Do you feel healthy and happy?
I’ve just spent about an hour searching the web to find out what is considered healthy. I’ve searched Dr. Weil (my health guru), and various other sites, and all I kept finding were suggestions on how to stay healthy or become healthier. (Next search will be “how to live to be a hundred” which I KNOW there is some web information about.)
I wanted a description of what it feels like to be healthy. So I guess I’ll have to come up with something on my own.
We are led to believe that as we age, we will have less energy, we will have aches and pains, etc. etc. I have never accepted that prognosis. I think that when we are healthy at any age we have energy, we feel good mentally and physically, and the only aches we may have are sore muscles from whatever exercise we did the day before, whether walking or swimming, or practicing Tai Chi or Yoga.
I’ve also found that how to say healthy is a very individual choice. When I look at someone healthy, and I ask them “what do you do to stay so healthy and vibrant” I might get a variety of answers. Some responses that seem to always be there are exercise, eating moderately, a positive attitude and a lifestyle that includes spending time with friends, spending time out of doors, and while not avoiding stress, certainly limiting stressful situations whenever possible.
And each healthy person has different ways of doing these things — they have found the way that works for them.
I take a variety of supplements including vitamins and herbs. Obviously I exercise. And I eat one regular meal a day, and a small snack or two. This might not work for everyone, but it seems to be working for me because I’m never sick, I have enough energy to sometimes teach 3 classes of Yoga or Yoga and Pilates a day, I never get sick (knock on wood) and I feel happy inside.
I guess the question is “do YOU feel healthy?” Do you have enough energy to do the things you want to do w/o exhausting yourself or do you crash after a busy few hours? Do you seldom get sick or do you catch everything that goes around and keep it for longer than most people? Do you have a positive outlook on life. Are you happy?
If, when you take a unbiased look at yourself you aren’t satisfied with your current “state” of mind or body, it may be time to re-think your lifestyle. Don’t jump in all at once to exercise for 2 hours every day or throw out all your food and buy just fresh veggies. Try small changes — more raw veggies with your meals, more fruit – something every health care praticioner recommeds, whether a western doctor or a wholistic doctor. And maybe 10 minutes of Yoga or Tai Chi or other excercise 3 mornings a week. Start slowly.
We can and SHOULD feel healthy and happy all our lives, and I think we have the tools available to do that. Doctors are learning more about nutrition and alternatives to drugs, and we have “alternative” health care professionals available to consult when we have questions or are not feeling quite right.
Only you can judge, though, what will work for you. If your current lifestyle feels GREAT — don’t change a thing.
December 15th, 2006 at 10:59 am
as it is written “Health is merely the slowest possible rate in which one can Die! What a Concept!
January 21st, 2007 at 5:03 pm
My son, Kitoh, gave me a gift certificate at Build-a-Bear. You start out selecting the bear (or other animal friend) that you want. It is a cloth shell of the animal. Next you give it life - a Build-a-Bear person adds the stuffing but before it comes alive, you put a heart into it and it is sewed up.
Thus, Sam was born. I bought Sam a hat and a kerchief. Sam even has his own birth certificate.
Written on the store wall… “Anyone can have a happy childhood.”
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Pam said: “Only you can judge, though, what will work for you.” For me, at least today, it is Sam.
What does Sam have to do with yoga and healthy living? He clears my mind. He allows my inner child to feel safe.
I practice my yoga in our family room, with Sam watching on.