The benefits of strength and connectedness are fundamentally enabled by health. Correspondingly, lack of health disables them (among other things).
So, what are the things that we need to be cognizant of, and disciplined in, that enable (or disable) our health?
For one thing, we have to be increasingly aware of how the economies we live in impact our ability to do this (not to mention, be healthy).
Learning is a key ingredient to our mental health — perhaps because of things it requires of us…willingness, curiosity, adaptability, humility. After all, look what happens to us when we stop being willing to learn. Not only do we lose knowledge and insight we could benefit from, but also our disposition toward everything in life changes. Spiritually speaking, I would go as far as to say that our willingness to learn IS the way we know and experience God...initially and perpetually.
Beyond our disposition to learning and awareness, health seems to require putting forth some actual effort. Simply knowing about something doesn’t do the trick. We actually have to do that something. Effort seems to reinforce what is true and makes what is true about it true. We actually have to, for example, not eat unhealthy things. Further, we also have to eat healthy things. It takes a kind of commitment to be healthy. We have to work at it (especially in our current economies).
Exercise is another example of something that is required of us beyond just knowing about it. We actually have to do things that strengthen us and we have to do them routinely.
Physical health enables mental health. Both enable emotional health. And, when we are healthy, our sense of connectedness to the world, and the people in it, is better (more healthy).
Health is actually a very broad concept. It is the womb from which all things are sustained and grow — enabling the quality of our relationship with the context that we’re in. It is important individually. It is important collectively. It reaches and impacts nearly all dimensions of our existence.
