Rebuilding Well-being Begins With The Individual

Isaiah 55:6

 

⁶ Seek the Lord while he may be found,
    call upon him while he is near;

Taking responsibility for our life and for the lives of those committed to our care is a responsibility that is being eroded in our culture causing a dependency on external agencies that can, and often do let us down when we most need them. The people I come across express a dissatisfaction with the level of wages in relation to the cost of living as well as with the ‘social wage’ of health, housing, education and welfare provision. People feel they have provided the wealth they have created via increasing taxes but are experiencing a diminishing return. People feel poorer. 

Family and community care are the primary scenes of the care and nurturance that ensures our individual and family well-being. 

The creation of healthy, nurturing and enriching environments in the family, in schools and in the wider community depends on each member of the community looking after their own health and well-being as best they can. This ‘self-care’ is a form of wealth creation. It creates a  ‘surplus’ of well-being that can be shared with others. This establishes and promotes an ‘economy of well-being’. It provides resources for all its members. Self-care is not a selfish radical individualism that disregards those with fewer well-being resources. An economy of well-being is based on individual self-care in order to be able to care for people with whom we are intimately linked, namely our family and functionally linked with, namely the wider community. 

The starting point is the individual, family and community forming interdependent not dependent relationships. It’s based on the principle of maximising and maintaining individual freedoms while minimising interference with that freedom from external authority or the State.  The State becomes a ‘facilitator ‘of family and community resources, not the director or indeed the dictator over individuals, families and their communities. 

The Judeo-Christian principle of the Love of G-d and love of neighbour underlines these principles with the care for others built on the foundation of care for the self, family and wider community. We can make a start on the rebuilding of the self-care / care of neighbour pathway by having a review of our Faith and Feelings, Family and Finances, Friends and Food and Fitness for the Future balance in our lives. 

Some folks need to begin by reducing stress and anxiety and getting into the position where they have enough energy to make a start. Some need to escape the endless distractions of life so they can concentrate long enough to make some progress. Others of us need to cultivate some positive feelings for ourselves and others and develop the skill of simply sitting long enough to experience the space to recover the person we were created to be and rebuild our families  and community.

A few years ago a small group of disciples asked me to explore such a process of creating the energy, concentration, positive regard and space to begin to recognise the persons G-d created us to be. I have been asked to provide some of the materials used by that group. The materials work through the skills that group found helpful in beginning the ‘self-care’ pathway that leads to healthy families and community.  They are drawn from the tradition of Christian meditation and contemplation. I have personally found them helpful.  I hope you find them useful.

Maranatha

Thanks to:

John Main, OSB: WCCM (https://wccm.org/)

Fr Thomas Keating (https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/centering-prayer-method/)

Richard Rhor (https://cac.org/)

Kenneth D Boa: Conformed to His Image: Zondervan

The Open Space Meditation Group