Last video, I talked about what it means to listen to experts within a particular domain.
So that when health experts are speaking, they’re speaking within the domain of health, so listening to them is probably a good idea when it comes to health, but there are no experts for life overall.
And if you know of any, please let me know.
I’d like to learn from them.
Because it seems like an expert can only be within a particular field.
So it made me think about these fields, and what it means that we have this domain of health, and it’s clearly a very important domain that’s part of life, and yet it’s not everything.
So of course, if we don’t have any health at all, then we don’t have any life.
So it’s certainly a necessary part of life.
And if our health is in a very bad state, then it’s going to be very difficult to do anything with life, to be able to appreciate life, to do all the things that could be considered part of a normal and full life.
So there’s no question that we need health in order to have life.
And yet, where are the limits of that? Because health alone does not give us life.
It does not give us a full life.
It does not answer everything we need to know.
Being healthy is clearly not everything.
Because it’s so important, it’s easy to understand why many people take it to be this core central focus of life, being healthy.
People that are very, very focused on doing everything to optimal health, in many ways seems to be good.
It can lead to a good state of health, and that can be a great foundation for life.
But health is only a foundation for life.
It’s not complete.
Just being healthy does not complete your life.
So right now we’re in a situation where we can really kind of see this contrast, because everything that’s happening right now is for the purpose of protecting health.
So we are taking all these measures in order to avoid disease and try to protect the health of millions of people.
And we are following the recommendations of experts who are telling us what is the best way to protect our health.
And because health is so important for life, it’s very understandable, and makes a lot of sense to follow along.
And yet we see the limitations of this, in that we can see what is it about our lives that are changing now, what are we missing? We can see that we have now health.
If we’re in isolation, we’re safely at a distance from other humans, and most of us have our health.
And those who do can notice what else is missing.
What else do we need? What is not complete about life simply by being healthy? And you could imagine a state of perfect health, where we follow exactly every recommendation as best as possible, and you know, possibly never go outside.
If it’s calculated that the risks of going outside and catching a contagion are greater than the health benefits of going outside, we can make a calculation that OK, I should never leave my home again.
And that may be a good calculation in terms of remaining healthy.
But how far are we willing to go for health? How much life are we willing to give up? How much of the things that we love to do, the things that give us fulfillment, that make us feel alive, that give a fullness and a purpose and a value to our lives, how much are we willing to give up in order to preserve health, to preserve physical life? So I find that this scenario, this situation, gives an interesting opportunity to look at the contrast and the differences between this idea of being healthy and being alive.
Of course, we need to be healthy, we need health to be alive, but what else are we missing, and what can we do about it?
#fulllife #beyondhealth #healthylife