When it comes to managing our own health, there are many essential tidbits of wisdom we must abide by. For instance, if you wish to lose weight, eating less calories than you use and eating healthy, clean foods is important. If you do this long enough, you will lose weight and feel healthier in your body. If you wish to reduce your stress, going for walks, reducing your exposure to the highest stress sources in your life (such as booking less overtime at work), or meditating can be fantastic measures to achieve this goal.
Yet while there are essential, scientific measures that can help you get back to your healthiest state, not all practical avenues are suitable for everyone. For instance, someone with weak joints may not find running on a treadmill to be the best form of exercise, as each step can be hard on the knees. Instead, swimming might be a better option. For some, an online smoke shop may be the first step to reducing their intake of tobacco products.
But how can you find new health considerations that work for you? With the following advice, you’re sure to notice a benefit:
Finding Your Exercise
Finding the exercise that works for you can be a great place to begin. As mentioned prior, some people have different physical needs to consider. If you use a wheelchair for instance, it can be harder to find your exercise, but options such as wheelchair basketball and other team sports can help you slowly join a community and learn just how capable you may actually be.
This is not to suggest that people need to become the most physically active superheroes after such an intensive past few months. Nor does it mean that you should always be part of a team, or working towards an intensive goal. Yet it’s essential to find the exercise you can, and to understand what your needs are regarding this. If you’re in your golden years, for example, learning how to weightlift with very light loads to unlock your mobility, or performing yoga in a professional studio, can help you feel so much healthier. Don’t be afraid to try something for a few weeks and not entirely take to it, there are hundreds of options out there that help you get moving and active. Remember - sometimes walking through the park is enough.
Your Dietary Needs
While there are essential choices everyone should make for their diet (getting enough vitamins and minerals is pretty much a universal requirement, for instance), curating your diet for you is important. For instance, some people may wish to eat less meat, while others might love the benefits of a ketogenic lifestyle.
If you have certain dietary requirements due to allergies or intolerances, this can also complicate the issue. However, taking the time to learn a few recipes that grant you the best possible health maintenance is a worthwhile use of your time. Taking the time to shop for more wholesome, real foods instead of ordering takeout twice a week can also help. Using meal plan Sunday preparations to help you better count your calories and manage your meals during the week (as well as saving time) could help you take pride in your cooking ability.
Furthermore, finding supplements that work for you can be a fantastic means of moving forward and feeling healthy. Vitamin D is a fantastic hormone to supplement for instance, as are zinc supplements for certain people, or omega 3 fatty acids if your diet is lacking in fish. When you take in these certain supplements, you can ‘complete’ a balanced and healthy diet. This will, of course, optimize your health.
Social Experiences
Social experiences are important for the sustained health of our spirit. We need to see people, to meet them, and to have conversations. It’s just how we’re wired. Even the most ardent introvert will, for the most part, need to speak to someone to help overcome feelings of isolation, or to avoid feeling too alone. Think of it like sunlight for plants, we need this exposure if we’re to grow and become our healthiest selves.
This also means that being in the presence of toxic people can damage our health. If your friends are aimless, continually making excuses, unhappy, abusive and damage your confidence, it’s hard to lead a healthy lifestyle. A common phrase suggests that you are the accumulation of your three closest friends. This might not be fully accurate, but it shows just how much people influence us, our beliefs, our interests, and our sense of fairness.
So, sometimes meeting new friends or coming out of our shells to be nicer to people, or even just joining a local group to meet like-minded people can be a great idea. Social experiences like this bring us together, and nurture us, and develop our sense of fair play and social bonding. It tethers us to the world. So don’t be afraid to use this consideration to manage your social list, or to curate relationships with healthier people. This way, you can be a better version of you.
Your Own Pace
Finding your own pace is important. No matter how slowly you go, you’re still lapping everyone on the couch. For some, starting to care for their health is as simple as fixing their sleep schedule. Instead of staying up late at the computer, they might find that heading to bed at 10pm sharp is important, as it helps them wake up at a reasonable, regular time too.
You’d be stunned at how well this can begin bringing your life together. Waking up in the morning is often when you begin the scope of your day and the means by which it will be experienced. It’s very hard to wake up very late, spend an hour on your phone in bed, and then make it by the shower by lunchtime. Even on your days off, this can ruin the enjoyment of your day, or how much you get out of it.
Does this mean you have to keep to a perfect schedule to be healthy? Of course not. But finding the schedule that works for you and combining it with your own pace can have magnificent results. For some, that’s just finding out not to push it when out at the bar, instead coming home at a reasonable time because you have responsibilities to deal with in the morning. It’s this self-friendship that can unlock your ability to take care of yourself for the better. As far as that’s concerned, you’re sure to have a better time.
Understanding Your Vulnerability
We all have vulnerabilities, and they affect us to certain extents. It’s okay to admit this, and to tailor your personal health plan around it. For instance, you may be struggling with anxiety to the point where heading to the gym seems like a monumental task. Well, can you walk by the gym today, or maybe hike with a friend? Perhaps you might try a taster session next week. Maybe you’ll just sit in the reception and ask the receptionist about the services offered. This is just one example, you do not have to join a gym as part of your health journey.
Understanding your vulnerability however, and taking what steps you can towards soothing them, can be important. However, our first example was incomplete in that it suggested you should go it alone. If you’re really struggling, be that with depressive tendencies, feeling untethered to your normal life, or overly stressed, it’s very important to speak to those who care about you. Believe us when we say there are more people that care about you than you think, and the depth to which they care is even stronger than you imagine. If you can focus on your vulnerabilities, and vulnerabilities they are, you’re almost certain to make progress. Even just understanding what your vulnerability is can help you avoid making it worse. To that extent, you’ll be moving in the right direction, and that’s all you ever have to ask of yourself.
Avoiding Quick Fixes
Avoiding ‘quick fixes’ is important too. Sustainability is key. There’s no pill on this Earth you can take to make you feel a completely health, happy person with 100% continuous satisfaction. Furthermore, while medicine can fix almost everything that could be wrong with your body, it can’t fix how to live your life, nor the purpose through which you live it, or your need to care for your own mind. To some extent, it can help, but this is ultimately something we all need to learn for ourselves. When you focus on this, you can understand that the work is what we have to do. Going for a walk is not just a nice use of an hour, but a thoroughly rejuvenating means of coming back to yourself. This world can be complex and harsh, and so the more allowances like this you grant yourself, the better.
With this advice, we really hope you can continue to find new health considerations that work for you. After all, you certainly deserve those beneficial effects.
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