If someone asked you today, “how healthy are you?” you might start thinking about your cardio endurance, how much weight you can press, your body weight, maybe your body mass index if you’re in tune with that value, your ability to fight off colds and flu bugs, your diet…

Do you ever think about the non-physical aspect of good health?

Too often, health is strictly associated with the physical body.  We determine if we’re healthy by using numbers like the BMI, checking our resting heart rates, or tracking how much weight we’ve lost on a new fitness regime. 

Of course, I’m guilty of this, too.  When I think of my health ideal, I seldom think of a huge component of good health: mind and spirit.

It is so easy to get caught up in the obvious measures of good health.  But what about the other aspects of life that contribute to healthy, simple living?  Here’s a few to think about…

Your relationships

Any relationship has the ability to affect your health.  Friendships that aren’t truly friendships, partners that cause stress or anxiety, family members who discourage instead of support, co-workers that undermine your value at the office… all of these relationships can lead to unhealthy consequences.  Relationships are gifts from God and should be treated that way.  I am so thankful for the relationships in my life right now and believe that the awesome people I’m walking through life with have a significant effect on how I feel about myself, and in turn, my health.

Your me-time

Women know this best, I think, that it is so easy to spend our time worrying about others, looking out for them and providing and caring for them, that we can forget about ourselves.  You are valuable and deserve time to yourself, guilt-free.  We have to take time to energize ourselves if we want to be of use to others! 

This has been a challenge for me in the past several months.  It can be difficult to turn down a big get-together or pass a task on to someone else so that I can take an evening just for me.  I’m slowly learning that the benefits of this far outweigh any guilt I initially feel.  Take time for you, and you might be surprised at how good you feel – both physically, for taking a rest, and emotionally and mentally, for feeding yourself before running on empty and attempting to fill up those you love.  The people you love will be glad you’re taking me-time, too.

Your balance

You spend six nights a week at the gym and your friends seldom see  you anymore.  Or maybe, you’re so focused on what you eat that you turn down that decadent piece of cake at your grandma’s birthday and feel grumpy for missing out later.  Perhaps your fixation on doing everything right and striving for perfection has left you exhausted, frustrated and disappointed.

Balance is a word that is thrown around all the time in the fitness and health community.  Unfortunately, I think it’s become overused and has lost its potency for encouraging people to make a change.  Finding balance between living and following the health handbook can seem impossible for some, and that makes me sad.  Too often, we find ourselves at an end of the spectrum: either we go 110% trying to do the “healthy thing” perfectly and burn ourselves out, which can lead to the other side, where we give up and binge on candies and chips and trade the treadmill for the couch and feel frustrated.

Being healthy is about finding the balance in all the pieces of our lives.  Relationships with friends and partners, jobs, hobbies, me-time, exercise, community groups, exploring new things… whatever it is that makes up your life should be in balance with one another.

This is an on-going shift and I don’t think the way I balance my life right now will be the same a year from now, five years from now, or twenty-five years down the road.  Flexibility (and not in the literal sense!) needs to be incorporated with balance to maximize good health!

Your spirit

I went through a long period of being sad in my spirit.  I felt like I had let God down and let down those I loved.  I attempted to block that out by filling up on other things – one of which was on unhealthy focus on image and exercise.  It was easier to spend my time worrying about my physical self than my heart.

It is hard to be sad and be healthy.  Happiness has so much to do with good health.  Sure, you can be fit and unhappy, and you can be out of shape and be truly content, but there’s a relationship between health and happiness that I can’t ignore. 

When I think about all the hours I spent concentrating on physical flaws by hitting the gym as often as possible and how I ignored the sadness of my heart at the same time, it is hard to believe how far I have come.  I am truly content and at peace with life and God has been so awesome in walking me through this. 

Please don’t ignore how vital it is to take care of your spirit as much as it is to take care of your body.  I don’t work out nearly as much now as I used to a couple years ago, and yet I know I’m healthier than ever.  A lot of that feeling comes from having a healthy heart, again, in the non-literal sense!

So really, how healthy are you?

Our health isn’t just about our blood pressure; our health is also about our mind, our spirit, and the connection they have with our bodies.  If you’re burnt out from all the running you’ve been doing, take a break.  If you’re constantly turning down fun times with friends to hit the weight room, maybe it’s worthwhile passing on the gym and taking up the invite.  Laughter, love, reflection and compassion can do as much for you as exercise.  I find they work out a very different set of muscles in a very good way…

Adi