Health

What does being healthy mean to you?  I like to think of health as the alignment of your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual states.    

Of course your physical health means taking care of your body.  It’s about eating nourishing foods in appropriate portions. It’s about exercise.  There are many activities to get that heart rate up and make your body feel good outside the gym.  It’s also about rest and recovery and getting enough sleep. If you never take days off, you’ll never fully heal and reap the benefits of all that activity.  Take a walk. Do some yoga. Go for a bike ride. Cook a nutritious meal. All great things for your physical health.

Mental health is about attitude and outlook.  It’s how we think and act. It is closely related to emotional health and how we feel.  I think of mental health in terms of why you get out of bed in the morning. Sleep is also important here.  Do you feel refreshed and recharged when you wake up or run down dreading that alarm clock? What gets you excited?  Are you challenged and growing as a person? Do you tend to be optimistic or pessimistic? Are you in a state of becoming who you want and dream of being?  Learning a new skill, time talking with friends, reading a good book, and journaling about your dreams are good mental health exercises. 

Similarly, emotional health is about how you are feeling.  Today’s technology obsessed and overly busy culture is not very in tune with the complex spectrum of emotions.  It’s alright to feel them all. That’s human. The default in our culture is either ‘good’ or ‘not good.’ That’s a start.  What does ‘good’ mean? Start to tune in to the differences between feeling content or happy. Frustrated or angry. Look up a list of emotions and start more precisely describing your emotional state. This develops an intimacy with yourself that allows you to tune in to what you need.  Do you need alone time? Do you need to talk it out with someone? Do you need someone to just listen? Emotional health isn’t all about getting back to this happy baseline ingrained in our modern culture. It doesn’t always need to be ‘fixed.’ It’s alright to feel.  

Spiritual health is about feeling in touch with a greater life force- God, The Universe, the collective consciousness, Mother Earth- it’s difficult to name.  My spirituality is strongly connected to Music and Mountains. I feel most alive when I am living in Music and exploring in the Mountains.  There is a connection I intuitively feel. It’s the force in Star Wars.  It’s the oneness in yoga circles.  Some people feel this being out in nature.  Some people through prayer. Some people through meditation.  Spirituality comes in many forms. Create a practice to tune into these thoughts and feelings of something greater than yourself and make it a part of your life.

The combination of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual all contribute to overall health.  It’s important to give each area attention and care and find balance to live your best life and be healthy in body, mind and spirit.  Be well 🐾