Even though I have been involved in studying and promoting good health and recovery from ill health my entire professional career I find, as I get older, that maintining good health has taken on increased importance for me personally and has not lessened in importance for anyone else; indeed it is the central issue in maintaining a personal sense of well-being and joy in life.
As a young psychotherapist and biofeedback therapist, the doctors in my community referred patients to me for whom the medical system had failed. These referrals were for chronic, long term ’stress related’ or ‘functional’ illnesses and for which medicine had proven ineffective. My approach was to teach practical behavioral techniques (actually doing something to make changes in nervous system functioning and lifestyle) involving increased awareness and control through biofeedback relaxation training, exercises, and diet changes; the majority of my patients improved to a significant degree.
Then, in the mid nineties, came Managed Health Care which mandated minimal care to patients by specifically telling my referring physicians not to refer to out to any ‘ancillary’ therapies. Faced with the major obstacles we all faced at that time in continuing to provide personalized care in private practice while the entire health care industry in my Northern California town was itself under severe stress, I decided to migrate my skills and training to the internet.
With my partner, I founded LifeMatters.com, A Resource for Health and Wellness . This gave me an opportunity to take my skills directly to the public and bypass the ‘health-care system’. Since 1996, LifeMatters.com, has provided information, personalized training and biofeedback equipment designed to empower motivated individuals and families to take responsibility for improving their health in very specific ways. This educational approach has been and continues to be very rewarding for all involved. We at LifeMatters.com are finding a growing acceptance of directed self-help and online training that empowers people to take charge and improve their health with their own efforts.
I am now starting this blog to widen the discussion. While I don’t intend to teach specific techniques on health improvement here, I do intend to engage in a conversation about how each of us can and should take responsiblity for not only maintaining good health but also improving our health. One of my first lessons about biology was learning that if you are not improving and growing you are deteriorating. I believe that here really is no such thing as maintenance health with no effort or attention. I believe that awareness of and paying attention to our bodies, emotions, and lifestyle is the first step in attaining superior health and that attaining superior health is within the reach of everyone.
Tom Cobb