What is a Healthy Lifestyle?
I and many others are promoting the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle, but what does that actually mean?
A healthy lifestyle isn’t just diet and exercise. Today we go over the components of leading a healthy lifestyle and how it’s important to lead a balanced life.
In general, most would agree that a healthy person doesn’t smoke, is at a healthy weight, eats a balanced healthy diet, thinks positively, feels relaxed, exercises regularly, has good relationships, and benefits from a good life balance.
Maybe I should start by trying to look at a few definitions for the word – lifestyle. A definition in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language says: ‘A way of life or style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group’.
Definition Of A Healthy Lifestyle
The World Health Organisation in 1946 defined health as ‘A complete state of mental, physical and social well-being not merely the absence of disease’.
Wikipedia defines a lifestyle as the way a person lives. This includes patterns of social relations, consumption, entertainment, and dress. A lifestyle typically also reflects an individual’s attitudes, values or worldview. A healthy lifestyle is generally characterised as a “balanced life” in which one makes “wise choices”.
A final definition of lifestyle is The aggregation of decisions by individuals which affect their health, and over which they more or less have control.
What is the definition of Healthy Living?
The World Health Organization (WHO), defines Health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not simply just the absence of disease.
The actual definition of Healthy Living is the steps, actions and strategies one puts in place to achieve optimum health.
Healthy Living is about taking responsibility for your decisions and making smart health choices for today and for the future. So healthy living would consist of:
Physical (For The Body)
- Good Nutrition, Eating Right
- Getting Physically Fit, Beneficial Exercise
- Adequate Rest
- Proper Stress Management
You Also Need to Give and Receive
- Forgiveness
- Love and Compassion
- You Need to Laugh and Experience Happiness
- You Need Joyful Relationships With Yourself and Others
Emotional Wellness (For The Mind)
- Self-Supportive Attitudes
- Positive Thoughts and Viewpoints
- Positive Self-Image
Spiritual Wellness
- Inner Calmness
- Openness to Your Creativity
- Trust in Your Inner Knowing
And all aspects of one’s self must work in harmony to achieve wellness, so you need to create a balanced life.
Why is it Important?
A healthy lifestyle is a valuable resource for reducing the incidence and impact of health problems, for recovery, for coping with life stressors, and for improving the quality of life. There is a growing body of scientific evidence that shows our lifestyles play a huge part in how healthy we are. From what we eat and drink, to how much exercise we take, and whether we smoke or take drugs, all will affect our health, not only in terms of life expectancy but how long we can expect to live without experiencing chronic disease.
Conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, joint disease, and mental illness are responsible for a vast number of deaths and disabilities. Currently, we rely almost exclusively on the provision of clinical care by highly trained health professionals as our major strategy to deal with these conditions. Many health problems can be prevented or at least their occurrence postponed by having a healthy lifestyle.
Why don’t you have a healthy lifestyle?
It’s a busy life for most of us. And keeping ourselves healthy is all too rarely near the top of our list of ‘things to do’. Convenience often wins – we are all so busy that convenience is at a premium.
Good Health Is “Simple – But It’s Not Easy”
It is so important to make ‘keeping healthy’ a part of our day-to-day living habits. Your health depends on what you do throughout the day, every day. A healthy lifestyle is absolutely vital. Here is a real simple solution – slowly improve your lifestyle in a step-by-step way. If you take one new health step every two months, for example, in two to three years you will be among the healthiest ten percent of people in the Western world. And boy will you see and feel the benefits.
Improvements do not have to be large steps; take one small step for your health today, keep that one going, and add another one every two months. Have a plan – maybe introduce 6 improvements over the course of a year.
Can You Adopt A Healthy Lifestyle?
Whatever your age, fitness level or body shape, it's never too soon or too late to start thinking about living healthily. You can take a step towards healthy living by making one change now to your daily life. That won’t be so hard, will it?
Are You Living A Healthy Lifestyle?
Do you wake up with enthusiasm for the day ahead? Do you have the high energy you need to do what you want? Do you laugh easily and often, especially at yourself? Do you confidently find solutions for the challenges in your life? Do you feel valued and appreciated? Do you appreciate others and let them know it? Do you have a circle of warm, caring friends? Do the choices you make every day get you what you want?
The Components Of A Healthy Lifestyle
Eating Healthily
The right nutrition is necessary to live a healthy lifestyle. Your body requires a well-balanced diet every day in order to maintain the adequate amounts of vitamins, nutrients and minerals needed to maintain a healthy body.
To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art – La Rochefoucauld (French Writer)
An Active Lifestyle
You will need to include fitness as part of your life. Physical fitness keeps your weight in check, helps you sleep better at night, prevents heart attacks and strokes and other health problems, and generally prolongs your life. Basically, there are so many benefits of exercising that you really can’t live a full life without it.
Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness – Edward Stanley (Earl of Derby)
Stress Management
Emotional stress plays an important role in many illnesses, both directly and indirectly. People are also more likely to smoke, overeat, drink too much, work too hard, argue with others and so on when they are feeling stressed. Thus, stress management is an important part of your new lifestyle, and meditation and relaxation techniques are truly a key part of living a healthy lifestyle.
Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body – Marcus Tullius Cicero (Roman Philosopher)
Make Friends With Yourself
Loving yourself is a key to a healthy, happy lifestyle. Self-esteem is all about how much people value themselves; the pride they feel in themselves, and how worthwhile they feel. Self-esteem is important because feeling good about yourself can affect how you act.
The power of love to change bodies is legendary, built into folklore, common sense, and everyday experience. Love moves the flesh, it pushes matter around… Throughout history, “tender loving care” has uniformly been recognized as a valuable element in healing – Larry Dossey (Physician)
Powering Up Your Mind And Body
Programme your mind for total success. Develop a vision, a compelling future that excites and inspires you, and focus on it daily. Don’t let anything knock you of course, or make you question its possibility. I promise you, by taking control of your thoughts, you will improve your life in a big way.
In minds crammed with thoughts, organs clogged with toxins, and bodies stiffened with neglect, there is just no space for anything else – Alison Rose Levy (Journalist)
Life Balance
If you want to achieve a healthy lifestyle you must take steps to ensure you maintain a certain level of balance… spiritually, physically, emotionally, socially, mentally and financially. You need to balance work and family, and all the other areas of your life without spreading yourself too thin and having a guilt trip when you do one thing, but think you should be doing another. All of the key areas of our lives overlap and interlink, affecting each other. Unless we create for ourselves satisfaction in each and every part of our life, we can never truly be fulfilled, or live a contented, happy and healthy life.
No success in public life can compensate for failure in the home – Benjamin Disraeli (British Prime Minister)
Being Healthy is so important. Just change one thing in your life today. Have a healthy life beginning now. Living a healthy lifestyle will bring you happiness, health and the life of your dreams. You can fit into your favourite pair of jeans again. You can enjoy all the benefits that perfect health offers you. You can feel your best at all times of the day.
