Health is a Mindset and a Lifestyle

I think we can all agree that living a healthy life requires the right mindset and the right lifestyle. In fact, our lifestyle is often what gets in the way of our health. I for one am a road warrior at my job. I put 30,000 miles on my car this past year. Guess what that means? I eat fast food way more than I want to.

For the most part I have a pretty good mindset on health and a fairly healthy lifestyle. The key is that there is always room for improvement. Here are some steps in the right direction.

Right Health Mindset:

1. Practice Positivity. It’s pretty much a proven fact. Positive people have better health, lower stress and lower cases of stress related diseases. Being positive also helps the immune system fight of just about any disease.
2. Have a Sense of Humor. Like being positive, humor helps improve the immune system. It worked for Patch Adams right?
3. Learn to let go. You know of what I speak. Those behaviors that always seem to haunt you. The bad habits you have formed over the years. I’m not saying its easy, but focus on replacing those behaviors with other good behaviors. Drink water instead of soda for instance. Exercise instead of watching tv. I’m sure you can figure something out…
4. Think healthy. The more your focus on health the more likely you are to practice it! 😉
5. Resist temptation. Bad health is the easy path. Good health is the hard path. Once you have established a healthy lifestyle, don’t look back. Don’t give in to temptation. It gets easier. Once you look and feel your healthiest you will not want to return to your previous lifestyle.

Right Health Lifestyle:

1. You are what you eat. In goes bad, out comes bad. In goes good, out comes good. Diet is one of the biggest cultural factors that determine health. The Mediterranean diet and the Okinawan diet come to mind when I think of two excellent diets to practice.
2. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. And women too! Late to bed, late to rise, might work as well. 😉 I guess the point is to get sleep. Feeling rested helps you in all areas of your life.
3. Move around. The sedentary life does not bode well for anyone. Get up and move around. If you work in an office take a walk outside as often as the smokers do. It’s your right! Play some sports. Take a hike! Or just go walk. I know many people who do an evening walk right after dinner. They report nothing but good results from it. Just plan a way to be active on a regular basis.
4. Have lots of friends. And get a dog too! Both have been proven to increase your health. A strong network of friends is always a good thing for your health. Not only will they help increase your happiness levels they can also recommend good doctors too! As for dogs. Well someone just told me that having a dog throughout your entire life can add as much as 10 years to your lifespan. Whether its true or not I know my dog adds a lot of value to my life. 😉
5. Did I mention laughter? It can not be underestimated folks. Laughing releases some of the same magical chemicals as exercising does. So what do you say? Let’s exercise with the deep down belly laugh today!

Here’s to a healthier mindset and lifestyle today!

I hope you enjoyed this reading this good stuff. I know I enjoyed writing it. Tommorrow is the final post in this series on health. It’s going to be good. Please subscribe using the link below so you don’t miss a thing!