The health of the community rests on the foundation of individual self-care.

We can recognize that one of the most valuable assets in life is our health. An assignment that I am working on this semester has us creating a memo for a made up company focusing on inspiring employees to take action to improve their health and their families health, and ultimately the health of a community.

One of the suggested topics to incorporate in the project is a mantra to help people focus on why they are getting healthy and to stick to their goals and not give up. That’s where the title for today’s post comes from, “The health of the community rests on the foundation of individual self-care.”

It is a reminder that people are part of something greater than themselves, but that they play an integral role in making that community healthier as a whole. That can also serve as a reminder to anyone reading this that while you may be willing to compromise some aspects of your self-care, you make up part of something more and that we are an interdependent global community, where everyone does something to contribute, no matter how big or small.

Letting your health go has a compounding effect, not just on you, but on the people that you care about, and the people that have to help care for you should you ail, and it all gets framed into a bigger picture, where the collective efforts, or lack thereof, of individuals play a role in influencing how policies are made and money is spent to tend to the needs of the community, be it on a small scale or global.

Trends emerge in healthcare, new technologies are created, medicines are researched, some of these things benefit the whole community, while some are tailored to more specific individuals, and the theme here is that a vested interest in our collective health starts with one’s self-care and can free up time and brainpower for solutions to problems in health that are outside of our control.

This might sound like a lecture about why improving your health is important, and hopefully it serves as a wake up call that your well-being affects those around you. However, it comes from a place of sincere care, that we can move forward as healthier, and happier consequently, individuals that positively contribute to the health of the global community.