A Breath Of Fresh Air (Part 4, Environmental)

Each involuntary breathe is exercised under our own volition

If someone breathes in the woods and no one's there to hear - wait that's not it... What is the sound of one person breathing.... Again, not it.  What I'm trying to convey is the mystery or paradox of our involuntary functions and their correlation to our compulsory social responsibilities.  Though breathing is free (for now), what we breathe in has its costs.  Lower income locations in metropolitan areas, high industrious communities defile air qualities, emit nauseous fumes, and pollute the air, diminishing air visibility.  To see, breathe and be healthy are all (to an extend) free expressions of life.  This segment will discuss the fourth part of the seven dimensions of wellness, environmental health.

Our environment surrounds us and should protect us just as our own skin does.  Both allow us to move, and engage in the life we so value and to some extent possess.  Our environment consists of not only buildings, cars, houses, streets, trees, and the like, but also people, animals, and our air.  Though this earth is designed to renew itself, it is fragile and delicate in many areas.  Overuse and deforestation are causing compound problems that we're still uncovering today.  Our lives depend on the environment around us to such an extent that even small changes in climate or air quality can cause illness or worse.

To continue ahead on a less morbid note, I encourage you to, again, think with me about how our environment affects health in our society and more importantly us personally.  However, to think in a superficial level doesn't do us much good, just as most who would immediately relate environmental and health to respiratory issues and dehydration or hypothermia.  We on the other hand need to delve deeper into more reflective issues, in hopes to bring about answers to larger scales.  So, I'll pose a question to get us underway, are the best or most important things in life free?

Environmental health is a combination of factors and positions that have become larger than the possible solution.  This sheds light on the point that our environment is the victim of a lot of mishaps, capitalistic gains and poor design (in some instances).  Inasmuch, our health, unfortunately, follows the same series of actions.  Its mishaps on our part in the way we manage our health and our responsibility to make a more consorted effort to consume less and recycle more.  It is also capitalistic gains that affect our health and our environment alike.  With more unnecessary surgeries, poorer foods being more available, higher costs to be healthy, and poor locations for big business where people live and congregate.  Also, poor design has handled our health and environment in a similar fashion, with poor asset maps in under-served communities, and food deserts in highly populated areas.  While poor design, lauds its inefficient communities and healthcare systems in the faces of those who need it most.

Overall, our environmental health relies on us to take a more aggressive stance on what we buy, consume, and recycle.  Being conscious of who we are as citizens of a world, more so than of a neighborhood or town, can help us look to contribute, know and help more.  Creating environments within our environment that fosters more earth conscious members of the community, more savvy shoppers and people who take pride in giving back to one of the most generous resources we know, earth.

Okay, so what is the sound of one person breathing... or can we hear someone breathing in the woods by themselves, if no one is there? (yeah, I know... it doesn't make sense)  However, my point is this, our environmental health isn't some riddle or abstract thought that may never be answered, more than that it's a legitimate concern that needs all of us to do our share in making where we live, laugh, exist and breathe a better place.

Having a plan doesn't always mean you're ready, but, it means you're serious.