Today, I want to close out our discussion on how getting healthy is easier than we think. So far, we focused on the things that add to life in the most basic sense as the primary way to get healthy. We talked about how breathing, good nutrition, and movement are the definition of being alive. We looked at how just improving in each of those areas would make us healthier.
I find it interesting to note that breathing helps us on a physical level but also on an emotional basis as well. We instinctively tell someone who is excited to breathe deeply or take a deep breath. We without having to think about it tell someone that feels like they will faint to breathe, or we make sure they are given oxygen. When we think of nutrition, we all remember hearing that we are what we eat. I would add to that the thought that if we cannot say any one of the lists of the ingredients that are listed on the package, we should not eat it. Lastly, we focus on movement. Movement is life! This becomes a very large concern as I look to the youth of today. These youngsters seem to spend an inordinate amount of time on their devices and are not moving nearly enough.
We talked about how common sense is a major component of getting healthy. It is my belief that we all have the common sense that is necessary to do what it takes to be healthy. Failing to get healthy comes down to the fact that we choose not to do those healthy things. We make choices to eat fast foods. We make excuses for taking that action. We tell ourselves that we are in a hurry or that eating that way is convenient. We even tell ourselves that fast food is delicious. I will argue that point in that in my own experience of not eating fast foods and focusing on healthier home cooked meals and snacks, the fast food seemed to lose some of its taste appeal the next time it was eaten.
We all have the common sense to know that we need to get up and move. We know that simple little movements are of benefit to us. Yet, somehow, we convince ourselves that we will watch that next video or just one more show in the series on Netflix. That “one more” then turns into another hour or two of not exercising or moving. Think of this like you think of momentum. There is one of Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of physics that stated that objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless they are acted upon by an outside force. YOU have to be that outside force!
Remember, in getting healthy it is all about choices. You get to make the decisions. You have the power. This power all must come from within yourself. You get to decide if you will sit properly or slump in a chair and thus diminish your ability to breathe. You get to decide whether to eat the apple or the Ho-Ho. You get to decide to take a walk or watch another episode of The Office. Getting healthy is common sense and that fact makes it a personal responsibility.
In closing I want to say that this discussion has some spiritual overtones as well. In Buddhism especially, but in meditating in any spiritual exercise there is a breathing component. This makes breathing a mechanism to help us find inner peace. It is in that inner peace that we find something or someone to lean on for inner strength. I believe that there is a component of the inner spirit to eating wholesome healthy foods as well as in being motivated to not be lazy.
These are the choices we all face every day in everything we do. We have been given a choice as to how to live our lives. It comes down to not so much of us not knowing what to do as much of a choice of doing or not doing. The choice of getting healthy is common sense.
Comments