iLLNESS, DEATH & MORAL FAILURE

We need to talk about how we treat getting sick like a moral failure.

There is a subtle guilt that comes with being sick: the impulse to apologize for coughing, the guilt of needing rest, and viewing death as a mistake someone made. We’ve accidentally turned health into a status symbol and illness into a flaw. We have conflated health with virtue. In doing so, we have turned healing into a test one can fail, and dying into a mistake that people inflict upon themselves.

I am putting this personal reflection out there because I used to be deeply guilty of doing just that.

Years ago, I was obese and suffering from a cluster of metabolic syndrome ailments. Through the power of whole foods, returning to nature, stress management, and breathwork, I completely transformed my life. But my healing came with a hidden side effect: I became overzealous. Because of my lived experience and eventually becoming a Holistic Nutrition Practitioner, I fell into the trap of thinking, “If I did it, anyone can.”

I became so consumed with "doing the right thing" that I overstepped, subconsciously moralizing other people's every illnesses.

I observe the people around me. I’ve watched friends who lived flawlessly "healthy" lifestyles get hit with devastating illnesses, with some passing away. Meanwhile, I see others with terrible habits who are somehow thriving. This observation was the beginning of a wake-up call.

Biology is not a simple math equation. Lifestyle is not a lifetime guarantee. My belief that if we just do everything "right" we can escape tragedy is not true.

Today, as I evolve, so does my perspective. My lifestyle and Practice as a Holistic Practitioner certainly changed and saved my body. However, shattering that illusion of control gave me something much greater: A deeply grounded compassion. I developed a much deeper sense that suffering, as human beings and even for animals as well, deserve understanding and grace, rather than just analysis and interrogation. And that ultimately, disease and death are part of the natural cycle of life.

How do we begin to strip away this language of guilt around these conditions and situations?