Dear friends, acquaintances and business partners,
in view of the comprehensive lockdown in which our country once again finds itself, we will spend an unusual Christmas, and New Year’s Eve will also find it very difficult to earn its name this time.
Before the festive season, I would like to leave you with a question that has not played much of a role in the “Corona crisis” so far:
What is health?
The WHO definition is: “Health is a state of comprehensive physical, mental and social well-being and not merely freedom from disease and debility.”
By this definition, hardly any of us are healthy. Everyone has periods of unwellness and no one is free from physical, mental or social deficits. So health must be something else.
Now comes the good news: most of us know what a healthy state is. It happens when we don’t think about health!
As a child, like most of my generation, I spent my free time playing outdoors with friends. Every day we had adventures. Of course, we also hurt each other, got angry and argued, but health was hardly ever the issue. We almost all know this “paradisiacal” state – it is a central aspect of health!
So it is essential that we take charge of our lives and not worry about illness or death for a certain period of time. That is why modern societies are structured in such a way that everyone can pursue their hobbies and interests. We celebrate parties, enjoy culture, go on holiday or go to a restaurant for a nice evening out.
It would now be naïve to assume that we can maintain this state as a permanent condition. Instead, we need in our thinking the adult balance between life on the one hand and death on the other. The healthy state is the balance between these two poles.
A society that is fixated daily only on reports of infections and deaths and thus emphasises fear as a permanent negative emotion has lost this balance.
Especially in public, i.e. in the sphere in which we all move, the balance between the two poles of “life” and “death” must be maintained so that the majority of people are able to preserve their health – in the sense described above.
Everyone can do their bit to ensure that we do not just remain on the negative side of the spectrum, because life is worth living!
Don’t let yourself be pulled too much to one of the two sides! Because both poles have their right to exist and make us healthy people.
In this spirit, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Yours sincerely
Stefan Schütz