Health is the most important factor in anyone’s life. The World Health Organization has defined health as ‘A complete state of mental, physical and social well-being not merely the absence of disease. On the other hand, lifestyle has been defined as the way an individual lives which include health, diet, social relations, values and belief as well as habits and hobbies like music, books, sports etc. In short, a healthy lifestyle could be summed up by choices individuals make which affect their health and overall wellbeing.
A healthy lifestyle includes but is not limited to:
- Staying fit through regular exercise
- Eating balanced nutritious diet
- Engage in sports or outdoor activities
- Stay away from substance abuse
- Find laughter and happiness
- Have joyful relation with yourself and others
- Being positive in thoughts and self image
- Be calm, confident and creative
- Proper stress management
- Adequate amount of sleep
What is a healthy lifestyle?
In a very popular Bollywood movie Bawarchi, Rajesh Khanna famously quotes Rabindranath Tagore that “it is so simple to be happy, but it is so difficult to be simple”. A healthy lifestyle, easier though it may sound, but is actually not that easy to follow.
It’s a very busy life for most people. Sedentary urban lifestyle has only added to the difficulty of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Often, we don’t prioritize health over our work which later may give rise to a plethora of health conditions and chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, joint pain, piles and cardiovascular diseases etc.
A number of scientific studies have shown that our lifestyle plays a vital role in our health and overall wellbeing. It also affects how we cope with stress and happiness in our life and personal and social relationships.
If we stay away from harmful substances like alcohol and nicotine, engage in regular exercise and eat nutritious foods, then many health problems can be prevented and we can also avoid many chronic health conditions.
14 Ways to Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle
Without further ado, let’s dive into 14 ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle to keep diseases at bay, improve your health, stamina and natural immunity and improve the quality of your life.
1. Prioritize Self-Care
Responsibilities like work, exercise, relationships etc. could drain you physically, emotionally and mentally. That’s why It is especially important to prioritize self care for a healthy lifestyle.
Telling yourself that you are doing your best is important so that you don’t get stressed.
Taking care of yourself can improve your performance at work as well as in your personal relationships. The ways in which you can prioritize self care may include:
1. Engage in yoga, meditation or exercise
2. Focus on good and creative activities
3. Learn to say no
4. Stay away from alcohol and nicotine
5. Don’t overcommit
6. Read a book
7. Meet with friends
8. Cut down on carbs
2. Maintain a Balanced Diet
You might not be able to meet your body’s needs if you don’t eat a balanced diet.
Consuming complex carbohydrates, certain protein percentages, multivitamins, and various minerals that can prolong life and boost your immunity —like zinc, magnesium, and iron—is essential.
Healthy eating can also help you manage several chronic diseases like diabetes. Including leafy greens, meat & fish, and food containing healthy fats is also very important for health and vitality of our body and organs.
Some of the ways to maintain a balanced diet are:
1. Include a lot of fruits and vegetables
2. Include high fiber meals
3. Don’t skip on breakfast
4. Cut down saturated fat
5. Avoid processed meat and fried foods
6. Drink a lot of water
7. Eat meals together with family or friends
8. Try green tea
9. Include herbs and spices in your diet
3. Engage in Regular Exercise
Regular exercise is one of the best ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Benefits of exercise are numerous.
Studies have proven that regular exercise for 30 minutes, 5 days a week can significantly bring down high blood sugar in diabetics.
It also keeps joint pain and arthritis at bay. Regular exercise boosts your immunity naturally, adds to positivity and increases your strength, stamina and performance at home and work.
It is not necessary that you hit the gym to do regular exercise. Brisk walk, simple chin ups and pushups and a little aerobics can help invigorate your body and fill you with energy and positive vibes
4. Maintain Adequate Sleep
You might also be searching for enough time to relax if your workday consists of eight hours of work and the remainder of the time is spent eating, exercising, watching television, browsing the internet, or studying any subject.
Getting at least eight hours of sleep can help to ease circulation, revitalize brain nerves, and relax your muscles, bones, and tissues. You will be energetic and productive throughout the day.
It can also aid in the process of revitalizing the sex hormones and reducing the cortisol levels.
5. Manage Stress Effectively
Sedentary lifestyle, peer pressure and relationships could add to stress level easily if you are not maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Coping with stress is one of the challenging matters that a person from every age group has to go through and one often gets drawn towards consuming alcohol and smoking cigarettes.
Some of the ways in which you can manage stress effectively are:
1. Avoid drugs and alcohol
2. Unwind yourself by engaging in activities you enjoy
3. Get plenty of sleep
4. Connect with people and socialize
5. Connect with your community faith-based organization
6. Do yoga and meditation
7. Practice deep breathing
8. Manage social media time
6. Stay Hydrated Throughout the Day
Water is an integral and essential part of a balanced diet and to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Drinking enough water every day at a regular interval is very important.
Water helps our body and vital organs in a number of ways. It regulates our body temperature, prevents infections, delivers glucose, nutrients and oxygen to our cells, lubricates joints and eyes, improves our digestive system, keeps our skin radiant and helps in detoxification of our body.
Following are some of the ways in which staying hydrated can lead to a healthy lifestyle:
1. Aids in digestive system
2. Keep our body naturally moisturized
3. Delivers nutrients and oxygen to our cells
4. Keep our joints and eyes lubricated
5. Protects vital organs and tissues
6. Help our kidney in detoxification of bodily waste
7. Limit Alcohol Consumption, Quit Smoking or Avoid Starting
Alcohol and smoking regularly takes a heavy toll on our body. Excessive smoking and drinking strain the muscles in our heart and put strain on blood vessels.
Drinking alcohol over a long period of time can also damage your liver. It also affects the quality of our sleep which in turn increases stress.
There are many benefits of quitting smoking and alcohol. Quitting smoking and alcohol can greatly contribute to healthy lifestyle:
1. Improves liver and kidney function
2. Decreases risk of cardiovascular diseases
3. Improves brain function and reduces stress
4. Increased energy level
5. Improves quality of sleep
6. Improves relationship
7. Improves workplace productivity
8. Increase sex timing and performance
8. Practice Yoga
Yoga is a series of stretches, poses and breathing techniques, an ancient spiritual practice with its origin in India.
Although spiritual practice in nature, yoga is based on subtle science and holistic practices to bring about or achieve the harmony of mind, body and spirit.
Invest a portion of your day for pranayam, meditation, or different forms and postures of yoga. It may be in the early morning during the Sunrise. Or during the afternoon before lunch.
According to National Institute of Health, yoga can improve the quality of our life in following ways:
1. Supports stress management
2. Improves brain and cognitive function
3. Aids in healthy weight loss
4. Improves quality of sleep
5. Improves appetite
6. Improves heart health
7. Can help with joints pain and arthritis
8. Invigorates body, improves mood
9. Helps quit smoking
10. May assist in alcohol withdrawal syndrome
9. Nurture Mental and Emotional Well-being
There is no set definition of mental and emotional wellbeing. It can be what you are feeling at the moment, how we are feeling, how we are doing in our personal and professional life or how we are coping with our daily life, relationship and chores.
Nurturing mental and emotional wellbeing can be as simple and easy as preparing a cup of coffee. For example, you can prepare hot or cold coffee for yourself.
The detoxifying property of coffee may recharge your brain, boost emotional strength and make you more active at work by reducing stress and fatigue. Other ways to nurture emotional and mental wellbeing may include:
2. Stay physically fit
3. Sleep adequately
4. Connect with people
5. Engage in hobbies
6. Spend time in nature
7. Focus on present
10. Maintain Hygiene
Washing your body daily is key to maintaining hygiene. Use a good quality soap so that you can disinfect your body of germs and particles.
Wash your hands often and keep your body hydrated and moisturized. You can also use a natural pumice stone to remove dead cells from the skin’s surface.
Thoroughly cleaning your feet before going to bed will encourage improved blood flow and restful sleep.
Also brushing your teeth twice a day, in the morning after you wake up and at night before you go to sleep keeps your teeth and enamel germ-free and keeps your mouth fresh.
Some of the ways in which you can maintain hygiene for a healthy lifestyle are:
1. Keep hands clean and wash them often
2. Trim your nails regular
3. Wash your foot before going to bed or entering the bathroom
4. Use handkerchief when coughing or sneezing
5. Maintain hair and scalp hygiene
11. Manage Technology Use Wisely
Modern technology has improved our lives considerably. We can get a world of information through a single finger click. Technology has significantly improved productivity.
But while it has been a boon to us in several ways, its use has also created a whole new brand of stress and illnesses.
When used more for entertainment rather than productivity, technology could lead to problems such as poor sleep, poor eyesight etc.
The light emitted by smartphones emit artificial lights that not only adversely impacts sleep quality but also our eyesight.
Using phones while crossing the road and while driving has seen a sharp increase in road accidents that kills hundreds of thousand people every year.
Some of the ways in which you can manage use of technology to maintain a healthy lifestyle include:
1. Don’t use device while driving
2. Be mindful of your screen time
3. Don’t use phone when you go to bed to sleep
4. Spend time on activities away from screen
5. Go outdoors and socialize with real people
6. Go outdoors for physical sports and activities
7. Use social media wisely
8. Turn off notifications
12. Prioritize Personal Growth and Development
Personal growth and development refers to development and upgradation of skills for self improvement to achieve goals that you set for yourself and your self esteem, confidence and relationships.
It is through personal development whereby you adopt newer ways of thinking and doing things to develop new skills and attitudes.
Personal growth may be physical, mental, spiritual, social and emotional. Continuous learning is vital for personal growth and development. It is essential to our success, growth and fulfillment in pursuit of happiness.
Some of the ways in which we can prioritize personal growth and development to maintain a healthy lifestyle are:
1. Find the desire to change
2. Set Realistic Goals
3. Learn new skills
4. Only compete against yourself
5. Avoid negative thoughts
6. Take action
7. Set small challenges
8. Be persistent
9. Celebrate victories
13. Practice Gratitude And Anger Management
Carrying expression of thankfulness as a part of social courtesy will win everyone’s heart and so will also help you maintain a healthy body and mind.
It will help you in gaining edge over negativity and that may include depression, anxiety and struggling with unstoppable pain.
Anger management is not so easy out. Maintaining a short tempered attitude or anger will not let your mental health and heart problems get well.
Gratitude goes a long way in managing anger when you are in a heightened state of pain and anger.
14. Make Friendship with Nature
The five elements—earth, water, fire, wind, and aether—are responsible for all aspects of the natural world.
According to traditional wisdom of Ayurveda, our body contains these five elements, which together comprise the vata, kapha, and pitta doshas.
It thus speaks of nature in our body termed as metabolism. To regulate the physical, mental and emotional aspects of our nature, it becomes necessary to stay in proximity to the external nature.
Just walking on the dewy green grass in the morning is believed to help boost confidence levels, manage tension and improve eyesight.
Hiking and climbing mountains, going on pilgrimages can be arduous, but it also connects your inner self and nature, improves your circulatory system, enhances your stamina and harmonizes your mind, body and soul.
Conclusion
A healthy lifestyle involves a balanced diet, daily exercise and regular stress management.
Improving your food habits becomes necessary by nourishing them with necessary nutrients. Consuming fresh, unprocessed cereals can help develop and fortify bones. Regular exercise can help control diseases, enhance bone strength, and add flexibility to the body. Listening to bhajans and reading spiritual verses will boost your sense of aestheticism.
Staying in closeness with nature will heighten your stamina and change your outlook towards life of course in a positive way.
