Living healthy should be the goal of every person. Without health we have nothing and everything else in life can be forgotten. I have come to this conclusion after studying healthy people, rather than studying ill people or diseases themselves.
American psychologist Abraham Maslow was of this same belief and created his hierachy of needs after studying exemplary people. He wrote, "the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy."
Maslow's hierachy of needs has health and the physiological needs of a person as the base or foundation of all needs, taking more importance than a person's self esteem needs and even spiritual development. I personlly agree with Maslow and thus the basis of all of my work with my clients will initially focus on the physiological needs or the needs of the body - good nutrition, water or hydration, and balance or homeostasis of the nervous system. Without these then energy will dwindle and concentrated effort into other endeavours will not be as effective.
My favourite definition of health is that of holistic health practitioner Paul Chek who simply says that "health is taking responsibility for oneself". Plus, my own idea of living is only relevant when a person is living healthy. In my opinion many people 'die' young and walk around going from doctor to doctor and surgeon to surgeon not actually living. All of which can be avoided through living healthy.
Now, back to Maslow's hierachy of needs and the foundational factors of a holistic, healthy lifestyle that I teach - Breathing, Food, Water, Sleep, Homeostasis and Excretion.
After using these principles in my life and my clients lives i have consistently found that developing a flexible routine and plan to implement each element into your day is the secret to success.
Firstly, adding breathing to your daily routine. Of course we all breathe every day already but I would suggest that you try to breathe differently than you probably do now - through your diaphragm. I wrote a post called Breathing Like a Baby which explains how to do this in detail. I suggest finding 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes in the evening to practise your breathing and eventually you will carry it into the rest of your day with you.
Food and Water can be split into two distinct areas: Quality and Quantity. When you are looking at quality you should ideally look for organic, free range foods, and a high quality bottled water such as Evian, Volvic, Vittel or Fiji. Food quantity varies from person to person as each of us should arrange our meals according to our genetic, hereditary and geographic types - or your Metabolic Type. Typically, 10,000 years ago well before processed food was around humans would have eaten protein (meat and fish) according to its availability based on your geographic location. Basically if you live in a cold weather country, this should be the majority of your diet, and warmer climates will need a roughly equal balance between proteins and carbohydrates (vegetables and fruits.) For your water intake you should drink half of your body weight in pounds in ounces of water daily, or your body weight in kilograms multiplied by 0.033 for the amount in litres.
Sleep and Homeostasis to me means balance - balance in all areas of your life, work and play. Our bodies are wired to repair at night - physically between 10pm and 2am, and mentally between 2am and 6am. What this means is that you should sleep between these times otherwise your body will not be repairing optimally. To find homeostasis in other areas of your life I suggest you balance your "do time" with your "don't-do time". What I mean by this is find some down time and rest as often as you can. Life is for living after all and not for working too much. (Unless of course you love what you do :) )
Excretion is vitally important as a human need. We all need to do it but unfortunately many of us don't do it enough due to junk food, stress, and dehydration. I recently wrote a post linking digestive issues to weight gain, back pain, and fatigue.
As these are your 'basic' needs you need to 'master' these first in order to live healthy. Failure to do so will only make your efforts in the following needs less fruitful - safety, love/belonging/ esteem and self-actualisation.
We will be exploring these in the blog posts to follow, but for now work on your primal needs to master the art of living healthy.
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