Interdependent Health
To flourish, we rely on 4 interdependent systems of health.
4 Interdependent Systems of Health
Physical Health
Our physical health is the basis for all our activity in the world. When we feel good physically and mentally, we have the resources to show up for one another.
Mental Health
Individual mental health is intimately connected to physical health and social health. Without healthy minds, we cannot be at peace and collaborate effectively with one another as well as with the many beings in our environment.
Social Health
Social health is essential to mutual flourishing! We rely on one another for everything we have.
Environmental Health
Our environment comprises a multitude of beings (seen and unseen by us), who are alive and many are also sentient. We are a part of their environment, and they are a part of ours. Environmental health therefore includes the physical and mental health of all nonhuman beings.
Without environmental health—clean air and water, nutrient-rich soil, etc.—our physical health suffers.
Physical health supports social health: when we feel good physically, we can be a resource for one another.
Conversely, when our social structures are set up in overly draining and pressured ways, physical and mental health suffer as a result.
The nourishment and engagement of each system is crucial to the health of all beings and the earth itself.
The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently. —David Graeber
