Collective Health: Are You Looking Through a Narrow Lens?
Health is complex. But more often than not, a majority of folks tend to think about health through a more narrow and simple lens. One that prioritizes the physical body, specifically in relation to fitness and nutrition and excludes much of what truly makes up and affects our health individually and collectively.
As an adult, I initially noticed this being the norm during the first half of my career working in public health. Everything was centered around diet and exercise. Movement and nutrition. Move this, eat that, don’t eat this and so on. Although these things are important aspects of health, they aren’t the only things, or the first things we should be discussing. What about mental and emotional health? What about day to day experiential health? What about historical health? What about cultural health? These are the things less talked about and from my experience, they actually matter way more.
I’ve dedicated my career, 20+ years, to helping people lead healthier lives. It has never sat well with me when folks just want to talk about the physical aspects of health. We need to talk about it all, if we truly care about having a positive impact and want to see results and outcomes where there is actual lasting benefit. That means opening up our minds and expanding our definition of health to include the whole person. It also means having uncomfortable conversations with ourselves and each other.
Challenging ourselves and each other to view health from a more holistic and expansive perspective allows everyone to benefit and thrive. It’s irresponsible to tell someone to “just exercise and eat right” if they have much larger things challenging them. Things like income and food insecurity, no job, a stressful job, racism, fear, anxiety, depression, language barriers, being a single earner/caretaker need to be considered when addressing what affects our health. Any one of these things can affect mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health. Exploring intersectionality further increases the possible affect on one’s health. These are just a few examples and barely scratch the surface of how our health can be impacted beyond the psychical and traditional focuses of exercise and nutrition. But they most definitely need to be included in our conversations around health.
When we overlook what’s going on in someone’s life and exclude it from the health conversation, and only focus on the physical, we really aren’t helping. Potentially, we’re adding harm. I’ve been criticized for talking to my clients too much and for spending time learning about what’s going on in their life. I don’t let this criticism get to me or deter me from my process of how I help someone. It is all part of finding out how I can help and how I can’t.
What happens in our day to day life, the thoughts we keep, the systems we benefit from (or don’t), the circles we are a part of and sometimes excluded from, shows up in our health in one way or another. What affects us emotionally can in turn manifest in physical ways and factor into how we show up. How we show up can have a ripple effect when others are a part of that space too. Ultimately, we affect each other’s health. So it is in our best interest to consider all aspects of health.
Taking a more pro-active and preventive approach to how we see health can help us all. It can minimize our reactiveness and allow us to create space for more harmonious and collective health and experiences.