08-02-2017, 12:00 AM
Watergaze, what is health? How does one measure what is healthy? Some measure health by merely physiological means: blood pressure, lack of illness. Others measure health by overall well-being and that can include mental health. Mental health encompasses the area of self-care; our ability to care for the self when we are being overwhelmed and stressed. One symptom of being overwhelmed can be a manifestation of physiological pain--physical distress due to psychological stress.
Comparing our health to others is not the most ideal. This is because everyone has their own set of life experiences that influence and make everyone different from one another. Maybe if we were each an apple tree, grown on the same acre, with the same soil, receiving the same amount of sunlight and water, could we then compare one apple to another apple. However, humans are not so alike. There's a quote that really hits this concept of comparison home:
"Learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship." -Omar Bradley
Then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's useful to compare our progress to another. Perhaps that lets us know we're all riding the same linear measurement of success and some are further along than others. Except how would that work? Some people are high on financial assets, but low on creativity. Some are high on creativity, but low on financial assets. Maybe I misunderstood you and you merely meant you are further along in well-being than many. If that's the case, my next question would be who are you comparing yourself to? If you're comparing yourself to prison populations then yes! You are fantastically ahead (meaning more functional) than probably many of them. If you're comparing yourself to Tibetan monks who have been scientifically proven to reach new levels of brainwave activity in recent years, then I assume you would see a modest comparison.
Comparing our health to others is not the most ideal. This is because everyone has their own set of life experiences that influence and make everyone different from one another. Maybe if we were each an apple tree, grown on the same acre, with the same soil, receiving the same amount of sunlight and water, could we then compare one apple to another apple. However, humans are not so alike. There's a quote that really hits this concept of comparison home:
"Learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship." -Omar Bradley
Then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's useful to compare our progress to another. Perhaps that lets us know we're all riding the same linear measurement of success and some are further along than others. Except how would that work? Some people are high on financial assets, but low on creativity. Some are high on creativity, but low on financial assets. Maybe I misunderstood you and you merely meant you are further along in well-being than many. If that's the case, my next question would be who are you comparing yourself to? If you're comparing yourself to prison populations then yes! You are fantastically ahead (meaning more functional) than probably many of them. If you're comparing yourself to Tibetan monks who have been scientifically proven to reach new levels of brainwave activity in recent years, then I assume you would see a modest comparison.