(ThyBlackMan.com) How do we improve the quality of our lives? How do we make each day count? How do we live and not just exist? Answers to these questions do not come easily. After we have lived a while, though, we discover that the answers are not more money, more friends or more time. Improving the quality of our lives has more to do with how we see life overall – our physical, mental and spiritual well-being – and what we wish to receive from it. Here are three activators we can use to get the most from living.
Activator#1
Move More
More Americans are leading a sedentary lifestyle than ever, according to a 2015 Participation Report by the Physical Activity 
Council. Out of nearly 300 million Americans, 83 million are committing suicide on the installment plan by taking up permanent residence on the couch. If you are among that number, get up and move. Something as simple as walking can dramatically improve the quality of your life. Walking is simple, it’s cheap and it’s effective; it reduces stress, builds muscle and improves blood circulation. As little as 10 minutes a day is enough to shock your body out of idleness!
Activator#2
Think Clearly
How does thinking clearly improve one’s quality of life? It’s because 90% of our time is spent in our subconscious. Our conscious mind rules what we see and, therefore, how we think in relation to what we see. Thinking clearly means to think at our best – in spite of what the evidence may suggest. According to Peter A. Facione, author of Critical Thinking: What is It and Why it Counts, the ideal critical thinker is habitually inquisitive, well-informed and open-minded. Think clearly by conditioning your mind each day. Read a verse from Holy Scripture. Write poetry. Journal. Meditate. Or simply sit in silence.
Activator#3
Be Grateful
Without this activator the other two are moot. Gratefulness forms the bedrock of our quality of life. ‘Thank you’ makes room for more. It’s an attitude that regulates our physical and mental well-being. Without gratefulness, we are hurriedly moving through life, attempting to get to home plate without touching the bases. Our bodies are thrown out of equilibrium, our minds move frenetically. Being thankful is a ground of being. In the words of Marcel Proust, gratefulness is the gardener who makes our soul blossom. Take some time each day and simply utter, “I am grateful.”
Activator#4
Develop a Spiritual Discipline
What’s the first thing you do upon awakening each morning? What gets you off to a great start for the day? For some, it may be prayer. For others, it may be yoga or meditation or just simply have a cup of coffee or tea. Develop a spiritual discipline that gets you focused and ready to take on the challenges for the day. Try to take some time alone if possible as your morning unfolds. Our quality of life depends a lot on what we do in the first few minutes of each day. Personally, I like to set the mental and spiritual trajectory of my day within the first seven minutes of each morning. Stretching, meditation, reading Holy Scripture and writing mantras are just a few of the disciplines I like to do.
Getting the most from life depends on what we put into it.
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.infinitestrategiescoaching.com.
