What does it really mean to be “healthy”. The dictionary definition is .. adjective. “in a good physical or mental condition; in good health.” This definition can be subjective though. Nutritional and lifestyle choices that one person accepts as being healthy, another may struggle with as being insufficient to maintain an optimum level of health. In other words, one man's food is another man's poison. The very minimum we need to do in order to achieve a healthy state is exercise regularly and eat a varied diet of nutritious whole foods whilst avoiding all processed foods.
It is also important to manage your stress levels. An underlying and persistent level of stress can have a debilitating affect on the body. Stress levels that have been left unchecked can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and have even been linked to obesity. For many of us, relaxation means zoning out in front of the TV at the end of a stressful day. But this does little to reduce the damaging effects of stress. To effectively combat stress, we need to activate the body’s natural relaxation response. Fitting activities such as yoga, meditations or rhythmic exercise into your life can help reduce everyday stress and boost your energy and mood and bring your nervous system back in to balance.
Another adverse factor to good health is when we allow small, irritable health issues to niggle in the background, without actually taking any action over them. A state of chronic “sub-health” begins to emerge. For example, if you ignore a constant nagging pain somewhere in the body in the hope that “it will go away” you are potentially doing more harm than good. You may carry on with your daily activities, family life and work until the niggle suddenly becomes a roar. Living with this level of pain can lead to lack of concentration or irritability, or could prevent you from playing with your children or even going to work. This naturally affects your quality of life, will definitely cause stress and may even lead to depression.
So, the question is, are you ready to take charge of your health? Are you prepared to love your body more each day? And by loving your body I mean making healthful choices about your food, understanding the importance of relaxation and making sure you are exercising daily. You can read all the books and online resources at your disposal – but they will only start to make a difference once you are prepared to integrate the advice contained in them in to your life. I'm not talking here about radical overnight transformation of every unhealthy diet or lifestyle habit you may have adopted. What I am suggesting is that you begin your journey to good health TODAY! Compile an inventory of your lifestyle choices. Are there habits that are preventing you from obtaining optimum health? Choose ONE unhealthy habit that you think might be a block to you achieving good health. Make a promise to yourself that you will eradicate it from your life. Next create an inventory of the HEALTHY habits you want to form that you can fit into your existing schedule. By repeating this exercise every two or three days eventually you will find you only have healthy habits in your life.
Today's affirmation is “I am in perfect health and I love my body more each day”
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