Tamen Haddad-Garcia

And this is the one that has been

that is being championed and that's being pushed more and more so that we can actually be healthy.

Something that's a definition that is helpful to us rather than already setting ourselves up for failure.

So that definition is the ability to adapt to the inevitable challenges that life presents us.

So with this perspective, if you have an eye condition and you're not able to see far or near, but you wear glasses, you can then be healthy.

Or if you have cancer and you are dealing with the symptoms or you're getting treatment and you're keeping up with everything that your physician is telling you to do and you're staying active and eating well, you can still be healthy within your constraints.

So that's what this definition of health does and why this new perspective that is backed by many scientists, academics and institutions around the world, like why that is the one that we should actually embrace.

you're absolutely spot on.

And that's essentially thanks to something we have, which is like self-perception, right?

And our ability to perceive our behaviors and then interpret

who we are from that, right?

And it's kind of a feedback loop essentially.

So if we believe we're healthy and if we identify ourselves as healthy, then we make more healthy choices and we behave healthier.

But what's beautiful is that a lot of studies show that the opposite is true too.

if you behave healthier, and you make choices that are healthier, and you just act like a healthy person, essentially, you start to believe yourself as being a healthy person.

And the whole the role of the mind is actually massive in this sense, right?

And this this sense of optimism, which is really what you're kind of talking about here.

And

study after study has shown that that actually has big benefits when it comes to dealing with diseases.

For example, a longitudinal study on 22,000 Americans found that optimism actually has protective benefits against stroke.