In 2019, more than 18% of adult Americans were diagnosed with some form of depression, which means almost every 1 in 5 adult person is suffering from it. And by now it is also proven that your physical and mental health is very much dependent on each other. One gets disturbed and the other catches on.
And this is why it has become so much more important for all of us to pay special attention to our overall well-being. If you’re not leading a healthy life, no amount of medicine can guarantee ‘Health’.
Below are the 6 important steps towards a well-balanced and happy life.
1. Sleep Well
Sleeping heals. When you allow your body the daily quota of sleep requirements, it removes all your physical and psychological fatigue and makes you feel refreshed and rejuvenated.
For an adult person of average health, at least 7 hours of ‘Quality Sleep’ is required every day. This indicates deep, undisturbed, and uninterrupted sleep preferably at night. Lack of bright lights and a generally calmer environment are favorable conditions of ‘Quality Sleep’.
2. Eat Right
Diet habits have a significant amount of contribution to your health and overall well-being. Although oily and spicy fast foods are generally detrimental to both your physical and mental health, you don’t have to completely abolish them for life! Assuming you don’t have any dietary restrictions owing to any chronic or critical illnesses, as long as you stick to a healthy diet most of the time, once-a-week cheat days are fine.
A healthy and wholesome diet requires the right balance of Protein, Carbs, Fat, and micro-nutrients. Along with this, drinking plenty of water and keeping your system hydrated is of optimum importance.
3. Exercise Regularly
If you have a misconception that exercise is needed only for people who are trying to lose weight or building a muscular body, snap out of it as fast as possible. Studies show us that exercises release endorphins, the happy hormone in your body. Regular exercise not only improves your physique but also contributes to your overall well-being by making you a happy and positive person.
If going to the gym 4-5 times a week seems too far-fetched, try going for regular walks, preferably in the morning or in the afternoon when the sun is up but not scorching. That way, you’ll also receive your regular dose of vitamin D as well.
If for some reason, both these options (gym and walk) are out of the question for you, then even performing some free-hand exercises at home for 45 mins, dancing, cycling, or swimming will prove to be beneficial.
4. Balance Work and Personal Life
Life is not a work assignment, and you are not a money-making machine. Remember that to stay healthy. Working excessively for hours and hours at a stretch will soon diminish all your other endeavors to stay healthy. After all, the most important lesson that all the life coaching websites teach us is how to maintain your work-life balance! The ideal scenario, of course, is to work no more than 7-8 hours per day. However, if you do require working for more than that, make sure you’re taking multiple small breaks in-between, and also getting at least 1-2 days of complete rest every week.
There’s no other way to sugarcoat this, if your company or profession requires you to work more than that, almost permanently, and without weekly breaks, you’ll either need to change your organization or sacrifice your overall well-being.
5. Stay Away from Unhealthy Addictions
And by unhealthy addictions, we mean those which affect your physical or mental health in any way. This includes addiction to smoking, drinking, illegal drugs, and everything else in this genre.
Firstly, they are detrimental to your physical health. Secondly, you start to depend on these things so much that you’re soon unable to perform your daily duties without this stuff. Thus, it destroys your self-confidence, alienates you from your close circle of people, and even causes depression and other mental complications in the long run. Stay away!
6. Save Some Time for Yourself
And do productive things that you enjoy doing. Nowadays, most people like spending their ‘me-time’ with their electronic gadgets only, preferably scrolling through some social media platforms.
However, this can be unhealthy as well. It takes away a large amount of time from your day without you even realizing it. It might keep you from performing lots of important duties, and in the long run, will destroy your creativity, abilities to think and perform in a clear way!
Rather, try and assign some time for your hobbies. It might be painting, singing, gardening, playing an instrument, dancing, cooking, or just about anything that you really enjoy from the core of your heart, and that produces good results that you can admire!
Following these 6 steps will definitely help to improve your overall health. Apart from these, work towards living a life free from stress and negativity. Stay away from the things or the persons that cause you stress, makes you unhappy or anxious by all means. Also, spend quality time with your family, take vacations whenever possible, and look into the bright side of life!
