Healthy environment, lifestyle vital
A HEALTHY environment is essential for our health and wellbeing. Air pollution, noise and hazardous chemicals can all negatively affect our health. So too can the effects of climate change, such as droughts,floods and extreme temperatures.
Loss of biodiversity and land degradation can also impact on human well-being by threatening our ecosystem and access to clean water, as well as food production.
e theme for this year’s World Health Day, which was commemorated yesterday (April 7),was ‘Our Planet, Our Health’, focusing global attention on the urgent action needed to keep us and our planet healthy and the need to foster a movement to create societies focused on well-being.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, a polluted planet and an increase in the incidence of diseases, such as cancer, asthma and heart disease, human health, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says, requires legislative action, corporate reform and supporting and incentivising healthy choices by individuals.
Healthy choices
Adopting or changing to a healthy lifestyle is the most important step that an individual can take to minimise the risk of falling victim to non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, and to improve one’s sense of well-being. A healthy lifestyle requires a healthy diet, plenty of exercise and quitting unhealthy habits, such as smoking, and excessive consumption of alcohol. It also requires being able to handle stress and having enough sleep.
Having a plan to achieve a healthy lifestyle is important. It is easy to promise yourself that you will improve your diet, have more exercise and quit smoking and yet fail to come up with a plan of action to achieve this.
Some of your plans may not clearly address your overall health or wellbeing, which involves sustaining a feeling of harmony, energy, safety and peace.
e Cimas iGo wellness programme embraces eight dimensions of wellness. Apart from physical health, there are emotional, environmental, financial, spiritual, occupational, intellectual and social dimensions of wellness, all of which can have an impact on physical health.
Plans that include losing weight or quitting smoking are important goals but they each only address a part of your health or well-being. It is not just our weight, diet or quitting smoking that promotes a healthy lifestyle. Other factors come into play. ese include being active and having sufficient exercise.
Adults should ideally have at least 150 minutes of moderateintensity physical activity each week. is could include walking, cycling or swimming. You might even want to consider joining your local gym or a neighbourhood exercise group.
Make an effort to eat healthier foods. Substituting natural foods for processed ones will bring you multiple health benefits. Healthy eating helps you feel great, increase your energy levels and stabilise your mood.
Start out by making small changes to your diet, adding new items and eliminating processed foods one at a time.
When eating, take time to enjoy the meals you have. Try different ways to train yourself to eat slowly. Chew each mouthful thoroughly. Put down your eating utensils between bites. If you are sharing a meal with others, take breaks to focus on the conversation.
Do not skip meals. When you go without food for longer than three or four hours, your blood sugar level drops. is can lead to overeating and feeling too tired to be active. Stick to a regular schedule of three healthy meals and two snacks each day.
Wash your hands properly and often. Covid-19 has already taught us to wash and sanitise our hands as many times as possible. is should be second nature now. Clean hands can prevent the spread of infectious illnesses so it is always important to wash them.
Get involved in community events. You may feel whatever our communitiesdo is something that exists outside of your personal domain but the lives of those around you deeply affect your own.
Consider getting more involved with your community by doing some volunteer work or getting to know your neighbours. A strong community through the gym, your church or around your home will in turn foster the wellbeing of everyone.
Times are tough at the moment but try to be optimistic. Make a choice to notice and appreciate what you have rather than what you do not have or wish you did have. Remember that no matter what the situation, how you perceive it is up to you. See the opportunity instead of the problem. You and those around you will benefit from this.
Know your purpose
Understanding your purpose in life calls on you to examine your gifts, passions and values, as well as the way that you can serve the needs of others. Our purpose is where we find meaning and it can improve our physical health, lengthen our lives and improve our relationships with others.
For many people, finding purpose is an ongoing process throughout life, so always do a check-in with yourself every once in a while and adjust your purpose according to the current situation you will be living in.
Mental and spiritual health
Meditation is a great help for maintaining wellness. Health is not just about physical health. Mental and spiritual health are important too.
Meditation is one of the best ways to achieve or maintain good mental and spiritual health and help you relax and handle stressful situations.
Practise gratitude
Gratitude means feeling thankful as well as expressing thanks and appreciation. When you focus on what there is to be grateful for, this can have a positive effect on you physically, mentally, emotionally and even socially.It also helps lower stress and improves sleep.
Take time to feel proud of every healthy change you make in your daily habits. at in itself will give you some effortless satisfaction.
e information in this article is provided as a public service by the Cimas iGo Wellness programme, which is designed to promote good health. It is provided for general information only and should not be construed as medical advice. Readers should consult their doctor or clinic on any matter related to their health or the treatment of any health problem. — igo@cimas.co.zw or WhatsApp 0772 161 829 or phone 024-2773 0663