This article will help you get a clearer vision of what living a healthy lifestyle actually means and what it might look like. It will also include a few basic but efficient tips to help you start off your journey of obtaining this lifestyle. While offering you said advice, it will also describe you some common do’s and don’ts and how to make your way through them.
We’ve all been there: feeling as though you’re stuck in an unhealthy way of living, wanting to regain perspective, and trying to be on top of everything in your life. Although all these symptoms are not uncommon, they can make you feel as though you’re not exactly living your life the right way or to the fullest.
This article will help you get a clearer image of what a healthy lifestyle looks like for you, as said image differs for everyone. It will also give you simple, easy-to-follow tips on how to be consistent in it without feeling like this certain lifestyle isn’t right for you.
The concept of a healthy lifestyle can often be idealized and too overwhelming at times. Everyone thinks of it as this ideal way of living that can be attained in a simple, efficient way. One could also try to compare their way of living with others and think that because their lifestyle doesn’t exactly resemble theirs, they’re probably doing something wrong. But the truth is there isn’t a specific healthy lifestyle that is to be used by everyone. There is no such thing as a “correct” lifestyle that everyone should start following. The concept of a healthy lifestyle is a very subjective matter; depending on who you are, how your brain works, and the people you spend time with, a healthy lifestyle can look very different for everyone, even if there are some common and basic things it usually requires.
To understand what a healthy lifestyle can look like, you must stop thinking that yours should resemble anyone else’s. We are all different individuals with different needs, and therefore should try and stay true to our capacities and wants. Although it might take some time and might not always seem obvious, one of the most important steps to achieve said lifestyle is to build it to your liking (while still making it healthy). The whole point of living a healthy life is for it to help you stay on top of things mentally but also physically, while also being effective in the long run. So, for this healthy lifestyle to work, you must make sure it is truly designed for you and adapted to your needs only.
An issue that is often disregarded is the fact that to have a healthy way of living, your life should also include “unhealthy” moments. It is easy to get wrapped in the idea of having a perfect, healthy life with no negative sides to it, which can often result in getting more stress and pressure on living this specific way. Having a healthy life isn’t about keeping up an image about how perfect it is, but more about staying consistent in an improved lifestyle that will most certainly have more of a positive effect on you for the future.
A healthy lifestyle can sometimes seem unattainable or difficult to get used to. This can be caused by numerous reasons, but the most common one is that you can tend to put too much pressure on a certain image of what that lifestyle resembles and set out unrealistic goals for it to happen. This can then lead to a sort of burnout and loss of motivation. The problem with this is that a lot of people don’t realize that obtaining a healthy lifestyle doesn’t happen overnight; it must happen gradually, without it being rushed, or else it probably won’t last if you try to change your whole routine too quickly. Also, if you were to change your lifestyle too fast, it could result in you disliking it anyway and having to come up with a new one that can be more fastidious.
Now that the whole concept and point of following a healthy lifestyle has been established, I will share with you some tips that might help you on your journey to becoming a healthier person in your everyday life. But the key for it to make sure it works is to start changing your habits gradually, without rushing things. If not, this whole experience will most certainly be much more difficult to follow, and it could become a burden in which you will quickly lose motivation to stay consistent.
The first and most important step that everyone should follow to obtain a healthy lifestyle is to fix their sleep schedule. As many people have probably said to you throughout your life, getting enough hours of sleep will not only improve your appearance but also your mood, efficiency, attitude, and motivation for the day. If you don’t get the sufficient hours of sleep that your body needs, it will affect you in the long run, although this fact can sometimes be overlooked. Many people take sleep for granted, thinking that because your body doesn’t always show signs of suffering when it doesn’t get enough sleep, it isn’t that important. Having a habit of not sleeping enough every night can be seriously damaging. To obtain the right sleep schedule, you should take notice of details such as the number of hours you usually sleep and when you would like to wake up. This can be quite tricky as we know that everyone’s body has different needs concerning sleep; some don’t need much and can therefore go to sleep later while others need their long-lasting beauty sleep to function and therefore must go to sleep at a reasonable hour and wake up at whatever time feels right for them (if their schedule allows them to do so). Of course, maintaining a fixed sleep schedule isn’t always easy as the quantity of sleep you get can also depend on what plans you have for the day and how late you need to stay up for whatever reason. Even if that may sometimes happen, the main thing is to try and stay as consistent as you can in your adapted sleep schedule.
Something crucial to have for someone who wants to avoid stress and the anxiety of being on top of things is organizational skills. To keep a healthy routine throughout your life you must know when and how you should get through everything you have to do for the day or week. Although indeed, this type of skill comes more naturally to certain people, I would strongly recommend for non-organized people to also try and make a habit out of being organized, however hard it may be. Using basic organization skills can save you a lot of time for the day. For instance, if you plan out your entire week the weekend before, this will save you a surprising amount of anxiety knowing that everything you must do over the week is under control. Although the number of things to do can make this new concept more challenging, it’s still much more helpful than being spontaneous with this kind of thing. A basic organization tip that might help you to start is to make sure that you get most things -if not everything- done as you can afford some free time. This will undoubtedly lighten up your week and make you feel more accomplished.
A useful realization that came to me not too long ago was to make sure not to set unrealistic goals for ourselves in a day. Usually, what may happen to someone who is attempting to plan out his day is to try and create a to-do list with everything he wants to have done by the end of the day, without considering the amount of time each task will take and if he has enough motivation to complete all of them. Most of the time, what happens next is that he ends up completing barely half of the tasks he had set his mind to by the end of the day. As this often happens, you are then left upset or disappointed in yourself for not having completed everything you had set your mind on doing without realizing that you were being far too optimistic when visualizing everything you had planned. This effect subconsciously adds a new layer of stress that, in my opinion, is highly overlooked. You shouldn’t put pressure on yourself to do things that you know, deep down, you won’t have the time for; this will just make you feel even more stressed which defeats the whole purpose of being well-organized and being in a healthy lifestyle.
The last and most important piece of advice I feel the need to share is to take a few minutes for yourself whenever you can. Most people are so caught up in the idea of having this perfect, effortless lifestyle that they often forget one of the most crucial steps to it: taking a break! It positively affects you more than you know. In most situations, you are constantly trying to stay on top of everything in your life which, doesn’t necessarily cause much stress, but keeps your mind awake at all times which is extremely tiresome. Taking a break could take different shapes and forms depending on the type of person you are: it could be by reading a book, baking, meditating, journaling, or even going out with your friends for the extroverted type. But what you define as “taking a break” doesn’t truly matter, as long as you aren’t doing something that requires unwanted effort and stress. Once you are accustomed to doing this regularly, you will undoubtedly start feeling less pressure over things in general and hopefully feel less stressed.
What we must always remind ourselves is that, at the end of the day, everyone has their version of a healthy lifestyle. But to obtain this, you need to stick to doing things that help you get to a healthy mental and physical state. If you keep following pieces of advice that aren’t helpful to you, your current lifestyle might just get worse instead of improving which will cancel out all your efforts working toward this healthy lifestyle. All the advice I listed here previously are, in my opinion, the basics that everyone should try following but, like I said, if these particular suggestions don’t fit your standards, then there is absolutely no reason for you to keep following them. You must only stick to those that will have a positive effect on you.
To conclude, I hope I helped you get an idea of what a healthy lifestyle roughly looks like and how to get there; I find that the tips I listed here really could help you in general but also make your everyday life a bit easier. As stress and other negative feelings are very common in people’s lives, I find that this article could help them improve their general well-being.
Andrea Powell Azorin (MAM S4FRA)
