoing anything and working with our bodies not over stressing them. Idealistic I know, but that is what needs to happen. I have so many friends who live a healthy lifestyle and they need fewer hospital visits than you would expect for their age.

321. It’s a great observation and question as to what would happen without all the pharmacies and hospitals – how would things look? Would we still all be able to cope? They are only there because there has to be a demand for them. So yes it begs the question how are we all choosing to live and what choices are we really making?

322. Yes, we think we are coping and managing life, yet more and more people are getting sick. We are lying and kidding ourselves that everything is ok, even telling ourselves that alcohol in moderation and drinking cups of coffee to get us through the day is ok. The more honest I am with what is going on within me and within my life and expressing it as it is, the more I see what has become the norm is not it.

     1. Yes that ‘anything in moderation is ok’ is a big lie for oursleves, I used say that and it really wasn’t ok. One cup of coffee or one glass of alcohol can put a huge strain on our delicate bodies affecting our health maybe not immediately in our awareness but not before long, our always bodies show us.

323. There are many great points raised in this article and it is very reasonable to question. I have lived in both a large city and small towns and its correct that there is a marked difference in the medical services that are available and yet the health care needs are the same and the needs for services are increasing. It’s also much more than the ageing population or an increased population. With that we think that what we are seeing with our chronic health conditions is to be expected with ageing. But we are sending ourselves bankrupt very quickly. We can no longer afford how we are currently approaching our health care. The fact that we are needing more and more health services could be viewed as an early warning beacon to how we are living. But the question is will we notice the beacon or continue to ask for more, from what we don’t have.

324. “Perhaps it is time for us to start taking responsibility for our choices and to live in a way that keeps us largely healthy and well, thus reducing the burden on our health care systems” – yes Joshua, and perhaps it’s time for us to start to (self) love.

325. ‘Perhaps it is time for us to start taking responsibility for our choices and to live in a way that keeps us largely healthy and well, thus reducing the burden on our health care systems.’ This is so logical and yet how many of us are willing and open to seeing the bigger picture and the part we play in creating it? So many of us are still out for what we can get or wring out of life without consideration for how we can contribute.

326. Joshua, this powerfully exposes the lie inherent in western medicine: the proliferation of health care services is not a sign of progress at all, when accompanied by alarming increases in illness and disease. So-called technological advances, billions spent researching health and providing health services, all useless if it doesn’t lead to an improvement in true health and well-being for all. I learned yesterday that two-thirds of the UK population is now obese and have associated health conditions, diabetes, heart and lung diseases. If we do the maths we see the numbers do not add up and a new way of living is called for. This has been the message and way of Universal Medicine for two decades now.

327. Joshua, this is a great point; ‘Most do not even seem to question that such access to health care is a warning sign for humanity.’ Reading this changes how I view our healthcare system. I appreciate the healthcare we have on offer in Europe, but reading this makes me also realise that many of us are sick and are reliant on all of the drugs and doctors and hospitals to keep us alive and to keep illness and disease under control.

328. This is a great question to ask in a world which has become transfixed on appearances rather than feeling the truth what is truly happening.

329. When Henry Ford built the first car assembly line, it was because demand outstripped supply. With our disregard and lack of acceptance of our responsibly, just a copy of Henry’s solution, for the demand of more medical services? How many times are solutions just band-aids for bullet-holes?

330. The following line stopped me in my tracks:

     “Most do not even seem to question that such access to health care is a warning sign for humanity.”

     This is so true because in a world where not everyone has access to quality health care, the availability of such healthcare is indeed a welcomed thing. But in light of what you are presenting for us to consider here Joshua, the buck doesn’t stop here. The next step needs to be – why? Why do we need so much health care if it is true we are evolving and advancing as a species and have more access to technology then ever before? Would this not mean we would be healthier than ever before? And if we are not (and we most certainly are not) then does this not point to the fact that the way we are living cannot be sustained without us burning out? Enter the ‘life happened, fix me up’ mentality (I love how you have phrased that) and we are shown the root cause of our ill health and that is that we do not want to take responsibility for the reckless way we are living and really see that it is a mighty deviation from our true norm.

331. Powerful blog Joshua. What I also see is most of us don’t like consequences which ripples down to our children, colleagues, family members and society at large. Imagine if we all started taking responsibility for how we live and our health and wellbeing, and say to the medical professionals that they don’t have to carry the burden of our ill choices and instead be there to support without propping us up.

332. These are great questions that you are asking Josh- in fact many of us don’t question or even notice that we need so many health providers in this day and age when we seemingly have everything at our fingertips to keep us well. How we are currently living seems to be making us sicker!

333. I’m surprised too that the medical professionals aren’t coming up with a plan to address what’s going on as the statistics are alarming, and the big picture view is that it’s only going to get worse. As I’m am aged 46 I received a special government funded health review with the local nurse, she explained that the government recognises that preventative health care is necessary because of the increasing demand on the health system. However the health review is not compulsory and her observation was that only relatively heathy, proactive people were attending, not those who truly needed it and the intervention it could offer.

334. Gosh, when you look at the growth rate and number of major hospitals in cities, it speaks volumes about the increasing demand for health care, and the standard of health / wellness in our communities…

335. What would be supportive for humanity is for the medical world to change their approach to patients, making them more aware of how lifestyle impacts health and educating people in preventative health and self care.

336. Joshua, what you are describing about Ghent is surreal, almost like a science fiction where somebody describes a dystopian future of everybody being so sick that healthcare needs to be everywhere for people to cope.

337. Brilliant observation. It is exactly the same here in Japan as well. We are completely saturated with large and small hospitals/clinics, health related services of all kinds, pharmacies, and there’s massive pressure on doctors and nurses. But the sneaky feeling that I am getting here is how there is a mutual ground where needs from both sides perfectly meet in the middle – one to stay irresponsible and the other to stay in business. Very comfortable, but totally retarding positioning.

338. Medicine does an amazing job but now you’ve pointed out how many medical centres and hospitals there are I’m realising there are! I’ve seen huge ones built and notice we just aren’t taking loving care of ourselves. Like people do take care of themselves at times but to be able to function, not really embrace every part of our day. At some point functionality breaks down and we get sick. There’s a deeper depth of care being asked for.

339. Beautiful Joshua – you show that even if we just look at the world visually it’s clear that something serious is amiss. The appearances don’t add up the way we think they do, but reveal that we are sick.

     1. Very true Joseph appearances and what we see with our eyes does not match up to what we know and can sense within. The more we choose to see what is going on the more we start to see where things really are at.

340. I love your observations. Very cool. And you are right we cannot go on like this forever!

341. Medical science and care has its place in the world. What is most needed now (as multiple symptomatic illness and diseases run rife as never before) is to bring purpose and commitment to live with a deeper connection to ourselves and in listening to the body – self responsibility for our own health will then the norm, and a huge burden will be removed from the medical profession.

342. I think it is really important that we are open to considering our way of living and the impact that this has on our wellbeing; something that we can continually reflect on and learn with, rather than just seeking a cure from medicine alone.

343. Very astute article Joshua that brings our attention sharply into focus on the quality of our underlying health. There does seem to be a gross inconsistency between the seemingly civilized 21st century perks of daily life and the medicinal props we require to keep us all going. To me it seems obvious that one is fuelling the other and therein lies our biggest clue. Discern the quality of every single choice we make and maybe we can turn this Titanic around before it hits the iceberg.

344. Insightful observations Joshua. When we truly observe life, without blinkers or pictures of how it should be, and start to get absolutely honest about what we see. And from this observation, we can begin to truly understand life and what is needed for us all to do in it. From your observation, I can feel you asking humanity – how are we living that we need such high level of access to medical care? Do we really need a pharmacist on every corner, and if so why?

345. I had never thought about hospitals in this way Joshua. Living in London I am used to there being multiple hospitals, health care centres and surgeries. But yes, there is no supply without demand, and we certainly do have the demand. Quite startling when you stop to think about it.

346. Modern Medicine is so good and successful at keeping the human body functioning that it has created a sense of complacency and irresponsibility in our societies regarding our health and well-being and is masking the true state of play of our health as a species.

347. We think can eat and drink whatever we want and when our bodies show the signs of this abuse we can go and get drugs that help us manage the disease and unless we are alerted to the fact that it is our lifestyle choices that make us sick, we just continue living the same abuse.

348. Joshua, this is a really interesting article, you raise some great points. In the U.K where I live there are pharmacies in most villages and on many streets and there are many hospitals, there are long waiting lists for operations and treatments so there must be a lot of sick people. It is easy to not see this, people who are ill are often in their homes or in hospital and so its great to bring awareness to this and to talk about how many of us are suffering from illness and disease and for us a society to take responsibility for this.

349. When we’re feeling fit and healthy it can be easy to pretend that the daily choices we make have no consequences on our health, expecially if we’re living in a way where we’ve chosen to numb ourselves to what we can feel. But every choice is registered by our body, that does an amazing job of attempting to constantly rebalance itself – but it can only take so much before it starts to fail and get ill. Our health is in our own hands, but how often do we listen to the body and heed its call to live in a more self loving way?

     1. When we begin to believe our lies of what we think is a healthy lifestyle is like sailing without a compass, and when we crash on the rocks, we blame the boat!

350. Joshua its something that is so easy to by-pass, with all the incredible medical advances do we stop and say just how sick are we? If we compared ourselves to the animals in the wild, would we still be in existence?

351. Such a great question: ‘Most do not even seem to question that such access to health care is a warning sign for humanity.’ When my partner from Australia arrived last year in the Netherlands he was amazed too about the number of hospitals, doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacies. This made me also more aware of the huge numbers and what this is actually a sign of.

352. Great blog Joshua; thank you.

     I feel that the damage is being caused by the ‘throwaway society’ that we have become and the attitudes which we have adopted.

     In my mother’s place of work as a single woman in the 1950s, her employer would provide gummed labels for re-using envelopes, pencils rather than pens; and sheets of typed paper which had errors was re-used as note pads.

     Resources had a value; life had a value.

     But with the advent of plastic everything has become disposable; almost like our current attitude to life.

353. ‘Perhaps it’s time to take off the layers that have us believe that our state of health is ‘ok’ and start to question whether there is more to how we are living than would otherwise meet the eye.’ It is definitely time for us to truly open our eyes to see and have an honest look at that what we are choosing until now is not getting us anywhere only in the downwards spiral we are in and it will not take long before the healthcare system will fall apart cause of the demands they will no longer be able to supply.

354. I have noticed that we, as a society, are quick to look for someone to blame when things don’t go our way or when we get sick. There is also a very common belief that it is ok to over indulge because we can just do a detox afterwards and everything will be all right. These are behaviours that I have subscribed to myself and I know neither work. They both make us sick and rob us of energy. When we remember the love that we are and express from that place there is no place for blame or justifications

355. Great questions you raise Joshua about the perspective of our health. To me what you are highlighting is that as we are living in denial of true state of health of the nation and of our own personal health we are in fact living a lie.

356. You would think that, as you suggest, with technological advances we would be healthier now than 20 years ago, but when you consider the amount of chemicals as well as sugar and salt that are in our meals for taste, the chemicals that are put on growing crops and in animals to maximise growth, the chemicals in the air that we ingest from our city and factory environments, you can see that from chemical pollution alone we are getting sick. Then there is the mental illness that stems from the poison that comes our of our mouths, from the bullying, the angry statements, the insults, the judgements that we offer each other. We poison ourselves with our negative thoughts. We live in a way that is toxic to our bodies, it’s no wonder we are sick.

357. I remember when I came down with a gastro bug I felt so sick that I paused and realised how much I appreciated my good health which meant that some of how I lived prior to this shifted to allow room for more honest and heathy choices. Today with so much available to be purchased over the counter most people go to the chemist/pharmacy or doctor to get a quick fix which will dull or deaden the effects the ill health is having on them, hence no need to reflect on the choices that lead to the ill health in the first place. These are really great questions and observations that ask us all to reflect on the subtle ways ‘ill health’ is hidden or denied.

     1. That’s a great point Christine. When we get sick it is an opportunity to reflect and pause to appreciate the good health that we usually enjoy. Every choice from then on can be a step towards regaining that good health. As you say, if we turn to medication to get a quick fix we are often bypassing the opportunity to reflect on how we actually are and therefore can miss the opportunity for true healing. Medication is important, but we have to be careful not to rely on it and let it replace our awareness which can be so powerful.

358. I don’t doubt that in my lifetime I will see the NHS in England break apart as the cracks have developed over many years. Maybe it will take the medical systems to fail to see how we are living is our responsibility to both support prevention and healing after our choices.

359. Yes it seems we are at times fooled by what is deemed as ‘normal’ without thinking about it. We don’t consider how having so many hospitals and pharmacies is not normal but indicating we are actually a species that is very ill not thriving or successful as we might think. It is like we state the fact but we are not willing to ask the questions of what it could mean that we are getting more ill and that maybe not the whole answer is to be found in wester medicine alone.

360. This is a great sharing, Joshua. ‘If the demand is so high, there must be a high level of sickness, disease or illness within the community to justify such a demand.’ I have never looked at it the way before and yet, put in the perspective you have, really does lead us to ask the question, how are we really living that is making us so ill?

361. There does seem to be a high level of healthcare in your area Joshua. We live in North London, and there doesn’t seem to be enough support because it’s hard to get an appointment with the doctor and the other alternative is to go to the walk-in clinic which could mean waiting for four to five hours. When you are sick, this is the last thing you want to do. On the other hand, having less access does mean we have to take responsibility for our health and not leave it to someone else.

362. I love your perspective on the health care system in Europe having come from NZ Joshua. A really insightful blog. ‘Most do not even seem to question that such access to health care is a warning sign for humanity.’ Beautifully called out. Thank you.

363. The growing number of hospitals, health centres and primary care services in relation to our populations, along with the signs of strain in current services is clear evidence that we are not living well.

364. The health care systems take the brunt of our irresponsiblity and currently we can see how much of an effect this is having. Not just the enormous amount of debt but we can look at the quality of life the doctors and nurses are having also. Suicide rates are rising and things are becoming seriously scary. If this isn’t going to wake us from our slumbers of irresponsibility, then what will it take?

     1. My feeling is people need it even more tangible in their own lives. What if all the lifestyle related diseases like, diabetes type 2 for example wouldn’t be paid anymore by the health insurance unless a person took responsibility and changed their diet and started moving, would it then be alarming enough?

        1. Monika, we are not brought up to value ourselves nor our body, but we are taught to value money.

        2. It would be interesting to see what would change if this was put into practice Monika. It’s like someone having a big night out drinking alcohol, doing drugs etc. and then not able to go to work the next day and getting paid sick pay. There is this lack of responsibility, integrity and purpose that many of us live that contribute to our level of health and wellbeing. We as a whole have created so many escape routes and excuses for our behaviours and choices that we rarely think we feel it…. but if we look at how many live with anxiety, tension, depression and nervousness, then our bodies are showing we really aren’t getting away with anything.

365. “Most do not even seem to question that such access to health care is a warning sign for humanity. ” Josh this is fantastic to consider, we demand more healthcare in Europe, stating it is our right and complaining if we don’t get it yet at the same time do we ever stop and look at the signs of what this is for society? As you share so beautifully there is a message here for us to see.

366. Joshua, it’s a great point, that just because we don’t go around seeing bandages and how sick we are that it’s not there. We don’t like to be honest about the deterioration of health because if we did we would have to start taking responsibility for our choices.

     1. Yes, the illnesses and diseases of today don’t need overt bandages in most cases and missing limbs can be hidden in better and better ways but when you notice how people walk, the impediments many have, it does feel like a battlefield.

367. I would say that how we treat our body and look after ourselves in life is starting to have a very real effect on the way that we look also.

368. Last week I went to a client’s house and their visitor was cooking fried egg with avocado and kiwi fruit for breakfast, I commented on his healthy breakfast and he said he was loving experimenting with his food and how it made him feel. I love this as it really is very simple to change the way we live, some foods leave us feeling light and energised and some don’t. Even with this change alone we would see a huge difference in the quality of our sleep, our energy levels and our lives which would no doubt have a knock on effect on the impact of our healthcare system.

369. This is supply and demand. As is shared – more facilities are at the result of a bigger need. Even in the small town, I live in, we have a huge hospital that is always busy. And yet, as is also shared, we are very good at masking illness, learning how to get by and look the part to not admit to the extent to which we are not truly healthy.

370. As demand for healthcare fixes increases, I observe the impact on health care workers even in rural communities. My local GP surgery and pharmacy staff increasingly pressurised under the volume of patients coming through the door. I hear stress in their voices as they struggle to meet demand for services. What we have now is an ‘unhealthy’ service: one that doesn’t support people to help themselves, and consequently buckling at the knees.

371. “Perhaps it is time for us to start taking responsibility for our choices and to live in a way that keeps us largely healthy and well, thus reducing the burden on our health care systems.” Good point Joshua. So many of us search for a quick fix and look outside ourselves as a first port of call. taking greater care in how we live – our food choices, exercise etc all make a difference to our well-being.

372. Public demand fuels the proliferation of healthcare services seen in Europe and makes many feel impotent and powerless about their own health and bodies.

373. This is a great blog Joshua, powerfully observed and shared with us. You expose something we almost take for granted and accept as a norm in Europe: an over emphasis on providing healthcare services rather than services to support people to care for themselves. We know from our own experience with Universal Medicine how simple this can be, education, workshops, consultations with esoteric medicine practitioners all founded on self responsibility, self reflection and living life simply. Rather than wait for a ill-health condition to present itself, why not live in a way that prevents it happening in the first place.

374. What I am becoming much more aware of is our attitude towards taking responsibility for our health. We are either becoming increasingly defiant or opening up to the possibility that how we choose to live affects our health and wellbeing. There is a clear distinction between the two within people and rarely am I meeting a person sitting on the fence.

375. Great observations Joshua. If you live in a remote area with little access to a medical centre you are more likely to take greater responsibility for your own health and the way you live and care for yourself but when you are surrounded by a medical support system that you think can pick you up and fix you regardless of how you are living then this may lead many to hand over this responsibility to someone or something outside of themselves.

376. Great observations Joshua, ones that really have me pondering on the ill-state of the world’s health when there are so many medical supports systems available in most parts of the world. But like you, I too have become aware that it is my degree of self-responsibility that makes the biggest difference to my health and my well-being. If I care deeply for myself and make as many loving choices as possible in the way I am living, the level of my well-being is naturally going to improve, and if each one of us made this same choice I am sure that the state of the world’s health would improve too; that simply makes sense.

     1. ” it is my degree of self-responsibility that makes the biggest difference to my health and my well-being.” Yes Ingrid, no healthcare service can fix us, if we haven’t contracted into a deeply loving relationship with ourselves.

377. Are we treating our health like our children, in the sense we expect teachers to raise them? We must, for we blame them for their failures.Are we living off the back of all these technological, medical advances, so we don’t have to accept our responsibility in caring for ourselves and the way we live!

378. We are like children I suppose and the health system is like our parents, there ready and willing to pick us up if we fall and look after us when we are ill. Maybe if the health systems weren’t so good at this and we were forced to take more responsibility for our own health and wellbeing then we wouldn’t need them so much anymore because as we know most illness and disease is down to our lifestyle choices.

     1. The surprising thing is not everyone will automatically take a responsible approach to their health and wellbeing even if the facts are presented to them. In a conversation with a nurse she shared that she prepares health plans for people who are headed towards diabetes, simple changes in lifestyle such as diet and exercise, and some refuse to follow this plan and say they ‘don’t care if they get diabetes’ as they will simply ‘take a pill.’ Even with education people may not be willing to make changes.

379. You raise some great points Joshua. I am very grateful for modern medicine but I know it is often used as a band aid. We hope that we will get a magic pill that will make our problems go away but often it’s more of a case of getting relief from some of our symptoms for a short while, and we accept it. If we are willing to take full responsibility for our health we will discover the root cause of our ills and this allows us to begin living Medicine.

380. Being and getting sick can say so much, how we are living as a society. Health care is to be deeply appreciated but just as no pill can truly save us until there is the deepening of awareness with the gift of clearing that our body gives us during illness and diseases.

381. So true Joshua, by all accounts our lives are easier, cleaner and more ‘advanced’ than ever before – we truly ought to be feeling better inside than at any time in human history. Yet the opposite seems to be the case. Whilst we may have materially improved what this suggests to me is our true well being is linked to way more than just how quick we can shop, watch TV or speak to each other.

     1. Yes, so true Joseph, our lives look better but we don’t feel any better. We feel stressed, tired, drained and exhausted. We are drinking more coffee than ever before to get through the exhaustion and using more and more bandaids to fix rather that heal what is there to be healed. We are carrying on blind to what is falling apart around us because we are enjoying the comfort of our ‘easier’ lives.

382. Great observations Joshua. Seeing what’s truly going on in the world is the first step in understanding how we need to live in order to reclaim our bodies, relationships and communities as mediums to love and learn as opposed to abuse and poison.

     1. Yes Susie we have to reclaim ourselves out of the accepted current normal because this acceptdn normal of abuse and disregard is actually way below what we truly are worth and deserve.

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