Healthy Lifestyle: Expectations vs. Reality
The process of living a healthy life begins with understanding the word “HEALTH”. Only after we recognize and understand what health is, can we effectively live it. With that definition in place, it will be easy to go on and understand the meaning of a “Healthy Lifestyle.”
Health is the word that defines your “Happiness.” It means that you are doing well mentally, physically, and spiritually. If these three states inside you are feeling unhurt, it defines your health.
How the wellness of these three states is interlinked?
There is a simple answer to this question. Let’s have a brief discussion on each of these states:
1. Mental Health
The state of your mental health is highly correlated with your physical and spiritual health. You have excellent mental health if your brain is feeling happy, is free of worries, and does not have to follow any rules and restrictions.
But if you are dealing with stress due to any reason in your life and your mental state is not good. You are more likely to suffer from physical illnesses as well, which often begin with depression. In addition to this depression also causes you to have the following effects which impact you physically as well as spiritually.
2. Physical Health
The quality of your physical well-being is impacted when you feel stuck in thoughts and feel stressed on the brain. Physical wellbeing is affected when you feel stress on your brain and feel stuck by thoughts. You eventually fall victim to depression and anxiety, which in turn causes you to fall into the following states unintentionally:
- Heart diseases
- Headaches
- Obesity
- Depression and anxiety
- Gastrointestinal issues
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Aging
- Diabetes
- Asthma
- Accidents
- Insomnia or sleeping disorders
3. Spiritual Health
Not only mental and physical well-being. It costs you more than that. Your spiritual health is also impacted.
You begin to feel as though your existence is meaningless, you are ashamed of who you are, and you begin to ask yourself and others, “What is the point of living?” You experience suicidal thoughts, etc.
Just Remember: You are not Alone in the Search for Healthy Lifestyle Ways
Moving further, I need to remind you that we all have learned at some period of our life that “Health is Wealth.” It indicates that the likelihood of developing numerous chronic health issues decreases when you feel good on the inside.
And let’s add one more thing: it is natural to be hit by an incident, become trapped in your thoughts, overthink a number of times, feel uneasy, contract physical ailments, and occasionally experience depressive periods while living your life.
However, you are not getting stopped by anything believe me. These are all just phases of life we face. This is not only you who gets to face this or go through this. We all have to once or a few times in our life.
What Needs to be Done?
So, what you can do is focus on being happy and live a healthy lifestyle.
How to do that?
Everything we have in our life has positive and negative sides. Every experience we go through has positive and negative effects on us. Everything we do influences us or hits us in some way.
Now, you must have noticed that every situation includes both positive and negative aspects, don’t you? So, doesn’t it feel relaxing? At least a little bit or more.
Instead of looking into the cons or negative side of everything what if we search for goodness? Additionally, we can cultivate thankfulness for the things we own, the nice people in our lives, the enjoyable times we have had, and the enjoyable times we will have in the future. And it will begin to function for you.
Your physical and spiritual health will both improve, and your brain will be content. This is the precise meaning of leading a healthy lifestyle.
The actual way of living a healthy life is by following the formula:
Great Mental Well-being + Great Physical Well-being + Great Spiritual Well-being = HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
How does opting for a healthy lifestyle benefit you?
A healthful person is unstoppable when it’s about achieving his targets. Being healthy makes you feel lively no matter what happens around you. Apart from this, people who promote healthy living make their surroundings better. They give hope, full of life to other people also.
The energy and positive vibes which surround you when you follow a healthier lifestyle create happiness in the environment. As a result, people start enjoying your company. They find ways to approach you and spend time with you.
Let’s see what benefits it gives us:
1. Increase in Life Expectancy
When you opt for a healthier lifestyle, you basically work on various areas of yourself. Initially, you switch towards eating healthy, which enhances your brain health. It improves your mood with time.
Then, by keeping physical health on top, your brain forces you to maintain a physical routine for yourself. It results in enhancing the personality of a person alongside the increase in performance level in any task you do throughout the daily basis routine.
Moreover, when mental health and physical health gets better, it opens the door to improving a person’s spiritual health. This in turn results in making you feel perfect inside and outside and provides you self-esteem.
When all these factors of a person are in good condition then there is no scope that a person will ever move toward bad habits. It means that he will never think about having drugs, alcohol, smoking, or any other substance. As, these substances, eventually decrease the lifespan of a person and introduce numerous chronic illnesses to his/her life.
Hence, opting for healthy habits improves your way of living and there is an increase in life expectancy.
2. Decrease in Health Problems
On a regular basis, we see a lot of people struggling with various illnesses. Most of them have given up on those diseases saying that it will take us to death. It’s not easy to get rid of this soon.
Unfortunately, this is true but to some extent. If you are not going to take an initiative soon, there is no doubt you will end up in your life soon.
Health issues trigger various diseases such as bad heart health, risk of cancer, depression etcetera.
In order to fight against these diseases, there are several types of foods. In addition to this, various studies and researches have shown that eating healthy food items have saved people’s lives.
Foods that are rich in nutrition such as fresh fruits, green leafy vegetables, and nuts have amazed them with their benefits to health.
Therefore, it’s time for all of us to wake up now and indulge in taking care of our health in the best possible way. Eat healthily, cook for yourself at least once a day, shop for fresh fruits and leafy greens for your pantry, and maintain a balanced diet yourself.
Never forget to consume plenty of water each day to keep you hydrated and do get enough night-time sleep.
Like without the fuel your vehicle never works and adulterated fuel gives a fall in a vehicle’s life. Similarly, good and healthful eatables are the fuel of your body and mind.
3. A Never-Ending Feeling of Happiness
We all have heard one thing since childhood from our parents and teachers that happiness comes from the inside. But do you know exactly what it means?
Well, it explains that if you are mentally and physically well. You will be a happy soul and have a feeling of happiness all the time. And this feeling of happiness never ends because it does not follow a time span. It only needs a plan from your side to make it possible.
So, create a schedule for yourself of having a balanced diet, meditating, and exercising at least five times a week. if exercising is not possible, taking a walk every morning for 30-40 minutes will be enough.
In a very less period of time, it will provide you with the endless pleasure of being happy all the time. Moreover, you will sound better and look better, which will further enhance your confidence level too.
4. Improves the Brain Memory
Opting for regular exercise, yoga or mediation will increase the flow of blood to the brain. Followed by the required amount of oxygen in the brain which is mandatory for the proper function of the brain.
Moreover, there are several food items that encourage the way your brain functions. It includes coffee, broccoli, pumpkin seeds, oranges dark chocolate (one of the fav. things of most of us), nuts, and blueberries.
5. Enhances One’s Mood
As eating assists the fitness of our body, it also improves our mood. There are various foods that produce a good amount of serotonin (hormones that make you feel happy).
Various studies have shown that foods such as nuts, vegetables, beans, peas, coffee, hot cocoa, fish, fruits, fermented foods, and whole grains are good for keeping people in good mood.
6. Increase Savings
A healthy mind and body refer to the state in which you are far away from illnesses. Moreover, once you are attracted to the healthiest style of living believe me you won’t ever think of returning.
Eventually, you don’t have to run to doctors or psychiatrists. And it will save you a fortune when you start cooking at home instead of spending uselessly in restaurants.
Is There Any Easy Way to Switch to a Healthy Lifestyle?
Well, health is a rare commodity that cannot be easily earned. However, there are various ways in which it can be achieved.
These ways include:
1. Consume Healthy Meals
The healthy you eat, the more chances you feel full of health from inside. Along with this, you will stay away from the reach of various chronic diseases.
Healthy and freshly made food assists your body to fight against various ailments such as heart-related issues, cancer, type-2 diabetes, depression etcetera. These ailments can push one towards premature death.
One must add green vegetables to their meal at least once a day. On the contrary try avoiding the consumption of processed foods which only cause you illnesses like getting lazy, being obese, and triggering many other diseases.
Food is a mood changer and food is a game-changer in one’s life. Many foods related studies have shown that people say that when they feel depressed, they feel quite better after eating the food they love. Additionally, they mentioned junk or processed food too.
It is true that food triggers your mood and processed food too, but it comes with side effects. And the good effects will not last long. Whereas if you eat healthily, it makes you healthy and feels better from the inside and the effects will be long-lasting.
Modern lifestyle has brought us no time for ourselves, but we need to devote time in order to obtain our healthy version.
Therefore, it will be a healthy deal to treat our body and brain with healthy meals.
2. Indulge in Physical Activities or Workouts
One must aim for a well-planned daily routine in his/her life. Doing this will ais him/her in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A morning routine is the best option when one thinks about opting a healthier living.
Waking up early and devoting some time while doing exercises, yoga or meditation leads you to a better and healthier version of yourself.
If you are not a gym person or don’t like to do any exercise, then it will be best to choose an alternative like going for a morning walk every day for 30-40 minutes.
If walking is not your type, then why not go out for playing some physical sports in the evening with your friends? It will also improve relations with your friends. And gradually you will become a part of a healthy community.
You know you never grow old until you admit it. Physical fitness slows the process of aging. Thus, give yourself a boost and start any of your favorite physical routines and see a newer version of yourself.
3. Maintain Healthy Relationships
Everyone is surrounded by many people in their life. There will be people who would stay with you without wanting anything from you like your family. There will be others who may have attached to you because they like the way you live your life like your friends.
It is not that you need to worry about what everyone thinks of you and have to maintain relationships with them anyway. It’s about maintaining a relationship with those who are non-toxic to your health.
When one feels healthy from the inside, they surely attract people who are like them. And when we are surrounded by the people like us, we feel more alive. Therefore, people like us are worth not losing.
For example, if you are a fitness freak and daily go for running. You will meet people like you there will encourage you more. If you are a gym person and go to the gym every day, then people at the gym will be just like you, inspiring you more each day. Similarly, if you are a morning person, you will be approached by alike you when you go out for a walk.
Try any of the aforementioned practices and you will be able to see a great positive difference in your lifestyle.
4. Stay Focused and Away from Stress
Keeping your focus on your goals is important, it is the key to a healthy lifestyle too. Having control of one’s thoughts or brain is essential to being able to focus. Mental stress or depression is responsible for making us lose control over our thoughts.
It is imperative that we drive our way toward healthy living by tackling the factors that depress us or the negative events that cause us stress. These can be negative people around us who spread negative energy.
The individual should gradually eliminate each cause of depression in his/her life. As we learn to control our brains and eliminate stress from it, we are on our way to living a healthy life.
In addition to this, healthy life can be approached by consuming a healthy diet on an everyday basis. The right nutrition should be consumed at all meals throughout the day. Our health is closely related to the nutrients we consume through our meals. What we eat determines our personality and how our brain functions.
Hence, in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, one must ensure that physical fitness ways are followed and that healthy meals are eaten.
A Healthy Lifestyle Costs You Anything?
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle doesn’t cost you a penny. However, it provides you with endless benefits you may have never imagined.
Furthermore, it will give you a deeper sense of self-worth.
Moreover, it will enable you to love yourself more. The more you will love yourself, the more self-care you will do, and the closer you will be to leading a healthy life.
Lastly, you don’t have to do everything at once. Just take small steps, otherwise, you can ask for assistance from a doctor or any healthcare professional.
