By Martha Wiedemann
Social wellness is essential for personal wellbeing. There are certain elements within the structure of our societies that contribute to people feeling inferior, excluded, disadvantaged, segregated and subjected to injustice. This creates disease within our communities, which eventually debilitates everyone unless we take the necessary measures to cure and heal rather than treat symptoms using Band-Aids or painkillers. The key is not in how we fight the disease but in understanding and working through it.
If we look at our community, country or better still, the human race to resemble the form of the human body, we will understand the importance of total wellbeing. Each part of our body has a unique function and purpose. The arms do not do what the eyes do, and we do not discriminate on their importance. If one part of our body is injured or diseased, we feel unwell as a whole, and it takes the whole body to participate in the healing process. Similarly, we need to pull together in our communities to eradicate the misuse of power and implement methods to protect the vulnerable and help strengthen those who are weak and impoverished. We need to forgive, accept and recognize the full value of each other. This is how we treat the cause of disease rather than its symptoms. The disease prevails if we do not come together as one to rebuild, heal and recover from what has broken us.
Prevention of disease is just as important as its cure. Building a strong immune system for our communities is what sustains it. The need to compete, conquer, attain and assert power only leads to an unhealthy divide. It is in uniting that we reconcile, in nurturing we strengthen, in accepting we progress and in forgiving, we find liberation.
We are unique rather than different. The beauty of creation is that no two beings are alike. There is actually great importance in this. Each of us are specific in our creation to enrich the communities and the world we live in. Let us recognize and give value to our life and all life on this planet, prioritizing the wellness of each other. We are one.