January has flown by. Hasn’t it? Around this time of year, most of our healthy New Year’s resolutions have either been compromised or fell to the wayside completely. This is not to say all hope is lost for the rest, but I do want to question what being healthy means to you, to me, and us as a society as we trek onwards into this new decade. We can observe health from a variety of perspectives but for the sake of this short discourse, let’s talk about three. The health of one’s mind, body, and spirit, is fundamental to how we interact with all other aspects of our life. They are individual pillars that stand on their own but also aspects of our identities that we spend our lifetimes improving. But how can we observe what it means to be healthy from any of these essentials of being? What we do know and can discern is that the health of all 3 – the mind, body, and spirit – are intrinsically connected. I would contend even further that all three essentials have to be healthy for any of us to be wholly healthy. What does this mean? Well let’s set the conditions by which we can observe this thesis:
Person 1 wakes up at 6am and after a nice 8 hours of sleep, they go for a morning jog, followed by a nice shower and regular morning routine. They read a little bit and then spend one minute breathing to practice mindfulness and then by 7:30, they go on about their day. Person 2 wakes up at 6:30 after only 4 hours of sleep. They choose to not go on a morning jog because they are too fatigued to do so, they go about showering and continuing to prepare for their day, however they feel rushed and unclear as they are just going through the motions of the morning. Well who stands to have a better day? Now while the answer may seem obvious, let us use this scenario to speak to the way we view being healthy. While both persons might go on and have the same day, traditionally it is observed that the little decisions and differences in the health decisions of Person 1 sets them up to be healthier in the long term as opposed to person number 2.
However, being healthy has meaning beyond the standards agreed upon by society. Fundamentally, we have to listen to ourselves and be in agreement with the healthy decisions we are all forced to make throughout our days. We should be wary of succumbing to regimens proven to work for the general public but not necessarily proven to work on an individual level. While we might be disciplined to follow a plan, are we developing a sense of self-awareness that is discerning of what our bodies need to function – whether it be eight hours of sleep or four? We see various ways in which being healthy is marketed, usually by way of diets, workout regimens, yoga or other spiritual practices. Oftentimes, we are lead astray to the little things we are told to implement in our day at any time that can set us all up to build and maintain healthy habits. We all want to have the perfect balance of health, but have we mastered the habit of making healthy decisions? It does not have to be all at once either. We live in a world based on speed and efficiency, but our health is not something to be rushed. So what will it take for our mind, body, and spirit to be healthy? It’s the little things, like the awareness of how much sleep you need, the habit of making our space neat before we leave for the day, or even drinking water more. Or maybe it’s some completely new habit that you feel helps you that no one else in society has come up with yet. We all know where we want to be in terms of our health and we can get there by starting with mastering the little things. Start there and watch your health change for the better.
-Ghost
