Health: The Ultimate Form of Wealth

What is Health?

According to the World Health Organization, health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being. Therefore, in order to be in a healthy state of being, one must take into consideration not only their physical health by consuming nutrient dense foods and exercising regularly but they must also par-take in activities that contribute to mental health and social well being in a positive way. With the ever growing distractions of the modern world, achieving overall good health can pose to be difficult. Human are essentially creatures of habit. This is why health is derived from day to day actions, by implementing and enforcing healthy habits.

Establishing the Loop

In order to implement and enforce healthy habits, they must first be created. A habit is a regular practice. An action that is constantly being repeated, a loop if you will. It is created from day to day actions. Given that habits essentially define your lifestyle, I’ll share with you the recipe to creating healthy habits with these three easy steps:

First identify a specific goal at hand. Say Gemi would like to lose body-fat and gain muscle mass but doesn’t exercise regularly. Gemi would have to start working out in order to achieve her goal, which leads us to the second course of action.

Once the goal is identified, the next step would be to create a plan that can be broken down into steps that are trackable. In this case, Gemi would create a workout routine along with a healthy eating regimen that will bring her more into alignment with her goal.

The third step would be to create a daily routine or set a specific time in which the broken down steps can be performed. In this case, Gemi would implement her workout routine daily before work. The eating regimen would be performed intentionally every hour in which Gemi has scheduled her meals. This is an effective method for creating a habit as performing the activity at a specific time acts as a cue or reminder. This induces excitement or acts as a trigger when performing the activity that lets your brain know, “okay its that time of day in which i have to get *insert activity* done because I always do it at this time”. As a result of the action being repeated at a certain time, you are allowing the influence of habitual cycles which align you more with your desired goal.

Boom! There you go, a recipe for success! This ladies and gentlemen, is how healthy habits are created. I would like to point out that maintaining a balance of empathy and accountability are just as vital when establishing new habits. Remember to always foster space of empathy when you have to miss a day of carrying out the activity but hold yourself accountable by not allowing yourself to regress due to one missed day. After all, health is a life-long journey.

Physical Health

“Exercising your body as well as your mind is how we can respond to our vision to deliver on our commitments and prepare for the future”

– Leila Vann, NASA

Now that we’re aware of what a habit is and how you go about creating and enforcing one, lets have a conversation about how physical health plays a vital role in our overall wellbeing. Being in a state of good physical health means taking care of your body and not ignoring the check engine lights that appear every so often. Every time you go to the doctors for a check up or simply every instance in which you brush your teeth, you’re actively keeping yourself in a state of good physical health.

Catering to your bodies needs is crucial to your physical health. You can align yourself to a healthy lifestyle by consuming that which is beneficial for you and abstaining from that which is not because diet isn’t only limited to what you consume food wise, which is why practicing temperance is just as important. Partaking in activities that keep your body moving and feeling light is of key importance and should be treated as a priority. When you choose not to exercise, you keep your body stagnant. When the body is stagnant, emotions tend to fester up, this is why the body must move in order to allow the stagnant energy within to flow. This is why we always feel lighter after a good yoga or gym session. Seeing as sleep affects most of our major bodily functions, it comes to no surprise that maintaining a restful and consistent sleep schedule is also essential to good physical health. Of course its just as important to consume a colorful balanced diet as our bodies receive most of it’s nutrients from the vitamins and minerals of the foods we choose to put into our bodies.

Mental Health

Mental health speaks on the conditions of your state of being, tying in directly with your emotional, psychological and social wellbeing. According to the World Health Organization, a state of good or positive mental health reinforces that you’re able to cope with the normal stressors of life. When in a state of good mental health, an individual is able to regulate their emotions or control the behaviors that typically arise from said feelings. Being able to take a moment to pause before reacting to a trigger is of key importance. Journaling can be a powerful tool so one is able to observe the behavioral patterns and learn to emotionally regulate. Meditation has also been scientifically proven to significantly reduce stress and anxiety along with improving concentration and focus.

As I previously mentioned, nutrition and movement in the body is vital to our overall health. Along with this information, the following are also key components to the recipe for good mental health. Given that 75% of our bodies are composed of water, it comes to no surprise that receiving an adequate amount of water daily affects our mental standing. In addition, sun exposure helps us achieve a greater level of sleep, which seeps into the ability to learn, memorize, and concentrate. Social wellness involves fostering connections with individuals that help us feel supported. Developing and maintaining a strong social circle plays a vital role to one’s mental health.

Social Wellbeing

“No man is an island, entire of itself.”

– John Donne

Although most of us would like to be fully self sufficient, the reality is that as humans we are hardwired for connection. This would explain why good health entails social wellness. This involves forging healthy and meaningful connections with others. Feeling understood, appreciated, and supported plays a vital role in health. According to a study conducted by MIT, our need to connect is as fundamental as our need to eat. Our minds have an inherent craving for interaction and connection so much so that it triggers signals in the same region of the brain that signals our craving for food. This means that our need to connect is so deeply embedded in our DNA that their is no going about overriding this subconscious programming at its neurological core.

“Man is by nature a social animal”

-Aristotle

Health is Wealth

Health is indeed the ultimate form of wealth. There are many contributing factors to health and each is just as important as the other.

For one establishing healthy habits is vital to developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, seeing as we are habitual beings. We’ve also come to learn that self- care such as moving the body regularly, getting an adequate amount of sleep, exercising temperance, and consuming a colorful balanced diet are all key components to good physical health. And that doing the things that contribute to our mental wellbeing such as journaling and meditating, along with receiving an adequate amount of water and sun exposure on a daily benefit our mental health exponentially. The last key ingredient to this mental wellness brew is ensuring that your social wellbeing is also being catered to as we are hardwired for connection and having supportive connections in our lives enriches the human experience.

Obtaining perfect health can sometimes feel impossible but it’s important to remember that we’re human beings not human doings. Any effort towards health is a step forward towards the self-love escalator. Taking small steps to achieve optimum health on each front is something to be proud of. I hope that you’re able to take something from this article to help you move forward in a positive way within your health journey. Until next time my little butterflies, todo es amor. ♡