Maintaining wellness is really quite simple. It’s so simple that most people reject just how easy it is. It’s so simple that it doesn’t take a library or a lifetime of learning. We naturally know how to stay healthy, if only we listen to our bodies when we are children and ignore the influence of the adults around us.
When it comes to wellness, there are only five things that matter:
- what you put into your body
- what you put onto your body
- how you use your body
- what you choose to fill your mind with
- who you choose to surround yourself with
What you put into your body is, well, everything you eat, drink, or breathe. If it didn’t grow in a field or on a tree, be thinking about where it came from. The healthiest diet there is consists of water, raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains, and unprocessed juices. There are other things that are fine to eat (including meats, breads, and the above-mentioned items in cooked form), but the further you get from a raw, naturally-grown diet, the more your body has to work and the less nutritional benefit you derive from the food. Similarly, what you breathe should be natural and unprocessed. That basically means air (nitrogen and oxygen) is good, anything else is bad.
What you put onto your body is a simple extension of what you put into your body. It’s obvious if you’ve every paid any attention that the things that touch your skin end up affecting the skin, and, in some cases, penetrate deeper to affect your overall body function. What’s not so obvious is what you actually come into contact with over the course of a day or a year. Water (rain, creeks, the ocean) is good, as are the juices and husks of just about anything edible (fruits, vegetables, fish and animal oils). Pretty much anything else is bad. This includes harsh household chemicals (cleaners), all forms of airborne and surface pollution (car exhaust, cigarette smoke, machinery smoke, non-natural greases and oils). Basically, if you wouldn’t eat it, you shouldn’t be getting it on your skin.
How you use your body is just as important as what goes in. You can eat a perfect diet, but if you don’t move your body regularly and exercise strenuously a few times a week, it will atrophy. Walk more and pursue active hobbies. Find ways to be active doing your job. And exercise regularly. Three to four times per week, you should be working up a sweat for thirty minutes or more. This builds your muscles, sure, but it also changes your metabolism so you stay warmer more easily and burn more calories even when you aren’t exercising. Additionally, it increases oxygen flow throughout the body, which sharpens the senses, reduces the risk of many diseases and ailments, and sharpens mental function. You’ll need less sleep. You’ll build emotional strength. Plus you get a natural endorphine rush, a healthy high, that lifts you spiritually.
What you choose to fill your mind with affects every aspect of your life. What programs you have running on your computer directly affects how the computer works; the brain is the same. Read to be inspired rather than just entertained. Learn new things and ideas. Decide what results you want and then choose to listen only to others who have achieved them (or at least come close). Ignore gossip, mass-media, hype, and marketing. Programming yourself for wellness starts with what sources you choose to listen to.
Who you choose to surround yourself with brings everything else together. The friends you choose directly impact the choices you make about everything: what you eat, the environment you spend time in, how active you are, and what ideas you try and accept. Equally important, if not more so, close relationships heal and lift the spirit. The more people you are emotionally intimate with, the more power you create to live a life of greatness. Physical touch from a close friend is emotionally strengthening and mentally calming. If you surround yourself with negative thinkers, worriers, drama magnets, and those who always seem to be the first to be sick with whatever is going around, you’ll become those people. If you surround yourself with happy, successful, positive individuals, you’ll become those people. Your choice.
Everything else about your life stems from the five pillars above. Wellness is the natural result when the body, mind, heart, and spirit are fed properly. Disease is the result of being out of alignment. Put your attention on each of them and see what you’re filling your body and mind with. Figure out where you need to make adjustments. Then go make them.
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Quote for the week
The concept of total wellness recognizes that our every thought, word, and behavior affects our greater health and well-being. And we, in turn, are affected not only emotionally but also physically and spiritually. – Greg Anderson
Healthy thoughts,
Jeff
