HEALTH VS. ILLNESS

Change is occurring all the time around us. We're never static, we're dynamic. It may be getting either better or worse. Some changes are very small, and other changes are big.  Some change is predictable, and some is very unpredictable. 

Dr. Lorenz, an American mathematician and meteorologist had posed a question, “Does the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas? 

When he studied the weather patterns, he realized that they did not always change as predicted. But, he came to know that minute variations in the initial values of variables in his twelve-variable computer weather module resulted in grossly divergent weather patterns. And this sensitive dependence on the initial conditions came to be known as the butterfly effect.

There is another concept called Domino Effect. So, is the Butterfly Effect the same as the Domino Effect? No. 

The Domino Effect is a very orderly change.  It's a predictive change. One domino hits the next and it progresses, one at a time and they all fall. The life is as predictable as the Domino Effect. 

So, what does the Butterfly Effect suggest ? The Butterfly Effect by Lorenz suggest that even when the starting point on simulation runs are similar, small differences in these initial conditions, such as those due to rounding errors in numerical computations, will yield widely divergent outcomes, rendering long-term prediction almost impossible for dynamic or complex systems. 

We need to realize that humans are dynamic complex systems and three types of changes usually occur in humans, i.e. First order, second order, and third order change. 

The first order change is a change of behavior, i.e. reacting to the environment around us but our knowledge and beliefs remain the same.

The second order change is at a higher level. Now, new knowledge is brought in and how we look at ourselves is very different. It's an integrative change.

The third order change occurs when new beliefs about ourselves are brought into the picture.  It's a very transformative change.

Let me examine each of these changes in more details. 

The first order change is reactive. But, we're on the same treadmill, we're going forward. For example, if we have a pain condition and it hurts us, we still continue to do the same thing but we do less. Right ? We may sit down, we may take rest for a while and then we continue again. That means we are just reacting to the change but we are still going forward. This is called the first order change. This give a temporary relief but it will not solve the problem because the risk factor is not reduced.

The second order change is very integrative. For example, someone has a very poor food habit (fast food) and it has resulted in a lot of health issues for him/her. If the person becomes aware of the fact that the health issues can be minimized by doing some specific exercises regularly, then this new information allows him/her to do something which is different from what he/she normally does. That means the person has integrated something new (a protective factor) in his/her life to alleviate the pain in his/her life. But, he/she will still be in pain because he/she has not reduced the risk factors.

The third order change is very transformative.  It's very different. It changes the person’s view, our beliefs. It creates a new person because, during this phase, the person reduces the risks factors (i.e. to stop eating fast food) and increases the protective factors (i.e. doing more and more physical activity, exercises etc.). Hence, it opens up new possibilities for new actions that weren't possible before. Now, the person can alleviate his/her pain.

So the take-home message here, is that change is going on all the time. If we want to remain healthy, we need to reduce the risk factors and improve the protective factors. Only one will not solve the problems.

To understand simply, we can say that if we go out during a cloudy weather and it starts raining, we just take shelter under a tree and when the rain subsides, we again start our journey. But, we are sure to catch cold. Right ?

Next time, when we go out during a cloudy weather, we take an umbrella with us. Whenever it rains, we open up the umbrella and hold it against the rain and continue our journey. But, we still catch cold.

Next time, if we see that the sky is covered with cloud, we don’t go out (to reduce the risk factor to nil and increase the protective factor to 100%) till the weather becomes perfectly fine. Now, we don’t catch cold.