Every factor in human well-being is also an element of nutrition. All needs are really nutritive needs. Deprivation of any single need may mean our demise or impairment of our growth, development or health. A single factor insufficiently or incorrectly supplied can lead to disease and suffering.
Most people are aware of the essentials of life. But they lose sight of these fundamentals as being factors and influences that are necessary to well-being within the context of society. Therefore, they’re likely to violate the very laws of their existence and contribute to their own sickness and suffering.
When in a state of disease, most people do not realize they have brought it upon themselves. They are aided in placing blame outside themselves by a profession that takes the stance that they’ve had an unfortunate bit of bad luck or they have been invaded by some microbial enemy. Though the needs of the ill differ from those of well people only in that their conditions must be made favorable to recuperation, both ill people and the medical professionals undertake a course of treatment that compounds sickness. Both the physician and the sufferer enter into an attempt to poison the ailing body back into health. The fact is that drugging only makes a body worse.
The causes of health are very simple. Our needs do not change substantially when we become ill. Even illness itself won’t occur if the needs of our bodies and minds are properly met.
The nineteen factor elements for optimal well-being are listed as follows:
1. Pure air
2. Pure water
3. Cleanliness—both internal and external
4. Sleep
5. Temperature maintenance
6. Pure wholesome food to which we are biologically adapted
7. Exercise and activity
8. Sunshine upon our bodies
9. Rest and relaxation
10. Play and recreation
11. Emotional poise
12. Security of life and its means
13. Pleasant environment
14. Creative, useful work
15. Self-Mastery
16. Belonging
17. Motivation
18. Expression of the natural instincts
19. Indulgence of aesthetic senses.
Source: Lesson 3.1 of the Life Science Course
