Health Is Wealth – It Has to Be Prioritized!

Knock knock! Excuse me! Yeah Yeah! I’m talking to you–the busy soul of a homemaker, or a student, or a businessman, or a businesswoman, or the artist, or the dreamer, or the blue-collar or white-collar worker, who is reading this article right now. I’m sure you’ve heard this old aphorism “Health is wealth” in your life one time or another, but have you ever given your proper attention to what it really signifies? 

I know you are busy managing your day-to-day stuff-of-life–chasing after your dreams, making a living, raising a family, or getting on with your life in the fast lane, but have you been paying attention to your health lately? Have you taken a closer look at yourself and noticed how you used to look some months or years ago and how you are now? Do you mostly feel stressed out managing the stuff of life?  

Why Should You Prioritize Your Health?

In your honest and rigorous pursuit of life, do you realize the fact that the quality of your health is dwindling? No matter how busy you are in life, if you’re not paying attention to your health, you’re not living your life. Now, you may be thinking, ‘How could this guy make such a recklessly blunt statement?’ But do you know, according to World Health Organization’s (WHO) website www.who.int, the leading cause behind the most deaths around the world is “Ischemic Heart Disease”? And two of the major risk factors causing this disease are smoking tobacco and obesity.   

I’m sure you’re aware that if you’re living in a city, there’s a lot of air pollution in all major cities of the world. So, you’re already snorting all that pollution, whether you want it or not. And honestly, you don’t really need to have any other extra smoking addiction. So, try to quit smoking as soon as possible if you smoke. I know once you are addicted to smoking or drinking excess alcohol, it is really tough to give up such addiction, but you can phase it out. Start gradually by decreasing the number of cigarettes you smoke and quit it eventually.

Also, try to decrease or limit your consumption of alcohol if you are into drinking excess alcohol regularly. Excess of anything can lead to serious health issues, and excessive alcohol consumption is no exception. If you really want to drink something in excess, drink a lot of clean water every day, it will help you detoxify your body and make your gut healthy and your skin glow. I’m speaking from personal experience. I’ve been a non-smoker and a teetotaler my whole life. I drink at least 3-4 liters of water every day, and I avoid eating high-sugared, deep-fried food, even when I get too darn tempted to eat it.

 

With a proper healthy diet and regular exercise, obesity or unwanted extra fat can be curbed and reduced. All you need to do is just watch what you eat carefully. Avoid daily consumption of deep-fried, junk food. Also, keep your daily sweet food intake in check.

Exercise for at least 40-45 minutes a day for at least five days a week. You don’t need to hit the gym. One eye-opening thing the pandemic-induced lockdown taught us was the importance of health in life. And with the gyms shut for months just like everything else during the lockdown, many people who had never even thought of exercising or going to the gym actually found ways to do different kinds of home workouts. I am one of those people too who had this epiphany during the Coronavirus pandemic.

So, if you’re one of those who has still not had this epiphany about the importance of health in life, you can start exercising at home right away.

You can do jumping jacks for one minute and then pause for 30 seconds and then repeat it with 4 more sets of 1 minute each, making it a total of 5 sets of a minute. It is a great way to get your heart pumping and burn some unwanted calories.

You can also include 4-5 sets of pushups, each set containing 12-15 reps. You can also do 4-5 sets of sit-ups, each set containing 10-12 reps. If you want to make it even more intense, you can also add some abdomen exercises like crunches, mountain climbers, and leg raises to get your belly fat slimmed because that’s where most of the unwanted fat is accumulated in the body.

You can also order online some lightweight home gym equipment like a pair of dumbbells and a barbell with some lightweight plates. Like the ones I have, see the picture down below. When you look at that in your home, you’ll definitely feel the motivation to work out and use them daily. Once again, I’m speaking from personal experience.

Don’t forget to do some of the warm-up exercises for your back, legs, shoulders, and neck. You just need to simply and slowly stretch those muscles, so that you don’t end up injuring yourself during the actual workout.

There are tons of workout videos available on YouTube by all kinds of fitness enthusiasts, instructors, and bodybuilders from around the world. You can certainly check some of those out and see if there is anything you can include in your home workout regime, something that is easy to do as well as effective to achieve your goal of fitness.

You can also do yoga or callisthenic or aerobic exercises at home if you like any of that stuff. The idea here is to get your body moving swiftly on a regular basis so that you don’t accumulate unwanted fat or become lethargic.

And if you can’t exercise at home for some reason, you can go for regular walks. A daily walk of 40-45 minutes is enough for you to keep your weight in check. But again, you have to closely watch your daily fat and sugary food intake.

The low-fat, low-sugar diet plays a pivotal role in maintaining good fitness and health. And if you don’t follow a healthy diet, you continue to eat like crazy, gobbling up your favorite pizzas, donuts, chocolates, ice-creams, burgers, fried chicken and meat, cold drinks, etc., it’s going to nullify all of your great workout efforts. Please keep this in mind.

So, start following a healthy diet daily. All of the delicious food in the world is never healthy. Whoa! I know now some of the bon vivants may try to kill me for saying this, but it’s a fact.

The delicious food which is often termed ‘junk food’ is mostly deep-fried, high-sugared, high-fat food, and devouring it consistently will only lead to some serious health problems in the long run. So, avoid eating deep-fried, high-sugared, high-fat food on a daily basis.

I’m not saying that you totally stop eating all of your favorite food. All I’m saying is that you curb your daily intake of it. Eat it only once or twice a week, that too in moderation. Please do not eat like there is no tomorrow. Yeah yeah, you can have a little chuckle at this sentence you just read.

I’ve seen a lot of people eating like there is no tomorrow–at the wedding and birthday parties and at various get-togethers, because “The food is tasty and it is for free!” is the alibi they give me when I ask them–“Why are you eating like there is no tomorrow, don’t you worry about your weight or health?”

Now, having a chuckle takes me to another leading cause behind most deaths in the world– “Suicide.” 

According to one of the articles available on the same WHO website www.who.int, “Every year, more people die as a result of suicide than HIV, malaria or breast cancer – or war and homicide. In 2019, more than 700,000 people died by suicide: one in every 100 deaths”. Although the numbers may seem small considering the current world population, every human life matters to its respective family and loved ones.  

Depression is the condition that leads to such an extreme action of self-termination. The point I’m trying to make here is that–One’s mental health is as important as one’s physical health. So, you need to take care of your mental health as well.

Always try to think positive thoughts. No matter how hopeless your situation may seem at times, believe that it will pass with time, and there will be a revived hope.

Try to meditate daily. Just find some quiet place anywhere in the house or somewhere outside in the park. Sit there and close your eyes, focus on your breath, as it is spontaneously inhaled and exhaled through your nose, and try to be still in that moment.
Try to do the stuff you love doing the most, such as writing, reading, singing, dancing, walking, trekking, learning new things, or just watching the kids capering in the park, or whatever it is that makes you feel good and happy.

Steer clear of all the toxic people in your life, the kind of people who try to belittle you for no reason, the ones who always see you from their distorted perspective. It’s better to be alone in your own company than to be in the company of such toxic mentalities. 

Talk to yourself looking in the mirror whenever you feel depressed or low. See how long you’ve been with yourself throughout your life. No matter how hard things got, you never abandoned yourself. You always stuck around yourself. Be proud of that girl/woman or boy/man in the mirror. Smile for him/her. Be happy for him/her. 

Try to look for several reasons to be happy within yourself. I’m sure if you keep looking, you will find many ways and reasons to be happy in life. Try to find some purpose for your life. I firmly believe every life has some purpose. And sometimes even this search for that very purpose of life makes life truly worth living. 

Seek psychiatric help if you feel the need. Psychiatric consultations will definitely aid you to cope with depression in some way. But eventually, it is your positive outlook on life is what makes all the difference. To know some more ways to be happy, please check out my blog post, How To Be Happy In Life?

I forgot to mention–another important thing that contributes to having good health is ‘sleep’. When I don’t get enough sleep on a particular night, the next day in the morning, I feel dizzy, and then my mind goes haywire. My whole day is ruined by negative thoughts and my disturbed mindset. I’m sure you too have experienced something like this at one time or another.

Try to get at least 6 hours of natural goodnight’s sleep every day. Good, sufficient, sound sleep is as vital for your health as regular exercise, a healthy diet, and meditation are. Don’t we all wish we could sleep like babies? Well, your healthy diet and regular exercises will definitely help you sleep better, if not like a baby.

Once your health is well, you’ll find all the positive thoughts coming to you, which in turn, will make your mental health even better. You’ll begin to feel good about yourself. And when you feel good about yourself, everybody around you will also be inspired to see you healthy and happy in your life. But you don’t have to do it for others, you just be healthy and happy for yourself. 

Try to find a way to make a living through something that you are passionate about. I know it’s easier said than done, but “Where there’s a will, there’s always a way!”, is another old aphorism, but it’s true too. You’ll see that for yourself when you start in that direction.   

I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scare the heck out of you by sharing all this. I’m as afraid of death as anybody else in the world. We all know this bitter fact that death is inevitable, and it’ll come to us sooner or later.

The point I’m trying to make here is that your life is a precious gift and once you lose it, it cannot be regained. As it’s a precious gift, why not cherish it? Why not make something beautiful out of it? So that when you’re gone, the people left behind you–the loved ones, the friends cherish your memories and draw inspiration from your life to carry on their own lives with the same indomitable spirit you had when you were around them.

Please start giving priority to your health from now on. No matter how busy you are chasing after your dreams or making a living if you don’t have good health, you won’t be able to accomplish any dream or goal of yours. All the money you’ve made so far will go into fixing your sick health later on. Remember, ‘Prevention is better than cure.’ 

Let’s take a pledge right here right now that you will start giving priority to your health from this moment on, because ‘Health is truly your wealth’. With good mental and physical health, life becomes truly beautiful, pleasurable, and worth living. You’ll see this for yourself. And only with good health, all of life’s marvelous things are possible. 

I wish you the best of health, and may all your dreams and goals come true without getting your health compromised. Also, please don’t forget to smile, not for anyone else, but for yourself.

A healthy journey of your life begins right now, at this very moment. Come on, walk with me.

Disclaimer: The pictures used in this article belong to their copyrighted owners.