Ontology is the study of being. When we talk about human ontology, what does it mean to be a human being? What are the parts that make us up? Not head, shoulder, knees and toes parts, but do we have a mind? Do we have a soul? Do we have a spirit? Do we have bodies? Are we bodies? All those questions, or it's variations of the same question is, what kind of being are we? Are we rational? Are we volitional? Do we have freedom? Are we gendered? All those stuffs is captured in human ontology.
“People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.” — Thomas Szasz
What is lost can never be found, what is found can never be forgotten.
So echoes the quest to realise our true identity.
You do not discover your identity in as much as you evolve into it. As you discard the image of the formed self, you allow the authentic self to emerge.
Your soul is who you are. Your body and your mind are what you use to experience who you are.
A strong identity is upheld by the capacity to realise your life purpose and live it. Those who stray from their purpose lose their identity and later strive to assign meaning to their life.
People in intimate relationships refer to similar feelings of losing their identity. These examples highlight the cause of attaching one’s identity to action — i.e. being, doing and having does not define identity. The ego adds a layer to the formed self to keep it safe while safeguarding its position in the world.
What if you failed to realise your purpose or if your relationship dissolved — what is your identity then? This is a common experience for those who endure a similar fate.
It begs the question — Who am I?
If I am not my ‘insert title here’ then who am I?
A title does not make up your identity, it adds a layer to it. A relationship does not define you, it complements you — it draws out the best in you.
If the relationship ends, it does not mean a part of you is lost. The relationship revealed aspects of your identity by adding a piece to the puzzle.
The perceived self is a façade owing to your past conditioning.
Reflect on that for a moment.
Who are you if not for the sum of your past? I.e. family, schooling, friends and life experiences.
Who is the person you call “I” after all?
The word mental wellbeing combines the word ‘mental’ – so to do with your mind – with the world ‘wellbeing’ – how well it is doing. However, when people think about their mental wellbeing, they often associate it, or conflate it, with their mood and happiness – how well they are feeling. But our mood or happiness is just one facet of our mental wellbeing. What’s more, when it comes to how well our mind is doing, it’s not just about how we are feeling, it also about how well we are functioning.
This more all-encompassing definition of mental wellbeing is captured nicely by the World Health Organization (WHO) who state ‘Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community.’ In other words, our mental wellbeing covers everything from being able to form good relationships with others; being emotionally resilient; being able to focus and make good decisions to having good energy levels.
This is also reflected in how we measure mental wellbeing in the Global Mind Project. Rather than just asking people about how happy they feel, or how satisfied they are with life, we use a tool called the MHQ assessment which asks about 47 different elements of mental wellbeing, covering our social, emotional, cognitive and physical capabilities of mind. It was developed based on a thorough analysis of 126 existing assessments of mental health and wellbeing covering 10,000 questions, to include the symptoms of 10 different mental health disorders from depression to eating disorders to PTSD, as well as positive strengths and assets.
With the 47 elements assessed on a scale that reflects the impact of those capabilities to one’s life and ability to function, overall scores of mental wellbeing (MHQ scores) reflect functional productivity – the ability to get done the things you need to get done in a day. Overall, MHQ scores have a linear relationship to productive days such that the number of productive days increase or decrease equivalently as you move up or down the MHQ scale at any point.
Thus, the MHQ also serves as a proxy for functional capacity of a population and can be used to demonstrate the functional capacity of various populations from schools to companies, and countries.
Altogether, mental wellbeing as measured by the MHQ reflects the composite capability of mind that enables us to navigate life’s challenges and function productivity.
Our mental health and wellbeing is declining with each younger generation. This is a new phenomenon that has emerged in the past two decades and is more prominent in developed countries.
With an unparalleled global data acquisition and analytical infrastructure Sapien labs is at the forefront of tracking this decline, identifying its root causes and accelerating the path from data to insights to real-world action.
Sapien Labs is a 501(c) (3) not for profit organization founded in 2016 with a mission to understand and enable the human mind.
Our mission is motivated by:
