You may have been part of a team where you have not been fully engaged in activities and culture. This means one of two things you either don’t like what you do or your environment is impacting you. Either way to improve your situation you need to either change what you do or to change your environment. We find meaning by engaging in the environment and if we don’t engage we lose an important part of what gives our actions meaning. Therefore we try to be part of groups and teams, it gives our life meaning by engaging in activities, participating and make decisions.
Babies, they have toys and they know that toy is to play with, they explore and play with their toys. Along the way babies begin to learn. Just like babies we can learn, explore and improve our horizon by being curious and also by sharing our resources and being part of something bigger. We are part of groups and we know in order to integrate we need to participate in activities. By this participation we enable necessary tools to do well in life. Also to be a productive and helpful member of society.
Being organised, good attitude and clear goal goes a long way in being an active part of the society. We need to focus on the journey, we need to know that whether we achieve our goals or not, we should invest in believing in what we do and our purpose being ingrained in our dedication and hard work in doing what we believe in, and not what is merely a goal seeking attitude. There is more to life and our purpose in life; There is the acknowledgement that we are part of the society, and also to do something that gives our life meaning.
Our emotional health also plays a major role in our belief in ourselves and how we integrate within the society. We need to be aware that our role in society is not merely to benefit ourselves but it is also to benefit others. Seeing ourselves as part of a greater whole helps us with this integration and also to develop ethical means towards others. We are actors within society and what is important is our interaction with others that creates an environment of order and shapes the world around us. We need to know that we both influence society and also are shaped by the society. These happens through actions of us and others. These actions are shaped with the current structure of society in place but also can shape the society through the action. Therefore our knowledge of society stems from these actions and their interpretations, also influence the very same knowledge of society. Therefore everyone plays a game and has different roles in the society, so society is seen as a product of these shared understandings.
There are different functions to every part of society, for example school is for learning and family is for emotional support etc. An individual also adopts oneself within these different societal functions. The role of culture, language and status plays an important part in how the individual finds its role within the society. Therefore individual with more power, and more resources can influence these functions more effectively than others with less privilege position in society.
From a micro level, individuals need to first of all be open with themselves and believe in themselves. Individuals need to see themselves as trustworthy and to see themselves as a good member of society. Once this first role is fulfilled, then there are other roles such as being part of a family, their job role, their part in the community and to the larger society needs to be be addressed and fulfilled. From mental health point of view, engagement in the society, being part of something meaningful and playing ones part actively in the society is beneficial to ones health.
There are many ways to define being, we can define being by doing, and taking actions. We can also define being present, by perceiving and forming opinion. What makes these beings meaningful is ones belongingness, it is being able to share and impact ones abilities as well as being member of a larger group. Playing in other hand is also important, since childhood we need to play, we need to explore the world around us. We can explore the world around us by playing our part in the world around us. This is possible as long and we see ourselves included in the environment and we feel that we are part of the environment. We therefore both impact the environment and also are impacted by the environment.
We have our inner state of play and our outer state of play and being in society. In one hand we are part of the society and there are certain roles that we fulfil, therefore we are in certain ways with certain impressions according to society. In other hand when we rest and relax, we drop this performance and we become our true self. Therefore we are constantly adjusting our behaviour to meet social expectation of different situations. Just like actors with different roles, people in society also fulfil their roles in the society and manage them to achieve their goals and desires.
There are certain norms that we follow in the society. Such as being a student, a parent or an employee. Each role comes with certain expectations and just like children from an early age we learn how to play these games, as these role playing helps the individual learn about the social expectations. Playing and being in society is linked together. We learn to explore the world around us and learn from an early age. We learn to play our part as an individual in games and also in wider society. We learn to navigate these rules, roles and meanings both in playful and in a structured manner, through this structure and freedom we play in the society.