Healthy Body Happy Mind

Image by Sabyasachi Jana http://300stock.com/

You were born into a caring and loving family (well, most families are ecstatic when a baby is born!), you grew up to be a child, then an adult and you know you will enter the old age in a few years from now and finally die one day to leave back all the worries in this world (and all those things that are presently bugging your mind which made you come to search for an answer here!).

What did you do your whole life? Try to be someone? Struggle your way to the top (or still trapped in this struggle)? Have a good income? Try to be the perfect child, parent or spouse?

If you look deeper, you will find that you constantly tried to chase happiness in your life and in the process you managed to ruin your health to some extent.

Your goal might be to find happiness by excelling in your school, college or even at work, not to forget your home (trying to be a super human all the time). But guess what, we are all simple human beings who have an immortal mind trapped in our mortal body.

Yes, we might want to accomplish everything, but we will be able to do only as much as our body permits us to do. In order to maximize that output and be able to fulfill our minds quest to excel, we need to build a healthy body.

Now you might think, nothing new, we have heard all these stuff, let me just move on some more interesting stuff…But wait! Did you actually implement the things that you heard or read about to getting a healthier version of yourself?

Numerous times we think we are going to follow this diet, or that exercise and end up exactly the same place we had started just because we don’t realize what we are actually missing out. If only you would have tried a little bit more, stuck to that diet, or that routine, or even, that hobby of yours that you started, your mind would have thanked you for the change.

“To keep the body in good health is a duty…otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.”  .....Buddha

Think of the times when you laughed your heart out, maybe gossiping with friends, or watching a funny movie with your family or may be when you were out on a picnic or a trip with your best pals. Did you feel relaxed and stress-free then?

You have to remember that your body is the temple where your mind resides. If you worship the temple, your mind stays focused, happy, alert and active, ready to take up all the challenges in life.

If you want to be a bit more scientific and believe in facts, you would like to know what happens to your mind when your body is unhealthy and vice-versa.

If you go through some illness or disease you have seen your motivation levels go down. You don’t feel like working or going out or socializing much. In some chronic conditions when the body takes a long time to recover, people might go into depression or the anxiety levels may rise.

Similarly, when you feel low, depression seems to take over, you feel frustrated and other negative emotions surface like sadness and anger; your body reacts to it. High blood pressure, obesity, infertility, high cholesterol levels, increased heart rate are conditions that might arise when you are stressed.

If you would like to see the other side of the coin, you would be happy to know that if your body is healthy, so is your mind. And the reverse is also true. If you nurture a healthy and happy mind, you can see the same effects on your body as well.

When your body is healthy, your blood vessels supply blood efficiently to the brain (which is your mind), result- it works better! And if your mind is happy (read brain) it releases endorphins (feel-good hormones) that make you feel better.

So now you know why you must do that extra bit of effort to have a healthy body and also that you must do things that make you happy to stay healthy. Like you know, everything is connected people! Healthy body happy you!