What is the best diet for a healthy body? What is health and wellness anyway? How would you define it? Even though I’m now 71 now I saw something the other day that shocked me just a little. I was a Canadian champion in the sport of rowing at the age of 20 and I thought I understood something about health and wellness. I was wrong. Want to know why? Stay with me to the end of this short article and find out just how wrong I was!
Common Conceptions
Or are they misconceptions? If asked, most of us would say that maintaining physical health and wellness means eating fruits and vegetables, staying hydrated, getting some exercise and proper rest. Sounds straightforward right? Or are there other things we ought to consider?
A Different Approach
Holistic medicine is an attitudinal approach to health care rather than a particular set of techniques. It addresses the psychological, familial, societal, ethical and spiritual as well as biological dimensions of health and illness. Does this broader approach make more sense?
Do you know someone who is physically healthy and yet be distinctly unwell? For example, if someone is physically healthy but wrestles with a poor self-image, chronic depression, substance abuse, has difficulty managing their anger, can’t seem to hold a steady job, wouldn’t we all agree that such a person might not be well despite that person’s physical health?
The Psychology of Health and Wellness
Would you agree that there is a psychological component to maintaining good health? Do you know someone who is predominantly negative? You know, the person at the office who is constantly complaining? We sometimes refer to such people as toxic personalities. Now the word toxic is a pretty strong one. But, if you have encountered such people, do you want to be around them? Many suggest that, if you have a toxic personality among those with whom you associate, you will be much better off if you distance yourself from that person.
What about you? Have you ever felt really angry? If so, how did you feel? Was it a good feeling? A renowned cellular biologist, Dr. Bruce Lipton, suggests that intense, negative emotions can lead to physical maladies.
He demonstrates how our emotional state is instantly reflected in the chemistry of our cells! If you have ever felt really angry, how did you feel physically? Did you feel good? Would you agree that you actually felt bad physically during that experience? Dr. Lipton suggests that 85% of what ails us is due to negative thought patterns and the sour emotions those patterns generate.
What about the opposite? Have you ever felt exhilarated, boundless joy, excitement, deep love? Emotions like these are usually accompanied by an overall, positive, feeling which includes feeling good physically. Would you agree?
Many people are beginning to understand that health and wellness goes well beyond mere physical health. Yes it is important to keep an eye on what we eat. Exercise should be something we do regularly. But most of us now agree that health and wellness includes emotional and spiritual components as well.
Self image and Thought Patterns
What do you think about yourself? Are you a happy person in your mind’s eye? Or are you not content with who you are? If you harbor a negative self-image can you say that you’re feeling well most of the time? It has been suggested that your self-image is the key determinant of what your life becomes. Modern self-image psychology tells us, however, that if you have a damaged or compromised self-image, the good news is that can be repaired. The path to a healthy self-image is one of the issues addressed in depth on this platform.
What do you think about all day long? Emerson said that we become what we think about all day long. Many of us are not even conscious of what we think about most of the time. If you pay attention to your thought patterns you will start to realize whether you are someone who thinks about positivity most of the time or whether you have a negative outlook. Once we become aware, or mindful, of what we think about predominantly, we can then take steps to adjust those patterns if that is necessary. Of course, that takes some self-awareness and some practice.
Your Diet Is Not Just What You Eat!
What do you watch? What do you listen to? I hope it’s not some of the more extreme versions of rap music that promote violence! What do you read? Are you making an attempt to grow by reading uplifting content? And what about the people you hang out with?
Shouldn’t we be mindful of the things we put into our bodies emotionally, spiritually as well as physically? Parents, do you allow your children to play those video games that represent, oh so graphically, scenes of warfare or violent criminality? Are those graphic images good inputs for your child’s mental, emotional and spiritual health?
Earlier we talked about toxic people. Personally I have found that eliminating toxic personalities from my experience has resulted in a far greater level of happiness and contentment. What do you think? It may sound harsh but is there someone in your life who is dragging you down? If so, is it not time to think about putting some distance between yourself and them? And isn’t it funny? If you have had this discussion with others, almost invariably, people will tell you that they had a toxic personality in their life who they left behind. In my experience, the feeling those people describe is…liberating!
On the other hand, would we not agree that satisfying social and family relationships contribute to a feeling of wellness? We are social beings after all. Interactions with others that lead to mutually satisfying outcomes whether in business or on a personal level contribute to one’s sense of overall wellness. Are you paying attention to how you interact with others at the office and at home?
Most would also agree that taking time to spend in nature is an uplifting experience. Many find that a simple walk in the park or though the woods leads to a feeling of being connected to all that is.
Financial Wellness
Society pressures us into a ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’ kind of mindset. Happily, many are beginning to recognize that unbridled materialism does not contribute to a feeling of wellness. But it seems that people in today’s world are accumulating increasing levels of debt. That only leads to stress! I’m only going touch on this topic of financial wellness just to raise it in our awareness. It is dealt with in more detail elsewhere on this platform. But most of us will agree that it is important to maintain control on our spending and to ensure that we save some of what we earn on a regular basis.
What Do You Think?
I hope I have inspired you to consider health and wellness from a very broad perspective. Being mindful at all times about what we see and hear, what we think about ourselves and what we think about most of the time is the starting point to optimum health and wellness. The content on this platform is created with a view to helping us navigate that path to better health and wellness.
At some point in the very near future we’ll look at the question of what we do for a living and how it defines, in a very real way, who we are. We’ll look at the impact that major component of our lives has on overall health and wellness. I hope you’ll stay tuned!
To Your Limitless Success,
Grant Rayner
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