Different people have different definitions of what it is to be healthy. Some cultures focus strongly on spiritual health and others completely disregard it. Whatever you believe, there are three main pillars upon which healthy living stands. These are: physical health, mental health and spiritual health. The three are quite strongly interrelated, and can affect each other in a variety of ways. Psychological birth defects can manifest as physical symptoms and may affect one’s spiritual perceptions of the universe. This is only one example of their interrelatedness. This article focuses on the absolute essentials required to live a healthy life, with particular attention to maintaining good health on all three pillars to produce an overall healthy person.
Physical Health
The three main parts of physical health include a balanced diet, a reasonable amount of physical exercise and the absence of disease.
Diet
Diets vary from region to region and culture to culture and even depend on your income. There is no perfect diet and no diet is absolutely incorrect. What defines a balanced diet is getting all the nutrients that you need and, very importantly, not getting too much of certain nutrients.
The biggest problem that plagues the system at the moment is that too many people eat far too much sugar. The reason for this is that many more processed foods are being produced in order to keep up with our busy lifestyle, because they are easier to prepare. Sugar is a big problem because the physiological effects it causes, makes a person crave it more and feel less motivated to conduct physical activity. The truth behind the matter is, there isn’t really a way to run off your sugar through exercise, it is much better to cut it down in your diet. The actual daily value a person should restrict themselves to is 25 g of sugar per day.
On the other hand, although malnutrition is not really a problem in developed countries, some people may lack specific vitamins or minerals in a diet that they are unaware of. It’s possible to plan your diet meticulously to make sure that you are getting the right amount of vitamins and minerals, but there are supplements available to make sure you’re definitely getting the right amounts. Read more about supplements on Reviewy.
Physical activity
It’s a bit difficult in this day and age to get the right levels of physical activity. The standard job requires a person to sit behind a desk for many hours. By the time you get home, you are tired and it is difficult to exercise. There are however, little bits of physical exercise you can choose to employ throughout your day. For example, small things like parking your car further away and walking as well as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, can add up to quite a large amount of physical energy that is expended.
Some of the biggest motivational problems that people face when trying to exercise is that they expect too much of themselves at first. Almost killing yourself on your first workout is not going to encourage you to do another one. For the best motivation, an enjoyable period of physical activity that’s not too long is sufficient for the average person to get what they need. Try different things on different days to keep your mind from becoming bored, and do exciting things like dancing, martial arts and yoga.
Disease
Maintaining a healthy diet and correct amount of physical exercise is a good way to ward off disease. But it is not perfect. When you do get diseased, it is important to follow your doctor’s instructions as much as possible to get rid of it as soon as possible. Pharmaceutical treatments are not the only solution so you can consider natural medicines and alternative therapy like acupuncture. The science behind these emerging forms of healing is actually quite astounding.
Mental Health and Spiritual Health
Mental health lies within the perceptions of ourselves and our surroundings. It has a strong basis in physical health. The biggest factor impacting mental health these days is stress. There are a variety of ways to cope with stress, but whichever way you choose, it is vitally important that you look after your mental health.
Spiritual health deals with our perceptions of the non-physical, especially our thoughts about what will happen after we die. Spiritual health is far too complex to discuss in this article, but it is something to pay attention to. It should also be noted that people who don’t believe in any sort of spirituality, still have a perception about the non-physical and this is their form of spiritual health. For example, an atheist might use science to explain his or her perceptions about things and that is perfectly acceptable if that suits him/her.
