Let us take a hard look at the numbers and statistics. Although we have more knowledge, access to modern medication and extensive research as well as improved technology to help make our lives easier, we have never been this stressed-out, anxious, depressed, overweight, and inactive physically.

Also, we have never been this disengaged with our jobs, relationships, and our environment. There is a major disconnect between the types of lives we are encouraged to pursue and how we feel in the end. We are faced with an epidemic across industrialized societies, which seems to be worsening over the past decades. The negative impact on ourselves and society is massive. The numbers below tell a somber story.

EMOTIONAL

In many ways, the quality of our life and the sense of our well-being are linked to how we feel moment to moment and over the long term. Emotions are constantly present in our lives—studies have shown that people report some feelings virtually all the time [1]. So how do we feel?

• Stress has been called the “health epidemic of the 21st century” by the World Health Organization and is estimated to cost American businesses up to $300 billion a year according to the Business News Daily.
• According to the National Institute of Mental Health, depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and a major contributor to the global burden of disease. Depression rates among teens have skyrocketed since 2011.
• The National Alliance on Mental Illness states that young adolescents in the US are as likely to die from suicide as from traffic accidents.

MENTAL

Your brain is constantly processing and storing information, attempting to comprehend and understand it. Mental health involves your ability to keep your focus on a certain task, form opinions, use logic, learn, and reason. James Allen famously wrote that we are ultimately what we think.

• 1 in 5 adults in America experiences a mental illness in a given year (43.8 million adults)[2].
• 18.1% of American adults live with anxiety disorders (42 million)[3].
• The generation born between 1995 and 2012 (iGen) is on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades[4].

PHYSICAL

The physical pillar is comprised of what we consume and ingest, all the physical activities we undertake, and the lifestyle choices we make that impact us, as well as sleep and recuperation.

Obesity

• Going by the findings of the World Health Organization, worldwide, obesity has nearly doubled since 1980. Trend data from 188 countries shows that nearly 30% of the world’s population is either obese or overweight.
• According to some prognosis, by 2030, one billion people in the world will be obese.
• More than 2 in 3 adults in the US are considered to be overweight, with 1 in 3 considered to be obese. About one-third of children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 are considered to be overweight or obese[5].

Physical Activity:

• Globally, 1 in 4 adults is not active enough[6].
• Another report by the World Health Organization shows that more than 80% of the world’s adolescent population is insufficiently physically active.
• According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 5% of U.S. adults participate in 30 minutes of physical activity each day. Also, only one in three adults receives the recommended amount of physical activity each week.

Sleep:

• The majority of people get less than the recommendations from the National Institutes of Health: school-age children need at least 10 hours of sleep daily, teens need 9-10 hours, while adults need 7-8 hours of sleep.
• An estimated 50-70 million US adults have sleep or wakefulness disorder[7].
• Smartphones are cutting into teens’ sleep: 57% more teens were sleep deprived in 2015 than in 1991. In just four years from 2012 to 2015, 22% more teens failed to get seven hours of sleep[8].

SOCIAL

One of the most important influences on our level of life satisfaction and happiness is the strength of our social relationships: close and supportive family, friends, and a loving relationship with a partner. Thanks to technology, we have never in history had as many social connections. However, studies show alarming results that social isolation is a growing epidemic in the developed world.

• Loneliness is not just making us sick; it is killing us. Social isolation of otherwise healthy, well-functioning individuals eventually results in psychological and physical disintegration, and even death[9].
• In the US, since the 1980’s, the percentage of American adults who say they’re lonely went from 20 percent to 40 percent[10]. More than 60% of students in a study said they had “felt very lonely” in the previous 12 months.
• According to The New York Times, the number of teens that get together with their friends nearly every day dropped by more than 40% from 2000 to 2015. Also, young adults who spend more than two hours a day on social media are more apt to feel isolated than their peers[11].

OCCUPATIONAL

What we do and how we spend our time has a major impact on how we feel and how satisfied we are with our lives. And this pertains to our work (considering that most adults in the US spend over 90,000 hours at work during their lifetime), but also the amount and quality of leisure time.

• A report by Gallup shows that 7 out of 10 American workers are actively disengaged from their jobs. Worldwide, only 24% of workers are actively engaged in their work (based on a 142-country study)[12].
• Children now spend more than seven and a half hours a day in front of a screen (e.g. TV, video games, computer)[13]. Moreover, the more time teens spend looking at screens, the more likely they are to report symptoms of depression[14].
• Teens who spend three hours a day or more on electronic devices are 35 percent more likely to have a risk factor for suicide, such as making a suicide plan[15].

ENVIRONMENTAL / MATERIAL

There is overwhelming scientific evidence showing that the physical, psychological, and social well-being of humans depends on contact with nature. A recent study concluded that connection to nature is not a dispensable amenity; rather, it is essential to our health, economic prosperity, quality of life, and social well-being. However, the rise of urbanization around the world and competing priorities for time and attention are driving a reduction of contact with the natural world. At the same time, our overall natural human habitat has experienced decades of an onslaught, with increased pollution and contaminants in our air, water, food supply, and the environment.

• A 2017 survey of 12,000 American adults shows that many people have lost a close connection with nature[16].
• More than 50% of Americans spend less than five hours per week in nature[17].
• Children 8 to 12 years old spend three times as many hours with computers and televisions each week as they do playing outside[18].

SPIRITUAL

An important factor that influences many people’s level of life satisfaction is their sense of connection to the spiritual or sacred. A large volume of research shows that people who are more spiritual have better mental and physical health, and this is despite differences in rituals, beliefs, and one’s personal faith[19]. At the same time, having a sense of purpose in life has proven to be valuable in multiple domains, be it health, wellbeing, or even financial[20].

• Nicholas Kristof, a writer for The New York Times, argues that many faiths have lost sight of their founders’ teachings.
• Hate crimes rose in the U.S. in 2015, with religious bias a growing motivation according to the FBI.
• According to a 2016 Annual Report, religious freedom is under serious and sustained assault[21].

CONCLUSION

I believe that humanity is waking up to the fact that how we are living and the ways we spend our time are providing neither a sense of purpose nor fulfillment. We did not come into being to simply be in the rat-race chasing our tales and consuming as much as possible while growing more isolated and disconnected. Deep inside, there is this gnawing realization that something is missing, that something does not add up. We have been sold a story of what life is about and how we should go about it, which is not leading to the life we actually want.

As you navigate through the data and research shared on the site and in the book, you will come to a sad conclusion. Many of the ways we are encouraged to live are actually making us sick: physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, occupationally, environmentally and spiritually. However, this is not a message of doom and gloom. This is a call to action. Albeit the scary facts, the good news is that there is so much we can do to heal ourselves, help heal others in our lives and over time, I believe we will help heal society.

We need to relearn how to reconnect across all the 7 pillars. Mind and body are connected. As human beings, we are connected. We are connected to this planet. We can connect to spirit. We need to rebuild these connections and live consciously, becoming aware of the impact of the choices we make. We should review our beliefs and values, and ensure these help us and others grow, and have a positive impact on the world.

I encourage you to embark on a journey of transformation to turn around these trends. Join the conversation, create like-minded communities, and help contribute by sharing your own knowledge and understanding. Ultimately, as idealistically as it may sound, and albeit the author’s strong anchor in reality, this is a message of hope, based on a fundamental belief that we can do better, be better, and live more inspired and fulfilling lives.

REFERENCES

1. Pavot, William, Ed Diener, C. Randall Colvin, and Ed Sandvik. “Further Validation of the Satisfaction with Life Scale: Evidence for The Cross-Method Convergence of Well-Being Measures”. Journal of Personality Assessment 57, no. 1 (1991): 149-161. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa5701_17.
2. National Alliance on Mental Illness. “Mental Health By the Numbers.” NAMI. Accessed October 11, 2017. https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-By-the-Numbers.
3. National Institute of Mental Health. “Major depression among adults.” Accessed October 11, 2017. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/prevalence/major-depression-among-adults.shtml.
4. Twenge, Jean M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, September 2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/.
5. The Weight-control Information Network. Overweight and Obesity Statistics. Bethesda, MD, 2012. http://www.skinny-world.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/obesity_stat904z.pdf.
6. World Health Organization. “Obesity and Overweight Fact Sheet.” World Health Organization. Last modified October 2017. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/.
7. Colten, Harvey R., and Bruce M. Altevogt. Sleep disorders and sleep deprivation: an unmet public health problem. Washington, D.C.: Institute of Medicine, 2006.
8. Twenge. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”
9. Holt-Lunstad, Julianne, Timothy Smith, and J. Layton. “Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review.” Plos Medicine 7, no. 7 (2010), e1000316. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316.
10. Umberson, Debra, and Jennifer Karas Montez. “Social Relationships and Health: A Flashpoint for Health Policy.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 51, no. 1_suppl (2010), S54-S66. doi:10.1177/0022146510383501.
11. Twenge. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”
12. Gallup. “State of the Global Workplace: Employee Engagement Insights for Business Leaders Worldwide.” Last modified 2013. http://www.securex.be/export/sites/default/.content/download-gallery/nl/brochures/Gallup-state-of-the-GlobalWorkplaceReport_20131.pdf.
13. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Healthy People 2010.” Cdc.Gov. Last modified 2011. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/healthy_people/hp2010.htm.
14. Twenge, M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”
15. Ibid.
16. Kellert, Stephen R., David J. Case, Daniel Escher, Daniel J. Witter, Jessica Mikels-Carrasco, and Phil T. Seng. The Nature of Americans: Disconnection and Recommendations for Reconnection. NatureOfAmericans.org, 2017. https://lccnetwork.org/sites/default/files/Resources/Nature-of-Americans_National_Report_1.2_4-26-17.pdf.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Koenig, Harold G. “Religion, Spirituality, and Health: The Research and Clinical Implications.” ISRN Psychiatry 2012 (2012), 1-33. doi:10.5402/2012/278730
20. Hill, Patrick L., Nicholas A. Turiano, Daniel K. Mroczek, and Anthony L. Burrow. “The value of a purposeful life: Sense of purpose predicts greater income and net worth.” Journal of Research in Personality 65 (2016), 38-42. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2016.07.003.
21. United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. 2016 Annual Report. Washington, DC, 2016. http://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/USCIRF%202016%20Annual%20Report.pdf.