Embedded Health Movement

Maybe the best way to get past barriers is to not even know we are going through them.

Health isn’t a single, isolated thing. You can’t lift weights every day and automatically be healthy, just like you can’t eat vegetables and all of a sudden be healthy. Health is the cumulation of many behaviors, thoughts, external factors, knowledge, and decisions. So the more aspects of our lives that include aspects of health; the better. But, on the flip-side, it would probably be just as unhealthy if we spent all day every day thinking about health, that’s why I’m hoping there will be an Embedded Health Movement.

Sustainable nutritional health doesn’t come from an extreme diet or 7-day cleanse. Sustainable mental & emotional health doesn’t come from reading one self-help book. Sustainable physical health doesn’t come from a 1-hour pain-inducing personal training session as your first workout in years. Who wants to sustain pain like this? I don’t think extreme actions like these are teaching our brains, or our bodies that this is good for us, or something to keep doing over a long period of time.

Being surrounded by things that are negative & unhealthy has a negative impact us. But, I believe the opposite is true as well; if we are surrounded by things that are positive and have health embedded in them, we will be happier and healthier.

There is a famous thought from Jim Rohn that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. I think there is some truth in this, but in a broader sense I think we are gradually, but ultimately greatly influenced by the things we are surrounded by and consume/interact with the most. So that includes what’s playing on TV, what we read, ads, our email, the apps we use, what types of conversations we have, and many other aspects to our lives.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve always had some consistent themes, or a common ‘thread’ run through my thinking and projects. Things like sustainable health, happiness, individuality, & collaboration, among others.

As I’ve been trying to find the best way to capture that ‘thread’ in a sentence or two, I’ve realized there is another layer to the way I think about health. I almost always think about ways to achieve things like health and happiness in very subtle ways, they are very rarely explicitly about fitness, wisdom, or diet. I try to embed some of the thinking and principles that lead to health in the projects, rather than making the project explicitly about that.

There are often major barriers to all forms of health (mental, emotional & physical). To try to tackle those head-on can be really tough; and probably too daunting for most people to even start.

So how do we embed some of the things we know about psychology, the brain, habits, and happiness into our products, initiatives, and every day life?

I’ve learned a bit about (but always working to better implement :) the value of things like exercise, meditation, mindfulness, the food system, the environment, to name a few. I happen to love learning about this stuff and actively seek it out, but they can all be quite intimidating and complex; which I think creates a barrier for most people to learn, implement, and benefit.

I guess what I’m trying to say is I have a hunch there can be tremendous power in a softer delivery of all the amazing wisdom and knowledge the world currently possesses, and what we are discovering every day with new thinking, observation, and research.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if 50% of companies could fall under the category of ‘Health,’ in addition to their core category.

I do sense there is a positive shift happening. There are more and more conversations around company culture, employee happiness, knowing your ‘why,’ mindfulness, new types of schools & ways to learn, the environment, consumerism, collaboration, etc.

I don’t write about this because I think I’m an expert; far from it, but that’s kind of the point. More people and companies can include things that contribute to health without the fear of not being an expert, or not being a ‘health’ company. If our intentions are good, I think something good will come of it.

My hope is to introduce ideas that fit into this Subtle or Embedded Health Movement as well as highlight some people or companies that I think are also doing this. I’m currently exploring the best ways to do this.