Steps to an Ecology of Wellness:

Addressing the complexities of our lives

“And yet the great paradox is that the self is not a fixity but a perpetual fluidity, reshaped by every experience we have: every love and every loss, every person we meet, every place we visit, and every book we read.”
Maria Popovo

“What we perceive easily is difference and change — and difference is a relationship.” — Gregory Bateson

Wellness is defined by the Oxford Languages as “the state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal.” Ecology, when applied to communication, refers to the understanding that our overall well-being is based on our relationships being viewed as interdependent. Living our lifestyle in a healthy manner is about practicing an Ecology of Wellness.

Given the complexities of our existence within a complex world, we can easily succumb to faking it, for example, by rationalizing the good feeling of what our taste buds crave when we know it may not be healthy. This can also manifest in our everyday interpersonal encounters, where we fail to consider the broader perspective and consequences of our behaviors. Then again, our media conditions us by providing short-sighted solutions that often rely on over-the-counter and/or prescription pharmaceutical fixes. Thus, we have been made to bear with some form of misinformation, but for how long and at what pace, price, and quality?