Spirituality
The Solution
The Concept of Mental and Social Wellbeing
Society as an organismic structure, must be preserved through the flourishment of its biopsychosocial and spiritual avenues. This calls for the need of principles or standards of behaviour necessary for guiding society towards its ultimate wellbeing, and these principles are what we refer to as civic values.
Civic values operate with the vision of wholeness and liberation to establish the necessary primordial principles of communion such as diversity, equality, community, charitability, solidarity, serviceability, responsibility, and accountability.
However, when we interpret the concept of mental and social wellbeing from a psychosocial point of view, we find these primordial principles of communion strongly expressed. For instance,
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The "five ways of wellbeing" proposed by New Economic Foundation (i.e., “connect, be active, take notice, keep learning, and give”) encourage people to uphold altruism and activism to pursue community and solidarity in the fulness of equality and diversity as well as charitability, serviceability, responsibility, and accountability.
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The Faculty of Public Health's concept of mental and social wellbeing proposes that ultimate wellbeing means being the agency of social connectedness full of resilience, peacefulness, thankfulness and virtuousness; always exuding the charisma of altruism, activism and pacifism to uphold community, serviceability, responsibility, solidarity, equality, diversity, charitability and accountability.
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The liberation and civil rights movement of the late 1960s invoked equality, diversity, charitability, community, solidarity, serviceability, responsibility, and accountability as the necessary core values of the western society.
This therefore, affirms the cultivation of civic values in society as the most potent preventive action towards alleviating the underlying causes of common mental disorders.
The Core Civic Values Explained
Equality is a principle of wellbeing that confronts lack of equity in society by exposing social fragmentations, repressive otherization and affective polarisation as vices, and this unfolds by cultivating,
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a vision of reconciliation and wholeness through the acknowledgement of the inevitability of diversity within the organismic framework of every society,
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and a mission of oneness, peacefulness, and forgiveness which offers equal access to fairness and justice (i.e., equity) to meet every individual’s measure of wellbeing needs.
Diversity is necessary to every healthy organismic structure. It indicates the heterogeneity of subjects within the organismic framework of society who express their otherness through their ethnicity, heritage, faith, ideology, ableness, age, gender, sexuality and tax brackets.
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Diversity is therefore the indicator of inequality and variations in wellbeing needs of subjects; it robustly recommends equity to prevail i.e., equal access to flourishment and wellbeing that meets every individual’s measure of needs must be available to all subjects.
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Therefore, irrespective of our otherness, we all deserve equal freedoms and benefits.
When subjects of society apprehend the awareness that their individual wellbeing is dependent on the ultimate wellbeing of the unit whole of society, they commit to one another in communion as,
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a diversity of people bonding by acceptance and belongingness into one integrated body of fellowship.
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a oneness of fellowship moulded through the sharedness of civic landscape, values, identity, culture, experiences, social activities, economy and resources.
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an apprehension that equality as the equal access to fairness and justice can only unfold when society is perceived as an organismic whole within which the ultimate purpose is to foster interconnectedness and mend fractures caused by repressive otherization and affective polarisation.
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a validation of belongingness not by the measure of a person's achieved extrinsic goals but by their commitment to altruistic goals, interconnectedness and ultimate wellbeing of society.
A core essence of community maintained through a cohesive bond that motivates members to act together for the well-being of the entire group. It involves actively supporting one another, with the understanding that an injury or injustice to one member is an attack on the wellbeing of the whole unit. The feeling of unity (oneness) and mutual support formulated through shared common interests, goals, or purpose; thus, formulating,
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a core awareness that a united front is much stronger than a fragmented individual front.
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a collective front that embark on action with the spirit of altruism and unison.
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a fundamental commitment that doesn't require complete agreement on all things except an unwavering loyalty to back each other up and work through challenges together.
This is the altruistic outlook on life where the apprehension of ultimate wellbeing is contingent upon the ability to extend beyond self through the spirit of interconnectedness and charity to secure the wellbeing of others as,
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a bond of oneness moulded through virtuousness, helpfulness, blessedness and thankfulness to eliminate dangerous narcissistic tendencies of self-centredness, self-absorption and self-worship.
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an inspiration of altruism, moderate ascetism (modesty), grace and contentment that reject the over prioritisation of extrinsic goals, financial abuse and conspicuous consumption.
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a sharedness that convicts those endowed with capabilities and sufficiency to voluntarily support others in their state of insufficiency and incapability.
The ultimate wellbeing of society depends on our activism and altruistic commitment of helpfulness and resourcefulness in service to one another,
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fully committing to the improvement of skills, expertise, and all capabilities to engage daily worldly duties with full capacity and with no prejudice.
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facilitating social institutions to function in fairness and justice to establish values that promote ultimate wellbeing of society.
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contributing through employment or entrepreneurship and committing to community development.
Social conscience which is a person’s conviction of responsibility towards the ultimate wellbeing of society, is manifested through the charisma of altruism, activism, modesty and sanctity of mind to apprehend virtuousness that,
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inspires upstanding character such as being law-abiding, paying taxes, supporting green and sustainability programs, honouring jury duties, never fly-tipping etc.
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dismisses negative attitudes and behaviours that harm others such as degeneracy, obscenity, lewdness, avarice, covetousness, self-absorption, hooliganism, vandalism, financial abuse and conspicuous consumption.
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promotes civic values of equality, diversity, charitability, serviceability and accountability.
Accountability is the foundation that holds together the core civic values including equality, diversity, charitability, serviceability, and responsibility. Moreover, it takes the charisma of altruism, activism, pacifism, modesty and sanctity of mind to cultivate the spirit of accountability which in fulness,
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bears the fruits of virtuousness, peacefulness, forgiveness, thankfulness, oneness and helpfulness.
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establishes honesty, transparency and decency.
