Why Normal Isn't Healthy How to Find Heart, Meaning, Passion & Humor on the Road Most Traveled by Bowen F. White MD

WHY NORMAL ISN'T HEALTHY The definitions here for "normal" and "healthy" are different than definitions one learns during medical training. There the focus was on the absence of health, i.e. disease. Diseases were defined by objective criteria. When those moved back into normal range, the patient had returned to "health." To me that is not the same thing. “Health” here is the ability to work, to love, to play and to think soundly. That means that someone with a disease, e.g., high blood pressure, bipolar disorder, cancer, etc. can be healthy. It's not about the criteria we learned in medical school. It is about how people experience their lives: jobs, families, friends, gifts, purpose and well being. It is about staying in a developmental process throughout the life cycle. Otherwise, we can slip into a box long before we're dead. That's normal. Being normal means when stressed we often make a bad situation worse, addictions abound, 50% of marriages end in divorce, less than half of Americans are happy with their jobs, when teenagers have problems their parents are the court of last resort, we are better at competing than collaborating, honesty is not the best policy, we repress how we really think and feel while expressing just what's safe to say and we learned to be our own worst enemies! That is normal and it isn't healthy! The irony is, it isn't until someone gets sick that they make life decisions that reflect what is actually most important to them. They can even be grateful for their diagnosis. Why wait for cancer ? Open that box. It seems safe but it's a trap. You may be caught, but look. You have the key. This book can help you find it and in the process think through your problems to sounder solutions. (think soundly); have healthier relationships with yourself and others (to love); while figuring out how to get better at what you do and/or what you want to start doing. (to work) And have more fun getting better. (to play)