don's report archive
Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)
Monday November 26, 2001
I'm often asked about trends in wellness and the future of the movement. For this reason, I regularly track varied indicators, developments and other data that sometimes spark clues and insights about trends. In addition, I look for studies related to wider health care or medical system trends and ponder their wellness implications. Based on this process, I can supplement personal opinions and omnibus sampling of facts with varied supernatural, magical and pseudoscientific rituals and thereby create my own unique wellness forecasts! (Just kidding.)
Wellness trends are always affected by larger forces, not only in the huge health care system, but also by nationwide social trends, changing economics and even global developments, such as the current war on terrorism. Thus, while I speculate on wellness trends alone, the reader should realize that the broad wellness movement, just like the individual's effort to live a healthy and satisfying lifestyle, are and always will be very much affected and shaped by larger forces.
The first wellness trend worth noting is increasing acceptance of the idea that wellness is very different from traditional health education. Wellness is increasingly seen as a personal approach to self-managing one's existence in an effective manner. I favor the term "lifestyle artistry" to describe this mindset and have seen it in many wellness programs in the past year. "Not every artist lives well, but everyone who lives well is an artist" is one mantra for those who pursue this version of renaissance living, or modern wellness. In this context, the trend is for wellness to be seen as a perspective, not only for optimal health, but also for a life of balance, joy, love and many of those kinds of feelings we want to experience as often as possible.
This view also holds that we can look inwardly while still being responsible for "the commons" by reaching out in service to others. Wellness is one way that proactive people remind themselves of the big picture needed for living life so as to enjoy maximum freedom, including freedom FROM illness/ disability and premature death, to the extent possible. More importantly, it allows the freedom TO experience life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the fullest sense. Disease management programs still predominate, but genuine wellness as just described is the larger trend.
In a recent survey, 90 percent of respondents agreed that humor and play are of major importance in achieving personal health. How long will it take for doctors and other key players in the medical care system to make adjustments that accommodate this desire for a bit of lightening of the load of daily life? How long, for instance, before doctors routinely conduct humor tests during standard clinical history-taking exams or ask if the patients are getting enough play when assessing health status? This trend is still working its way into widespread acceptance in the general population, as opposed to the enthusiasm for it by early adopter types.
A second wellness trend is a continued interest by citizens in exploring the utility of alternative healers, particularly those who promote healthy lifestyles as part of a treatment process for varied physical and mental conditions. Of course, healing modalities are separate if complementary to the wellness idea, in my view, but this trend is so closely related to wellness that I thought it should be mentioned. There is a clear trend to seek alternatives to traditional medical services from authoritative, know-it-all and unresponsive physicians. Sympathetic, if often bizarre and questionable holistic healers, will at least listen and talk with you all day long, if you have the time.
Another clear trend is a focus on the part of many to desire a better balance between work and the rest of life. Personally, I believe that few people have any real sense for what an optimal balance might entail. The idea of balance is poorly defined or understood. I suspect the high attention given to the desire for balance as a wellness trend relates more to a felt sense of disquiet with the chaos, stress and unhappiness people feel for the life situations they face. MORE life satisfaction is the real desire, in my opinion, that lies behind the balance-seeking trend in society.
I'll mention a number of other trends tomorrow. For now, stay well and ALOTBSOL (always look on the bright side of life). If, to quote the lyrics of the Monty Python "Galaxy Song," that seems "hard or tough, and people seem stupid, obnoxious or daft and you feel that you've had quite enough," consider this:
"Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving, and revolving at 900 miles an hour, that's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned, a sun that is the source of all our power. The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see, are moving at a million miles a day, in an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour, of the galaxy we call the Milky Way."
It continues (rent the video "The Meaning of Life") but you get the idea. As Eric Idle would (and did) put it, "Pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space because there's bugger all down here on Earth."
(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MEANING DOMAIN under the skill area of meaning and purpose. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)
(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)
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