What do you think of when you think about health? Maybe a good exercise routine and a varied diet that includes lots of veggies? Maybe you think of meditation or long walks in nature? Health is multi-faceted, and it’s important to make sure all interrelated aspects of your health are addressed and met in order to live your best, happy healthy life.
Physical Health
This one is possibly the most commonly thought of aspect. Physical health focuses on the importance of staying active, eating well, maintaining a weight that healthy for your body, and doing the little things that can help prevent or manage chronic health conditions.
- Find an activity you already enjoy like biking, walking, or swimming. Or find something new like boxing, yoga, or dancing.
- Find small ways to move more in your day, like parking farther away from the grocery store, or doing stretches during commercial breaks.
- Set reasonable goals to track your progress.
- Find a friend or partner to help you keep motivated.
Emotional/Mental Health
In the past, emotional and mental health was a bit overlooked by society as a whole. Thankfully, that’s very much not the case anymore! Emotions are more than just something you feel, they affect your body in very real, and very physical ways. It’s important to know that there are no “bad” or “wrong” emotions. Everything we feel is our body and brain telling us something, and it’s vital that we listen and learn.
- Give yourself time to sit with your emotions without trying to change them. Why are you feeling the way you feel?
- If you often struggle with anxiety, stress, or depression, it’s okay to talk about it! Sometimes getting your emotions out in words helps you better process them.
- Connect with a trained counselor who can help give you a new perspective on facing what you struggle with, and help walk you through building healthy habits.
Social Health
During the Covid lockdowns, one of the many issues people faced were problems dealing with their social wellness. Human beings are social creatures by nature and need to build nurturing relationships and connections. By surrounding yourself with a network of supportive friends and family, you can improve self-esteem, communication, trust, and emotional resilience.
- Are you more extroverted or an introverted? There’s nothing bad about being either, but it’s important to know so that you can reflect and recognize your social needs.
- Join a club, organization, class, or volunteer group.
- Balance your alone and social time. It can be easy to overdo things, so make sure you set clear boundaries with others and take care of yourself too!
- Treat others with respect. Practice making eye contact, actively listen, show gratitude, and be mindful of your body language.
Spiritual Health
Whether you find spiritual strength in religion, tradition, meditation, This aspect of your health deals with finding meaning in life and having a clear sense of right and wrong. Spiritual health can help you cope with trauma, mental health struggles, enhances your quality of life, and can increase feelings of inner peace and hope.
- Focus and maintain a good work/life balance.
- Allow yourself to be free from the weight of others’ emotional and spiritual burdens.
- Put down your phone and distractions and allow yourself to be present in the moment.
- Pray or reach out to a higher power or meditate.
- Try a yoga class (bonus as a good physical health activity as well!)
Intellectual Health
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but for you, it’s a vital part of your intellectual health! This includes more than just academics or “book smarts,” it includes how much you engage in creative and stimulating mental activities. How are you growing? What are you learning? Are you open to new ideas? No matter how old you are, no matter where you are at in life, you’re always better off if you’re striving to learn something new every day.
- Expose yourself to new ideas and viewpoints and learn to see all sides of an issue.
- Develop good study skills and time management.
- Learn to remove objectivity. There’s often more than one right way to do something, and sometimes multiple “right” or “wrong” answers to a question.
- Ask questions to others and yourself frequently. Reflect on the answers you find.
These five aspects of health build a full picture of a happy healthy life. Each one needs to be kept in balance and not a single one can be neglected without it affecting the others. If there are any changes you feel that you need or want to make in your lif, don’t fret or get overwhelmed. Small changes make a big difference! And there are plenty of opportunities for change you can make throughout your life as you continually improve your health and well-being.
If you feel you need some extra help with protecting your and your family’s health, reach out to a local agent at any of our 10 convenient locations. They can help you get the personalized coverage you need to make sure that, come what may, you’ve got the tools and peace of mind you need to live your best, healthiest life.