Health and Hope to Cope.

What is health?

When talking about health, it's sometimes not so easy do define, what health actually is. WHO defined health as

"a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity"

and added later that health is also

"a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities."

So, there are multiple factors affecting our health and wellness, clearly not limited to physiological aspects of life. Moreover, physical health is unthinkable without mental well-being, and harmony in social sphere.

That's the reason why neglecting mental and social aspects while working on physical body, slows down, if not completely shuts down, any progress. It's nearly impossible to lose weight if the only matter of coping with life is food. If there are no other sources of joy available or known. If social environment is not supportive. If stress is piling, anxiety raises, sleep gets all messed up, decreasing any other coping abilities.

Being under the weather

By far, the first half of 2021 was one of the most challenging periods for me and my family. It was especially hard to weather on top of the exhaustion caused by 2020 pandemic.

Running out of gas, I found rescue in reading. Before it was somehow hard to justify spending precious time on reading something that wasn't about work. My inability to let myself to take a break was another great way to get straight into burnout. It was time to change it, so I began to binge-read.

It happened that I had a ton of unread books in my personal library (had a Book of the month membership, but didn't make time to read what I ordered, lol), many of them - historical fiction.

So I dove into 1900's: Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, then Great Depression in 1930's, then 1970's - time after Vietnam war...

Heartbreaking stories of people being tortured, abused, killed, neglected. Violation of human rights pretty much everywhere. Lack of support from the system. Chaos and travesty of justice.

What did this reading give me?

It gave me HOPE

I see it now as clear as ever, that the world is actually changing to the better. The system is adjusting to become more humane. Yes, it's inertial and the process is slow, but it is changing. Racism, domestic violence, minority rights violations, injustice - they still exist. But they are not a social norm anymore. Traumatized people can get proper mental health support now and not pouring their hurt onto their loved ones. Abused women can seek help and get out of unhealthy relationship at will. Killing a human is not okay and not easy to get away with.

I can go on and on, but you got the idea.

🌎 Our world is getting better. Kinder. More humane.

It takes a village!

One more time this simple statement has got proven right. For all the characters in the books I've read, for me and my family, for people I work with - it's the community that helps us to get through rough times. Family, friends, neighbors, unindifferent strangers - those who make the challenges possible to deal with.

Also it's mindfulness of our own mental state, respect of our needs and calls of the body.

Building health on a bigger scale is not limited to eating well and exercising regularly.

It's about thriving mentally, building a supportive community, ditching toxic relationships, and enjoying life as is.

📚 Here is the selection of books that gave me hope:

• Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

• As Bright As Heaven by Susan Meissner

• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

• The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

• Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

• The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman

• The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah