Part V: Steps to "Optimal Health"
The path to becoming healthy, and staying healthy
Before we rip into the final chapter, we should first establish that optimal health is subjective to an individual’s lifestyle. This makes it virtually impossible to create an optimal guide that is applicable to all human beings. However, at the base level, we do have the same requirements and accessibly replicable behaviors that we can all carry out to sustainably achieve longevity, resilience from objective and subjective threats, and to ultimately grow as a species.
Also, the word “Optimal” is actually a misnomer. Everything is constantly in flux and therefore, subject to change. Optimal is the condition of perfection given certain static circumstances. It just isn’t possible to reach optimal health of all the cells in our bodies at any one time, let alone continuously. The human body, like all biological entities and systems, is constantly changing in response to external pressure and due to the transference of energy down a gradient.
Now that we have the semantics out of the way, we can use the term “Optimal” as a placeholder for “as good as we can get right now given our current understanding of biological systems, the global systems, and the universe.”
Repeating what we’ve discussed in the other chapters ad nauseam, you cannot operate a system in isolation without being affected by, or having an effect on, the external environment. In laymen’s terms: Everything happens for a reason. Or the physics equivalent: Matter cannot be created nor destroyed. This is why a manual about operating the human body cannot be contained to the lifestyle choices of an individualistically minded person within our current cultural landscape. Therefore, unless we want to keep fighting a losing battle, we need to integrate change that is inline with creating a sustainable future for us all. This is the late stage explanation for why we’ve included so many seemingly unrelated ideas on this website. Compared to the typical health blog format that promises abundant health with the simple daily routine of yoga, green smoothies, and coffee enemas.
Some of these tools have utility, but you’ll never gain true autonomy, or freedom from “spiritual” con-artists, until you understand why you are using these techniques in the first place. I can almost guarantee that optimal health has nothing to do with Westernized karma, a form of ego-driven conscious control of the universe (typically proposed to be absent of ego), or being forced to stay in a toxic relationship with an omnipotent entity, with a self-esteem so low that it demands constant love and attention.
Keeping these finnicky prerequisites in mind, we will do our best to categorize human societal groups into the following categories, so that we can draw up simplified templates that can be developed further and implemented:
- Individually: Building personal systems that allow one to thrive regardless of changing conditions.
- Peer to Peer: Conversing and working with others synergistically to neutralize the current default competitive settings.
- Communally: Creating entities representative of the collective individuals, that act to benefit the members through sustainable and futureproof methods.
- Globally: Species-wide interactions which promote equity and unity.