Our bodies respond to the way we feel, think and act. This is called the mind-body connection. When we are emotionally distressed, we feel physically distressed too. If you’re keen enough, you’ll realize that when you’re happy, calm or grateful, your body and mind are relaxed.
On the other hand, when you’re angry, stressed or anxious, you’re likely to suffer physical symptoms like headaches, high blood pressure etc. All these points to one important point – a healthy mind is a key to having a healthy body and life.
You have the power to change your negative feelings and thoughts into positive, motivating and rational thoughts. In doing so, you’ll help create a healthy mind and body, which in turn, will significantly increase your chances of living a happy, healthy and successful life. With that in mind, here are a few tips for a healthy mind and body:
Get Moving
Regular exercise provides incredible benefits to both your body and mind. It lowers your chances of getting cardiovascular diseases (e.g. diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attack, cancer etc.), helps you maintain a healthy weight and improves your self-esteem. And that’s not all; it also reverses the detrimental effects of stress, lifts depression, keeps your body young and increases your brain’s ability to learn, adapt and perform various cognitive tasks.
A complete fitness program should include exercises that develop your cardiovascular conditioning, flexibility and strength training. The key is to find physical activities that you enjoy doing and do them regularly. It’s very important that you start off slowly to avoid injuries. As time passes, you’ll be surprised at how fast your enthusiasm and endurance for moving will increase.
Eat A Healthy Diet
If you want a healthy mind and body, the food you eat must be healthy and nourishing. But with so many convenient restaurants and fast food joints around, it can be difficult to maintain a healthy diet always, especially when you eat out a lot. So, why not prepare your own healthy meals at home instead? Your daily diet should include whole grains, a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meat and low-fat dairy (if you take dairy products). Try as much as possible to limit your consumption of frozen, canned, or highly processed foods, as they’ll only make you fat, weaken your immunity and accelerate your aging process.
Take Time To Meditate Regularly
This is one of the most powerful ways to restore the balance between your mind and body. While meditating, you’ll experience a state of present moment awareness in which your body rests deeply, while your mind is awake in silence. In those moments, your mind releases old, negative feelings and thinking patterns and learns to heal itself.
Meditation has several benefits including reduced stress, anxiety, insomnia and depression. However, you can only enjoy these powerful benefits if you commit yourself to regular meditation.
Laugh Often
Laughter is the best medicine for a healthy mind and body, so enjoy a good belly laugh often with family members, friends, colleagues and even strangers. If you have no one to laugh with, watch a comedy movie or laugh at yourself.
Bottom line: Change your mind, change your body, change your life.
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