Guest opinion: 5 fundamentals for navigating coronavirus distress

For all of us, our physical health has become a daily consideration. In the past, we might have taken our health for granted. Not anymore.

Jake, who is married and in his 40s, never thought much about caring for himself. When the coronavirus forced him to work from home, he began to worry about how long he would have a job. If he wasn’t working, how was he going to pay the bills? His worrying turned into chronic anxiety and soon he wasn’t getting more than a few hours of sleep each night. He then began to have intestinal tract symptoms. Would he survive if he became exposed to the coronavirus?

Have you ever wondered what it means to have total health and wellness? Nearly everyone who works in the fields of medicine and psychology now recognize that our physical health is also dependent on our mental and emotional well-being, as well as the quality of our relationships. We call this “health integration.”

So, how can we develop improved health integration?

In some cultures, the heart represents the whole individual — not just their emotions. Indeed, we could imagine that a person who was truly heartless would lack the core qualities of being human. It is easy to see the differences between someone who is disheartened or half-hearted and someone who is wholehearted.

People in one Central American community greet each other with the question, “How goes your heart?” Because our hearts characterize who we are, we can use this question to review our own sense of wellness and well-being. The five essentials of total health integration create the acronym, “HEART.”

• Health — physical wellness based on the principles of healthy living. Consider how you are taking care of yourself. Our health depends on getting adequate sleep, drinking enough water and eating well. Also, it is important to stay active. Walking is the best all-around exercise, and you can do that in your home. Research has shown that the routine of daily activity reduces stress.
• Emotions — emotional balance and enjoyment through self-understanding. Know how to take care of yourself emotionally. Deep-breathing, enjoyable music, meditation, playing with children’s toys (such as blocks), doing a puzzle, etc. These individual activities help us destress because they reduce anxiety.
• Awareness — conscious use of our mental abilities. Stay active and use your mind creatively. Make time to learn something new such as taking an on-line course, reading an entertaining book, expanding your knowledge about a hobby, etc. Awareness engagement creates mental health dividends.
• Relationships — caring and satisfying connections with others. For everyone, conversation is the most common means to stay connected. It is good to have at least five people that we can talk with including family members, friends, colleagues and others. We should try to have positive conversations about topics other than our problems. Face-to-face conversations in real time are helpful through the use of Skype, Google Duo, FaceTime, etc.
• Transcendence — enrichment through inspiring and uplifting influences. This is a good time to focus on uplifting endeavors. Any activity that is elevating, inspiring or enriching will buoy us. Yoga, enjoying art and music or appreciating nature can be transcendent. Even though we cannot attend religious services, we can be enriched by prayerfulness, reading uplifting books, watching positive on-line presentations, etc.

Health integration is fundamental because it incorporates the five essentials of physical wellness and emotional well-being. Each of these essentials impacts the other four. Together they regulate our overall health. When these essentials are primarily constructive, we become more resilient, develop richer relationships and reinforce positive beliefs about ourselves. In order to be healthy and well-adjusted, we cannot afford to overlook any of these requirements.

If one of these health components deteriorates, the other four areas will often be adversely affected. For example, inadequate sleep impacts our physical health, but it also creates problems with our emotions, our awareness and cognitive functioning, as well as our relationships and our ability to feel connected.

The five HEART essentials of health integration help us understand how to achieve a greater degree of physical wellness, emotional well-being, life satisfaction and enjoyment. All of us can learn how to better develop these essentials. Our exploration will demonstrate how to develop more comprehensive health wellness and greater emotional well-being.

Challenging opportunities

These are challenging times. The current global pandemic is a real risk to our physical wellness and is a source of stress in other aspects of our health. …