This video from ABC News looks at some of what the Cleveland Clinic is doing in the domain of wellness. The video is well done well, and the context and the tone of the conversation is illustrative of where we as a country are presently 'spending our time' in national dialogue' about wellness. I would call it a more substantial effort to tie cost to the 'big bad 4' (see below), but what I also hear in this piece is a needed effort to engage lifestyle PRACTICE, not just information.
One of the reasons that yoga has such a key role to play in the expansion of our culture's well-being is that it fits so well into the needs we face now....chronic disease, the role of lifestyle, the need for diet that is modified by what we now know about eating healthfully....the importance of practice rather than 'knowing".
In this piece a physician states what is now a common litany about the big, bad 4 - "75% of the medical costs in the US are caused by 4 things - physical inactivity, food choices, tobacco and stress." Yoga as a philosophy, a technology and a set of practices is comprehensive, and enthusiastically embraced by much of the US, including those currently practicing as well as those who are not.
The Cleveland Clinic approach includes the launching of Lifestyle180, which you can read about here, and here.
Lifestyle, practice....yoga teaches genuine change, albeit over a long time, through great effort....that just may be what it takes, at both a personal and societal effort.
What a gift to be part of this 'sea change'.
Rich
