Burdened by wounds from the past, ancestral and personal, laden with inherited biases and expectations, and conditioned by the cultural and social milieus into which they were born, a person can feel that they have little or no choice about how their life is unfolding, or may be deeply afraid to change their trajectory. Living a life that we have not consciously chosen and that does not honour our individuality, we may find that reality eventually becomes boring, drab and stressful, and that we are increasingly racked by feelings of frustration, guilt and self-doubt.

If such feelings, and the legacies of the past that inform them, are not acknowledged and addressed they may manifest as arthritis, depression, fatigue, hypertension, insomnia, and as a myriad of other conditions, diseases and illnesses. In this way, the health challenges that we face are not merely random occurrences; rather, 'your biology is your biography', although that story may be semi-conscious or may even have been forgotten entirely.

Health, simultaneously, can also be undermined by the feeling that our life is unfolding in directions and at a pace over which we have little or no control, and/or that we are being bombarded by information and sensory stimulation that overwhelms our ability to act, feel and think clearly. Swept along by this tide of circumstance, a person can harbour intense feelings that they are a victim, and thus that they have no power to influence or alter, let alone choose, their experiences. This perceived lack of an ability to respond to, and to direct, the flow of life may also cause a person to withdraw or isolate themself from the world, therein trading satisfaction for safety.