Our blog was published on 10th of March by Health Spa, Finland. Check out the original site or the full text below.
http://www.healthspa.fi/the-secret-ingredient-of-high-class-health-technology-human-to-human-interface/
During the past years it’s been somewhat trendy to measure all kinds of data. The most enthusiastic but rare individuals collect data and curves of almost every daily activity and physical phenomenon of their body. For most, the enthusiasm for data collection and measurement is short-term and doesn’t usually lead to any remarkable change in habits, but just gives more and more data. Refining data into knowledge requires a holistic approach of the complex relations in health and wellbeing. This is where the human to human interface and the health care and wellbeing professionals have their role.
Pure knowledge is rarely motivating for change. The attraction of the comfort zone, routines, feeling of hurry and lack of life management drive people to avoid changing their habits. This is very human, even if staying in the so-called comfort zone means continuous inconvenience and even getting slowly sick. The old and familiar in all its harmfulness has elements of safety, which make people stick to the same old thought models and daily actions. This has also been called a rat race.
In a world full of health data and knowledge of wellbeing, the majority of people suffer from different kinds of health problems, stress related symptoms and lack of life management – and this happens on all social levels. Only a deep comprehension of an individual’s life situation makes a holistic life change happen – and helps it stay sustained.
The spectrum of daily life can be harnessed to positive change
While supporting change on an individual level, it’s important to understand the hidden values and thought models behind the small daily decisions. The high-class screenings, surveys and measurements can profile areas of life, where support might be needed the most. In the same way the motivation level for this change can be estimated for the same areas. Still, such measurements and screenings don’t exist, which would show the univocal and absolute truth of the individual’s holistic wellbeing, values and wishes related to life. Even the best measures reach only the partial truth in selected areas. The role of the screenings is to give guidelines, but the best route based on them can be found by combining the individual and professional expertise.
The status of individual wellbeing is a wide spectrum. For most of us, the status varies between months, weeks, days and even hours, because feelings, thoughts and physical and mental wellbeing are tightly intertwined elements. The decisions and daily actions which at first seem to be illogical from the aspect of health or wellbeing, hide behind values, wishes, fears or assumptions – most of them subconscious. Understanding these factors and all the choices related to them is the crucial role of the wellbeing professional.
The combination of the human, professional and technological capital refines the comprehension of individual’s situation to a high level. After this the knowledge and comprehension should be brought into daily steps of change.
Technology at its best serves interaction from human to human
Maybe the recipe for a sustained positive life change could be something like this?
- A pinch of collected data or survey results
- A handful of professional expertise for handling the data into knowledge
- Two handfuls of professional comprehension of the factors of holistic health and wellbeing
- An armful of individual level encountering: two ears and one mouth of the professional to support change based on the individual’s own values
- A bundle of easy to use remote technology between the professional and the individual to help adopting daily change
- A pinch of motivation and curiosity for both
- A cup of right preventive timing
The ingredients are combined into a fluent, preventive and holistic low-threshold service, where the individual can hop in when the timing is right.
The blog is related to our participation in Upgraded life festival by Health Spa Finland:
