Your body was designed to be healthy and is always working towards restoring health. It is important to understand that healing takes time and can be thought of as having momentum. Either momentum in gaining sickness or gaining health. Imagine a tire rolling down a hill. It takes a lot of energy to stop negative momentum and a lot to turn it into positive momentum the other way. Once that momentum is going in a positive direction however, it is much easier to maintain it.
You can Prevent Burnout and Take Back Control of Your Health – Physically, Emotionally, and Chemically.
“Health is a condition in which all body functions are carried on normally, meeting all body demands for adaptation to the environment” -Dr. Galen R. Price.
You can’t pour from an empty cup. It is very common for parents to put off their health needs in order to concentrate on their children’s needs. While this is understandable, for the sake of your kids, you need to set time for your own health. You are no good to your children if you are sick yourself. Looking after your health now will reduce the chances of them having to drop everything to care for you later. Keep in mind that you are either gaining sickness or gaining health.
Take time to plan out your health in at least these three areas:
Physical health
You need a fully functioning nerve system, and to make lifestyle decisions to increase the strength of our body in these areas. Physical stress can be in the form of poor posture, falls, degeneration, sports injuries.
Mental health
Emotional stress can be in the form of grief, fear, money worries, family sickness, and relationship trouble. Emotional change can be a meditation practice, exercise, time with family, and journaling.
Chemical health (diet)
Chemical stress can be in the form of things such as medications, sugar, alcohol, cigarettes, dairy, and gluten. Reduce or remove all of these and add organic foods to your diet and you will look and feel better.
It is obvious that you cannot eliminate all stress in your life, but you can increase your body’s ability to handle these stressors when encountered.
If you ignore your health and it will go away. Just like a learned skill, being healthy takes effort, consistency, persistence, and time. Again, think of it this way you are either gaining sickness or gaining health.
You have a choice as to which one you are gaining. To get started towards gaining or restoring your health its essential to recognize that there are stressors in each category that are specific to you, that you can eliminate or reduce.
Here are two steps to set you on your path to gaining health.
Step one:
Identify the area of stress in your life and minimize or eliminate it.
- Physical stressors: poor posture, injuries, falls, time at your desk
- Chemical stressors: sugar, nicotine, medicine, gluten, dairy
- Emotional stressors: money, fear, grief, family, job stress
Step two:
Find one thing in each category that you can do extra FOR your body.
- 1. Physical: Try yoga, walking, swimming, pilates
- 2. Chemical: Eat Real Food, eat vegetables, organic food, vitamins
- 3. Emotional: Meditation, writing, enjoy time with friends
When you start to make small changes in these areas you will find your health improvements will start to snowball. Commit and be patient.
As you start to gain, ie improve your health, and feel better, notice how it affects the people around you. Your family, friends, and colleagues benefit from you smiling more, more inspiring, more approachable, and understanding? The ripple effect of your healthy decisions reaches much further than you first imagined. Maybe you are inspiring some of them to act also.
About the Author
Dr. Jay Smyth is a second-generation Chiropractor practicing out of Victoria, Australia. He has dedicated his life to teaching principles of true health through online courses, books, workshops, webinars, and in his Chiropractic office.
Learn more about Dr. Jay and Spine-health here and You connect with him on Social Media.
Many thanks to our guest blogger for their contribution to Living Healthy List. Are you interested in submitting an article? Send an email with your contact information, suggested topics and an example of your work to Support@livinghealthylist.com