Living Well as One with Everyone
In all 12 of my Healing Habits posts, you won’t find any Artificial Intelligence. I am naturally stupid.
Yet, I shall have to use A.I. to assure and enhance my living in the near immediate future in order not to be displaced replaced by it. We can’t hide from the world we live in today. We must get into the habit of flourishing in it with ease and delight.
Shi*f^t happens! Shifts in our world are being nuke-propelled irreversibly by technology, globalization, climate change, pandemics, forced migrations, and dysfunctional politics. It’s our past bad habits that got us all here. We can’t bring ourselves down like this. We must find new and better ways to live, get along, get through it, and come out even better than ever. How?
“We cannot solve our problems
with the same thinking we used
when we created them.”Albert Einstein
We must rise above our habitual, simple-minded, win-or-lose, or win-at-any-cost operating system of the zero-sum game wherever possible. Instead, we must get into the healing habit of a win-win, all-inclusive, ‘open-sum’ game to survive and thrive.
This open-sum game is not new. Although inconsistently, you’ll see that we already play it expertly all the time and do not know it. We just have to up the game and open it to all so everyone will win more and lose less. By raising the water level figuratively, most boats will not get marooned, and the uplifted ones will sail better in a wider sea.
Zero-Sum Game:
There’s only one winner; it’s me against the world;
at best, it’s either us or them;
it’s all hell out there and in here.
No way out!Open-Sum Game:
Win or lose, we’re all in this together;
losers still lose but are not decimated or gone;
whenever possible, make it win-win.
Im-possible? I’m-possible!Metacardio©
It’s Nasty Out There
In a zero-sum game, for one to win, others must lose. In a high-stakes game, the loser must get badly hurt. In a survival zero-sum game, the defeated must go or die. In most such games, even the winners “lose” in costly ways. Remember the Iraq War? To be realistic, the world is sometimes like that. But it’s not universally or always like that.
And yet, many of us these days are so flushed with stress and anxiety that we have gotten into the habit of treating every interaction in our worlds as a zero-sum game. This horrible habit must be healed.
Particularly in politics and big-money business, the chips are in huge denominations. Because of that, most of the highest politicians and biggest moguls play this mortal zero-sum game all but exclusively and blatantly. Because the media spotlights are on them so much, that’s what we ordinary people see all the time. It leads us to believe that’s the way it is, everywhere and always.
But Not in Here If…
No, that is a gladiators’ kill zone, not our world. We need not and must not live there. We have a good history of a world opposite to that. Here are some familiar examples.
1. Post WWII, with an unplanned world population explosion, millions were going to die in famines, and another World War might break out for survival in a global food shortage—a zero-sum game.
Norman Borlaug and other agriculturists and economists innovated breakthrough technologies to grow massive amounts of affordable food in the 1960s Green Revolution. No World War, no famine, and even some food surpluses in the rich countries to this day—an ‘open-sum’ game.
2. Hitler and Japanese warlords played geopolitics as a survival zero-sum game. Fearing they were in peril while other nations were fat with riches, they started WWII. Unspeakable carnage and suffering resulted. World citizens feared even worse to come in the aftermath of such massive global devastation—a zero-sum game.
Yet, victorious Allies abandoned the zero-sum game after the war. We trusted there’d be enough for us all. And, if not, we would together create more to make it so. Our Marshall Plan assisted citizens in Germany and Japan to recover, rebuild, and later flourish. These two nations have since been peaceful, prosperous, friendly, and contributory to significant wealth, culture, technologies, and innovations to the world at large—an open-sum game.
3. Close to home, there’s a universal example of the superior and viable open-sum game. And that is with every person’s beloved family and friends.
Here, our hearts overcome the undue stress of the zero-sum horrible habit. Our open-sum game defies all business sense and basic math but ranks supreme over any other game we know. Workable labels for this can be togetherness, non-divisiveness, or inclusiveness. We can call it love for short, and for long.
With love,
when you subtract by giving it away,
it adds to you and others;
when you divide by spreading it around,
it multiplies all over.In calculating, love defies logic.
In life, you live by love beyond logic.Metacardio©
In a circle of loved ones, a zero-sum game could be like the unspeakably cruel ‘Sophie’s Choice’ (a WWII movie). “Which of your two children do you want us to shoot?” the Nazi asks the mother.
No, thank you. We choose the open-sum instead. We’re all in this together where no one is going anywhere, and no one will be left behind. No one needs to lose or get hurt badly. We’ll make it work with everyone in it. We already do this at home every day.
Now, that is a Healing Habit we must all get into. Since, like it or not, the whole world is already interconnected, why don’t we do the same beyond the home for the sake of better survival for us and for all? We did that and won big after WWII. We’ve got this.
Road Test for Healing Habit of Togetherness
To heal (root holos) means to make whole and make the best of whatever harm done. An open-sum game is a win-win scenario that makes everyone better, plus it fosters less conflict and stress, and more options and cooperation for all. It’s a healing habit.
Even if you’re not lucky enough to have a loving circle of family or friends around you right now, you’re still very good at this open-sum game all your life. Allow me to remind you how so. You’ve got this.
MINDSET RESET
The trillions of cells in your body are all different. Yet, they naturally work together as one, in perfect coordination and cooperation, for the greater good of the whole (you) and of everyone in it (all parts of you).
For example, even though your spleen has its own “identity” and self-interest, it never hates your guts or attacks your heart.
In fact, many of your body parts will sacrifice themselves to safeguard others. For example, if you’re hemorrhaging, your kidneys will shut down to preserve blood flow to your brain (although some people consider it only their second most vital organ).
Each tissue and organ in you is hardwired for self-preservation. Yet, it doesn’t hoard anything in excess at your entire body’s expense. If it does, that’s called obesity. And if it does so like an extremist, it grows into a tumor.
In you, if one body part selfishly jeopardizes the good of the whole, like a cancer, everything goes down with it. In many ways, the same is also true at home, in society, and on earth.
In our recent COVID pandemic, no one was safe unless all but everyone on the globe was safe. Even today, no matter how far apart we are, if people anywhere get infected, even if we don’t catch it directly from them, we all indirectly bear many bad ripple effects.
We now realize that some people who were once considered low-level personnel, like sanitation, custodial, store, farm, and kitchen workers, are very essential, even though many of them happen to be among the most vulnerable—minorities, migrants, and, of course, mothers.
As in our body, every element in our world makes a key contribution. We do need everyone at all levels of service.
Reality offers us no alternative —
‘We’re all in this together.’
EATING
Too much red meat, especially processed, is neither healthy nor environmentally favorable. Cows fart up a storm, literally—methane gas, greenhouse effect, extreme weather, you know the rest. So, that choice is not a win-win.
Try to make a habit of having at least 1 or 2 3M’s (meatless main meals) a week. As your taste changes by doing that, you can choose to increase the number. And as local or global environmental pressures change, you can re-dial.
Veggies, beans, and nuts are both healthy and environmentally friendly (unless deep-fried). So, it’s a win-win. Even frozen or canned, they can be just as nutritious, yet less expensive and easier to get. In this chart, the green choices are all win-win’s.
(From Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 11/12/2019 (46) 23357-62.)
MOVING
Consume (burn) more personal calories.
Conserve (save) more global energies.
The two happen to go hand-in-hand, such as walking instead of driving. A win-win.In an infectious disease epidemic, the advantage of a lower exposure makes walking or biking instead of motoring, and using stairs instead of elevators win-win choices.
Again, in any outbreak, open-air locations with fresh air circulation offer the best protection against infection and spread. They are also good for physical activities and getting in tune with Nature. Another win-win.
2-Minute Tip Sheet for
Healing Habit of Togetherness
Our recent COVID pandemic and climate catastrophes have forced us to change many of our old habits and routines. Why not change them in ways that are good (healing) in the long run and better than before, for you and everyone?
The humble pies from COVID and Mother Nature have opened our eyes to old dysfunctions as well as new potentials for a better and more inclusive future for one and all.By developing better eating and moving habits, we will get fitter and healthier while saving money and our environment, for one and for all.
In building a stronger resilience to stress, we reset our mindset for greater happiness and success, for ourselves and for all. Our longstanding “stress pandemic” may even end.
In a tough situation, this mindset reset always bails me out. I don’t ask, “What’s in it for me?” That is restrictive, lonely, and seldom works out too well. Instead, I ask, “How can I serve best here?” That frees my heart and my mind. It immediately opens up all kinds of options and cooperation from all involved. And in best serving the whole—with me in it—I always end up serving myself the most.
Some changes do come from the top down, but most must come from ourselves. And all you can realistically count on is only the changes you can make yourself.
The buck starts here.Repair yourself before you can have
your family together,
your nation governed,and peace on earth.”
-Confucius
Having to straighten yourself out first may seem daunting. Don’t forget you have a constant, built-in guidance system with limitless wisdom of The Way of Reality—your body. If you only quiet down, take some easy breaths, and listen, it will point you to the way you can take in your own way.
Then, we can compare and exchange notes with one another the world over since we are all connected and share much the same needs. Nature and collective human wisdom can provide further validation. None of us has to go it alone.“As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm.
As is the atom, so is the universe.
As is the human body, so is the cosmic body.
As is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind.”-The Upanishads
Each one of us only has one life to live, and one body to live that life. We must optimize it all we can, as soon as we can. Harmful habits harm. Healing habits heal. Don’t leave life to only happenstance, chance, or fate. Get into the Healing Habits you need and shape the destiny you want.
Your intention starts with your thoughts,
then it comes out in your words,
then they turn into your actions;
your actions become your habits,
your habits build your character,
thus, you have shaped your destiny.
-Common Sense Wisdom
Start with yourself.
Start here.
Start now.
Shape your destiny.
For one and for all.
You got this.
The images are curated from iStock with subscription.
Sorry, this article is long. I was running short on time. This twelfth stand-alone post is the last of a series, Healing Habits, based on the successful solutions of some 2000 patients and coworkers in a lifestyle clinical program. 2024
For a quick summary of all 12 posts, please see the Checklist post before them.
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