Our health is our greatest form of wealth we can ever know. Think back to a time you may have been sick in your life. This could have been the flu, a broken bone, a hospitalization – anything. Whatever it was, did normal life come to a screeching halt for you? I know it did for me.

When our health goes, everything else falls apart too.

How about the health of an individual living with chronic conditions? Life may not come to an abrupt halt for that person, but quality of life over time certainly decreases. Life can no longer be lived to the fullest, and things start to get sacrificed, such as earning ability, time with family and friends, time for the things you love to do most.

Or maybe you’re still able to do those things right now, but you just don’t feel so well while you move through your day. Life feels hard; energy is low. Low-grade daily pain or inflammation may be involved.

I encourage you to start to advocate for yourself and really look at your own personal health care as something integral to your overall well-being. Many people get to the point where things start to go wrong because of choices that have been made. There’s absolutely no judgment around that – I did it, too.

But if we continue to do what we’ve always done, we slowly chisel away at our body’s powerful protection system. We sometimes have to walk through new doors. For me, it started with very small changes. Now I’m in a completely different place from where I started.

That’s the miracle of it. Daily little steps end up in miles of terrain.

As you start a personal health journey, things we may need to let go of start to naturally lose their appeal along the way. More and more bad habits get dropped over time as the empowerment of taking control of your health builds and vitality begins to return.

Having lost my vitality – and now gaining it back after all these years, I am now acutely aware that vitality is the greatest wealth. I believe we are all capable of accomplishing milestones, changing our life choices and turning them into choices that build health – not disrupt it. Believe in yourself and your ability to change your health.