In her essay, "The Grand Unified Theory of Female
Pain", author Leslie Jamison beautifully weaves her own self-styled battle
being a "Wound-Dweller" with the literary analysis of female
characters who also dwell in their own wounds. She so eloquently says, "The
moment we start talking about wounded women, we risk transforming their
suffering from an aspect of the female experience into an element of the female
constitution—perhaps its finest, frailest consummation." In essence,
discussing women's' experiences as having wounds and struggles equates to them
/being/ victims to those wounds.
The ancient Greek Menander once said: “Woman is a pain that
never goes away.” While he was likely using witty satire to poke a bit at women,
the truth is that many women (and men) in our society live with the pain of
stress that has increased tenfold or more in the past few decades. This stress
isn’t just related to our work lives, but is pervasive throughout every aspect
of our lives, and effects those around us – who are also living this existence of
stress – with secondary stressors that compound their own suffering.
In essence, we are a society of walking wounded – and our “Zombiepocalype”
of depression and anxiety-ridden people isn’t too far off from the favorite TV
show – and I would say minus the brains, but they /are/ Paleo.
This compounded chronic stress isn’t just effecting our
mental health, but also our physical health. We are a Nation with more than
just an “Obesity Epidemic” or a “Health Crisis”. We are a Nation of people who
are literally killing ourselves through this cycle of brain/body illness. Even our
wellness talk has more to do with disease and lack of being well than it does
with solving the problem.
Our solutions seem to be increasing the rigor of our assessments of each other and ourselves. Just as we are over testing our children with outrageous amounts of standardized testing and heightened expectations of them to master sports and other extra-curricular skills, to get good grades and be model children, we’re holding ourselves to unachievable levels of “perfect” lives like the ones we carefully curate on social media.
Our solutions seem to be increasing the rigor of our assessments of each other and ourselves. Just as we are over testing our children with outrageous amounts of standardized testing and heightened expectations of them to master sports and other extra-curricular skills, to get good grades and be model children, we’re holding ourselves to unachievable levels of “perfect” lives like the ones we carefully curate on social media.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to realize that the very answer to
our healing, and to healing our families and communities from this lemming like
rush to the cliffs of physical and mental illness, has nothing to do with
adding more rigor and work to our already taxed lives, but lies in the very
thing we crave? Those of us over 40 should remember the old bath salt
commercial for Calgon, right? “Take me away…” to revitalize, rejuvenate, and
refresh ourselves and our bodies and minds.
Allow me to show you how! In this talk, I will share the
first steps towards healing our own bodies and minds, and introduce you to how
we can empower others in our lives – our family, friends, neighbors, students,
clients, and entire communities – and then provide you with an opportunity to
learn more!
Stay tuned for the LIVE FEED of my Talk, coming soon! (...but for now, friend me on Facebook www.facebook.com/jonnikhatsantschi for more about Changing the Narrative of Health!)
<3 ~Jonni Khat Santschi
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