“It is essential to our well-being, and to our lives, that we play and enjoy life. Every single day do something that makes your heart sing”
– Marcia Weider
Your health and well-being starts with you. Of course you already know that, so why am I telling you again. Well, because I want to go a little deeper.
When most people think about their health and well-being, they think about the food choices they make, the exercise they do, how they manage their stress levels, how they rest and recuperate and how they can improve their lifestyle. They may work hard at finding motivation and force themselves to change their habits and lifestyle to conform to what they believe is a healthy lifestyle.
We all know what we need to eat healthy food, to exercise, to get a good night's sleep and that we need to take time to rest and recuperate. We are rich with resources and information on health, weight loss and how to look after our well-being. So what's missing? Why are some people not achieving their ultimate health and well-being? There are a number of reasons as to why. One of those reasons I believe, is all about our level of happiness.
I hear people saying things like…I will be happy when I have my own home, when I have found my soul mate, when I land that dream job, when I lose 10kg. While I am all for having goals and achieving them, declaring that you will only achieve happiness once you have achieved something puts restrictions and limitations on yourself on reaching higher and further.
How we are satisfied with our life is what makes the difference to how we take care of our body. What happens when we are not happy with stuff in our life? Perhaps when we lose our job, when our partner tells us that they longer love us, when our children leave home or when we have lost our purpose in life. For some people when something goes wrong in their life, they stop taking care of themselves, such as not eating properly, not maintaining their exercise routine and losing sleep.
When I lost my job many years ago, the first thing that stopped was my regular walking routine. Somehow it became a chore and hard work and I couldn’t be bothered with it. I then began making poor food choices and began a habit of eating chocolate every day. My sleeping patterns changed as I would stay up late at night and then sleep till late in the morning and rush during the day to do the catch up. It was only after I acknowledged my emotions of being unhappy that I was able to turn it all around. Once I handled my negative emotions and adopted a positive and happy lifestyle, I was be able to get myself back on track to having optimum health and well-being.
Good health and well-being starts with a happy heart. Ask yourself are you happy? As you go through your day, notice the choices that you are making all day every day. Are the choices you are making based on your level of happiness, the happiness of others or both?
If you find that you have negative or sad emotions, acknowledge that and find ways to change your thoughts instead of smothering them with food, alcohol, work, drugs or excessive spending. Take a deep breath and tell yourself that these emotions shall pass. Giving yourself the freedom to experience how you feel can often be the key to releasing undesirable feelings so that you can move on to more pleasant emotions. Share your thoughts and emotions with people who you love and who will support you. Get professional help if you need to. Get to work on getting happy and your health and well-being goals will become easier.
Focus on what you do have and the blessings that you have been gifted, rather than what you don’t have. Be grateful for your life and the freedom to choose how you want to live it. Our health and well-being is the vehicle that will take us to wherever we want to go. Without it, we won’t be able to achieve our dreams, goals and desires. It all starts with you.
