Finding a healthy balance
Balance is the main element of a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle is not goal, it`s a way. Everyday you make a choice that affects your tomorrow.
I distinguish in the healthy lifestyle such irreplaceable elements: sleep, nutrition, physical activity, thinking, emotional literacy, energy and supportive environment. All elements are interrelated with other so much that the loss one of them inevitably leads to the disruption of the entire system. Scientific research about each of these areas continues, so no one really knows what will be right for you.
1. Sleeping
Quality sleep determines the future day. More you can read here. You need to plan if you want to sleep for at least 7 hours. Also you can create rituals before going to bed: herbal tea, lavender oil fragrances, pajamas pleasant to the body, massage and switched off devices before bedtime at least for one hour. Those who face problems with falling asleep can listen to audio of white / pink noise.
Morning rituals may also be useful, because people often do not get up early. And sometimes because of the fact that they don`t know what to do at 6 am. The morning opportunities are: writing the morning pages, physical exercises, meditation, art, tea ceremony, planning the day, etc.
If the alarm is ringing endlessly, and you just can not get up, try the sleep better app. Smart alarm wakes up right in the fast phase of sleep.
2. Nutrition
You can find over a hundred recommendations, techniques or approaches to “right” or “healthy” nutrition. And each of them has something that will suit you, as well as something that can harm you. In reality we can`t divide people in some kind of groups, because everybody has a set of individual characteristics. So what can you do with such important issue as food?
First, you need to gain knowledge about body and its basic systems. This will protect you from unhealthy diet experiments and allow you to filter incoming information.
Secondly, you need to listen to your body, introducing any new eating habits. After all, what came up to your friend, not necessarily fits you.
3. Physical activity
Physical activity will bring you healthy and long years, if you know why it is important for you to work out regularly. So you need to understand the level of value. This is a question that requires thinking and clear understanding.
If you exercise wisely and responsibly, it will be useful for you. Physical activity should bring pleasure more than self-effort. Physical load will be balanced if it is daily and variable. Give preference to those activities that affect all body structures and are suitable specifically for your body.
The most important in healthy physical activity is process, not the result.
4. Positive thinking.
Thoughts affect the physiological reactions and emotional states and that affects body.
Psychosomatic medicine studies the influence of psychological factors on the course of the disease. Psychosomatic illness is the result of problems in relationships, prolonged stress or restraint of emotions.
There is also a metaphysics that says that our life and all its events reflect what we really think of.
Since thoughts have such a big impact on the way of life, we need to work on them. First of all, I mean improvement of awareness, positive thinking, calm mind, etc. You can do this with the help of psychotherapy, coaching, meditation, training, books. These tools can also be used to work with the next element of a healthy lifestyle, emotional literacy.
Emotional literacy is contact with reality, which allows you to understand your feelings, to be able to show them and empathize with others.
5. Energy
Within each of us there are whirlpools of energy. If nothing prevents, it flows from one to another. In order to make energy flows freely in your body, you need to track your daily routine, maintain order (both external and internal), emotional states, and develop skills of working with energy. There are a lot of practices that work with energy and all of them have the same main task. So you just need to find your practice and teacher.
6. Supportive environment
You can overcome all moments of weakness if you have a supportive environment. It is formed by people around you, rituals, information and websites, reminders, and success stories. The supportive environment consists of what needs to be brought in, and what is better to give up. Answer yourself to the question: Who does support me on the way to the goal? And do I need to exclude or minimize contact with anyone?
A healthy lifestyle can not be imposed. This is a personal choice of everyone. Changing your way of life is possible when dissatisfaction with the current state is bigger than the resistance to change.
Author – Anastasiia Vekua
