Creating a Culture of WellBeing
[Applause]
here
in rural oregon and in communities
across north america we’re reversing
the downward trend and learning how to
truly live well
we’re coming together around a culture
of well-being
and it’s not due to some new expensive
drug
or medical procedure there’s the beauty
and the simplicity
of what i want to share with you little
practical
simple changes that lead to positive
transformation
i get to work alongside my community
organizations
and the most dedicated volunteers
directing community-wide well-being
initiatives
that are impacting people
i’ll never forget when frank popped into
our office downtown
he was wearing his fast food uniform and
yet
he told me about how his stage 4 kidney
disease had reversed
now his pants went from a size 48 to 44.
he spoke to me like we were old friends
but i didn’t know frank
never met him but he sought us out
because he wanted to let us know that
our work
was making an impact i’d met jane
a few times and was there when she told
others about how her type 2 diabetes
disappeared and her cholesterol cut in
half
a colleague told me about danita and how
she could now move around the house and
yard
without taking a break every 10 minutes
desmond emailed me recently about how
his ptsd
and depression feel improved maria
i know well and was thrilled when she
told me that her fibromyalgia spasm had
gone away
and haven’t come back and these are just
a few stories of personal well-being
transformation
like so many others that i’ve seen with
my own eyes
or just heard about right in my own town
for the various teams i’ve had the
privilege of working with to create
and further a culture of well-being
these are the stories that feed
and energize us as challenging as it is
rewarding
this work pushes me beyond my real
and perceived barriers and pulls from
every experience and learning i’ve had
thus far
we’re endeavoring to transform
communities
to challenge the health destiny of areas
that are on a trajectory
to be riddled with sickness in
communities like mine
everyone knows someone who’s suffering
from heart disease
diabetes obesity our family members
our neighbors the person next to us at
church or at the grocery store checkout
stand
where our children follow in the same
footsteps
and where stents and dialysis are the
norm
chronic illnesses are often readily
apparent in small rural communities
and we are no exception the 2018
community health assessment showed that
the residents of douglas county oregon
the rural county where i live have
higher rates of chronic diseases
than oregon overall nearly 60 percent
of our adults have one or more chronic
condition
and a third are considered not
overweight but obese
according to the sharecare well-being
index since 2016
86 percent of u.s states have declined
in well-being
and robert wood johnson’s county health
rankings show that among rural counties
like mine
more are worsening than improving
and this is one of the reasons that
well-being fascinates me with its
complexities and multi-layers
when talking about well-being many
people immediately think of diet
and exercise which are critical
and having basic needs met like shelter
clean water
food and safety are necessary
to provide the space of mind to think
about those kinds of things
and beyond earlier in life
i was on track with the professional
goals i had at the time
really wanting to make a difference be
the change
using avenues like government creating
after school programs and community
gardens
social work seeing kids that would come
to
class and sit with their head down the
whole time
people that would come to our resume
building workshops with alcohol on their
breath
seeing bill after bill crafted in
response to
a deluge of constituent feedback
and industry lobbyists overwhelmed
i felt i didn’t have enough to give to
the strangers i encountered to clients
to friends and family to my boss
each interaction tested me to bring
something
or not but my aspirations to have an
impact
required more to explore this
i took an opportunity that seemed like
quite the swerve
from my track to honor this nagging
desire
to have more to give i put myself in a
completely different environment
conducive to holistic well-being with
opportunities for introspection
natural movement healthy food
alongside people of diverse backgrounds
and ages
this was important for my journey to
develop some personal well-being
practices
that keep me going today to respect
service in community as a way of life
and to see what it was like to have the
healthy choice
as the easy choice because in contrast
what we see is that when it’s all on the
individual
willpower cannot withstand a world of
temptation
where healthy choices are inconvenient
bland
expensive or even dangerous
moments of weakness loneliness
depression
can make even the most well-intentioned
resilient person
follow the path of least resistance
either by
driving instead of walking or biking or
by reaching for whatever version of salt
sugar or fat strikes their fancy or
by not reaching at all not using their
gifts
or fulfilling their life’s purpose
community-wide transformation requires a
cultural shift
inclusive to all with each person making
an impact in ways that are
accessible to them and then creating a
ripple effect
working together to make good nutrition
and exercise easy
but also on healthy relationships
building community in neighborhoods
exploring
purposeful lives reversing patterns of
exploitation
and trauma and enriching the narrative
through authentic inclusivity
community building seems to demand
genuine trusting relationships with
people of all backgrounds
which can be really hard sometimes
members of our high-functioning
resilient teams
have experienced institutional racism
and violence
come from families where english is a
second language or have come out of
extreme
trauma and poverty
we’re giving our hearts to this work
investing in
every kind of person making efforts to
see through the package
and into their worth appreciating their
struggle
and resilience even when in another
situation
we might be the object of their
prejudice
what at times seems like radical
inclusivity
is enabling us to connect more broadly
for the greater objective of trying to
thrive
together and at times these authentic
maybe unlikely connections can be
incredibly fulfilling
so my little swerve and deviation
from my track brought about a positive
holistic change in me
and ended up being seven years
to learn how to create a culture of
well-being and be a person that can
connect with and lead people of all
backgrounds
i had to start with myself even though i
initially resisted
i later saw how a shift in environment
can be important i found myself
volunteering for a small
budding grassroots organization
developed
to support people that are interested in
improving their well-being
through lifestyle and fundamental things
like
eating more plants connecting with
community
and growing gardens just as i
experienced earlier in my personal life
i saw how others could also initially
resist
and then break through and embrace
positive change
how one person could take their struggle
coupled with resilience
and contribute to a culture of
well-being
started by a single mom wanting to build
community for her son
with small plant-based potlucks and now
a vibrant credible pillar in our
community
i jumped in headfirst in the
organization’s early years
participating as much as i could and
became exposed to
and fell in love with community health
transformation
at this time i was desperate to keep
living on purpose
and willing to sacrifice comfort for the
nimble
effective and palpable impact i felt
through volunteering
later i learned about the research that
shows that volunteers
live longer like the longitudinal study
of aging and others that show that
volunteers
are less susceptible to depression
experience lower mortality rates
and have better mental and physical
health overall
the more i learned the more excited i
became about the impact we could each
have
i learned about the spectrum of
community transformation interventions
and the different approaches to behavior
change from the use of social norms
to changing policy and the physical
environment
to fiscal disincentives and even
eliminating
and creating choice i heard about the
work of the buettners
and national geographic in recognizing
the places around the world
where people are living the longest
healthiest lives
rich with connection and reward
blue zones the world’s longevity hot
spots where
indigenous wisdom and practices have
resulted in people living to age 100
about 10 times more than the average
person living in the u.s
and these outcomes don’t happen by
accident there are thousands of
human-made interventions that can
further disparity in inequity or nudge
individuals toward greater well-being
with over 50 communities across north
america
that are implementing the research and
well-being best practices found in the
world’s blue zones
we see that the longevity of the longest
living populations in the world
is something that any community can work
toward
well-being practices that are
universally applicable
i mean these things can be recreated by
regular old community members and
regular old places around
any town locally
we’re meeting people where they’re at
with a healthy shopping tour
at their local grocery store workshops
on finding purpose
at the local library walking groups and
cooking classes hosted at the church
or senior center in their neighborhood
giving communities an opportunity to
volunteer together
and experience the reward of having an
impact
on projects that are important to them
fixing bikes and providing bike and
pedestrian education
for children and parents
bringing produce into convenience stores
in food deserts or more accurately
food apartheids where residents have to
ride the bus for
hours to get to fresh food otherwise
remember frank this is how he was
impacted
he gained easy and direct access to
fresh food in his neighborhood
we started a produce prescription
program so that providers can refer
patients to farmers markets
instead of pharmacies
the results of the 2018 share care
well-being index showed that the
community members engaged in our local
well-being initiative
were less overweight and obese and
experience high cholesterol
less than their unengaged counterparts
when engaged
they exercised more and ate more produce
these are simple but meaningful changes
in a rural community
after just a few years of intervention
earlier i mentioned that shifts in the
environment can be important
taking the onus off the individual and
making healthy choices easier
like making it safe and inviting to move
about
and spend time outdoors
we worked with our largest employers to
introduce strategies like making sure
cafeterias
have affordable healthy food always
available
we’re taking micro breaks and drinking
water is encouraged
we’re connecting with co-workers purpose
and being known are important parts of
the workplace culture
and where children and ex-smokers can
walk down the street
without being exposed to smoke
real change across sectors
and this kind of work can start with one
inspired individual
then two and ripple out from there until
a
tipping point is reached every encounter
offers the possibility of another person
touched
and then casting ripples out in their
own micro communities
i run into people around town and even
outside of my community constantly
that have been touched by this work some
of whom i’ve never met before
like frank who shares his successes with
his fast food co-workers
the political party he volunteers with
and neighbors
if i can reach several hundred people a
year and they
subsequently influence their networks
we’re creating something
big giving people permission to make
now the time to transform their
well-being
to dust off the bike to dig into the
garden
to quit smoking for good
to eat a little healthier to start
living
on purpose to put down the cell phone
and pick up the instrument or to walk
instead of drive and to find where they
can lead
by serving
so what would this look like in your
community take a moment
to imagine if more and more people
started investing
in their well-being taking healthy
behaviors
at every level from the fringe to the
norm
and creating a strong culture of
well-being
i invite you to join me in trying to do
this
every moment you can for yourself
for greater longevity and a vibrant
purposeful life
but also that could mean someone else
gets inspired
i’ve shared with you about my efforts to
bring about change and i hope that these
examples
can just make this accessible to each of
you
because you can impact your community
and you don’t have to have a seven year
swerve or be
this passionate to do this your
community needs you to do this
your loved ones need you to do this
you can do it now none of us can do it
all
or alone but there’s power in simple
practices
model gratitude daily invite a neighbor
to go for a walk smile at
greet and listen to people that are
different from you
making efforts to see their struggle and
inherent worth
but if that’s too hard then grow food
and give some away
find your purpose in this life and make
that the reason you get up in the
morning
find love for yourself and give that to
others
and stay open to learning and growing
you can’t get through a single day
without having an impact on the world
around you
what you do makes the difference and you
have to decide
what kind of difference you want to make
we give one another permission to do
these things
by leading by example and may never know
who we’re impacting
until we meet our frank i want you to
meet your frank
you’re never going to see the real frank
in this slideshow
but frank can be anyone maybe you’ve
been frank
or maybe you’re yet to meet them that
person
may be a stranger whose whole life has
been impacted
by some action big or small
that you were a part of because only
together
can we create a vibrant and thriving
[Applause]
community