Thoughts on how the social determinants of health influence your control over your own lifestyle choices.
I had this thought today: life is made up of moments and those moments are the result of all your choices big and small.
That is both a terrifying and exciting thought.
The idea that we are in control, free to make our own choices, that we are the captains of our ships, the authors of our own life stories, the creators of our own destinies (pick your own metaphor) pops up everywhere in popular culture.
These stories of self-determination are inspiring. Being in control of your own destiny is a very empowering thought.
But what happens when things don’t go as you plan? Are you a failure? Is it because you made bad choices or is there an alternative explanation?
One famous concept in public health is the social determinants of health developed by Dahlgren and
Whitehead in 1991. I like to think of it as an onion with layers that you peel back. It is a great framework for understanding our own health in the context of our communities and the larger society we live in.
At the core of the onion are the things we cannot control like our DNA, our age and our height for example. As we move out through the layers we hit areas that are seemingly in our control such as our individual lifestyles which include habits such as exercise and diets. Further out we find factors that appear to be somewhat in our control such as our social networks including friends and family.
As we keep going through the layers we find general socioeconomic, cultural and environmental factors which affect our health such as working environment, housing and access to health care to name a few.
These layers are all built upon each other and connected.
Going back to my initial thought about how our lives are made up of moments that we choose, it is worth reflecting on how even the choices that we believe are within our control are, in fact, interwoven with other areas of our lives that are more or less outside our control. Our environment, where we work, where we live, how we get from place A to B, traffic, air pollution, whether we have access to trails and nature. Other factors include our income, vacation time, our families and friends, our social networks, and so on.
These are a lot of factors that come together and affect our everyday life as well as our health and wellbeing. And this doesn't even touch upon our inner lives; our emotions, motivations and resilience (which are some of my favorite topics so more blog posts are coming soon!).
To answer my own question, "If I fail, am I a failure?" the answer is a resounding no. We live in a complicated world where our lives are influenced by many factors outside of our control.
So, what to do? Should we just throw our hands up and give up? Of course not. Health outcomes are not binary. Even in a complex world with forces outside our control, there are many principles we can draw on to improve our health and wellbeing: optimism, empowerment, resilience and grit to name a few. In my work and my own life I focus on working out and flexing those inner muscles which can help you steer that ship through these choppy waters.
I am working on some really exciting workshops and posts on these topics. Meanwhile check out my earlier blog post on overeating and why breaking this cycle is so hard.
I leave you with one questions until next time; what is one thing you would like more of in your life?
Yorumlar