How to Create a Healthy Lifestyle?

How to Create a Healthy Lifestyle?

Balancing your mind, body, and external relationships are the critical components to creating a healthy life. Consciously working on these foundational aspects of your life will lead you to the most optimal version of you and will build healthy relationships with others and, most importantly, with yourself. While it is easy to read and watch videos about self-improvement, the only and most important way to see results is to apply.

The key and first step to starting, is checking in mentally. Your mental state is the most critical component in starting a healthy life because your inner world is a direct reflection of your outer world; it is where everything starts. It’s the basis of your entire experience in this life, which means you get to choose what kind of incident you experience. We grow up thinking that we are born into certain circumstances, with a specific type of personality.

This kind of unconscious mentality puts us into an auto-pilot way of thinking. That is why it’s so important to check in with yourself. One crucial skill is learning to observe your thoughts. Most people don’t understand this concept of mindfulness because they think “I am my thoughts. How could I observe them?” The surprise is no. You are not your thoughts, and you are not your feelings. You are aware of your dreams and passions. With awareness, you have the choice, that allows you to live in a state of ease or a state of chaos. The way to calm the mind and start living in a state of relaxation is learning not to take it seriously. The brain loves to make life, and your feeling severe and real. In reality, our life is just the product of the conditions of everything we learned and habits we picked up from our families and society.

Your mind is no more than just thought forms that are embedded. What you must do to reteach your brain and build new thought forms is learn to differentiate the ego, the thinking mind (the monkey mind), from the conscious mind, your higher awareness. The next time you feel angry, do not think, “I am angry.” instead, think, “I feel anger.” Instead of saying, ” I am nervous.” say, “I feel nervous.” Rather than saying, “I am sad,” say, “I feel sad.” It seems like a subtle difference, but misidentifying from the emotions and thoughts implies that they are temporary states and not permanent conditions. It makes you take responsibility for them as well as subliminally training and reminding your brain that you are not your feelings and that you have the choice. After all, they are yours and nobody else’s responsibility. Emotions are not a choice, but how you choose to deal with them is.

Another beneficial and therapeutic habit of starting is journaling. Journaling gets you in tune with yourself and your thoughts. It reduces stress and helps manage anxiety. Journaling helps you to prioritize your problems and concerns. You can fully express yourself and take some weight off your shoulders without having to tell anyone, which is the best part!. Journaling also turns our thoughts and feelings into something real, like words on paper. Not just thought bubbles and emotions that come and go that we don’t remember nor analyze. Journalling allows us to go back and reflect on our thoughts, get a better understanding of the way we feel, and gives us the 3rd person perspective enabling us to change our actions and our attitude in the future. Which is a direct way to observe your thinking mind from your conscious mind? One more habit that will help to attain your mental state is to find hobbies that get you out of your head — such as a sport, working out, drawing, painting, creating any sort.

The flow state is the state in which you are entirely immersed in the activity you are doing. According to psychologist Mihaly, what you experience in moments known as the flow state, is defined as an “optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best, and we perform our best.” he states. “Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies.” Find something you love to do and quickly find yourself spending less time in your mind and more in the present, and the process, actually doing something good for you. Once I found activities that took me out of my head, It made my mind a lot quieter, and that’s something we all need.

The next component of our life that we need to take care of is our physical bodies. The first step is staying active. Living an active lifestyle is key to staying healthy. Exercise, going on runs, or an activity that challenges you physically is the perfect way to get you Staying active reduces your risk of conditions like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and the list goes on.

A healthy mind is the one which leads to a healthy body and hence, to a healthy living style. Various research studies and seminars have been conducted in the past to prove the notion. In one such workshop, the benefits of exercise on a healthy body and a healthy mind were discussed. The seminar was conducted in The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard  Medical School 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur Boston on March 13, 2014.  Two of the speakers of the seminar Irene S. Davis, the Director of  Spaulding National Running Center and Zolt Arany, Associate Professor Medicine, Cardiovascular Institute, have thoroughly discussed the matter during the seminar. According to the report, regular exercises such as running, pushups, jogging, walking, and others help enhance the performance of the lungs, heart, blood vessels, and other body organs. Exercise helps different body organs to supply oxygen to the muscles efficiently, which will lead to the enhanced performance of the organs. Physical activities enable the cardiovascular system to transport oxygen to various cells and to remove waste products and carbon dioxide efficiently.

Additionally, exercises help in maintaining the body temperature of the person. The report also revealed that activities like walking, swimming, or rowing would help in moving blood to the heart, which will enhance the health of the heart. Also, the strength of the bones of a person who exercises enhances, which is vital for a healthy body. Not only this, but exercise has a significant impact on all of the hormones which the body produces. The practice has a profound effect on the levels of estrogen. The report also revealed that exercise helps in reducing the stress hormones, which are of profound impact on the suppression of immune system functioning. The reduction of stress hormones leads to the enhancement of the immune system. Moreover, exercise helps reduce the risk of colons or cancers; it lowers blood pressure, lessens the likelihood of getting heart disease, helps deal with diabetes, and protects joints. According to a report, exercise leads to a healthy mind and body and hence, to a healthy lifestyle (Davis & Arany, 2019).

Various reports and researches have proved the fact that mental health is beneficial in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A person can’t opt for a healthy lifestyle if he is not having a healthy mind and body. A healthy mind and body play a crucial role in the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle. A report suggested that staying active, eating healthy, becoming mindful, avoiding substance abuse,  and having a proper support system are some external factors that lead to a healthy mind and body and, consequently, to a healthy lifestyle. Getting active and engaging in physical activity every day can help in the reduction of anxiety and stress levels and improves the self-esteem, mood, and cognitive functioning of the person.

Additionally, research revealed that engaging in exercise can reduce various medical conditions from developing, such as cardiovascular diseases, colons or cancers, stroke, and diabetes. Further investigations have revealed that taking an inappropriate portion of fruits, vegetables, fats, and grains can be healthy for both mental and physical health. Researchers have shown that diet, which encompasses the appropriate amount of sugar, prevents psychological issues from worsening (“Mental Health: Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle,” 2015).

One of the books reveals that mind and body consciousness is essential in maintaining a healthy life. According to the book, by making a connection between your mind and body, you can know what is vital for your health and what you need to eat and what you need to focus on to stay healthy. According to book statements, one needs to be aware of how it feels to work in neutral alignment and what muscles a person is feeling during every time he exercises. Moreover, Joseph Pilates says that one must feel every event a person goes through each day. He says, every time a person performs a task, he must ask himself how he is feeling. According to Joseph, whether a person is eating, exercising, working, or studying, he must think of how he feels doing these tasks, and he must see how things are affecting his life. Through the consciousness of mind and body, one can maintain a healthy life (Zemo, 2006).

Mind and body are closely related and have a positive influence on the health of a person. Various attitudes, emotions, behaviors trigger the heart rate, affect blood chemistry, and activate the activity of different bodily organs. Various emotions are ranging from fear, love, and compassion to influence bodily organs such as the digestive system, cardiovascular system, and the immune system of the person. Thus the mind and body have a great relationship which can exert positive or negative both type of impact over the health and quality of life of a person. Mind and body connection help address all the stressors which a person faces, particularly during illness. During illness, mind and body connection helps in identifying the underlying cause for the disease. Therefore it helps in the treatment of the disease, and hence a person can move toward healthy living. Mind and body can maximize the mental and physical health of the person. Thus it leads to the healthy life of the person (“Mind-Body Health Connection – Michigan Psychological Association,” 2019).

Mind, body and some external factors are related to healthy living and a healthy lifestyle. As we know, that mind and body are interrelated. If any of the bodily organs do not function well or even when we feel some pain in the body, our mental health also gets disturbed. We may experience stress, anxiety, or any other psychological issue. Likewise, if we go through any spiritual problem, we feel restless, and we do not want to work and feel tired. It proves that our body and mind are inter-related, and they affect each other to a greater extent. Therefore for creating a healthy lifestyle, the priority must be to keep mind and body healthy because a healthy mind and body can only lead to a highly functional lifestyle.

References

Davis, I., & Arany, Z. (2019). Healthy Mind, Healthy Body: Benefits of Exercise (p. 27). Boston.

Mental Health: Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle. (2015). Retrieved December 4, 2019, from https://www.nami.org/getattachment/Extranet/NAMI-State-Organization-and-NAMI-Affiliate-Leaders/Awareness/AKA/Mental-Health-Fact-Sheets/Maintaining-a-Healthy-Lifestyle.pdf.

Mind-Body Health Connection – Michigan Psychological Association. (2019). Retrieved December 4, 2019, from https://www.michiganpsychologicalassociation.org/mindbody_health_connection.php

Zemo, B. (2006). Change Your Mind. Change Your Body. Change Your Life. United States of America: Dog Ear Publishing.