How to Be Healthy at Any Age

Since I love music, I find myself continually drawn to associating harmony in any area of life to music. Achieving total health and wellness is no exception.

In a typical choir, there are four principal voice types - Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass - which are all necessary in order to bring full tonal quality and harmony to the choir. Similarly, in order to have a natural, totally healthy and fulfilling life, you must focus on your quality of life, which encompasses your physical, spiritual, mental and emotional well-being.

This principle of harmony among the physical, spiritual, mental and emotional realms is so simple and effective that most people miss it. The key is to not focus on any one realm or dimension to the disadvantage of the others, since all are required to bring balance and harmony to the human person.

If you are to enjoy a good quality of life, then you need to simultaneously take care of the physical, spiritual, mental and emotional dimensions of your life. Achieving this total balance and harmony is quite simple and does not require any expensive solutions.

In this article, I will share with you those four key requirements for achieving healthy living, looking younger and aging gracefully through spiritual health, physical health, mental health and emotional health. It’s really that simple!

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(1) Achieving SPIRITUAL Health and Well-being

We are all principally spiritual beings, so I will speak to this dimension of well-being first.

From as far back as history can record, men and women in civilizations all over the world have always organized themselves into religions or cults with the specific objective of dealing with the spiritual person and matters not understood in the physical realm. Today, likewise, there are many religious sects and cults.

I won’t advocate joining a cult since, by its very definition, it points towards the bizarre and negative. That being said, whatever religious sect you join or belong to, make sure that it brings you inner peace, improves your relationship with God and your relationship with your fellow human beings.

Pray, meditate, read daily devotionals and/or spiritual books to keep your spirit light and maintain your spiritual health. After all, you eventually become what you read and watch! History has revealed that some of the most heinous crimes were committed by persons who were avid readers and watchers of crime. Likewise, many of the saints read the Holy Bible or other uplifting writings daily, which resulted in them changing or improving their spiritual lives to the betterment of their entire life and being.    

The Psalmist was absolutely right when he said: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8). I always start my day with prayer and the reading of God’s word.

(2) Achieving EMOTIONAL Health and Well-being

Emotional well-being builds on the foundation of your spiritual health. If you don’t have inner peace then you are likely to express negative emotions, such as, depression, sadness, moodiness, anxiety, constant complaining and criticism, most, if not all of the time.

You can actively take charge of your emotional health by making a commitment to repeatedly express positive emotions, even in the face of challenging circumstances. Here are some examples:

a) Develop a thankful spirit: Express thanks to God for the elements (sun, moon, water, air), nature, friends, family, your job, your talents and skills. Say thank you to friends, family and strangers for the little as well as big things they do for you.

b) Laugh and smile often: You don’t have to walk around grinning from ear-to-ear whole day or become the class or office clown. Watch a comedy! Read or listen to a few jokes! Listen to children - they’re always asking strange questions or saying funny things.

c) Surprise someone with a good deed or a small gift: It’s amazing how you can get such a warm feeling inside when you see the smile that an unexpected gift or deed brings to someone’s face.

d)  Empathize with others: The human condition is such that circumstances such as, illness, loss, misfortune, death and/or grief, will befall us at any time and in different combinations and proportions. By empathizing with others, you can help someone along life’s journey and might just help save someone from committing suicide.

(3) Achieving PHYSICAL Health and Well-being

Taking care of your physical health involves eating healthy, bathing regularly, engaging in daily exercise and taking care of your body, including your skin, hair and nails.

Always remember to eat from the five major food groups each day - Grains, Vegetables, Fruits, Milk, Meat & Beans - in order to provide your body with the right mix of nutrients. Take a good vitamin supplement, to satisfy any nutrition deficiencies you may have or to boost your diet. Above all, remember to DRINK YOUR WATER - 6 to 8 glasses a day!

You can reduce the aches, pains and creaks by doing daily exercises that warm up, engage, strengthen and tone the whole body – swimming, running yoga, cycling (indoor and/or outdoor), walking. It’s never too late to start or learn a new physical exercise. I learnt to swim when I was 52 years old!

Who says you shouldn’t also smell and feel beautiful as you age?! Pamper yourself, from head to toes, with personal care products, such as scented shampoos and conditioners, scented body washes, foot scrubs and/or decadent body lotions. I always have different scented and coloured body washes and creams to match my mood for the day.

Use moisture enriching products on your skin, so that:

• You can easily slough off dead skin cells to reveal younger looking skin.
• You can add moisture to your skin, thereby keeping it elastic and young.

 

(4) Achieving MENTAL Health and Well-being

Once you’re enjoying spiritual, physical and emotional health, then you’ve created the foundation for mental health and wellness.

As you age, however, you are more susceptible or predisposed to experience declining mental health due to aging of the brain. The most common manifestation of this is a condition known as Dementia, in the first stage, which could then worsen to Alzheimer’s.

However, you can keep your mind active and healthy, stay mentally alert and stave off Alzheimer’s disease by doing a combination of the following activities:

a) Play Games: Every day, play one or more of the numerous fun, strategy, word and board games available. Games such as, Scrabble, Crosswords, Word Search, Bingo, Chess, Word Search, Backgammon, Cards, Sudoku, Jigsaw puzzles, to name a few, which you can purchase in book form or which are available online for free. I play many of these games, both offline and online, but my hands down favourite is SCRABBLE which I play almost every day!

b) Volunteer in church or community groups: Many church and community organizations could benefit from your time, talent and experience treasure trove at no cost.

c)  Mentor the young: Young people don’t like to be told what to do but you can subtly provide guidance to one or more young persons as you notice them struggling with life issues or whenever they directly ask for help.

My closing prayer for you, dear reader, is 3 John 1:2 – “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well”.

 

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a small commission from any qualifying purchases that you make through this blog post. If you purchase anything, I thank you for your support.

***Photo attribution: All photos are creative common. Special thank you to the talented artists - geralt; stevepb; and tsukiko-kiyomidzu on Pixabay. 

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Share with us, in the COMMENT section below: (1) Which area of your health has been most neglected? or (2) Which area of your health do you plan to work on more diligently from now on?.

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