If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. It’s an oft-used adage—and for good reason. Our health is our most important asset, and when we experience illness in any form, it impacts all aspects of our lives. This special issue examines health and wellness in a variety of iterations—emotional, physical, occupational, social, spiritual, intellectual, and environmental—and underscores just how vital each is to our overall well-being.
Take, for example, how rapper King Iso uses music as a way to grapple with mental health struggles, helping his son, his fans, and himself to understand that “You can’t heal until you feel.” Then, there is artist Shelby Seier, whose intricate stitches and sketches serve as vehicles for dealing with chronic pain and fatigue. Expression, in any form, is sometimes the best medicine.
Nonprofits, too, do so much to promote health and wellness. Nebraska Cures strives to connect the community with scientific research to understand better how scientific advancement improves lives. Special Journeys, founded by Lexi and Tom Mann, makes it possible for people with disabilities to experience the joy of travel, opening the world to people who otherwise might not consider leaving Nebraska.
Teri Roberts certainly doesn’t allow her disabilities to keep her home. After losing four limbs to a group A Streptococcus infection, the quadruple amputee lives to serve others. She chooses to embrace life and volunteers at the Methodist Acute Rehabilitation Center, where she helps patients by sharing her own experience. For Teri, life is still good, and she reminds herself—and others—of that on a daily basis.
Other articles in this issue address grappling with a loved one’s diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, research into using psychedelics to treat mental illness, the importance of self care, and how the formerly incarcerated have healed to have a second chance. Inspiration for health and well-being unfolds in each story and on every page.
From all of us at Omaha Magazine: be well, stay well, and live well.
Kim Carpenter
Editor-in-Chief, Omaha Magazine
kim@omahapublications.com
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