I had an interesting conversation with a client today, who is in the health and safety area for their large company. We tend to talk a mix of business and personal, and today there was a fair bit of overlap. We were talking about the changes they have seen in the types of issues they deal with and what takes time and resources, and that has very quickly become, mental health issues.
Without diving too deeply into all the possible reasons why this is the direction, it essentially comes down to the environment we have created. And while there is far more awareness, acceptance and support for mental health issues in the workplace today, I also believe that we as a generalised population have become worse in pretty much every aspect of our lives.
You might disagree.
With the client, I broke down my simplified perspective of how I view an individual, where there is the physical, mental, emotional and the social faces, that make up the whole of us. And as I observe it, the way we have engineered our world, has meant that all four of them have degrades, on average.
Physical.
Perhaps this is the simplest one to understand and also to observe, as we can look at pretty much any country on earth, and see that lifestyle diseases are increasing. Obesity, diabetes, many forms of cancer, heart disorders - and younger and younger ages are being affected. On average, we are getting unhealthier, even if we are living longer.
Mental.
I separate mental from emotional, as while all four of these things are linked, I look at mental ability, what we are able to do, our skills, as the mental part of the body. Not just what we know and whether we can calculate numbers, but all of our mental skills that we learn in order to create our world. With all the tools we use, we can fake having skills, but more and more it is observable that people are lacking abilities.
Emotional.
We all have emotional aspects, but the way we manage them and use them to guide our behaviour differs person to person. However, on average, we are becoming more impatient, quicker to anger, instant gratifying, depressive, anxious, and a whole host of other things they call "mental disorders" when they might be better described as emotional disorders instead, to reduce the confusion.
Social.
And when it comes to our social lives, these too have on average been degrading, where relationship bonds are not as strong, and are far easier to break, or ignore than they once were. We are less close, and more disconnected from each other than we were earlier, and a lot of the emotional problems that lead to mental and physical problems, are enabled and amplified by our lack of social strength. We voyeuristically look at the curated lives fed us, and mistakenly believe that this is being social.
Where are we improving?
All this shift toward individualism and "taking care of ourselves" and being "authentic" and whatnot, yet across the four major aspects of our whole, we are on average, getting worse. We have shone a spotlight on ourselves, made ourselves aware of all of the problems we have, and have access to all kinds of support information, therapists, trainers, and social groups - but we have become worse.
Possibly because the hyper-focus on the pieces, without looking at the whole has meant that we have put too much energy into some aspects, and not enough into others. Or, the constant reminder of all our problems and being too thinly spread across them means that we are always fighting a losing battle with reality. Or maybe it is because we keep avoiding dealing with the things that are important, and taking some other road out of convenience. But for the purpose of this article, it doesn't matter. Because whatever the cause and whatever we are doing to treat the issues,
It isn't working.
While this is in no way going to be accurate, I thought I would reflect a bit on these four aspects of who I am and give each a rating out of ten of the level I feel I have right now. Granted, some areas like the physical self will be affected by age naturally, but I am rating it based on current state for my age. And then after, what I might have rated myself ten years ago.
Now.
Physical - 5
Mental - 6
Emotional - 6
Social - 3
Fifteen years ago
Physical - 7
Mental - 8
Emotional - 8
Social - 9
While I am sure I have improved in some things, I believe that in each of the four aspects I have degraded on average, and as a whole, I am worse than I should be at this time. I believe that the negative shift isn't only influenced by my own behaviours, but also through the behaviours of others who influence me also. This isn't shifting blame, but I suspect that most people are actually worse off than they might at first believe themselves to be. And I think this because most people, are doing less to improve, and becoming more reliant on others and tools to do things for them.
So as a little reflective group session, what do you think your numbers would be?
Taraz
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Then:
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This is an interesting insight - Thanks!!
What do you think you have done to improve your emotional self, or has it happened as you matured??
I wonder if it's safe to say that we as a species have attained our peak and decline has set in. And the main culprit is the technologies we've created to ease our burdens. Instead of helping us they're cleaning out the refreshing and life sustaining print of nature in our planet.
We are trying to better our lives while trying to divorce Mother Nature to whom we're inseperably wed and that only results in disaster. We as a species need to slow down, step back and reconsider our actions, take a brutal inventory. And no, flying off to Mars won't solve it one bit, we'd just wear out Mars as we've the Earth, assuming that succeeds in the first place.
The things to focus on should be how to make healthy natural food available to people, how to improve the standard of living, how to tackle all the diseases, combat crime, grapple with population increase, natural disasters, achieve global peace, etc. Not the colonization of Mars.
We need to reorder our priorities to save ourselves from certain destruction, and this has to start from the leaders and the rest of the world will follow. If I were a world leader, I'd call a conference of nations to discuss these pressing issues and take action. Like the League of Nations assembled to discuss the threat of nuclear weapons to our existence. And each nation would be made to follow each rule discussed in the conference, like the UN act as a watchdog to prevent a possible, nuclear and apocalyptic third World War.
I have considered this, but I don't think so. However, we might have reached the peak doing it the way we have done. If we want to improve, we need to change our ways, and our focus. Industry and technology (as it stands) is likely not the way to improve us further.
As you have said in the rest, the focus should be on wellbeing as humans, in all the forms that are important. Environment, food, mind, emotion etc - we could be far, far better than we are, yet we keep focusing on making profit through industry at the expense of our own humanity.
Oh dang, that is a tough one. I have a feeling I would fail epically.
Physical - 5
Mental - 8
Emotional - 6
Social - 2
If you could only improve one, which do you reckon would have the greatest impact on your wellbeing?
I'm sure literally everyone on Hive is going to disagree with me... but I genuinely think that Covid has had a big impact on all 4 of these areas. It suppresses the immune system, it attacks blood vessels (making heart attacks more likely), it attacks the brain - making emotional regulation harder - and repeated infections exacerbate all of it.
It's far from the only cause, but its definitely far more damaging than we realize.
I agree with you - but not with Covid itself, but the lockdowns and disruptions because of it. It sped up the degradation process a lot.
Now.
Physical - 8
Mental - 9
Emotional - 9
Social - 5
Fifteen years ago
Physical - 10
Mental - 8
Emotional - 7
Social - 5
I think physical is where most of the degradation is for me and all of it due to aging. No matter how I try to slow it down. I exercised consistently with no breaks, I eat better than I did 15 years ago and still I am going downhill. You cannot fight the aging. 34 is not the same as 49.
At 34 I was indestructible now I have to watch for some exercises and something always hurts. The body becomes fragile with age, especially after 45.
Yeah, age is going to have an impact. I have to evaluate it "for my age", but not compare to people in my age group, since so many on average are not in very good shape due to their lifestyle decisions.
Perhaps this is why there are so many drug users ;D
This article is like going back to high school health class and defining "well being", but with a personal spin.
"Physical" and "emotional" are connected so closely. If you slip emotionally because of a recent death then physical illness is likely to follow.
Maybe in my teens I thought "social" was hanging out and doing things with people. Some decades years later I see "social" as happily contributing some place in society. "Social" today is more of giving back that hanging out.
Whether it is mental, emotional, physical or social, they all take exercise. Without practice we fall behind. The trouble or maybe blessing is that as we get older, we get slower, we have less energy and our body naturally wants to disengage. This makes daily habits and behaviors like note taking, meeting a friend for chess or just enjoying the moment even more important than ever.
I see it as the same. It is about being part of the community through various forms of interaction, even if they aren't friends.
I wonder if it is natural, or if we tend to just do it more as we have set up our lives to be comfortable. One benefit of getting older is that learning never need stop. We might degrade in some areas, but it is always possible to improve in some too.
I think the increase in mental health problems is clearly a sign of the environment we've built. A lot of people don't realize how connected our physical, mental, emotional, and social health really are.
We have tried to compartmentalise experience - but it is a losing game.
Physical - 10
Mental - 10
Emotional - 9
Social - 5
Interesting. You think you are as physically and mentally capable as you could be?
Maybe I need to lose 10 kg, but I don't feel my current weight at all. I can briskly walk up the stairs to the 10th floor with more ease than people 30 years younger than me. As for my ability to learn new things, I think I'm at my peak now, just like I was 10 years ago.
10 kg is still a fair amount.
But I wonder if it also depends on what we consider "in shape" physically, or mentally. For me, walking up stairs wouldn't be enough at my age, though my health issues that make the number so low, aren't related to my athletic ability.
When it comes to learning new things, is it learning knowledge, or being able to apply that knowledge as a skill? IO see those as two different things. What do you reckon?
Theory and practice are, of course, two different things. I'm primarily a practitioner and often learn a subject first through practice (while also reading information from those who've done it before me).
Do you know why my emotional rating is a 9? Remember, I recently bought 25k HIVE for 5,000 HBD and am now covering a loss of about 1,500 HBD. It was an emotional trade :)
What do you think your wife would rate your 4 areas?
10, 10, 10, 5 I told her that I bought SOL and not HIVE :)
The problems that a large part of us suffer from the most are mental and physical problems. This deterioration is increasing day by day. However, the concern is that compared to developed countries, a large part of the people in underdeveloped countries do not know that mental problems are a type of disease and are completely indifferent to it. Even these problems that you have highlighted are faced by a low-ranking employee at our workplace.
There is a lot of overlap in all of these areas, and our mental health suffers when any of the other areas are struggling. I think a big part of the depression epidemic, is tied to the "loneliness epidemic".
The breakdown of physical, mental, emotional and also social health really made so much sense. I agree with most people about trying to include myself or I haven't seen some decline over time, especially when it comes to the social settings.
Technology has done its own part in connecting us but has also made relationships very shallow. I think we need to create awareness and we need joint efforts to grow in all four areas so maybe the balance is what is missing here. We should remain more focused on.
Which area do you think is the one you would focus on first to bring the most value to your life?
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