When we think about our health, we can often think about any medical concerns that we already have or have the likelihood of developing.
While that would be classed as health, there are other areas that we should never neglect too. You might be inclined to consider your diet and fitness levels at this point, and again, you are right, but health goes way beyond those two factors.
Whenever you’re not feeling yourself, what is the main factor? Is it a health condition that you have that’s causing you to feel off? Or maybe it’s your diet? Or, it could even be something beyond that. Nine times out of ten, when you’re not feeling right, it can be down to stress. And what kind of category does stress come under? It’s not usually linked to physical fitness levels; that’s for sure.
When it comes to stress, it can be brought on by factors that affect us mentally, or even emotionally. As much as you may not consider these areas to be associated with health, they very much are.
It’s the same with spirituality. If you only consider your health in physical terms, you’re limiting the levels of health that you can achieve. If you’re very fit and active, and in good shape, but are suffering from work-related stress or the breakdown of a relationship, you’re not going to be your healthiest self at all.
So, it’s important to consider all areas of your health, holistically. When you’re trying to better your health, you need to work on all areas – your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.
Physical
It can often feel like you put a lot of emphasis on your physical health. And there’s a very good reason for it. Believe it or not, but your physical health can actually impact other areas of your health, to decrease or improve it.
So, it is important that you get your physical health in good shape. This doesn’t mean that you have to be at your physical peak, but, you do want to be in the best shape you can, health wise.
When you’re first starting out, it can be easy to fall into the trap of making a range of fitness mistakes. But, as you learn and grow, you’ll soon find your feet.
The important thing is that you’re trying. What you should start doing to improve your physical health is move a lot more, every single day. In our modern world, we’ve gotten lazy. Our ancestors would have walked miles each day, now we do the same in our cars.
Once you’ve started moving more and walking instead of taking the car whenever you can, you should work on improving – but by bit.
You might have your own preference, but spin bikes are a great workout, along with any kind of sport and resistance training. It would be worth adding in a workout to your fitness regime in order to reach your ultimate physical health levels.
Mental
Closely related and something we’re all a little more familiar with than some of the other areas of holistic health is mental health.
For some reason, it has a bit of a taboo about it. Perhaps it has something to do with the media and Hollywood portraying mental health suffers as ‘crazy’ in the past, but in today’s society, we should all be past that.
So, it’s time to work on your mental health and wellbeing. If you find yourself suffering with stress, do your best to work on that. Whether it’s pressure at work, anxiety over a fear or even money worries, you need to be working on ironing everything out. When your mental health suffers, it can affect every other area of your life.
When you’re really struggling to work it out and get out of a tough patch, you might need to speak to someone. And that’s not a bad thing, it could do you the world of good.
Self care is something that is hugely underrated. You need to work on yourself, on being happy and carefree, in order to truly enjoy a healthy life. Without it, you’ll always be in a bad way.
Emotional
After mental health, you want to think more about your emotional health. Now, this one is largely related to mental health, but it might be a little trickier for you to define.
Sometimes, mental health and emotional health can cross over. But for you to improve your emotional health, you might want to think about how you feel in a range of situations. It’s also important to recognize that your emotional health doesn’t only have to deal with your relationships.
Your emotional health can be connected to how you act and react to different things in life. To improve your health in this area, you’re going to want to work on your emotional maturity. This isn’t so much like a checklist of stages that you should go through, but more of a frame of mind or outlook on life. To stay emotionally healthy, you’re going to want to work on your trust, love and ability to be selfless.
Spiritual
Even if you’re not the most spiritual of people naturally, your spiritual health plays a big part in your overall health and wellbeing.
You only have to consider how you feel when you’re stuck in a rut in life and you have no idea why. You might be at your physical peak, doing okay mentally and in touch with your emotions and still wondering what’s wrong. When that’s the case, your spiritual health might be out of balance.
It’s widely used in the east, but less so in the west, yet mindfulness is a fantastic way to calm your thoughts, find your centre and regain control over your mind and body at the same time. It’s also a great way to get in touch with your spiritual health.
Being able to work on your spiritual health will allow you Then, when you start to prioritise spiritual growth, you will be able to find that balance once again.
