Health Wise: Integral Lessons in Transformation

By Victor Acquista

A unique compilation of holistically themed health explorations and philosophical essays intended to help readers develop new insights and to facilitate transformation. A blend of philosophy, psychology, medicine, sociology, and spirituality by an integrally informed metaphysician. Revised and updated with new content in this second edition.

This short book expands upon material introduced in Dr. Acquista's groundbreaking self-help guide, "Pathways to Health -- An Integral Guidebook". Both books present Integral Theory concepts and their application to health in easy-to-understand language. Filled with insights to help promote personal growth, to achieve higher levels of health and well-being, and to develop an Integral Life Practice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Writing to Raise Consciousness
• Release date: Jul 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201389727

Victor Acquista

Dr. Victor Acquista has become a successful international author and speaker following careers as a primary-care physician and medical executive. He is known for "Writing to Raise Consciousness". He is the creator and narrator/host of a podcast series, Podfobler Productions. His non-fiction and his workshops focus on personal growth and transformation, especially as pertains to health and wellness. His fiction includes social messaging intended to get the reader engaged in thought provoking themes. His novel Serpent Rising won the 2021 International Book Awards competition in the category of New Age Fiction. Dr. Acquista has a longstanding interest in consciousness studies, is a student of Integral Theory, and strives to do his part to make our planet a wee bit better. He lives with his wife in Florida. He is a member of the Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, the Florida Writers Association, Writers Co-op, and is a Knight of the Sci-Fi Roundtable. More info at www.victoracquista.com.

Book preview

Dedication

For all those who seek to understand themselves and the role of health in transformation. A commitment to self-care is a commitment to transformation.

Acknowledgements

In life, we journey together as individuals bonded in human fellowship. While what is shared in the pages of this book represents my own individual effort, I recognize the influence, and am grateful for the assistance, of many. I give special thanks to my wife, friends, family, and fellow travelers along the way. I especially acknowledge Ken Wilber, integral philosopher. His body of work has helped me to sharpen my focus through an integral lens and to help navigate the territory I continue to explore. I have deep gratitude and appreciation for this magnificent collective we and all that you have given and continue to give to me. Thank you!

Table of Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition

Letter to Readers

What is Integral Health?

So, you want to be healthy... what are you going to do about that?

Get Motivated, Stay Motivated

On Snake Skins and Lobster Shells

Eight Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes That Can Change Your Life

Stress and Your Health

The Healing Power of Forgiveness

Stay Healthy as You Age

Some Thoughts About Nutrition

Lesson From a Fish Tank

Laughter is Good Medicine

Give Thanks for Good Health

Finding Balance Following a Career Change

My Sunglasses

Destructive Emotions

Meditation

Six Things You Can Do Now to Enjoy Better Health

Tips for Healthy Holidays

The Insufficiency of Hope

The Deep Well of Peace

Precision Medicine—The Good and the Bad

Why Community is Important

Building Resilience to Improve Your Health

The Integral Perspective—Uniting a Divided Healthcare Landscape

Developing an Integral Life Practice

The Ocean and the Cup

Your Journey to Better Health

A Gift of Health

Endless Possibilities

Challenge/Blessing/Reminder

Preface to the Second Edition

In general, the basic content of this updated edition is the same. I have added a new chapter; it is one of several spiritually themed essays sprinkled throughout the book. It is titled, The Ocean and the Cup. I have corrected some grammatical errors and formatting issues. For convenience, the table of contents in the e-book version is now linked to the chapter locations. There is a new cover; I hope you find it as appealing as I do. Finally, there is a special closing that I am calling a challenge/blessing/reminder. In truth, it is a request of sorts directed to myself as much as it is to you.

I remain committed to write in ways to raise consciousness. I have a lengthy blog post about what writing to raise consciousness means to me. Here is a link to that post: http://www.victoracquista.com/writing-raise-consciousness-meaning-intent/

Interested readers might also enjoy this post I wrote for the Wellness Universe: What is a Metaphysician?

On a personal level, since release of the first edition, I can look back and see my own continued growth and transformation as my consciousness evolves. It is a wonder and a grace. It is my sincere hope and intention that reading through the pages that follow will stimulate something within that helps you to realize the fullness of your potential and to assist your continued transformation.

With love,

Dr. Vic      October, 2018

Letter to Readers

I start with a confession. While this little book is about health, astute readers will readily recognize it is more about personal growth and transformation. I intended it as such. For a period of three years, I wrote a monthly health column that included relatively standard topics related to health, such as preparing for the flu season. I also included many columns more broadly concerned with health from a holistic perspective. I view health somewhat differently than many of my colleagues who trained in traditional Western or Allopathic medicine. I do think of health, and how we can achieve better health, through the filter of my traditional Western approach, which is rooted in the scientific method. At the same time, my comprehension is filtered through holistic approaches, which include energy-based modalities and shamanism and other healing modalities that are often shunned by my traditional Western-trained colleagues as non-scientific. Such a label seems to discard such approaches as less valuable or worse, quackery. Many of these methods have been practiced for thousands of years. My expanded thoughts on this topic are in the essay, Integral Health—Uniting a Divided Healthcare Landscape. In that essay, I detail the philosophical origins of the divide between Western approaches to health and healing and pretty much everything else. To me, it is not either/or so much as both/and. Many of these notions are explored further and in more detail in the book I wrote, Pathways to Health—An Integral Guidebook.

Health Wise is less a book and more a compilation of ideas expressed in columns and essays loosely thread together by the common theme of understanding health from an Integral Perspective. This philosophical approach can best be encapsulated as: a perspective of multiple perspectives and the interplay of inter and intra relationships among those perspectives. A wealth of information about Integral Theory is readily available on the internet and elsewhere for readers interested in this philosophical theory. Such an approach can be applied to just about any field or discipline: Integral Law, Integral Politics, Integral Education, Integral Ecology, Integral Leadership, and so on. In this collection, I focus on health, but really, I am focused on personal growth and transformation. To get you thinking along these lines, I have included this reflection:

An Egg

What a marvel is an egg! Such a smooth shell, an interesting shape, elegant in design, it appears so whole and complete. But within lies the true marvel and mystery of an egg. Within lies the potential of a fully developed chicken—nothing simple or elegant in that!

Through that process of development, what starts as a yolk and some egg white magically and mystically transforms into a chick. Sure, there is a genetic code and underlying biology, but far beyond the science is the expression of divinity.

Think of the moments surrounding birth (well, actually hatching). What is in the mind of that fully developed chick inside the egg-womb?  Is it dark inside the shell that surrounds it, confines it, restrains it? Does the chick wonder what lies beyond? No, it does what it must. The chick pokes at the very structure of its incubation, not with some gentle tentative prodding, but with a forcefulness and purpose that says I choose life! I choose to leave the safe confines of the world as I know it and venture forth into a world I do not know.

What challenges and uncertainties come with that first thrust forward of its tiny beak? The shell cracks, light enters, the world changes, and out pops the little head. And then follows the struggle to shed the shell that restrains it, to gasp air for the first time and to break free. A little wobbly at first on untested legs the chick has emerged and soon will spread her wings...

This is life—growth, transformation, emergence.

What a marvel is an egg!

All my writing is intended to get you thinking in ways to raise consciousness. It is my sincere hope and intention that reading through the pages that follow will stimulate something within that helps you to realize the fullness of your potential.

With love,

Dr. Vic      January, 2017

What is Integral Health?

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People often ask me about what exactly Integral Health means. There is often confusion about Integral and Integrative. In this chapter, I’ll offer some explanation and provide information about an Integral Life Practice.

What does it mean to be healthy?

Everyone wants to be healthy, but what does that mean?

The standard Western conceptualizations about health rely on a disease model. In this model, the presence or absence of disease becomes the measure of an individual’s health. Yet, people often do not feel well even though they have not been diagnosed with any particular ailment. Furthermore, the full experience of illness is not captured in the label of a diagnosis. When we focus simply on treating a disease, we tend to ignore social, cultural, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the illness experience. It’s much easier to treat a diagnosis than it is to treat a unique human being.

Notwithstanding the many excellent treatments modern medicine has to offer, as long as the concept of health is rooted in diagnosing or ruling out a particular disease, traditional medicine will not satisfy. Conventional Western or Allopathic medicine relies too heavily on physical signs and symptoms of illness. Fragmentation exists