Every October, breast cancer awareness month, I am reminded that the American approach to illness is still heavily biased toward an attitude that goes something like this: “first I have the bad luck to get sick, then I go to the doctor and it is up to him or her to fix me.”

Most of the discussion about breast cancer in the media focuses on early detection with very little if any attention given to prevention. The Chinese approach is focused on prevention of illness. There was a doctor in the small city where I grew up who had a reputation as a very good physician. His waiting room was full of sick people, coughing and looking miserable. Wall to wall, when you came in you could hardly find a chair. My first Taiji teacher told us that when she went to Taiwan with her teacher, they visited a village doctor’s office. The waiting room was empty. Her teacher said, “see, here is a good doctor. His patients are not sick. He has taught them how to stay healthy.”

Getting sick has little to do with bad luck, and if your attitude is that your doctor is responsible for your wellness, you are making a big mistake. If you want to stay well, you have to take responsibility for your health and make your own luck by following a healthy lifestyle. This concept is slowly catching hold in America, but still has a long way to go.