Creating Health and Quality of Life: Practical Guide

Health is a continuum…

We already shared in this post that one of the most important contributions of Salutogénesis is confirming that health is a continuum, showing us what is involved in creating health and quality of life. Reclaiming it is within our reach and is our own responsibility. It only requires us to trust that we can, apply some perseverance, and find the will to start.

Since nobody else can do it for us, we must get to know ourselves and invest in our well-being. How can we support others if we do not feel 100%? Learning how our body and mind work is a priority. This helps us understand their signals and notice when we are losing full health.

Today we offer a proposal to start taking action. First, by stopping. Second, by focusing our attention. We must explore the areas of our life that make us lose our balance, even if we do not yet know why.

We all have different elements in constant exchange, like communicating vessels. We call these health determinants. They impact our global well-being, including physical, economic, mental-emotional, and relational aspects, up to 12 in total…

When properly identified and combined, these determinants help us recover internal balance and harmony with our surroundings. Each person has a different order of preference that changes throughout their life cycle.

Furthermore, well-being is closely related to our experiences, dimensions, and relationships. It depends heavily on our understanding and perspective. For example, stepping onto a stage for the 100th time feels very different from the first. Over time, we understand our internal mechanisms and learn from external signals. Even if we feel nervous, letting go and enjoying the moment becomes easier.

Determinants of Health

The 12 determinants that impact our health are related to:

Other health promotion studies may include more, but these 12 are proven to be necessary and sufficient. Together, they balance our diverse dimensions, allowing us to move comfortably along the health continuum.

But life is full of surprises, right? We are constantly facing factors that disrupt this balance. We call them stressors, and they create anxiety and stress. To face them and overcome challenges, we need General Resistance Resources (GRRs). We also call these health assets or coping resources.

General Coping Resources

A GRR is defined as a characteristic of an individual, group, subculture, or society that is effective in avoiding, overcoming, or combating a wide variety of stressors. 

These characteristics include many factors. They range from physical, biochemical, material, emotional, cognitive, and attitudinal aspects to those in our sociocultural environments.

For this reason, overcoming challenges requires knowing ourselves from a broad perspective. We must learn to connect and benefit from different elements to improve our health and quality of life. It is also about learning to bring resources to the surface. Most of these resources are internal, but we can also find or awaken them through interaction with our immediate environments.

Research on the Origins of Health

In research, the question is what matters most. That might sound obvious! Yet, we do not always dare to ask the right questions to open new paths. Often, we only look for confirmation of what we already know, don’t we?

If we never ask questions, we will never get answers, Antonovsky said. The salutogenic question, what creates health?, was his innovation. It offers a complementary approach to the focus on risks and diseases that we relied on for so long.

When starting an initiative to create health, we must understand the relationships between each group of resources.  

Creating Health and Quality of Life: Where to Start?

We need to explore our status in the key determinants that impact health. We must also identify risks to avoid and the protective resources available to us right now.

As mentioned, health outcomes research shows that 12 different determinants impact us and reinforce each other. Their combination differs for everyone and changes throughout life.

Research on the origin of health—Salutogénesis—also reveals something important. We need to have these 12 determinants in groups of at least 4 elements to achieve a lasting effect when working to rebuild our health.  

With this approach, we can explore individuals, systems, communities, and environments. This helps us connect with what creates health, both internally and externally.

How to Put What Creates Health and Quality of Life into Practice

Using an example and sharing Lindström and Eriksson’s approach to research, we will start a practical exercise to make it truly salutogenic. We will use the gain in quality of life as the key success indicator in this journey of learning to rebuild our health.

We begin the practice with the central question about health in relation to life. Then, we explore both risks and protective factors and resources. This introduces both approaches and starts the important task of integration.

You can follow the non-linear sequence in the diagram below:

Let’s Explore This with a Concrete Example

Imagine you feel overwhelmed by work and family demands. You are starting to suffer from insomnia. You seek support from the School of Skills for Life and Health (ECVS) because you are tired of taking pills, feeling irritable, and living with generalized anxiety.

You want to commit to reclaiming your mental-emotional state. You want to move toward a place where you can rest and enjoy a restorative sleep that renews your energy. 

We will start by exploring the risks to avoid, which would worsen your agitation, such as alcohol, video games, social media, etc.

To improve your quality of life, the next step is to evaluate what could protect you. We know that health is a continuum we can rebuild. Gaining quality of life means acquiring protective resources like life skills. We would strengthen the skills that help you create health.

We will work with you using proven, powerful tools. You will explore self-awareness, emotions, and stress management. This helps you acquire a sufficient set of skills that empower you and prevent illness. Ultimately, they care for your life and boost your health.

In this case, overcoming insomnia impacts our mental-emotional health. To achieve our goal of improving your quality of life, training will focus on practicing skills from Group 1 of the 4 types of determinants: meaningful activities, motivation and meaning, inner feelings and emotions, and social support.

We know this group contains the skills that can make a difference in your health and well-being regarding insomnia and anxiety. Through our courses, pathways, and resources, combined with close support, you learn what benefits you, from the basics to the most meaningful aspects.

Why Will This Work When Other Solutions Have Failed?

Sometimes, personal development, well-being, and health initiatives do not achieve the expected results. This happens whether they are run individually, in groups, or within organizations. Participants might not see the personal value, group benefits may fall short, or organizational indicators might not change.

As Salutogénesis shows and we described in The Power of the 4 Pillars that Recreate Health and Life, the key is not just having resources. Above all, it lies in having the ability to use them and recognizing what we need in each situation. This preserves and rebuilds health by training our strength and promoting the acquisition of the master formula of Skills for Life and Health.

In most cases we observe, other initiatives fail for various reasons, but they share a common gap. Little attention is paid to the most relevant aspect: the perspective on health. Also, learning experiences are not structured or designed around this fundamental principle.  

We know that each of us needs to find our own formula of tools and skills to rebuild our health. Often, we do not know where or how to start. We need a formula that is not disposable, but remains available to you forever.

For this reason, in this digital home where health and purpose meet, we design and deliver our training using a learning methodology. We select a formula of tools and skills tailored to your needs, reality, and experience.

Because it is important that you continue to improve your quality of life, you will find that every time you apply these skills, you learn something new and gain new benefits. The change is in you, and you are what makes the difference. The facilitator simply provides proven methodologies, respecting your pace and supporting you to find the results that matter to both of us.