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Helen’s Place LLC Update: July 1, 2023
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Ben Franklin
Prevention is the key to ensuring that potential failure is transformed into success; mental illness to well-being; and homelessness to security.
Basic Needs
Prevention begins at the earliest age when children need:
- Before/after school care – to foster nurturing;
- A family with housing support – to avoid homelessness;
- Nutritious food and free school lunch programs – to ensure well-being;
- Instruction and tutoring – to facilitate learning;
- Mental health support – to head off more severe mental illness later.
America would be a better society if more people understood the connection between fulfillment of needs and life scarring events – and prevented them from occurring in the first place.
Unfortunately, it’s often after the damage is done that people step in to help – like moving people out of trailer parks after hurricanes demolishes them, rather than giving people strong buildings to live in to start with.
As it turns out, human beings are more fragile than they appear, and that’s why basic human needs must be met to have a chance at a decent life.
This fact is obvious to many, but scoffed at by those who believe that life should be “every man for himself,” like a version of the Hunger Games.
The truth is that those who do manage to survive, may have psychological damage that effects their life decisions negatively for the rest of their lives.
Additionally, people require more than just their basic needs to go beyond survival for a successful life – they need emotional fitness to deal with a tough world.
Emotional Fitness
American society is becoming more complex and confusing all the time with the rapid increases in political unrest, social media and disinformation.
This is why people need emotional fitness training to learn to cope and function effectively, and this education isn’t provided in most American schools or at home.
There’s strong evidence that leaving people on their own to figure life out in the school of hard knocks isn’t working.
People don’t know how to raise self-confident, emotionally fit children in today’s environment, let alone to be emotionally fit themselves.
Adding to the confusion, is that all humans are unique and therefore no one-size-fits-all education helps an individual become the best they can be. The hope is that since there’s so much information about psychology and human behavior known today, that better educational systems can now be designed to address problems an individual faces.
But society appears to be eroding fast. In recent years, spikes in suicides, violence and mental illness, indicate that emotional fitness is at a low point in America – as adults and children act out and behave badly.
There are so many cases of this, as exemplified by a 6 year old bringing a gun to school and shooting his teacher on March 21, 2023. In general, the rise in gun violence across the country is alarming.
People are aware that things are going haywire in American culture, but are choosing the wrong solutions – like believing that limited freedom of speech, book banning, and watering down language or avoiding reality will improve the situation.
The decision by the Supreme Court to strike down affirmative action in higher education, in order for people to compete on individual merit, is an example of the misguided, “every man for himself” approach that isn’t working.
Unfortunately, believing that we are all equal and everyone will be treated as such without laws to get people to do the right thing, is a pipe dream. Any type of disillusionment or wishful thinking like this is a form of lying, with significant consequences that add to the erosion of society.
Lying, especially to oneself, undermines emotional fitness, which is the ability to be strong minded despite adversity.
Also, there are people standing by to exploit flaws in the law, to take advantage of those less fortunate or weak minded who are most affected by it. We’re seeing this played out in real time by people, companies, and political groups using social media for nefarious purposes – and without legal regulations to stop them.
In fact, on May 23, 2023, The Surgeon General issued a warning that social media was bad for children and teen’s mental health because their brains weren’t fully formed. As it turns out, social media can be bad for people with fully formed brains too, and this is contributing to the suicide rates and violence across America.
The warnings are clear – that now’s the time to help people get basic needs met and learn emotional fitness skills to become less vulnerable.
Learning skills are critical – like discernment and how to spot a fraud; how to decipher fact from fiction; and how to resist disinformation which can lead to being manipulated and scammed.
Resistance training should be part of an emotional fitness curriculum, from third grade to old age, which would help people learn constructive action in tough. complicated times.
Emotional fitness would also help people address the question, “What makes the pain that occurs in the normal course of life, become more bearable without being illegal or injurious to one’s health?
The answer is unique to every person, but emotional fitness training – which includes how to reduce exposure to social media by picking other activities – like exploring nature, would be beneficial.
We have birds in trees, for example – which can be a constant source of comfort if we attune ourselves to benefit from the outdoor experience.
Yes, political unrest, Supreme Court decisions, social media and disinformation may cause society to erode, but it’s possible to make people’s lives better by focusing on basic needs and emotional fitness training to withstand the stress.
Related audio/video recording:
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued warning about the negative effects social media can have on the mental health of young people.
CBS News, May 23, 2023, “Surgeon General Issues Warning About Social Media for Young People”
Other related article you may be interested in:
The rulings of the Supreme Court add stresses to society through milestone rulings affecting affirmative action, discrimination, and student loan debt relief.
Washington News (AP), Jessica Gresko, June 30, 2023, “The Supreme Court Just Issued Its Biggest Rulings of the Year. Here’s What You Need to Know.”
Helen’s Place makes the case for the need for emotional fitness training.
Helen’s Place LLC, May 11, 2022, “Cognitive Science and How to Develop Independent Thinkers”
Helen’s Place LLC is an information and educational materials company celebrating English Language Arts, Cognitive Science and the love of birds. It’s the maker of printed instructional, educational, and teaching materials for children and adults in the field of English Language Arts and Cognitive Science.
Your comments are greatly appreciated. Send them to Helen’s Place LLC via email to info@helensplacenet.com. We’re always interested in learning more about you and the issues that are important to you.
