Health and Wellness

I was discussing with one of the current staff at the petrochemical plant in Bintulu on the need of doing exercises to maintain good health. He is due to retire in three years time but he looks older than me. This is what he said and not me!! He asked me what my secrets are in maintaining good health and good looks.
I think there are no secrets to maintaining good health. You need to maintain three basic principles, i.e mind soul and body to be nourished all the time. To nourish the mind the brain needs to be working; to nourish the soul your spiritual inclinations need to be enhanced and to nourish the body, body input has to be properly balanced. Let me elaborate how I look at and how I practice the three principles:
1. Nourishing the mind. The major underlying factor will be positive thinking. We should not entertain negativity. Our plans, our actions, and the things we say and our whole outlook should be positive. Be prepared to learn new things. I may be advanced in age but I know the knowledge and skills that I possess are nothing but smaller than a drop in the ocean. I therefore would not hesitate to look for answers to questions I have. Read and you shall gain knowledge. And when you read you trigger thoughts while at the same time nourish your mind. It does not matter what you read but read useful things. If you read rubbish you will reap rubbish but then it helps in you determining and differentiating what rubbish is ha ha! No need to look for thick novels or sophisticated technological books to read. It is good if you can but not necessary. Not unless you are going for a formal recognition of the knowledge gained. What is needed is something that keeps the mind ticking. A working mind helps keep a healthy body.
2. Nourishing the soul. Everyone believes in something, be it real, be it imaginary, be it physical or be it spiritual but beliefs give value to life. If one does not have beliefs one will be a very dull person. Beliefs would usually enliven the spiritual wellbeing of a person. Our daily action or inaction will somehow anchor on our beliefs and usually if we believe it is right we will have no hesitation in proceeding. The right beliefs then set the soul at peace. When the soul is at peace other elements in life will be at peace setting aside negativity and enhancing life qualities. A religious person need not always be a person who nourishes his soul. He has to believe in the positive aspects of the religion, the advantages he can gain from the religion, before he can free himself from the clutches of life’s woes and the negativity in life. There is a difference in saying I cannot do it as against I am unable to do it but will make efforts and find ways to do it. The first one is giving it up and the second one pursues further.
3. Nourishing the body. Our body functions according to what our mind sets it to do. At the same time our body’s ability to function depends on its state of wellness. And the state of wellness depends on how we have been treating it. If we treat it well it will function well and the reverse is also true. The first two issues above have a part on the ability of our body to function well. They help nourish our bodies. In addition to that we have to further nourish it with positive body enhancing elements, the main ones being replenishing and replacing the replaceable in our bodies; the nutrients, minerals, a bit of calories (please note that I say only a bit) and others. Our bodies need nutrients more than calories to function properly. But when we are hungry what do we do? We eat more calories than nutrients. Why? The foods we get nowadays are highly processed foods that contain more calories than nutrients. Nutrients are lost when the foods are processed leaving their calorie contents high. By nutrients I mean the mineral content and body building elements of the food. Calories are just energy providing elements which when not utilized are converted as fats and stored as energy reserve in the body. This reserve accumulates over time and what is the end result? Overweight and obesity. Any wonder why we see many oversized people in a crowd nowadays?
It is not easy to balance the daily life requirements, to maintain smooth execution of all our plans for our body. Having concentrated our efforts towards enhancing our body function with the nourishment above we need to balance it with proper bodily activities daily. One major activity is exercise, or making sure that the body parts are actively inducted. This has to be done daily which is a difficult task for us to carry out nowadays as life is much simplified now with all the modern technological aids available. Physical activity is low. People lead sedentary lives nowadays. Again, any wonder why we see many oversized people in a crowd nowadays?
I do believe that by positively nourishing the mind, soul and body quality of life will be enhanced. One’s wellbeing and general outlook will certainly be balanced when the three elements are in balance. So, one may be young or may be old, but when the elements are in the right balance ones general outlook will emit an aura of wellbeing.
Some of my thoughts above need further clarification and there are more stuff I can write on the subject. I will try to add more facts to the above later, and soon I hope…… if I can find the time to write…….
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Bintulu