For decades, health has been defined as the absence of disease. If you don’t have symptoms, you’re “healthy.”
But that definition is broken. It reduces health to a checkbox where no illness equals healthy. And it keeps healthcare focused on treating disease instead of cultivating wellness. It keeps us waiting until something breaks before we act. And it’s why “health” has become a profitable business — one that benefits pharmaceutical companies and insurance providers more than the people it claims to serve. The truth is, if health only means “not sick”, then the industry wins when we lose.
But what if we changed the way we see health? What if health wasn’t the absence of illness, but the presence of well-being?
We’ve been conditioned to use illness as our starting point. To say we “have a health condition” when really what we have is an illness. Health means wellness. The opposite is what we’ve been sold. And when we buy into that belief, we excuse ourselves from other parts of health — from building resilience in our mindset, to tending our relationships, to choosing movement and nourishment. We outsource our wellness to medication alone, as if pills could replace the habits that build vitality. But let’s get real: illness is not an excuse to stop living. Illness can become the call to action that gets us back to strength.
The World Health Organization said it back in 1946: health is “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease.” In other words, health is multifaceted. Emotional and social wellness matter just as much as the physical. They knew it then, but we’ve ignored it.
So what do we do now? We stop waiting for illness to define us. We stop living in “prevention someday”, and we start protecting health today by choosing actions that give us strength now.
Call it protection. Call it resilience. Call it daily defense.
It’s training your mind so stress doesn’t take you down. Moving your body so it stays functional, no matter your age. Fueling with food that energizes instead of depletes. Surrounding yourself with people who bring peace, not chaos. Creating a home that feels like rest, not tension. Building money and work habits that reduce pressure instead of piling it on. Reconnecting with nature, gratitude, and your own biology.
This is health in action. Not waiting. Not reacting. Choosing daily protection that builds capacity before the crash.
And when illness does come — because it can — it doesn’t own you. You don’t collapse into fear, you act. You rest, you strengthen, you nourish, you recover. You make illness the doorway back to wellness instead of the reason you stay stuck.
Because health isn’t luck. It’s not what’s left over when nothing goes wrong. Health is what you build, protect, and strengthen every day. And when you own that, you stop living in survival mode and start living in well-being.
Lao Tzu said, “Health is the greatest possession.” Buddha added, “To keep the body in good health is a duty.” For me, health is the greatest gift. The gift that lets me keep showing up, keep leading, keep moving forward, keep enjoying my life.
To your rhythm and health,
