Health over Wealth or Wealth over Health?
What do you choose?
(Wealth in this instance is referring to finances / money)
We all know that ‘you can’t take it with you’ and other such platitudes about financial wealth but what does that actually mean in our day to day lives? Health is one of my top five values, yet within me, I have a paradox where I allow other ‘things’ to become a higher priority than health, explaining it away as I need ‘this’ so that I can be ‘that’ and healthy.
In my career as an Emergency Nurse, I came across those who were having the worst day of their lives and for some it was the last few hours or days of their lives. It didn’t really land with me at the time, but I remember conversations with those who could speak. They talked about what they would have done differently. For example, there was a fellow I distinctly remember, who regretted having affairs and not treating his wife as well as she treated him. Then there were numerous chronically ill patients who wished that they’d never started smoking, had looked after themselves better, had done lots of things to change where they were in life at that time. There have been many.
Now as I get older and there’s ‘more water under the bridge’, I think back about my more than 50 years of life and really wonder if I have put health above wealth. I was raised with the notion that hard work is the ONLY way to get anywhere. So I set about making sure that whatever I did, I put in the ‘hard yards’ and didn’t I!
I remember being ‘accused’ of being a Corporal once, on the only exercise I attended during my Defence Force career. The speaker had never seen an Officer (I was a Flight Lieutenant at the time) working so hard with everyone and assumed that because I was leading, I must have been a Corporal. I was unaware of the exchange, but apparently the Warrant Officer set him straight. I actually saw it as a compliment… in a way.
Being a single mother, I was very focussed on providing for my two children. I was young – mid 20s and up. I worked my full-time Defence Force job (around 50 to 55 hours per week) and then took on weekend Agency nursing work as my boys got older, for two reasons – one to maintain my clinical skills and the other was to get ‘ahead’ financially. I knew from my early 30s that I was responsible for my own financial wellbeing and the standard that I lived my life was up to me. So I worked hard and long hours to put myself in a position that I could support my children with their dreams as well as be comfortable myself.
But that came at a cost.
My health.
I wasn’t a coffee drinker, so I used sugar to keep myself ‘buzzing’. The nutritional advice at the time was that Fat was bad, Carbs are good. So, I kept away from eating fatty food and ate sugary food instead.
My body was in an almost constant state of Stage 2 stress and if you remember my article from a few weeks ago about stress, you’ll know that Stage 2 stress is the Resistance Phase where the body is coping. If the stress is relieved, the body returns to normal functioning. If the stress is not relieved (as in my case), the body does not return to normal functioning and continues to secrete stress hormones. In fact, for so many I saw in my clinical nursing days and those clients and people around me that I see now, prolonged Stage 2 Stress is their ‘normal’ level of functioning.
I saw then and see now, lots of people who are so ingrained in having to work hard, work long hours, etc to provide, that they don’t even realise what they are doing to their bodies (and minds for that matter). I was fortunate to not deteriorate into diabetes with all the sugar I ingested over time – mainly because the stress hormones were feasting on it. However, I have had constant battles with:
- Bowel issues
- Weight
- Headaches
- Sleeplessness
- Sadness
- Frustration
- Irritability
- Poor concentration
- Auto-immune disorder
- Mental Health compromises
High levels of stress will cause problems with your immune system, your digestive system, your cardiovascular system, your sleep, reproductive systems and if not resolved will put you into exhaustion. Exhaustion will take much longer to recover from than if the Stage 2 Stress was addressed at the time.
Why am I telling you all this?
I want to remind you that you can have all the monetary wealth in the world, but if you don’t have your health to enjoy it – what’s the point? I encourage you to take stock. Your body is magnificent and will continue to rebound and cope… until it doesn’t. The failure to rebound will happen under chronic stress. It’s a matter of when, not if.
What is it that you really want for your life?
What do you really need to do to get that life?
What are you compromising on to get that life?
And if it’s your health… are you really prepared for the consequences?
Want to know more about how I can help you with your health?
Contact me for a chat.
