If you’ve been reading us for some time now, you probably know that there is not only one right way to improve your life, there are in fact more ways to live a healthy lifestyle, which will probably result in changing many things about yourself.
Living full time (as we want to call it) can be very hard nowadays. Especially if you want to live a healthy lifestyle.
Work, money, society… It seems like everything is taking its turn, not allowing us to fully enjoy life.
But why do I correlate enjoying life with living a healthy lifestyle? Well simple, you see, if one is healthy in every sense of the word, it’s hard not to enjoy life. And living like that makes you enjoy it even more.
But how can one achieve that?
How to change your lifestyle to match that description? How can you have a lifestyle that is healthy, fulfilled, interesting and enjoyable?
Well, just keep reading:
Living A Healthy Lifestyle: 10 Crucial Steps
1. Exercise
Not only did we mention this before, but we also did a whole article on how much exercising is important if you want to move your life forward, and make room for some improvement. The truth, simple as it is, is that adding exercise to your life on daily basis is one of the best ways to promote a healthy lifestyle in general. The health related benefits are huge, as is the step you are taking towards self-improvement.
Here is the post that goes more deeply in this matter:
2. Sleeping schedule
Giving the roller coaster of a schedule that many people are having today, probably the one that sent you here at the first place, we must come to realize just how much important sleep is to all of us. Many studies conducted on couple of the best universities around the world suggest that every individual needs from seven to eight hours a sleep during the night.
And this is the important part- during the night! You see, sleeping in a period in which the body isn’t designed to sleep, is equally bad as sleeping less hours. By ruining this schedule, the body endocrine system is not producing melatonin (the hormone which is responsible for making us sleepy) in the right amounts, or shuts production completely.
Here is a post dedicated about why sleeping is so much important, the importance of a good sleeping schedule, the benefits of waking up early and what to do in order to make the most out of it:
3. Healthy diet
This is one of the cornerstones, truly a foundation upon which one healthy lifestyle is build. And make no mistakes, it will change everything for better once you implement the healthy diet into your everyday life. Not only you will be healthy, but you will also have tons and tons of other benefits as well.
Here are some helpful articles we wrote about healthy diet a while ago:
4. Time management
“Time = life, therefore, waste your time and waste your life, or master your time and master your life.” – Alan Lakein
Time management is a process, chain of techniques if you will, that not only make sure that we are on our best when it comes to spending our time, but also gives us the opportunity to know we are doing the best we can, and taking all we can actually take. It can also be a pretty good tool in the battle against stress.
You should only take a look at somebody who is successful in life and is truly enjoying it. The first picture you will get is of a person who is determined in what he is going after, and most of all a person who knows how to get organized, probably possess an effective time management skills and knows what to do in order to achieve his dream.
5. Relations
No man is an island. You’ve heard that before, don’t you? Well, it turns out that it’s not only true but it’s also necessary if you like to live healthy.
You probably assumed by now that we are not only talking about physical health, but rather about health as a whole. Meaning psychological health, health of the spirit as well as of the body. And being social creatures, we humans make everything with tilting toward this fact over and over again.
The way we’ve built society, the way we try to find new ways for us to correspond, interact… That’s really in our nature, and by acknowledging that we must try to be as much social as we can. Forget about everyone that you are not quite fond of, and devote yourself on people you find spending time with enjoyable and relaxing.
Whether this may be your friend, family, significant other… Doesn’t matter really. What matters is that you go and spend as much time as you can with them.
6. Cultivate your curiosity
Now many of you are confused as for why this is listed as one of the steps to living a healthy lifestyle. Fair enough, I’ll give you an explanation.
Being curious and wanting to learn everything about everything makes you younger in a way. It makes your spirit remain like it was when you were just a child. It leads towards intellectual growth, and makes you engage yourself further on in using your brain as much as you can.
Just by reading this, you are proving that you are in fact curious person. And what is the result? Well, you are improved in a way or at least heading towards there.
7. Cultivate your intellectual nature
You see, we said that health doesn’t necessarily apply just to the body. You must also nurture your brain, your intellect. That is achieved by reading, asking questions, doing some games like puzzles and crosswords, challenge yourself to think deeply about something, have a profound discourse with someone that challenges you. Staying healthy is a wide concept, and this is one of its fundamentals.
8. Smile and be positive
An obvious way to fully live a life while enjoying it. Do you smile a lot? Or just from time to time? Or maybe you’ve forgot how is like to hear yourself giggling about something?
It is our aptitude for humor, our innate characteristics, which make us so fond of it. It is one of the first things a baby does while learning this world, a sign, a symptom of happiness and health if you will. Learning how to put a smile on your face is worth more than learning anything else in life.
Your outlook of life can affect you more than you think. It is about how you perceive things that surround you. Your interpretation of them is what defines them as being one way or another. It defines your perception upon this world as a whole, shapes your experiences even on a daily basis.
Give your undivided attention to people that have positive outlooks on life, and try to figure out how you can change your way of seeing things. Being positive helped many people in life. I once read a book by Bear Grylls in which he explains how being positive changed his life completely, and allowed him to be where he is today.
9. Enjoy your hobby
Another thing closely connected to living a healthy lifestyle when it comes to spirituality and psychological health is having a place or a thing that you really enjoy, and is just for you. Having a hobby is one of the steps to live a healthy life.
Whether this is reading, working in your garden, playing some sport, writing or playing some instrument, it doesn’t really matter.
The thing is that you must hold up to this and try to enjoy it more often. For example, I play on my violin from time to time and enjoy practicing pieces from Bach, Sarassate, Mozart and many others. Find your passion about something, and hold up to it for dear life.
10. Check everything from time to time
As for the last one, it is essential that you reminisce things now and then, and do a check. What am I talking about? Well for starters, you should schedule a visit to the doctor’s at least twice a year, and do some basic tests. That way you always have the upper hand in case something comes down the way. Checking things out from time to time is one of the steps to living a healthy lifestyle.
Visit a therapist or find some other ways to win the battle with the stress, or just try and take some time for you to realize in which aspect of life you are heading in opposite direction. Doing this you will never feel like there is something that you are not doing right when it comes to your health in general, and you will be more on top of things.
These are some of the ways that are proven to make your life better and healthier in more than one way, and in turn make you enjoy a more fulfilled, healthier life. No matter which one you choose to start with, they will all allow you to make a great change towards better, and you will immediately feel the results .
Can you add more to this? Do you know some other ways of living a healthy lifestyle?