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Excellent health is much more than physical fitness or freedom from disease. To feel in top form, you also want to be in good mental health. Good mental health will help you to better care for your body. And help you to manage the stress and pressures of everyday life.
Well-being means caring for your emotional health. It’s about checking your emotions instead of letting them overwhelm or incapacitate you.
Looking after your health includes your physical body and mental and emotional health. This is what is called holistic health. Holistic health is the concept that physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health are connected and impact each other.
Take small steps to integrate a holistic approach to your wellness program. Approaching health holistically makes a difference in how you look and feel. Good holistic health is a foundation for a good life.
Choosing Your Health Goals
If you were a strong, healthy child, you might feel you’ll always be strong and healthy. On the other hand, if you experienced a life-threatening or debilitating illness as a child, you may worry about health issues.
When you consider family members’ health, it may encourage you to look after your health.
Past experiences can affect your current attitude toward your health. You must consider this when setting your health goals and focusing on your motivation.
When choosing your health and well-being goals, ponder upon the following:
?What’s really important to you right now about your health? Which areas of health have taken priority for you up to now? For example, your energy levels may be the priority right now.
?You may be looking for a way to promote your well-being rather than focus on losing weight. How do you see your health? Where do you want to be health-wise this time next year?
?How has your attitude towards your health changed? How has your definition of good health changed over the years? Good health at one time in your life may have meant having the stamina to burn the candle at both ends. Good health may mean giving your body rest and caring for your mental and emotional well-being. Or gentle regular exercise and meditation are important to you right now.
?How serious are you to promote your health and well-being? Reaching and maintaining fitness takes time and effort. It takes planning and consistency.
Consider whether you want to devote a daily time slot to your health goals, or a weekly commitment is better. Planning your goals and preparing to achieve them takes a little time. So consider how you want to schedule that.
?What past attitudes are getting in the way of your health goals? Perhaps you think that because everyone in your family smokes, giving up is impossible for you? Maybe all your friends are couch potatoes. Do you follow suit? Challenge beliefs that hold you back and seek new ways to build better ones.
?How do you avoid facing your health issues? Perhaps you always dress to hide the excess pounds you carry. Do you avoid having your photo taken or looking in the mirror so you don’t have to face reality?
?How do you want to feel when you think about your health? You can translate this desire into a positive affirmation and action.
?What do you want your future health and well-being to look like? You may want to take your children or grandchildren swimming or play football with them. You may simply want to be healthy to enjoy life.
Looking After Your Body
Most people ignore the positive attributes and focus on the body bits that displease them.
Unless you go for radical cosmetic surgery as part of your strategy, you must learn to love your body.
The body you were born with is sufficiently miraculous in its form. It will function well without too much unnecessary interference.
Your body deserves you to accept and respect it, treating it with loving care. A starting point for holistic health is getting comfortable in your own skin. When you change how you think and feel about your body, you’re on your way to achieving your health goals.
Learn how to replace the negative thoughts about your body that pop into your head with positive ones. Instead of giving yourself a hard time about those love handles, think about your strong arm muscles. What can you already do, have, and be in the body you inhabit?
When you focus on what’s already working and when you figure out what to do more to enhance what you already have, you will appreciate your body more. Focusing on how big you think your nose is compared to others makes you more conscious of your nose. And plenty of people with tiny button noses wish they had more striking features like you!
Preventative Health
Suffering the occasional cold in winter or a minor hay fever attack in summer is annoying. But when it comes to debilitating illnesses, you tend to appreciate what it means to have good health.
By focusing on positive goals, imagine the consequences of not looking after yourself. The thought of being ill may be enough motivation to achieve your health goals.
When a problem is severe enough to cause you to want to make changes, the road to recovery can be an uphill one.
Hereditary and environmental factors may affect your health and aren’t within your complete control.
But whatever your gene pool is like, and no matter what kind of air you have to breathe, you can actively coach yourself to improve your diet and exercise. Diet and exercise can make a massive difference in your health and will have a lasting effect throughout your life.
Filling Your Body with the Best Fuel
How should you eat for optimum health? The government and media offer such a bewildering array of (often contradictory) advice on food choices. In our confusion, you may ignore it all and enjoy your food how you want.
Weight loss is only one aspect of preventing illness and disease and is essential if you’re obese. But think about other considerations.
Your food choices can affect your mood and energy levels as well. Also, your diet can trigger allergies or impact conditions such as asthma or celiac disease.
Food can act as nourishment or poison, depending on the food and how you use or abuse it. If you plan your life, why also take the time to design your approach to the food you put into your mouth.
Good fuel enables you to live your life to the full.
You don’t expect your car to run on below-par fuel. So, why do you expect your body to run on junk? And because your body is a lot more valuable than any car, make food choices to keep you healthy.
Most nutrition experts agree that avoiding processed foods, drinking lots of water, eating a balanced diet, and practising moderation is the way to go. You need to choose the right fuel for your body to support your desired lifestyle.
Consider the following:
What makes you eat certain foods you know are unhealthy for you?
Do you reach for heaps of chocolate when you’re feeling emotionally low? Or is alcohol a way for you to get in the party mood? What else can help fuel a feel-good factor apart from these things?
What habits do you have that support a healthy attitude to food?
Do you take time to enjoy meals without the distraction of the TV? Do you take time to prepare and cook delicious, nutritious meals?
Do you use food and drink as a reward?
That’s fine, as long you don’t overindulge. Think about other rewards that will sustain you in better ways?
Do you have to get into a mentality of ‘going on a diet’ to lose weight?
How can you change your attitude to change your eating habits? How can you integrate good choices into your daily life?
I hope this post has been helpful. Remember that wellness is much more than physical fitness or freedom from disease.
When you first care for your mental health, it will be easier to care for your physical health.
Thank you for reading to the end. For more Tips visit, Your Wellness Matters. www.paularoseparish.com. We collect Donations for Welsh Women’s Aid . If you wish to donate click HERE.
I have worked internationally with over 40 years of experience, having a Bachelor of Pastoral Counselling and Theology and a Master of Arts in Counselling & Professional Development. BACP Life Coaching Certificate. I currently work as a Christian educator, blogger, author, and grandmother living with my two dogs in Wales, UK.
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You’ll find my book’s on Amazon.com, and If you wish to connect with me, please do so on paularoseparish@gmail.com
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?Want to help support me as an author? My books are available at AMAZON.COM
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