Book offers practical steps to achieving personal wellness

PRIME – September 2013 By Debbie Gardner debbieg@thereminder.com Silver City, NM. – What truly, is health? Is it the absence of disease? Can you have a chronic condition – diabetes, multiple sclerosis, even cancer – yet still be healthy? Do alternative treatments offer a better path than Western medicine? How exactly do we determine if a person is healthy or ill, based on the attitudes and beliefs of today's modern culture? In his new book, "Pathways to Health: An Intergral Guidebook," Dr. Victor Acquista, chief medical officer at the Ford Bayard Medical Center, M.M., and a volunteer at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, offers what he describes as "a better view of health." Promoting the concept of "balance" in four key areas of each person's individual life – body, mind, spirit and environment – Acquista advocates that the path to living a healthy life involves reaching a measure of equi-librium among these four areas. "Deficiencies or excesses in one area can be compensated for by changes in other areas," Acquista states in his opening chapter. "The key to health is net balance in the entire system." The book explores topics that can affect the balance of health, from what motivates an individual to how personal coping mechanisms – or "addic-tions," destructive emotions and finally, attitudes and perspectives, can all ultimately undermine both that individual's motivation and health. He explains how understanding our relation-ships, adopting an attitude of forgiveness, the recognition and processing of grief and learning stress man-agement are also factors in every individual's ultimate well-being. The book includes a series of questions and exercises to help the reader understand where he or she is on the path to health and chart a strategy to improve personal balance. It also provides a chapter, titled "Healing Strategies – Food, Rest and Shelter," with practical suggestions regarding myriad healing modalities – from alternative medicine to chiropractic, counseling to prayer, physical therapy to reiki – the individual can employ to help them on the path to restored or improved health. "Pathways to Health: An Intergral Guidebook," by Dr. Victor Acquista is available for purchase online. To order a copy log onto https://secure.mybookorders.com/Orderpage/809 or visit http://pathstohealth.info/pathways-to-health-ebook.