Becoming Your Own Best Health Advocate

Because YOU matter!

Author: Esther Sarlo, BA, Founder | CEO | Myndful Spark of Mynd Myself

Become my own best health advocate you say? What? Isn’t that for doctors to do for me? I have always relied on the medical advice of those who know much more than me…those who have studied in universities and colleges and other specialized programs. I have been busy working in my career, raising a family, dealing with the minutia of day-to-day living…way too occupied to study medicine. How can I possibly be my own best health advocate?

In a Harvard Health Blog entitled, Take control of your health care (exert your patient autonomy), Carolyn A. Bernstein, MC, FAHS says,

“Physicians study for years to become doctors and bring their scientific knowledge and clinical acumen to the office and the bedside. Patients may not have those skills, but they know their own bodies, tolerance for treatment, and the manner in which they are comfortable receiving care.”

In that light, here’s what I’d like to say to you.

You are the only you in the universe. You know yourself better than anyone else…or if you don’t yet, you could, given a bit of encouragement and time.

You are the thinker of your thoughts and the feeler of your feelings.

You are the one who has grown up in the body that you occupy. You are the one who has created the memories contained in that body and mind. You are the one who decides where that body will go, what it will drink and eat, what it will wear, when it will sleep, how it will move, where it will go, how it will love.

Where to start?

Even if you’re not aware of it yet, you already ARE the expert in you. You may need to open the portal to let the knowing flow through. You may need some help sometimes. If you’re like me, you might need help a LOT of the time. Especially when you feel most vulnerable.

As you return to that deep space inside you…and listen…your wise woman will learn to intuit and know the next step along that path for you to take. She will guide you and direct you…the more you listen…really listen…and breathe into it…and her, the more comfortable you will be in heeding her advice. Your advice to yourself.

• You know when you feel good.
• You know when you feel like something is off.
• You know…in your bones…when joy is moving through you.
• You know that your body is lovingly speaking to you all the time…if you will just listen…and pay attention…and act.

You Know!

You instinctively know, when you meet someone, if their energy is a good fit with yours…or not! Have you always heeded that knowing? Probably not. Have you sometimes jumped into situations or relationships that, in hindsight, could have been avoided and the ensuing pain fallout eliminated? Probably. But here’s the thing. ALL of it is learning.

ALL of what you’ve seen, done, and experienced is a part of who you are. ALL of that is available to help guide you now as you make decisions…as you step more fully into the magnificence of you…into who you truly are.

Now…

• You get to listen.
• You get to speak.
• You get to assess.
• You get to decide.

From your place of power. Your messy, magnificent humanity is actually a trusted guide…
If you open up to it…if you pay close attention…
if you gentle your gaze and your expectations…
and flow with the energy of it.

I’m still learning about trust. To trust my still small voice. To trust my urgent shouting voice that, somehow, I’ve ignored on occasion to my peril.

As you read this, consider it an invitation to go deeper into the loveliness of you—the glorious, delicious, feistiness that is you. Breathe her deep. Invite her voice to speak with clarion precision. Then act! For your best and highest good.

As Thich Nhat Hanh says,

“Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos—the trees, the clouds, everything.”