Socialized Medicine

But we’re often at our best when we’re together. Here’s a queue – what do you think they are lined up to achieve? Purchase the last video game, iPhone, or a clothing sale with magnificent discounts? (note the canes, a certain clue that those waiting online are Seniors) Perhaps they’re waiting to buy movie tickets rather than remain home to Netflix-and-chill.

That’s the central tenet of “social prescribing,” an approach to health that centers on getting involved in your community. Whether you’re taking a group exercise class at a studio nearby, volunteering with your favorite non-profit or joining a group focused on furthering a cause you care about, social prescribing is all about deepening connections to our fellow humans to improve our mental and physical health. (Crucially, it’s meant to complement, not supplant, conventional medicine.) The company of others mediates being stuck in our own heads and moderates our views and opinions. Sometimes we can learn and/or tell some good jokes to laugh aloud and limber a jaw tightened by tension and angst.

Here’s a blast from the past that addresses this issue obliquely: https://www.pjcolando.com/lifes-third-act/

But how to go about finding the right prescription? Author Julia Hotz, who wrote the book on social prescribing, identified “five pillars” to help find solutions:

• movement
• nature
• art
• service
• belonging.

I treasure the time I spend solo, a fugitive from regmentation and structure imposed by a clock. I’ve recently written about be a dink pro: https://www.pjcolando.com/category/dink-pro/

But that time is even sweeter when it’a contrasted with a day full of productivity and friendship in social service.  I find my best self doing service projects among a small group of like-minded peers. Recently I found myself in the fellowship hall of a church in the midst of the barrio in Santa Ana, CA. The shared purpose bonded us rapidly and completely and I’m eager to join the group endeavor again.