(ThyBlackMan.com) Are you well or are you good? In English, we are taught the semantic difference. For health and fitness, though, we should aim to be ‘well’ and not ‘good’.
Wellness and exercise should not be confused. Wellness is the state or condition of being in sound physical and mental health. Exercise is a means to wellness. In fact, if you don’t exercise, the argument could be made that you are not as well as you could be. So how does a person know he or she is well?
Wellness is a process formed by habit.
Here are five habits that a person who is well cultivates on a daily basis.
Habit#1
Eat to Live
This is number one because we are what we eat. If we eat nothing but processed and refined foods, we will end up thinking processed and refined thoughts – slothful, negative and lacking mental focus. Hippocrates wrote, Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food.
When we eat to live rather than live to eat, we change the dynamic of our relationship to food. We then begin to see the benefits of healthy eating. Invest in a health and wellness basket. Keep it readily accessible and fill it with fresh fruits and nutritious snacks (especially if you have young children). Keep plenty of water around to stay hydrated.
Habit#2
Get Up and Move
Socrates was on point when he exclaimed, it is a shame for a man (or woman) to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable! No person can operate at a high level of optimization without some component of continuous physical activity.
You simply cannot be well if you are sedentary.
Studies show that getting just ten minutes per day (shoot for 150 minutes per week) of some form of moderate to high intensity exercise can do wonders for warding off potential health problems down the road, including diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Make it a point to move every 8-10 minutes throughout your work day – even if you just stand up and sit down several times. Get up and move. Sitting is the new smoking!
Habit#3
Avoid Risky Behaviors
People who are well tend to engage in less risky or adverse behaviors. Risky behaviors are activities that places a person at increased risk of suffering a particular condition, illness or injury and that are not necessary for one’s survival. You don’t have to drive 100mph just to get to your destination – you may crash. You don’t have to engage in sexual activity without protection – you may contract a disease and die. You don’t have to leave guns in your home which are easily accessible – someone may get injured. Along with that, you don’t have to overeat or drink too many soft drinks, knowing the detrimental effects to your body in the long run. All of this sounds like common sense, but as Brendon Burchard says, common sense is not common practice.
Habit#4
Get Connected to Something Bigger
Wellness is also a feeling of connectedness. There is something bigger than you; the sooner you connect to that something, the more you will see your life evolving, the more well-being you will experience. I am not suggesting that one must be religious. I am saying that in order for one to be authentically well, one must have a spiritual connection to something other than one’s self. We cannot be well if we are not giving ourselves to others in some capacity. A West African proverb puts it aptly: I am because we are. We are because I am.
Habit#5
Rest and Recover
Most Americans lack adequate sleep, according to studies. The average person only sleeps about 6 hours per night. As a result, the mental and physical fuel system of the body is running on empty virtually the whole day. Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep. If you can, employ ‘smart naps’ throughout your day to give your body a jolt of mental energy. Reduce ambient lighting in your environment to spur the production of sleep hormones. Sleep, writes Thomas Dekker, is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.
Not all of the above markers (and there are many more) are necessarily apparent at the same time. Just like anything beneficial for our health, the aforementioned are habits that have to be worked into our lifestyle.
Staff Writer; W. Eric Croomes
This talented brother is a holistic lifestyle exercise expert and founder and executive coach of Infinite Strategies LLC, a multi-level coaching firm that develops and executes strategies for fitness training, youth achievement and lifestyle management. Eric is an author, fitness professional, holistic life coach and motivational speaker.
In October 2015, Eric released Life’s A Gym: Seven Fitness Principles to Get the Best of Both, which shows readers how to use exercise to attract a feeling of wellness, success and freedom (Infinite Strategies Coaching LLC, 2015) – http://www.infinitefitnesscoaching.com.