Salutogenesis

Money is not the only appraisal for a good life

Let us talk psychosocial health today.

It was a quiet day but I was privileged enough that my mind was also calm comparatively. This is a sign of health, satisfaction, gratefulness, love, and peace.

Now I give a scornful look for jealousies, anger, betrayal, timidity, carelessness and ignorance. I used to find beauty even in these black swan attributes. It shows that there are people in need. The need to fit in, to be accepted, to be praised or to feel at peace with themselves. When I was young I faced these. Now I just had enough of them. But I am not angry. Here’s why:

There was a time I laughed at people possessed by the black swan. I used to call them immature. I used to put all these attributes aside deliberately because I know friends are like that. With the virtue of love they can be set right. However, with age I understood that these attributes are due to the insecurities that we all possess. It is impossible to be completely clean, washed out in our minds. It is desirable, but beware, it could be an impending doom. The situation where you need a psychiatrist or you become a saint with many followers for your enlightenment and brightness.

Most people want money so that they can relax in life and enjoy their days on Earth. They want it even with unfair means. They will kill for money. They will face disasters over money. They will go beyond their capacity and virtues for money. That’s why I hate money. If you ask me, build relationships, friends, character, values, and hard work capabilities. Money is just a risk protection when you become diseased or something like you want to invest in education.

Salutogenesis creates health. This concept I imbibed from a book describing ergonomics for health care workers, published by Indian authors who practice and teach occupational diseases and community medicine. A chapter on ergonomics in health care and patient safety by Dr Ranabir Pal described this concept. It means health is desirable and not only prevention of disease. Instead of focussing on risk factors, we want attributes that promote health and well-being. For our psycho-social health, we must acknowledge or salute to others and be grateful to them to have been there for us, letting us to be comfortable, respected us, enjoyed with us, loved us, and had faith in us, means we were a good person after all, despite all the short comings. Being grateful has a very strong psychological boost. It makes you feel as a part of the system. It makes you think positively and take-up challenges bearing in mind that people have faith in you. This energy boost makes you find meaning in life. This hope can be an illusion, but it provides an extra edge that attracts people towards you. Your positivity touches others like a magnet. Do good and receive satisfaction.

I am not saying only good people get everything. Sometimes they die a bad death. Sometimes their expectations are high from themselves, and therefore they need to sacrifice certain part of their convictions to gain healthy relationships or success, or any other goal they want to reach to. Psychosocial health is achieved through confidence, hard work, security, resourcefulness, timely completion of work and much more. Once we win over this dimension we become unstoppable. To become mentally and socially healthy we have to first have good intentions. This becomes our confidence that helps us fight hardships even if we don’t have any hope. But when we are grateful we reap good results in terms of social health despite uncertainty of life or death, people believe us, want us and care for us. We are not some arrogant assholes. We touch others. We do not fear routines anymore to create, or fear what people think of us while we create. Anyone and everyone are those people. Not even our mother gets spared. She is important but not more than our well-being. She will be happier if she comes to know that we are doing well. So for her, and because we care, put simply, happiness should be a way of life.

Health occurs not only by thinking about ourselves. It requires environmental cohesiveness also and we should be agents of human resource development.

By considering others as a part of our ecosystem, we indirectly boost our self-esteem. We may think of being happy ourselves but it should also keep others in perspective for achieving social health. As an example, a very old lady wants to hug a child, but the child is scared of her wrinkles. Nevertheless, the child allows. The old woman starts smiling and sings songs. By this the child feels splendid due to an honorable feeling by doing this favor to the old woman. What if the child refuses, and the next day someone tells her that the old woman she met yesterday has died. This incident may contribute to childhood anxiety. This child grows up mature but at the back of her mind, only one thing remains, never dishearten someone. Life is a beautiful gift to be lived. If you can bring about health and well-being, you are doing a good job despite the many vagrancies of adulthood. It may seem like, why you are such a saint, but at the end of the day we are good, humans, not selfish, so smile a lot, laugh a lot and pray a lot. You will not fall ill, never too soon if you are a positive person. You can take life as it comes if you are good. And what we are, attracts others to be like that. Spark is you and people love it as they spark others in reaction. So for a good psychosocial health be good, decent, funny and lighthearted.

Enjoy your voyage in life. Try to leave a mark if you can.