Your Responsibility for Good Health

Although we often look to the healthcare system to fix us, and many African Americans hold a strong distrust with the system, it is very easy for those individuals to blame the failing US healthcare system for their declining health statuses.  Once an individual is sick, it is important to seek medical attention, but it is most important for the individual himself to remain active in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. 

We are living in an age of fast pace movement and convenience.  More often than not, we don’t have time to make a meal and sit altogether at the dinner table together, but it is important to remember a culture’s roots:

           

Struggle, patience, self–discipline and personal responsibility have been virtues in the Black community since we arrived on these shores. These same virtues are essential for our good health. Without them we become prey to the perils of "conveniences" that can kill us.

Examples such as eating fast food, driving everywhere, taking elevators, are all recent advances in society that haven’t necessarily benefited any community, especially the African American community in any way.  One of the major stereotypes of African Americans is that they are lazy and don’t want to work to benefit from what society has to offer, and by indulging in these “conveniences” it only perpetuates these stereotypes.  This wishful thinking creates a mindset in the African American community that they can achieve the American Dream that they were promised, without having to actually work hard for it.

The road for Black people has always been uphill and the climb toward good health is full of distractions and temptations. But it can become an exciting and rewarding journey with commitment and perseverance.

By taking the extra time to make ones own meal, or take the stairs and walk the extra steps to get to where one is headed, the health benefits are endless.   With the distrust that the African American community feels, taking the extra time will decrease their necessity to visit such individuals, increasing the emotional capabilities of everyone.