“Ultimately, we, not our
       doctors, have to take
       responsibility for our health.”
          —Haven Logan

Choosing to Be Well:
A Conscious Approach to a Healthier Lifestyle
by Haven Logan, Ph.D.
published by Inner Ocean Publishing, 2002

hoosing to Be Well looks at the relationship between emotional and physical health. Inspiring stories are presented of people who have overcome stumbling blocks to their own self-care. The keys they found will help you look at just why you may not be doing all that you know you should for your health.

The suggestions offered in Choosing to Be Well are based on a four-step approach that can be applied to nearly any health problem. These four steps are not intended to move you to some mythical land of permanent, perfect wellness. Rather they are tools for working along a spiraling path toward wellness; a path whose beginning you may come back to again and again when you need to rededicate yourself to being as well as you can be at each stage of your life and under its changing conditions.

The Four Steps
Step One Cooperating involves developing a cooperative relationship between the different aspects of your body-mind system by understanding the unique and important role that each of these aspects plays in your health.

Step Two on the path of wellness moves into Observing. You explore why you may be wearing blinders that limit how much you see and experience of your body. You learn the value of paying attention to the cues you are continually giving yourself about your health and learn to listen to the messages of your body.

Step Three helps you with Accepting your present health and physical condition through understanding and developing an unconditional love of yourself. The one common characteristic of all the people interviewed for the book was that there was something they were not accepting about either their past or their present situation.

Step Four focuses on Choosing, making more specific choices about your health that are now based on a greater knowledge of yourself and on an understanding of the patterns that have been holding you back. Choosing, at this point, means you are willing to explore your choices at all levels of your being—body, mind, and spirit.

Your Commitment to Yourself
Ultimately, we, not our doctors, have to take responsibility for our health. If you develop a commitment to your health, combine it with a caring attitude toward yourself, and always maintain a willingness to listen to the wisdom of your body, you will create a successful program for yourself that meets your unique needs. You will begin to discover your own secrets of wellness.