When I first started to explore macrobiotics, I discovered George Ohsawa’s “7 Conditions of Health.” These conditions of health were a revelation to me. George Ohsawa divided health into three main areas: physical, mental-emotional, and spiritual. He assigned the most importance to spiritual health and the least importance to physical health. From the macrobiotic view, health is primarily a spiritual rather than physical or mental quality and capacity. Ohsawa taught that spiritual health and endless appreciation for all of life guide mental and physical health. According to Ohsawa, health is something that we can learn to grow and improve throughout our life. Contrary to what we are taught in modern life, health is not something that we inevitably lose over the years. Sickness is not the necessary eventuality that we must prepare for all of our life.

In thinking about health, it became apparent to me that health is more natural than sickness. In most cases, we spend years spoiling our health and losing touch with our needs in various areas of life. We usually lose our health little by little. We often do not even notice the gradual decline of our health until it becomes significant and interferes with our life. On the other hand, we can make amazingly fast progress once we decide to start improving our health. I am always amazed at how much improvement my clients experience in one or two weeks after starting to implement my counseling recommendations. I am also amazed at how much progress people make in five days of attending our Intensive seminars the Strengthening Health Institute. You can actually see people transform day by day when they are exposed to good food, good activity, and a good environment.

The quality of our food has steadily declined since the end of World War II. Food science has taken over and transformed food into a long list of chemicals and preservatives. While it is hard to understand what these chemicals are made of, it is not hard to understand that they are detrimental to our health and well-being. During this same period of time, we have gotten increasingly less outdoor physical activity. Walking outdoors on a regular basis has virtually disappeared from modern life.

I am continually amazed by the marvels of the human body, with its quick responses to positive changes in diet, activity, and lifestyle. Even making small changes yields positive results in a short period of time. When it comes down to it, good diet, good activity, and a good attitude all lead to long-lasting good health. Really, all you need to do is get to the right starting line and then let nature run its course.