Health is not just a combination of what you eat, what you think, and how you move.
Your health is a communal endeavor.
Your food:
It’s produced somewhere. By people. Not just the crops or animals you’re eating, but also decennia (or millennia) of domestication and selection. It’s also what the stores offer, the commercials that reach you, and the wealth that surrounds you. None of that is creates by you alone.
Your thoughts:
Are influences by the people surrounding you. Your caretakers, friends, family, teachers. Your race, gender, sexual preferences. Your identity. It’s all influenced or mirrored by those around you. Did you experience trauma or childhood adversity? None of that is created by you alone. And yeah, your thoughts are directly related to the amounts of stress you experience – and with that your health.
Your exercise routine:
Is influenced by your culture, your privilege (can you go to a gym or is your routine a slavery job in a factory for twelve hours a day?), your body. You may be disabled or face other physical challenges or, like me, fatigue from dealing with the world and its expectations. None of that is created by you alone.
What maybe shocks me most over the last year, is the amount of self centeredness in people. ‘I don’t like curfew’. ‘I refuse to not travel.’ ‘They’re taking my freedom away’.
Global health is not an individual accomplishment. We’re in this together. Think about your neighbors. The elderly. The immuno-compromised. The ones without access to health care or healthy food.
What would kindness do?
