The Power of Opportunity(2015)
You’ve probably heard the common phrase that “Health is wealth”. It’s not just a phrase that mothers use to make their children eat. A healthy body really guarantees a healthy mind and does away from ailments such as stress, depression and gloominess. Primarily, health is of two kinds, physical health and mental health. Both kinds of health are intertwined with one another. Stated below are the benefits of each kind:
Physical Benefits
Being physically fit requires you to maintain a healthy and balanced diet, regular exercise and most importantly, a positive outlook towards life. If you can manage to do that, you can benefit from a plethora of various benefits. Better yet, if you adopt the above mentioned habits in your life from an early age, you can manage to fight off diseases such as cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol issues. All of this eventually adds up to a more energetic and effervescent you. The more energetic you are, the more productive you will be in your life.
Mental Benefits
Mental health is equally, if not more, important to physical fitness. Rest assured, eating a healthy meal and exercising regularly can contribute towards a more relaxed and peaceful state of mind. Whenever you are stressed or feeling down, always remember that you need positive energy to pull yourself from your current state of mind. The energy is required by your body to enable you to fight off the negativities in your life.
You will barely get the strength and motivation to fight off your stress with an empty stomach or with insomnia kicking in your system. You need to bring about certain changes to your daily routine, from a health perspective. Start off by doubling your water intake and devoting a few minutes from your daily schedule towards quality time for yourself. Incorporate the use of exercise and you will notice your mental health significantly improve.
Design Your Ideal Workout
When you reach a certain point in life, where you seem to have achieved most of your major milestones, you start craving for mental peace. The struggle we call life, is an endless journey that promises everyone their shares of bitter and happy moments. You can either take the back seat and enjoy the show, or take control of your life and know that you are responsible for it.
However, all the struggles in your life are bound to break you down. The only way you can get back up on the horse is by keeping yourself motivated and refreshed, especially during rough patches. Various psychologists recommend regular workout routines for their patients suffering from depression or any kind of crisis in their lives. Being physically fit clears your perception and broadens your horizon, not to mention the clarity and focus it gives you.
Follow the steps listed below to help you design the ideal workout routine:
Set Goals
Before you get to it, you should develop realistic and achievable goals. Ask yourself, why do you want to work out? Is your goal to lose weight or simply to keep yourself occupied? It is better to be clear and precise in terms of establishing your goals. Focus on specific aspects of your body.-If you want to work out for relaxation purposes, start aerobics classes, followed by yoga. Moreover, you also need to define your current level before starting your workout routine. Your goals and routines would vary, depending on whether you are an amateur, intermediate or have progressed to the advanced level.
What is Your Workout Frequency?
Based on your routine and everyday tasks, make a workout plan and allot specific hours of the day for each type of workout. Depending on your goals, this would give you a fair idea of how much you would be required to work out. The trick is to create the perfect blend between your routine tasks and your workout sessions. If you want stability in your life, keep moderation in your tasks. You do not want an excess of each, balance is something you should strive for.
Hire an Instructor
If you are just a beginner, it is advisable for you to hire a workout instructor. The instructor can help in suggesting various exercises and techniques, which would be suitable for your current weight, age and goal. It is really important for you to lay out your weight training intensity, which would only help you manage the exact specifications regarding your workout routine.
Do Not Over Burden Yourself
Designing your ideal workout does not mean filling up the empty slots in your schedule with excessive workout routines. If you overburden yourself, you will lose the motivation for working out. Only opt for those exercises, which you can bear to do, not the ones that completely drain you off your energy.
Chalk Out a Diet Plan
Your ideal workout would be useless without a carefully drafted diet plan. Here is where your instructor would come in handy. Equipped with the right experience and knowledge, your instructor would be able to draft a well-integrated diet plan, one which would complement your daily workouts.
Eat Well, Eat Right
When beaten down by life, many people cope with it by starving themselves to death. What they do not realize, is the fact that not eating will not help them deal with the situation at hand, it will only worsen it.
On the contrary, some people adopt the opposite attitude towards coping with grief or stress. They start binge eating and find comfort in foods like chocolate, cheese or ice cream. This is a graver situation than the former because it exposes your body to illnesses such as obesity or other side effects of an ill-balanced diet.
After a depiction of two extreme situations, the importance of eating well and eating right should be clear. However, if you have any more doubts, give the following benefits of a healthy diet a good read:
Mood Lifter
It is a well acclaimed fact that adopting a healthy and balanced diet, coupled with regular exercise not only improves your physical well-being but does wonders to your mental state of mind. Research reveals that physical activity has a profound effect on your mental health and stimulates brain cells to act in a more productive manner. It works well for those people who are conscious about their physique and gives them self-confidence and a sudden boost in morale.
“Another healthy habit that leads to better mental health is making social connections. Whether it's volunteering, joining a club, or attending a movie, communal activities help improve mood and mental functioning by keeping the mind active and serotonin levels balanced”, says the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Helps You Lose or Maintain Weight
Eating the right kind of food, in the right quantities, is what determines your physical and mental health. One of the perks of eating healthy is shedding off the excess weight around your belly or thighs. Soon enough, you will notice a reduction in your weight. You surely cannot attach a price to the happiness you get, when you manage to fit into your old jeans.
Gives Instant Energy
If you think that the best way to cope up with stress is to stuff your mouth with comfort food, you couldn’t be more wrong. Junk food, especially that rich in sugar, sucks up the remaining energy in your body and leaves it in a state of fatigue. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables, containing a high amount of fiber is what gets you going and gives you instant energy.
Fights Off Diseases
You probably have no idea how much a balanced diet can help you fight off even the most life threatening of diseases. By incorporating the most essential proteins and carbohydrates in your diet, you can avoid diseases such as high blood pressure, cholesterol and various other medical ailments. Put your guard up and implement upon the phrase- “Prevention is better than cure”.
Release Stress, Meditation for higher awareness
Stress is perhaps, the single most disastrous emotion one can ever feel. It literally gnaws you from the inside, devoids you of all positivity and leaves you hollow from within. Needless to say, stress is one bitter reality and life has its way of giving you its fair share of worries and miseries- there is no escaping that.
Having said that, there are various ways that can help you reduce, if not eliminate stress from your life:
Meditate
Make meditating a habit. Before or after a hectic and stressful day, devote a few minutes of your time to meditating. You will soon realize that it will do wonders for your mental, as well as physical state of being. You need not follow a lengthy meditation routine, all you need to do is close your eyes, rid your mind of all negative thoughts and keep repeating positive statements such as, “I can do this”. The key is to divert all your attention and energies to thinking positive, so that you can power through.
“Research suggests that daily meditation may alter the brain’s neural pathways, making you more resilient to stress,” says psychologist Robbie Maller Hartman
Be Present
When life seems meaningless and the future seems a distant reality, hopelessness and helplessness engulf you. However, you can step out of it by simply focusing on your present. Treat the present as a gift from God and try to see his greatness in all the little things. While taking a walk, take a moment to appreciate the sunset or the sunrise. Let the cool breeze caress your face and allow yourself to soak into the moment.
Regular Breathing exercises
Stress, in various circumstances, is a major reason for different mental and physical illnesses. You should never let stress take over your life; instead, you should be the one to control your life. Every morning, practice some breathing exercises. All you have to do is close your eyes and inhale and exhale deeply. Do not expect a significant change overnight, give it a few days- you will notice how refreshed and exhilarated you feel at the start of each day.
“Deep breathing counters the effects of stress by slowing the heart rate and lowering blood pressure,” psychologist Judith Tutin, PhD
Vent it Out
You probably don’t know yet but sharing your troubles and worries with your loved ones does a world of good. Even if the world turns its back on you, there would be that certain someone you can truly count on. Try to reach out to the people you trust and be receptive towards their input. After having talked to someone that you trust, you will notice an improvement in the way you feel.
Focus on Your Body
You need to analyze the extent of the influence that your mind has over your body. A stressful person is never a healthy one, the sooner you realize, the better it would be for you. Therefore, what you need to do is re-examine your body, for changes or alterations, especially in the way each body part is functioning.
“Simply be aware of places you feel tight or loose without trying to change anything,” Tutin says.