As we work on developing ourselves and our experience of life, we can unlock versions of ourselves that are healthier, more creative, or more productive. Having a healthy lifestyle, not only gives us daily energy to get through the day, but also allows us tools to manage our stress level and create the balanced and focused mind state needed to achieve success, happiness, and quality of life.
Following are some aspects that we may keep in mind when we embark on the path of creating new and lasting changes in our lifestyle:
Eat healthy and drink enough water
When we feed our body wholesome nutritious meals, we fuel our body with the macronutrients, micronutrients, and hydration that our body needs to function optimally. There are three types of macronutrients: carbohydrates, proteins and fats. These are the larger particles in our foods which provides the materials our body needs to restore, repair and perform various functions. Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals your body needs to support physiologic function and your overall health. Water is a crucial component of a healthy body, as proper hydration maintains homeostasis, or stability in every tissue, organ and cell in the body, serves to get rid of waste, properly lubricates our joints and maintains proper bodily temperature.
It’s all about moderation
Many individuals turn to food, alcohol, prescriptions, or substances to attempt to alleviate or cope with their levels of stress. We should use moderation when consuming any unhealthy foods, the amount of food we eat and especially with the use of substances we give our bodies. We should be mindful of the substances we consume, as overuse or prolonged use of many of them may affect the balance in the chemistry of our body and therefore affect the way our body functions.
Get moving
Incorporating activities in which we get our heart rate up and challenge our muscle strength, balance and flexibility, assist us in improving the health of the fibers and organs of your body. Challenging our strength and maintaining a proper amount of muscle mass allows us the ability to maintain a healthy metabolism and physical structure as we maintain our strength as we age. Physical activity has also been linked to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and depression, improve overall mental health and support general cognitive function.
Organize yourself and create a plan
Having a schedule, writing things down and creating a timeline for tasks is the easiest way to manage our time and keep ourselves accountable for our time and our actions. Be as detailed as possible when planning your daily schedule. Include your workouts, your meal menus, phone calls, meetings, email and text replies, even your rest and leisure time should be scheduled. When you create a clear plan of action you increase your chances of staying on task and reaching success.
Stay focused
As we visualize exactly what we desire to do, change or create, we can work backwards and determine what steps we can take today to start moving us in the direction we desire. Having clear steps to follow will provide us the focus required to achieve our ultimate goals.
Track your progress
When we track the progress of our efforts, we can determine our efficiency and measure results. Understanding our progress allows us a way to be proactive when things are not working properly, help guide us to how to course correct the path towards our goal. To properly track our progress, first we must determine our starting point and potential milestones along the way, create benchmarks that measure small successes, develop timelines for each section of the project and have a clearly defined finish line; most importantly, we shouldn’t forget to celebrate the progress we are making along the way!
Create balance
Balance is a state of peace within the various areas that affect ourselves and our lives. Depending on our unique definition, the health of our life may be determined by our physical health, spiritual connection, career, ability to spend time helping others, ability to connect with family and friends, finances, emotional state, mental attitudes, habits, or many others. To create balance, we should take time to reflect on what factors affect our physical, mental and emotional stability and determine what we can do to address them.
Know yourself
Finally, we should really get to know ourselves. All the above factors are most easily implemented when we who we are, how we operate, and what we desire out of life. The more time we to take to reflect on what we desires in life, the easier it will be to align our life to move towards the direction of manifesting our dreams.
As we maneuver through times of change, focusing on ourselves will allow us the ability to continue growing and creating positive changes regardless of the external circumstances affecting our life.