Enjoy Better Health

Do you take better care of your car(s) than you do of your own health?

Are you one of those individuals that feeds your the car with the right gasoline, regularly changes the oil, periodically "stretches" the motor (especially when you have been doing lots of low speed driving), and gets regular auto check-ups?

Well, do you do the same for your body and mind? Do you consistently feed your mind and body only those things that are good for it? Do you regularly stretch your muscles (the equivalent of your car's engine)? And do you adhere to the recommended timing for check-ups?

Do you pour sugar in your auto gas tank throughout the day? What about your body? You should know that excessive sugar is as potentially destructive to your body as it would be to your car.

Taking good care of your car is a choice. So too is taking good care of your mind and body. And remember, your mind and body are worth far more to you than your car. As such, hopefully you are committed to taking better care of your mind and body than you do of your car.

There are six keys to your enjoying better health throughout your life:

1. Be at peace – Peace is the foundation for everything. Stress, the antithesis of peace, is the great destroyer. It destroys relationships. It destroys our ability to think clearly. And, it destroys our health as it makes us more susceptible to toxins we often seek for relief from the stress. Learn how to more often exist in a state of peace and harmony.
   
   
2. Breath, drink and eat to live – Your body is the engine of your life. It is the most amazing machine on earth. It can do incredible things. But, only if you take care of it. Your "machine" will provide peak performance when it is fueled by the right combination of quality air, water, and food. Become an "eat to live person" as opposed to being a "live to eat person." Commit to drinking lots of quality water throughout the day. And, shift your food intake away from processed foods (especially those heavy in sugar) to natural foods (especially fruits and vegetables). Your body and mind will thank you for fueling yourself for high performance.
   
   
3. Avoid toxins – Regretfully, ours is a world full of toxic substances. There ate toxins in the air we breathe. Toxins in some of our water. And toxins in some of our food. Unfortunately, it is impossible to be completely free of all the toxins. But by smart choices, you can greatly reduce your exposure to these toxins. And at the same time, you can ingest natural products that serve to combat the effects of these toxins. Educate yourself on toxins, and become an informed gatekeeper as to what you put in your body.
   
   
4. Stretch your mind, your body, and your heart regularly – The old adage "use it, or lose it" sums up the importance of stretching all of the elements of your body. Get in the habit of stretching your mind by absorbing new ideas. Make daily body stretching a habit, whether through adopting something like yoga or just by using a stretching routine. And perhaps most importantly, stretch that most important muscle – the heart – by committing to a program of activity that increases your heart rate. As often repeated, if you have not been committed to an exercise program, consult your doctor before beginning any program that could be too much of a change to make quickly.
   
   
5. Get Regular Check-ups – Notwithstanding the most diligent efforts at being at peace, at eating right, at avoiding toxins, and at regularly exercising, you are likely to experience disease at some point in your life. That is the bad news. The good news is that cure rates for almost all diseases are getting continually better. But the improvement in cure rates is almost always dependent on early detection of the disease. Commit yourself to regular, periodic comprehensive health check-ups. And in between those check-ups, take responsibility for regular self examination. You may not be able to avoid disease, but through early detection you can effectively combat the disease.
   
   
6. Be Happy – Numerous studies have concluded that happy people not only enjoy life more, but also live longer. Happiness is a state of mind. As such, it is greatly influenced by choices that you make. Train your mind for happiness. Learn how deep happiness comes from within not through the accumulation of goods. Learn how it is different than pleasure which is by nature much shorter lived. Commit to a life of being happy by becoming a student of happiness. Just as you must learn about toxins in order to avoid them, so too must you learn about happiness so as to develop the skill of sustaining lasting happiness.

Follow these six steps, every day for the rest of your life, and you will enjoy better health. Now, no one can guarantee you perfect health. But you, and only you, can guarantee yourself better health.