Healthy living or healthy lifestyle! What does it mean to you? How does one begin living a healthy lifestyle?
A number of micro aspects lead to formulating a macro ideal called healthy lifestyle. To my n mind healthy living comprises of physical, mental and spiritual aspects. One is necessary for the other and one depends on the other. One cannot be achieved without the other.
It goes without saying that food is the primary aspect of living healthy. Avoid processed food, sugary beverages, instant fast and junk food and you are well on your way to making a healthy way. It goes without saying good food is the most important pillar of healthy living. Without it, all other aspects of healthy living would only be a distant dream. And that is why Gandhiji said,” You are what you eat”,so be careful about what you put into your mouth.
Exercise is extremely important if you want a healthy life. Our body was designed for physical activity which is why if you see the lifestyle of ancient man, you can find that his activities consisted of hunting for food, traveling places in search of a safe shelter. But in today's era when sedentary lifestyle is the order of the day, we have to deliberately make time to exercise or bodies. It could be anything from a mild form of walking to an intense workout in the gym, or even yoga, swimming, cycling, running – or a combination of all of them. Whatever suits you. Whatever suits your body type. But do it!
Healthy living includes a mental aspect as well as I said earlier. Regular reading, solving puzzles, having interesting stimulating conversations with like minded individuals goes a great distance in improving health of your grey cells. Of late studies have shown that engaging in physical activity such as stretching or even a short walk helps one improve mental health too. So, there you go – its all inter related.
One cannot live in the pink of health without a certain amount of spiritual advancement and awareness – a realm that transcends everything connected with the body. Practising meditation, deep breathing, living in the present and mindful living go a long way in cleaning out your internal self. Shunning all forms of negativity – complaining, criticising, thinking about the past and so on are a few all important factors that help one achieve that stage of 'feeling healthy from within’.
A few words about the role of digital media in our lives – a lot of our previous time is hogged by social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on. Social media has become a way of life for most of us when all of actions are motivated by thoughts of what to upload on the next post or which picture would look best on our Instagram accounts and generate more comments and likes. This is a very superficial way of living underlined by the need to be liked and feted by external validation. Nothing can take you rather away from realising your inner truth than in mindlessly and constantly engaging in expressing our opinions and ideas, sharing important details about lives with all and sundry and logging into our accounts every so often to see how many likes our latest profile pictures have generated. Social media if used in a modicum and if used wisely can be an excellent tool to enhance our personalities and live in a healthy manner. Like money and the human mind, social media can be a very good servant but a terrible master.
Lastly, actually I cannot say lastly, for this list can go on and on and on. I would instead say more importantly,(yes, that would be the right turn of phrase!) be happy. Practice being happy. If you observe children, you can see that they are happy for no reason at all. Don’t wait for others to make you happy, don’t wait for situations to make you happy. Find it within yourself. Let finding happiness within yourself be a habit. Also nothing makes a person more beautiful than being happy. So wear your happiness on your sleeve.
Let's live in a healthy manner, both internally and externally, when in company and when in solitude, more importantly let us be happy and also be a harbinger of happiness in the lives of others.
A number of micro aspects lead to formulating a macro ideal called healthy lifestyle. To my n mind healthy living comprises of physical, mental and spiritual aspects. One is necessary for the other and one depends on the other. One cannot be achieved without the other.
It goes without saying that food is the primary aspect of living healthy. Avoid processed food, sugary beverages, instant fast and junk food and you are well on your way to making a healthy way. It goes without saying good food is the most important pillar of healthy living. Without it, all other aspects of healthy living would only be a distant dream. And that is why Gandhiji said,” You are what you eat”,so be careful about what you put into your mouth.
Exercise is extremely important if you want a healthy life. Our body was designed for physical activity which is why if you see the lifestyle of ancient man, you can find that his activities consisted of hunting for food, traveling places in search of a safe shelter. But in today's era when sedentary lifestyle is the order of the day, we have to deliberately make time to exercise or bodies. It could be anything from a mild form of walking to an intense workout in the gym, or even yoga, swimming, cycling, running – or a combination of all of them. Whatever suits you. Whatever suits your body type. But do it!
Healthy living includes a mental aspect as well as I said earlier. Regular reading, solving puzzles, having interesting stimulating conversations with like minded individuals goes a great distance in improving health of your grey cells. Of late studies have shown that engaging in physical activity such as stretching or even a short walk helps one improve mental health too. So, there you go – its all inter related.
One cannot live in the pink of health without a certain amount of spiritual advancement and awareness – a realm that transcends everything connected with the body. Practising meditation, deep breathing, living in the present and mindful living go a long way in cleaning out your internal self. Shunning all forms of negativity – complaining, criticising, thinking about the past and so on are a few all important factors that help one achieve that stage of 'feeling healthy from within’.
A few words about the role of digital media in our lives – a lot of our previous time is hogged by social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on. Social media has become a way of life for most of us when all of actions are motivated by thoughts of what to upload on the next post or which picture would look best on our Instagram accounts and generate more comments and likes. This is a very superficial way of living underlined by the need to be liked and feted by external validation. Nothing can take you rather away from realising your inner truth than in mindlessly and constantly engaging in expressing our opinions and ideas, sharing important details about lives with all and sundry and logging into our accounts every so often to see how many likes our latest profile pictures have generated. Social media if used in a modicum and if used wisely can be an excellent tool to enhance our personalities and live in a healthy manner. Like money and the human mind, social media can be a very good servant but a terrible master.
Lastly, actually I cannot say lastly, for this list can go on and on and on. I would instead say more importantly,(yes, that would be the right turn of phrase!) be happy. Practice being happy. If you observe children, you can see that they are happy for no reason at all. Don’t wait for others to make you happy, don’t wait for situations to make you happy. Find it within yourself. Let finding happiness within yourself be a habit. Also nothing makes a person more beautiful than being happy. So wear your happiness on your sleeve.
Let's live in a healthy manner, both internally and externally, when in company and when in solitude, more importantly let us be happy and also be a harbinger of happiness in the lives of others.
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