Health Isn’t a Status; It’s a Relationship

A word overused and underfelt.
Framed too often like a checkbox or a competition.

• Are you healthy?
• Are you doing it right?
• Are you tracking, optimising, biohacking, or realigning?

Maybe health isn’t a status.
Maybe it’s a relationship with your body, your energy, your pace, your pauses.

Not: “Am I well enough to prove something?”
But: “How well am I allowed to feel without guilt?”

Health isn’t always radiant skin, symmetrical sleep, and protein-rich smoothies.
Sometimes it’s:

• Waking up foggy, but still brushing your teeth
• Saying no to a commitment because your joints ache
• Stretching gently when the gym feels impossible
• Calling the doctor after ignoring the thing for months
• Letting go of a meal plan because your body needed something different
• Taking your meds, your breaks, your space without apology

Health can be soft.
Non-linear.
Held together with care instead of willpower.

Health is:

• A rhythm you recalibrate daily
• The ability to notice what you need before collapse
• Making choices that support aliveness, not appearance
• Learning your limits and not making them your enemies
• Being flexible with your practices while firm with your values

It’s not how well you hide your struggle.
It’s how gently you respond to it.

• A reward for discipline
• A finish line
• A moral achievement
• One “correct” weight, routine, or number of steps
• Only physical, only visible, only linear
• Earned

You don’t owe anyone proof of your health to deserve care.
You don’t have to be healed to be respected.
You are already worth attending to.

Real-life spirals that still count:

• You ate cereal for dinner because cooking would’ve used the energy needed for a phone call you couldn’t cancel
• You skipped yoga to sleep an extra hour, and the ache eased a little
• You cried for no clear reason and let the tears be communication, not shame
• You pushed through a busy day, then let yourself crash the next
• You took the meds you resented for the fifth day in a row
• You showed up to your walk slower than usual and still called it movement

Even on days when nothing goes “right,” you can still be in conversation with your health.

Try asking:

• What does “feeling okay” mean to me, not them?
• What do I do out of pressure versus care?
• What symptoms do I normalise that might need listening to?
• What does my body say when I ask it gently?
• Where have I outsourced wisdom, I might already hold?

Redefining health doesn’t mean abandoning support.
It means reclaiming agency within the support.

• “Progress isn’t always visible.”
• “I can take care of my body without trying to fix it.”
• “Rest is repair. Rest is real.”
• “My version of balance may be crooked, but it still stands.”
• “Slowness doesn’t mean I’m not showing up.”
• “Even when I’m struggling, I’m still allowed to speak for myself.”

You don’t have to be thriving to be valid.
You’re already valuable.

• Emotional regulation
• Joy that doesn’t leave you exhausted
• Friendships that energise, not deplete
• Saying “this hurts” before it becomes invisible
• Accessing accommodations before burnout
• Honouring your neurotype, your diagnosis, your instincts
• Changing your mind as your needs change

Health can have texture.
Can feel like grief and relief on the same day.
Can be irregular and still sacred.

You are not behind.
You’re not lazy. You’re not too much. You’re not too sensitive.
You’re a human, with a body that keeps shifting its terms.
And you’re allowed to shift with it.

Health isn’t perfection.
It’s a relationship with fluctuations.

• Some days, you stretch.
• Some days, you stay in bed.
• Some days, you try, pause, try again.

And every one of those days counts.

Oh and Google will diagnose you with 17 conditions and a moral failing. Your GP might just say ‘drink more water!

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