On how to effortlessly stay healthy
It was sometime after I entered my 30s in 2019 that I seriously began to think about my health and what my life will be like when I’m old.
Like anyone, I would prefer to stay independent and free of pain and disease for as long as possible.
Over the years, my wife (who’s in residency at the time of this writing) and I, have spent a considerable amount of time researching how one can stay healthy for longer, and we’ve learned a lot.
There’s no way to completely avoid disease or dodge death. It comes for all of us sooner or later, but we have found that there are eight lifestyle habits or principles that we can adopt, that are consistently backed up by science, that are easy to understand, that are relatively simple to implement by almost anyone, and best of all, that are mostly readily accessible.
I came up with an acronym that will help you to remember them:
WELLNESS
W - Water
Water is not only refreshing on a hot summer day, but it is also essential to our health. More than 70% of our bodies are composed of it. Drinking enough water is indispensable for good circulation and a healthy immune system. You don’t know how much you should drink? Here is a quick rule: Per kilogram of body weight, drink 30 ml of water per day. So, for example, if you weigh 70 kg (approximately 154 lbs), then try to spread out 2 L (approximately 67 oz) of water throughout the day. Drink more if you are physically active.
E - Exercise
No one needs to be convinced that regular exercise is important for our health, but did you know that exercise slows down aging? When you get warm and start to sweat, your blood will circulate more around your skin, giving it more nutrients (and expelling toxins through your sweat). That is not all though. Regular exercise will improve the flow of oxygen to your brain, helping you to feel more awake. It will strengthen your muscles, keep your joints flexible, and overall make you feel more alive! The best place to exercise is out in nature, where your blood can pick up fresh air to feed your body’s cells with.
L - Limits
Imbalance in our lifestyles is at the root of what causes us so much unnecessary pain and disease. We tend to fall into extremes. We either work too much or too little, eat too much or too little, rest too much or too little. It is therefore important for us to regularly evaluate our lifestyles. Ideally, we should be temperate. Temperance* is to moderately do that which promotes health, and to abstain from anything that promotes disease. Setting balanced limits to all of life’s activities is what temperance is all about about.
* I hope this old word makes a comeback in contemporary English.
L - Love
Love is at the foundation of all positive and health-promoting emotions: joy, gratitude, sympathy, etc. When your heart is filled with love, your thoughts will reflect that. Consistently loving thoughts lead to loving actions. Consistently loving actions lead to health-promoting habits. Our habits are what our character is made of, and our character is what determines our future to a great degree. What do you hope to achieve in the future? If your answer is anything that has to do with “happiness,” then know that happiness is the occasional outgrowth of a heart that is full of love. It is therefore a state you can choose to be in. A loving heart lives to serve, not to be served (temperately, of course). It is in loving and trusting others, being vulnerable and fearlessly accepting rejection if it comes, that you will find real, lasting happiness, peace of mind, and consequently, mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.
N - Nutrition
There is a quote, often attributed to Hippocrates, that says “Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.” How could it not be true? It’s common sense. Think about it: Your body is made up of the building blocks that you put inside of it. If those are of a bad quality, then the structures of your body will be weak. A temperate, whole-food, mostly plant-based* diet, that avoids excessive fat, sugar, and processed foods, has been demonstrated, over and over again, to be the foundation of good health and to prevent many diseases. It may take some effort, but you can have a tasty and reasonably healthy diet.
* I know this one is a bit controversial, so I hope this phrasing will please 99% of you. 😋
E - Exhale
There are a lot of things we can do away with, but air is one that we cannot survive without for more than a few minutes. When was the last time that you went out into nature and took in a deep breath of fresh air? Did you not feel reinvigorated? Many diseases are the result of not just exposure to polluted air (as is common in crowded cities), but also improper breathing. Exhale that nasty city smog and go treat your lungs to some clean air!
S - Sleep
Stress, depression, and anxiety are the diseases of the 21st century. Ease of transportation, fast communication technology, and the convenience of household appliances have tricked us into believing that all our free time can be wholly consumed with work or other activities. Whatever else we want to do, we tend to sacrifice our sleep for. However, our health is very dependent on adequate rest. This does not only include enough quality sleep (best of all starting at 9 PM and for at least eight hours), but also time to relax, be still, and change our environment. My wife and I celebrate a special day of rest every week on Saturday, when we put a pause on our busy lives, and join other friends in praise to God, to get physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually renewed.
S - Sunlight
Our lifestyles tend to pull us into our workplaces or our houses, and we rarely get enough sunlight. Vitamin D deficiency, and the many diseases related to it (even depression), is a serious problem in many countries with cold and cloudy climates. Your metabolism and hormonal balance greatly depend on sufficient exposure to sunlight. Let its warm beams shine the light of health onto your skin!
I think that these eight simple principles are a good starting point for your journey to a better health. I hope this post inspired you, and I wish you WELLNESS and a long, happy life.