I’m excited today to welcome a guest blogger, Faith from ehealthinformer.com. She’s talking about wellness, and how to be more aware of your all around health. Our health is so much more than just our weight or activity level. It’s all encompassing and it’s necessary for us to regularly take a comprehensive look at our overall health, including sleeping habits and stress levels. Thanks so much Faith for your wonderful input!!
3 Paths to Wellness You Haven’t Considered
While many of us try to find the next big thing in health, perhaps it would instead be best to look at and consider our overall health levels. When we encounter ill health or some other physical ailment, typically we associate it with a specific deficiency or problem. This is not always the case, as a variety of factors play a role in our health. Health issues can arise out of emotional stress, and our everyday lifestyle choices matter.
Let’s take a closer look at a few ways you can examine your life and some strategies to help live healthier.
Review and Adjust Your Emotional Habits
As mentioned above, poor emotional health can weaken your body’s immune system. How many times have you felt negative or depressed about something, only to develop a cold, headache or stomach pains soon after? Stress is deeply related to these common health issues, but to alleviate the symptoms, you need to address their root cause.
Our bodies are impacted by the way we think, act and feel on a frequent basis. Thinking creates emotion, which biologically forces our brains to release chemicals around the body to make us feel the way we’re thinking. If our thoughts are strong enough and reinforced with conviction and belief, our energy levels and enthusiasm towards life drops significantly, leaving us vulnerable to pains, aches and common illnesses such as colds.
Emotional health is a complex issue, and a blog post cannot give you a comprehensive answer. That being said, you should look at what brings you joy in life, and spend more time doing them. Additionally, take some time to list out everything in your life that is stressing you. How many of those items can you eliminate, even if would take an investment of time or money? The benefits will be worth it. You might find yourself feeling better than you thought you would.
Consider Working with Professionals
Doctors, nutritionists, trainers and other professionals are professionals for a reason. They know how to help you become the best version of yourself. While you might be rightfully suspicious after a bad experience or cautious about spending too much money, an appointment with a professional could be more cost effective than a couple of years of experimentation without results.
They’re not only there to talk about physical issues. In fact, wellness concerns and emotional stress are things doctors need to know about, as they can help them decipher a more accurate solution to our health problems.
Depending on where you feel your needs lie, you should at least look up available professionals in your area. You’ll be able to get a handle on the costs and inconveniences of seeing them. Once you weigh them against your current efforts and issues, you may decide a visit could help you create a plan that will last decades.
Work Out an Information-Based Wellness Plan
If you want to find out your current level of wellness without going to the doctor at first or you wish to find some additional insights into your emotional well-being, you can always start tracking your life and information regularly to notice trends. Your doctors might ask you things about your diet or exercise habits, but it’s difficult to get a real handle on the exact numbers unless you take notes.
You can always use a notepad, but I prefer to use either a spreadsheet that I can update daily or apps on a smartwatch or smartphone that will track certain metrics without manual input. The goal is to get a better handle on your life, not create busywork for yourself.
Just remember that while such tools are valuable, you’ll want to make sure your information is being kept safe. Be reasonable in your cybersecurity practices, use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on your smartphone while you’re traveling or outside, and avoid inputting information into an app that you absolutely cannot let get out into the world. Identity theft can happen, and it is the main argument for using pen and paper (other than the deliberateness of recording information).
However you get your information, the next step is to analyze it and filter it down into useful statistics and facts. Are you slipping on Saturdays? Are you not drinking as much water as you thought you were? Are you not getting enough sleep due to work? This data will help you find answers to questions you didn’t even know you had, and you can use these facts to make positive changes in your life. Change one thing at a time if you need to and reward yourself (responsibly) when you’re meeting goals.
Whichever method works for you, you should feel proud of yourself for making a concerted effort to live a life filled with wellness. How are you planning to make that a reality? Please leave a comment below and tell us your thoughts.
About the Author: Faith is a health and tech enthusiast who also enjoys blogging about her experiences. She has a keen interest in the link between mental health and physicality and is doing her best to spread awareness of their connection. Visit her site at ehealthinformer.com
The post 3 Paths To Wellness You Haven’t Considered appeared first on Red Head On The Run.