Individuality is not just about appearance.

Individuality is not just about appearance.

Humans vary both visually, medically and mentally

Despite the wishes of pharmaceutical companies and despite what they appear to teach in medical school, each human being is unique. In appearance, most people are roughly the same to look at, but almost all are different enough to be distinguishable. The huge range of mental and psychological possibilities mean that labelling an individual as belonging to such and such a group can be very misleading.

The inside working of the human body is also variable, most of us certainly have the exact same basic organs but the structure and efficiency of these organs vary. More importantly the interplay between the various organs and functions of the body mixed with the all-powerful mind and differences in education spatial awareness, comprehension, diet, exercise, lifestyle routines and chemical reactions within the whole system, mean people are as individual inside as out. One size does NOT fit all. Complicate this with very localised environmental issues and it is obvious that one medication, one diet change is not going to affect every person in the same way. This is why edicts that everyone should drink 2 litres of water a day are obviously daft. An 83-year-old who weighs 9 stone (126 pound) and who is 5ft 4 inch tall, cannot possible be same as a 25-year-old 18 stone (252 pound) 6 ft 6-inch-tall super athlete. We all vary slightly day by day, as we age, as our sleep period is changed, as our food intake varies, as our individual metabolism changes the nutritional intake we have, as our interaction with people and events around us vary. All of these things prove the old Taoist saying- the only constant thing in the universe is- change. The rider to that truth is that all change has a cost. Even events we have no control over, will cause subtle changes to every aspect of our wholistic being. If it is very cold, we feel different, in mood, mental agility and physical ability from how we feel on a pleasantly warm late spring day.

When we are tired, may be a little drunk, our attitude towards life and our “view” of the world is different from when we are rested, happy, sober and content. Nothing in our life has changed but how we perceive it does change. A variation of Quantum mechanics at work, the conditions of observation of an event, changes the reality of that event.

All of these variables, all of this constantly changing mix of physical, mental and psychological parameters affect our well-being. A “well adjusted” person needs to be constantly making subtle changes to themselves and how they interact with the world. They certainly cannot rely on someone else’s dictates as to how they should interact or behave. Just as medicines need to be tailored to the individual and mental health interventions adjusted to be suitable to the individual, at that specific time and that specific evaluation of need; so must exercise be suited to the person. Self-awareness ( defined as- Self-awareness is your ability to perceive and understand the things that make you who you are as an individual,) needs a bit of adjustment so that it also means being aware of the variations in your wholistic self, those changes that are continually happening. Adopting an exercise regime or schedule designed around a specific health or fitness requirement, needs to be reviewed occasionally. Taking medicines and even “natural remedies” need frequent re-evaluation. Even meditation should allow for the huge variations in ourselves, as each variant interacts with the wholistic self. Empty mind mediation is valuable as a “mental space” where none of the influencing factors is in control but even in this rigidity has dangers. Recognition of a need to adapt, is very valuable.

Some generalisations may be valid, a collection of people who all have a defined large amount of disposable income can be called rich and those with not enough to sustain an acceptable level of material wellbeing, may be described as poor. But to interpret these labels as implying anything other than relative amounts of disposable income, is not valid. An individual classed as “rich” may also be sick, they may also be physically or mentally impaired. While a person classified as poor may also be very physically fit and extremely intelligent. Naturally it is also possible for a person to be rich and fit and intelligent. One modern grouping appears to be the cult of celebrity through physical appearance, such TV entertainments as love island appears to have caused a classification or grouping of the glamourous by appearance, and to many younger people this seems to imply that if glamourous in appearance the individual must be a morally “good” person, intelligent and deserving of adulation. This is so obviously a dangerous assumptive conclusion, but it appears to be a media led generalisation.

Respect your own individuality, accept the constant variations in your own well-being and needs, recognise that everyone else also changes moment to moment. Avoid attempts to make yourself comply with someone else’s evaluation of what you need to “be like them.” You are yourself, take care of yourself, accept responsibility for yourself, do not believe the advertising that suggests if everyone has this product, if everyone takes this substance, all will be well with the world and all in it.