Heroes Not Zombies

A healthy being has certain qualities or characteristics. Health is much more than the absence of disease. Health is a positive phenomenon in its own right. How can you know if you are healthy? And how can you increase your health?

Adaptation. How are you coping with change? Nothing stays the same. No two days are the same. Sometimes we feel stuck but always our bodies, our minds and the environments in which we live are changing. Change is the reality of life. When we are healthy we cope with change. We adapt. I was once invited to teach in Santa Fe, and flew to Albuquerue from Edinburgh arriving late at night. My host, a doctor colleague, picked me up and took me to his house about 10pm. I went to bed and fell asleep only to wake about 4 hours later gasping for breath. Alarmed I wakened my host saying “I think I’ve developed asthma!”. “Don’t be silly,” he said, “We’re 7,000 feet up here. You’ve come from sea level. It’s the altitude.” By the next afternoon I was breathing completely normally. I had adapted. A healthy organsim adapts. Whether the changes in your life are physical, emotional or social, coping is a fundamental part of health.
Creativity. Human beings don’t just cope by maintaining some kind of status quo however. We continuously grow and develop. Physically and psychologically. Creativity is the ability to both express yourself and to make something new. In biological terms we use the word “emergence”. This is the word coined to capture the idea that things change in a growing system so that new behaviours and new phenomena appear (usually unexpectedly). The abilities to solve problems with new solutions, to express ourselves and to continuously make our lives new is also a fundamental part of health. An organism that is not growing and developing is dying. Think of your house plants for example!
Engagement. “No man is an island.” We all exist within multiple environments – geographical, social, cultural and so on. It is actually impossible to consider someone fully without situating them in the world. In fact, there is a kind of paradox at the heart of all our lives. We need to be separate, unique (we even have a whole immune system dedicated to recognising what is not us and keeping it out!), but we also need to be connected, to love and be loved, to share. Depression is a real black hole. It sucks everything of life inwards and cuts us off from others and from the world. A healthy person is engaged with the world, interacting, loving and being loved.

So, there’s my three criteria. If you want to know how healthy you are check yourself out against them. How are you coping? How are you growing? and How are you connecting?