Written by Dr. Denise Chranowski
An asset is defined as a property owned by a person or company, regarded as having value and available to meet debts, commitments, or legacies. During Covid-19, I believe one thing we can ALL agree on (and that would be a monumental thing) is there has been much loss of peoples’ and companies’ assets. Life savings, jobs, stocks, business, so much loss that I can’t fathom what the total dollar figure will be. I’m sure trillions and trillions. Of course, this doesn’t compare to the loss of life and health, an incalculable number.
It’s a common question I’ve asked my patients over the years. What is your number one asset? It gets them thinking and of course, they don’t usually list balance sheet items. A typical answer would be their relationship with God, their family and perhaps their work or purpose in life. All noble answers, I agree. But I believe the common number one asset we all share is our health. Because let’s face it, without your health, it’s very hard to take care of all your other assets. Ask anyone that’s lost their health, to see if they agree.
Ironically during this pandemic, your balance sheet assets did not help you. Those with material wealth and without suffered and died from this pandemic. However…….. this pandemic did discriminate in a very big way. It discriminated based on health status, or lack thereof. The evidence overwhelmingly points to the fact that those that suffered with, or worse yet, died from Covid-19 had co-morbidities, a fancy word that means their health was compromised.
Stop and consider this. Within the EXACT SAME HOUSEHOLD, some got sick and some did not. Some tested positive and some did not. Within the exact same household, all may have been exposed to the virus and yet there were many variations of outcomes from no symptoms to death….. again, the exact same household. And while yes, it most effected the elderly, many in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s succumbed to this virus.
So I ask you, must we continue to stick our head in the sand? We, and by we, I mean Americans, my home country, are unhealthy. We are stressed. We are obese. We have horrific diets. We sit a majority of the day. We binge watch and fill our psyche with such horrible stuff that it’s frankly shocking. We’re angry, often filled with rage. We get far too little sleep. We work far too many hours. We are in debt. We have high divorce rates. We have high suicide rates. We die of overdose. We are addicted to everything from drugs to alcohol to social media. Yes, a second thing we can agree on is that we are sick.
Did you notice how I said WE throughout the last paragraph. WE means it is not someone else’s fault. WE means WE need to take care of our number one asset. WE are in this together. Of course, globally we can clearly see that we are interconnected. Could it be any clearer? But as a nation, we are connected. Democrat, Republican, Independent, it matters not. We are connected on so many levels but on a most basic level we are connected through our economy. We pay taxes. And like it or not, our taxes contribute to the health or lack thereof of this great country. Lest you forget, last year we spent over 3.6 TRILLION dollars on healthcare in the U.S., but what we did NOT get in exchange for that was health. And now we will spend trillions, ugh I can’t stomach to think the total when all is said and done, to survive and thrive after this pandemic. And make no doubt about it, we will survive and thrive.
I often tell my patients that they can have two types of HSA accounts also known as Health Savings Accounts. One HSA is the financial kind, the one you or your company deposit money into to pay for copays and other medical expenses. But to me the far more important one is the health savings account that YOU make deposits into every single day. Deposits like eating right, exercising daily, getting a good night’s sleep, taking your supplements, spending time with your family, meditating and praying, things we should be doing every SINGLE day of our lives.
The truth is we all have that type of health savings account, but for many it is overdrawn. And those were the majority of people who succumbed to this virus. We can tap dance around that all we want. But those are the facts. Hypertension, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer were significant contributing factors to contracting and getting ill with Covid-19.
With Covid-19 we put our focus, rightly so, on PPE (personal protective equipment), flattening the curve, and quarantining ourselves. We’ve social distanced. We’ve washed our hands umpteen times, a great habit to continue. We’ve learned that our medical care system was woefully ill prepared for this pandemic for the supplies they needed. That must change. That will change. But please do not confuse our medical system being ill prepared to handling this pandemic with being unhealthy. They are separate and distinct things, aren’t they? And mitigating this disease, extremely critical, came at a very, very big cost didn’t it?
My family likes to say I’m a bit cheap. I prefer, frugal. But one thing I know is that if I pay a lot for something, it better have value. It better last a long time. It better have been worth my investment. And so I ask you, will this be worth our collective investment? Will YOU ensure it was worth our investment? This pandemic will be over soon, I assure you. Yes, it’ll have ripple affects for a long time to come. But nevertheless, it will be over and it will be followed by another. But in my heart of hearts I believe deeply that the lessons we learn and apply from this pandemic will have monumental consequences. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it (attributed to George Santayana). Let’s learn the lessons from this one.
For the next several weeks my focus in A Dose from Dr. Denise posts and blogs will be on the lessons I believe have been GIVEN to us to learn. Bestselling author Byron Katie says this: “Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don’t have to like it… it’s just easier if you do.”
So, I start with this first principle of Post Covid-19 Consciousness: Caring for your health. Create for yourself your own HEALTHcare system. And while it is not the purpose of this article to list out all the things you can do to be healthy, let me simply state, GET ON IT. I’m a 3rd generation chiropractor who has been taught that health comes from the inside out, that my health is a gift; that what I eat, how I think, how I move my body matter and contribute greatly to my health; that while my genetics matter, what matters more is how MY choices and how my environment determines how those genes are expressed (epigenetics). I CHOOSE wisely. I make responsible (ability to respond) choices, not 100% of the time, but 95% of the time. And I reap the reward. We are in this together people. Let’s get this done. Your HEALTH matters!!! Take care of your #1 asset.
Next week: Post Covid Consciousness Principle #2: PTC, Present Time Consciousness…. It was demanded of us.
