A healthy life is the key to a successful life. If you look up health in a dictionary, the definition will mention “the state of being free from illness or injury.” It will also discuss the state of a person’s mental and physical condition. People tend to forget about or not pay attention to the other factors affecting a person’s health. There are six components that influence a person’s health status. Depending on various circumstances, the influence may be either positive or negative. To be truly healthy you have to take care all six components of health.
1. Physical Health
Being physically healthy allows you to be free from diseases, illnesses, and injuries. It means your body's systems are able to efficiently cooperate and carry out their functions. To be physically health, you should do the following: exercise, eat healthy, and maintain good hygiene. Exercising is pretty vital to living a healthy life. Let’s think about it. Your lungs breathe in the oxygen. Your heart pumps blood, which is filled with oxygen, to the entire body. As you are running, your heart rate and oxygen intake increases. If the heart is not able to pump oxygen-rich blood, problems will occur. For example, heart failure occurs when the heart is not able to supply the body’s demand for blood. Eating healthy consist of eating from the basic food groups in order to meet your body’s needs for nutrients and vitamins. Vitamin C helps repair and regenerate tissues and prevent heart disease and vitamin B12 affects the development and maintenance of red blood cells. Your food and drink intake gives your body the energy it needs to fulfill its duties. Remember, a poor immune system hinders your body’s capability to fight off diseases, infections, and illnesses. Maintaining good hygiene is a constant struggle. There are some days when you will not be willing to wash your hands before your eat. Sometimes, you will not be in the mood to floss. To be physically healthy, you have to be willing to put in the work to live that life.
2. Spiritual Health
Whether you believe in Jesus or not, your spiritual health is still important. Spiritual health is built upon your spiritual beliefs. Your spiritual beliefs are influenced by your morals and values. Do you ever wonder why you do what you do? Having a positive spiritual lifestyle provides sense to your purpose of life. There are various ways to maintain a spiritually healthy lifestyle. You can go to church, read, pray, practice yoga, meditate, or practice your religious beliefs. Maintaining positive spiritual health enables you to have peace and calmness when times are getting hectic.
3. Intellectual/Mental Health
Mental health deals with your academics and thinking process. Mental health affects the way you perceive and judge others and yourself. You may know one mentally ill person. The person may have low self-esteem or be bipolar. That person may struggle with academics. A person could be highly intelligent but severely struggle with suicidal thoughts. Your mental health is important. It is important that you avoid habits that will damage your mental health. It is important that you are aware of your mental status. Evaluate your mental health. Don’t be afraid to seek help, especially when help is desperately needed. Find an accountability group that will assist you with your mental illness. On the other hand, try to be the person that is providing aid for people with mental illnesses.
"To be physically healthy, you have to be willing to put in the work to live that life."
4. Emotional Health
Being bipolar can affect your mental issue as well as your emotional health. Emotional health is influenced by your current state of being. On a regular basis, how is your mood? When times get tough, how is your temper? Be aware of your emotional status because it has a huge effect on your actions. While taking an exam, you will not be able to concentrate if you are depressed. Athletes have a harder time concentrating and performing well when they are angry. You tend to say horrible things that you didn’t mean during heated arguments. Anxiety, stress, and depression are three of the most common emotional illnesses. The struggles of these three don’t just affect you. They also affect the people around you and your relationship with those people. For example, it is harder for a depressed female to love her boyfriend. Maybe, she has been hurt and heartbroken too many times. Or, maybe, she is struggling with finding a way to love herself. Your emotional health is strongly related to your mental health, and it can be addressed and bettered by your physical and spiritual health.
5. Social Health
Your intrapersonal health is always very important but so is your interpersonal health. Ask yourself the following questions: Are you treating others the way you would love to be treated? How is your relationship with your parents, siblings, teachers, close friends, and other loved ones? Are the relationships good or bad? If good, what makes it good, or why is it a good relationship? Keep doing what you are doing that is helping the relationship stay positive. If bad, what makes it a bad relationship, and what can you all do to turn it into a good relationship? You have a relationship with everyone that you come into contact with. Possessing healthy relationships enables you to maintain a positive level of social health.
"Depending on various circumstances, the influence may be either positive or negative."
6. Environmental Health
“Men and women want to do a good job. If they are provided the proper environment, they will do so.” – Bill Hewlett, the founder of Hewlett-Packard
Last but not least, environmental health is affected by the well-being of the environment around you. A healthy environment is influenced by the quality of water, air, food, and other living conditions. Many cities promote the importance of recycling, reducing pollution, and food safety guideline because it correlates to the rates of cancer, asthma, and other diseases. There is more to the environmental health of the world. Your environmental health may be the root of the struggle with your physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, and social health. A malnourished person has a poor home environment that is not providing enough or the right types fo food. One of your friends may not believe in Jesus (or struggle with forming a serious and intentional relationship with Him) because of bad experiences with a church environment. A student may have a difficult time learning math problems because the classroom environment is too distracting. A student may cry a lot and find it difficult to make friends because the school is filled with bullies.
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