Translator: Vivian Chen Reviewer: Denise RQ
What is health?
It's something that's important to all of us.
It's a quality that's dependent on the things that we want to do.
It's about reaching our dreams,
looking at our own goals,
and looking at life from our perspective in a way that can be wonderful.
But for many of us in America,
the story is more about what health is not.
One in two of us are living with some type of chronic disease,
whether it is high blood pressure, or diabetes, or some type of stress,
or some type of mental illness.
Many of us are dealing with those things.
And two in four of us are living
with 2 or more of those types of health condition.
How are we connected?
This brings to mind some of the people in my life
who have greatly impacted me and why I care so much about health.
My uncle, a young man in his 40s,
who we'll will call a preacher man,
great prolific preacher,
was going all over his community, sharing wonderful words of wisdom,
loved by his community,
had a beautiful wife, beautiful children.
He is doing what he does, and he goes to the doctor one day,
and the doctor tells him
that he has high blood pressure,
and that he needs to lose a little bit of weight
or he could end up dead within a year.
My uncle responded to the doctor and said to him,
"I think I'll be OK.
I'm going to keep doing my work. I'm going to keep serving."
And so my uncle went back to what he was doing.
But unfortunately, my uncle, who was a young man,
was dead about a week later after going to the doctor.
I have another friend whose brother was in his prime,
an engineer, a professional doing well, beautiful family.
His wife takes their daughter to school one day,
the daughter comes back home.
He should have been at work.
He is dead. He is lying in the bathroom.
As it turns out, he has high blood pressure.
One in two of us.
But how are we connected?
Today and even now, many of you have your cellphones.
We love our social media. It's not a bad thing.
We tweet, we instagram, we snapchat, we facebook,
we get a lot of information out, and we get it out quickly.
But the question becomes
how connected are we really?
When we are really connected and have social support,
we're not only sharing interest, but we're sharing our ups and downs,
our highs and our lows,
our own social support networks,
people who we are connected to.
I don't know about you, but some days,
when it comes to these different chronic issues we deal with,
sometimes I want to deal with stress by eating a large piece of cake.
Anybody here like that?
Some good ice cream.
Anybody can testify to that?
I enjoy those things.
However, if we find that our connections,
even beyond our social media,
are all stressed out,
and we are all coping with things in the same way,
and we all sit on the couch all of the time, not some of the time,
then our connections may be a little bit of a hindrance.
What if we want to have an apple instead of the ice cream
one day of a week to relief stress,
but all of our friends don't really want to do that?
When it comes to our support and our health,
does that become an issue?
Do we sometimes feel like we may need to make new friends?
My idea when I think about this
is what if we, as health people,
as health educators, as health promoters,
you, me, all of us who are leaders here, who are listening today,
what if we start to think about health in a new way?
What if the next time you decided to go and walk,
or get off the sofa, or go bicycling,
or just start something new by walking around the lake,
what if you were required,
requested in your group class or your corporate wellness class
to meet somebody new face to face?
We know that when we meet with people face to face,
like we are doing today,
that it boosts our immune system, it decreases our blood pressure.
What if through these classes, we actually had to meet somebody?
We can add social media,
but what if our classes required us to meet with someone once a week,
to go out of our way,
to make a new connection that would be better for our health,
to sign a contract that wasn't just about the amount of weight we were losing,
but it was about making new connections?
What if it became about you becoming a leader in your own social group,
regardless of demographics, regardless of background,
regardless of race, regardless of anything?
What if you became the leader and started a new movement,
and started your own social support groups?
What if in that Zumba class,
instead of staring at the teacher
and hoping the person next to you does not disturb your routine,
or talks to you, or gets you off step,
what if you were required to reach out instead?
What if you, would if I, would if we,
develop our culture of health that means we care about connecting?
What if we realize that our social health
is just as important as our physical health and our mental health?
On behalf of my uncle, who died at a young age,
who was a great orator,
I wanted to invite you to become an innovator
in your circle, with your family, with your mom and dad and uncle,
and begin a new tradition, and begin a new social support circle
that stops us from being one in two, that makes our numbers different,
and gives us positive health for years to come.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)