As a society, we are drowning in information that tells us how to be happier, more content, or better prepared to tackle the challenges of everyday life. While this is all well and good, sometimes what we need most is simple information on how to live a healthier life. Our health, after all, is the bellwether by which we measure every emotion, feeling, and sensation.
We cannot overstate the importance of health. From mental health to physical health, the functioning of our gut bacteria (yes, really) to the alignment of our spine, our general health has a constant impact on our daily lives. Even though we may not realize it, the state of our mind and body is the single largest factor in how we feel daily.
In the following article, we’re going to discuss the importance of health and the many different ways one can be healthy. We’ll also take a closer look at how our general health affects us, and discuss some signs of poor health of which you need to be aware. We hope that this article encourages you to make changes where necessary, and inspires you to treat your body and mind with more consideration.
Different Ways to be “Healthy”
The word “health” is itself a reflection of our well-being. The goal, according to most modern medical practitioners, is to maintain an optimal state of health at all times, minimizing the risk from factors that seek to detract from that well-being. These factors are, unfortunately, everywhere. And, as you’ll see, it can be very difficult to maintain optimal health with so many factors putting us at risk.
There is more to being “healthy,” however, than merely looking after one’s physical being. To be truly protected from the onslaught of bad stimuli out there, you need to tend to every part of your being as if it were its own imaginary garden. Below, we’ll attempt to explain exactly what we mean to give you a better idea of what being truly “healthy” entails.
Physical Health
The most obvious aspect of our overall well-being that we need to tend to is our physical health. Doing so means getting proper nutrition, exercising enough to keep your heart and lungs healthy, and making a conscious effort to only put things in our bodies that will benefit it. It can also mean avoiding injury and taking the steps necessary to keep yourself free of disease.
It’s no secret that our bodies often tell us when something is wrong. The most common way this happens is through pain, which can have a tremendously debilitating effect on our daily lives. Various debilitating diseases can affect us, however. We can prevent some of these by tending to our health, but others are simply part of our DNA.
Mental Health
Fortunately for everyone involved, the dramatic effects that poor mental health can have on us have become more and more publicized in recent years. Our minds, after all, are the largest communication devices we have, and they are constantly making us aware of how things are going. These “status reports” can provide us with a lot of insight, sure, but only if we’re paying attention.
In recent years, the stigmas associated with mental issues like Depression, Anxiety, and various phobias have largely dissipated. This occurrence has encouraged more and more people to seek treatment for mental problems, leading to more people understanding the importance of mental health. Many people still suffer, however, unwilling or unable to identify the mental connection to their physical ailments.
Social Health
Humans are social creatures, and – at least to some degree – we require interaction with others in order to be healthy. There’s a reason, after all, why recluses and those who do not interact with others are often considered so strange. Acting this way simply goes against our natural instincts, and can have many negative effects on our health, both physical and mental.
Of course, maintaining proper social health does not mean you have to rush out and become the most popular person in school, at work, etc. It simply means that you are cultivating healthy, reciprocating relationships with others. If you’re not much of a “people person,” some studies have shown that even the addition of a pet or two can help increase social well-being.
Spiritual Health
Spiritual health is probably one of the most overlooked aspects of our overall well-being. This fact is largely due to people not properly understanding what it is, or conflating it with something that it isn’t. For instance, spiritual health will mean something very different to a person of faith than it will to someone who is not religious. In the end, however, both types of people can benefit from spiritual health techniques.
Spiritual health is more about self-exploration, meditation, and creating a balance between the many aspects of your life. To most, it means living purposefully, discovering one’s likes and motivations, and learning to accept one’s place in the world. Whether achieved through prayer or other means, better spiritual health is something anyone can attain.
Emotional Health
Though similar to mental health in that one is often directly related to the other, emotional health is the ability to understand and control our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. Learning how to do this is essential to maintaining perspective and keeping yourself from succumbing to the barrage of challenges you’ll face every day.
Financial Health
Believe it or not, our skin is our largest organ. As such, it is a huge indicator of underlying health problems, be they mental, physical, or otherwise. If you notice spots, discoloration, redness, swelling, itching, or dark circles under your eyes, your body is trying to indicate to you that something is wrong. It might not always be catastrophic, but you should make sure you’re paying attention.
Signs of Poor Health
Our bodies are pretty amazing things. When any one of the many health types listed above begins to suffer, it will almost always provide us with some sort of signal (or signals) to clue us in. These signals can be fairly obvious, or they can be much more subtle. Almost always, however, the more in tune we are with how we look / feel when we’re healthy, the better we can recognize the signs we aren’t.
Poor Skin
Believe it or not, our skin is actually our largest organ. As such, it is a huge indicator of underlying health problems, be they mental, physical, or otherwise. If you notice spotting, discoloration, redness, swelling, itching, or dark circles under your eyes, your body is trying to indicate to you that something is wrong. It might not always be catastrophic, but you should make sure you’re paying attention.
Difficulty Sleeping
While science may not fully understand sleep, there’s no question that sleep issues are an indicator that something is wrong with our overall health. It could be as simple as too much caffeine or not enough energy, or an indicator of a serious problem with which your body is dealing. Either way, poor sleep is almost certain to lead to even more signals of bad health.
Bathroom Problems
It might not be a pleasant discussion, but there is a big correlation between what comes out of you and what goes in (as well as what’s going on inside). From infections to digestion issues to indicating some forms of cancer, your urine and stool can tell quite the story. If you find yourself having any major changes in your trips to the bathroom, a trip to the doctor might be in order.
Confusion
Our ability to think clearly is directly tied to both our mental and physical health and can be dramatically affected by various diseases and disorders. This fact is especially true of issues like depression and anxiety but is also common with obesity and sleep problems (see above) as well. If you’re not as sharp as you used to be, it might be time to make a change.
Premature Aging
Sure, you can’t stay young forever. However, if one of the areas of your health listed above is assailed by a stressor, disease, or other negative stimuli, you might notice yourself growing older much faster than anticipated. From premature graying to the development of wrinkles and spots, to issues with hair loss or nail dystrophy, you need to look out for signs you’re getting old before your time.
Bad Breath
While we often think of bad breath as a dental hygiene issue, sometimes the source of that bad smell is much deeper within. In some recent studies, dogs learned to test for certain cancers in patients merely by smelling their breath. While this is an extreme and rather rare health issue, it does illustrate just how much information our mouth odors can carry.
Soreness
Our muscles, bones, and tendons do a lot of work every day, so it’s not uncommon for them to feel sore or tired once in a while. When soreness is unexplained, however, it can often be a sign of inflammation or some other health issue. As active people, we have to learn the difference between soreness we can explain and soreness that seems to come from nowhere.
Ways to Be Healthier in Your Daily Life
Now that we have a better understanding of what we mean by “health,” we can take a look at the importance of health and healthy living in our daily lives. Below, we will list many health facts and explain their correlations to our actions, feelings, and general well-being.
Avoid Serious Diseases by Managing Sugar Intake
It’s never been a secret that sugar is bad for you, but more recent studies have shown that it is a huge contributor to many serious health problems. These include obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and many other issues that can lead to premature death. Probably most at risk are those that drink sugary beverages like soda and energy drinks. That said, some fruit juices are just as bad.
Sugar is bad for your brain, for your body, and – if you manage to gain too much weight – can wreak havoc on your self-esteem and social life. By saving money on expensive sugary drinks, you can also provide a boon to your financial health. All things considered, you need to minimize your sugar intake (particularly sugary beverages) if you take your well-being seriously.
Avoid Processed Foods
The term “processed foods” gets thrown around a lot nowadays, but what exactly does it mean? In short, processed foods are those that have companies manufacture to provide more pleasure than they do nutrition. In many cases, foods like these contain complex chemical chains that trigger dopamine release but offer little by way of vitamins and nutrients.
As with sugar, over-partaking in processed foods can affect many aspects of your health, including physical, mental, social, and emotional. This happens because over-processed foods contribute to weight gain, vitamin-deficiency, and other conditions that directly affect our well-being.
Don’t Fear Fat (At Least not All Fat)
A surefire way to endanger one’s social, physical, and emotional health is to allow yourself to become overweight. If left untreated, such a condition can also contribute to financial distress as we try more and more things to lose weight (and require more medical treatment). However, avoiding all fat is not the solution, and can deprive us of a lot of essential nutrients.
Fat, especially omega-3 fatty acids that come from fish, play a big role in staving off heart disease, dementia, and depression. Furthermore, the fat that comes from nuts like almonds can help aid in weight loss and provide necessary vitamins and fiber. In short, don’t just look at the fat content, pay attention to the type of fat you’re taking in.
Meditate, Pray, and Look Inward
Whether you want to call it meditation, prayer, or reflection, there are many health benefits associated with spending some time looking inward. As we mentioned before, our spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental health are all dramatically affected by stress, which you can alleviate by spending some time reflecting on ourselves, our choices, and our beliefs.
Find the Sleep Cycle that Works for You
Not getting enough sleep can have dire consequences for many facets of our health. Sleep, after all, is the period of the day during which our minds and bodies recharge, and perform many important repairs / maintenance. While what defines “adequate sleep” changes from person to person, there’s no denying that there are dire consequences of not getting enough.
Poor sleep habits lead to poor judgment, loss of productivity, and can lead to obesity, cardiovascular disease, and even premature death. For your mental, physical, and emotional health, you must spend time identifying what type of sleep you need and ensuring you get it nightly, if possible.
Don’t Be Afraid of Coffee
Coffee lovers are officially free to rejoice: coffee is extremely high in antioxidants, which have the ability to protect healthy cells in our body from free radicals, a primary cause of diseases like cancer. If the ability to stave off the “C-word” isn’t enough to make you reach for another cup of Joe, coffee also helps reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s Disease, and Alzheimer’s Disease.
Of course, you can’t just drink caffeine all day for the sake of your mental and physical health, because you might end up hurting your emotional and financial health as a result. As with most of the items on this list, you need to find a balance that works for you and that optimizes the benefits to every facet of your well-being.
Treat Your Gut Right
The connection between a healthy diet and a healthier guy seems like common sense, but what about the connection between a healthy gut and better brain function? For years now, studies have proved again and again that there is a distinct connection between our stomachs functioning properly and our mental health, including issues like anxiety and depression.
The bathroom issues we mentioned earlier are just one of the many signs that your gut doesn’t have the tools it needs to keep you healthy. Luckily, this can be fixed with dietary improvements, probiotics, and the addition of extra fiber to your diet (which acts like fuel for your gut bacteria.
A Little High-Quality H2O
Studies have shown that the majority of Americans are living in a constant state of dehydration. Seeing as how we are comprised mostly of this important element, maintaining the proper hydration levels throughout our days is essential to the proper function of our minds, bodies, and metabolism.
If you want to maximize your physical performance, ensure proper brain function, and keep that gut bacteria thriving, getting enough water is key. While researchers tend to disagree on what the perfect amount of water is, most advise that men drink at least 15 cups a day, while women should drink at least 11.
Vitamins Work (Supplements Not So Much)
Vitamins, nutrients, etc. – these are all words for the same things: the minute organic substances that we need to sustain the proper function of our minds and bodies. While there are only 13 known vitamins, there is an endless amount of compounds, minerals, and proteins that help keep us happy, healthy, and operating as intended.
The problem with vitamins, however, is that they generally only work when we absorb them from food. While the supplements industry is worth billions around the world, these pills are not properly regulated. This problem can lead to us getting way too little (or way too much) of the vitamin or mineral and creating more problems than we solve.
Control Your Debt
Your emotional, mental, and – ultimately – physical health depends on your financial health. As we said, financial health doesn’t mean how much money you have, but it does refer to your ability to stay out of debt and avoid falling into a monthly payment pit. The stress that comes with a situation like this can often wreak more havoc on your health than any processed food or poor diet ever could.
Seek Out a Therapist
Especially in the bustling, work-focused Western world, it is common to ignore the many ways we can better ourselves completely. While many of us will find a way to make time for things like the gym, we very rarely put effort into understanding our emotions, motivations, fears, and other mental facets of our lives. This situation is where a once-a-week trip to a therapist can be a huge help.
Whether you call it cognitive behavioral therapy, psychiatry, or life coaching, there are significant merits to talking with a certified therapist about your emotions and thoughts. Not only can these men and women help us better understand why we do what we do, but they can also help us identify potential mental disorders, work through past trauma, and make powerful changes to ourselves.
Change Your Eating Habits
There are quite literally dozens of different ways that you can alter your health for the better if you change your eating habits. Of course, this doesn’t just apply to what you eat (though that is a significant factor, as mentioned) but how you eat, when, and why. We’ve included just a few examples below.
Eat More Slowly
Dieting is notorious for being pretty ineffective as far as long-term weight loss goes. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, try altering your lifestyle and your habits. A great example is to eat more slowly. When you take your time, your brain is better able to signal you when you’re getting full and prevent you from overeating.
Eat Whole Fruit (Skip the Juice)
As we mentioned before, your body processes vitamins and minerals differently depending on how it gets them. On top of that, many fruit juice companies load their products with sugar to make them tastier. All things considered, if you want the health benefits of fruit, eat it the old-fashioned way.
Leafy Greens are Great
Do you know how all those hippy-dippy folks are always talking about Kale, collard greens, bok choy, and arugula? Well, it turns out they’re legitimately healthy for you. Not only are they loaded with nutrients, but they’re low in calories and high in fiber as well.
Add Some Spice to Your Life
We’re not just talking about “hot” spices here, but those have indeed been shown to have healthy effects on eating habits. Instead, we’re talking about all spices and herbs, especially those like ginger and turmeric, which are known to have anti-inflammatory properties.
Find Friends You Enjoy
One of the things we all hear a lot about is the concept of “drama.” For lack of a better definition, drama is what happens when friends, acquaintances, and other groups of people interact. The resulting relationships, arguments, and bad feelings cause the person at the center of the interactions (in this case, you) to feel incredible amounts of stress.
While it may make your life seem more exciting, drama is a huge source of stress. This stress can dramatically affect your overall well-being, cause damage to your social abilities, and – quite simply – make you less healthy. If you want to put your health first, you need to find friends you generally enjoy, and who don’t put undue stress on your daily life.
Have an Active Love Life
Your love life and sex life are huge contributors to your overall health. According to many studies, having an active love life can help keep your immune system functioning well, lower your blood pressure, reduce your risk of certain forms of cancer, reduce stress, and help you get better sleep each night. So if you’re living single or neglecting your sexual health, you could be putting your overall health at risk.
Play Harder Than You Work
The standard “American” vacation is about two weeks off per year for anyone working 40 hours a week. Not only does this pale in comparison to the time off available in many other developed countries, but it dramatically increases our focus on our work lives while decreasing our ability to pursue our passions, cultivate our hobbies, and spend time with our families.
While we can’t directly tell you to consider taking a new job that provides more time off, we do have to remind you of the overall importance of spending time away from work and dedicating your free time to doing things you enjoy. The more time you spend on the latter, the better your overall health (mental, physical, and otherwise) will be.
Final Thoughts
While it may initially seem like a near-insurmountable job, we hope we’ve helped you understand that there are many ways you can make your mental, physical, and emotional health a priority in your life. Like it or not, the importance of health and being generally healthy cannot be overstated.
It may take some work, but you – and anyone else, for that matter, can make the changes you need to see significant differences in your health.