Health affects the quality of life. What do we wish for ourselves most often when making birthday or Christmas wishes? In addition to money and the fulfilment of dreams, we often wish ourselves “good health”. However, this is not a self-fulfilling wish, so if we do not take care of our health ourselves, this wish may not come true.

WHAT EXACTLY IS HEALTH?

When thinking about health, we first associate it with the absence of disease or full physical and mental capacity. However, the World Health Organisation, in its definition, has gone a step further in describing what we call “health”. The organisation defines health as a state of complete physical, social, mental and spiritual wellbeing.

WHAT EXACTLY IS HEALTH?

According to this definition, we cannot say that someone is healthy only if he or she is not struggling with some disease affecting internal organs. Given our contemporary lifestyle and the stress and emotional disturbances that accompany it, it can be said that we are now very often faced with an illness that does not affect the body, but the spirit.

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE OUR HEALTH? Each of us would like to enjoy the best possible state of health, be it physical, mental, social or spiritual. The question remains, however, how can we achieve health in every dimension? There are several steps that will make it easier for us.

1. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY

Today’s lifestyle can briefly be described as fast-paced or busy. More and more often you can hear among friends and family that “the day is too short for me”. We do a thousand things at once, we engage in various projects, we are everywhere. On top of that, we are constantly distracted by various stimuli coming from mobile phones, the Internet or television.

In this fast-paced life, we lack the time to analyse these stimuli in detail and select what is reliable out of the information chaos. We often take shortcuts and decide to follow the most fashionable diets and the most popular training methods. We forget that our organism perfectly communicates its needs and all we need to do is stop for a moment and listen to the information it is trying to tell us.

2. SPEND YOUR FREE TIME ACTIVELY

Coming back from work, we very often throw ourselves on a comfortable bed with a sigh of relief. Usually we grab a mobile phone or a laptop and start surfing the Internet. We don’t even realise how much time this often pointless activity consumes.

Instead, we could spend this time on physical activity, which will certainly have a positive impact on our physical and mental health.

Nobody is talking here about competitive sport. It can be a walk in the fresh air, a bike ride or a trip to the swimming pool. If we involve the people closest to us in our activities, we will also ensure our social health!

3. DON’T LOCK YOURSELF INSIDE FOUR WALLS

When we return home or at the weekend, we often say: “Now we want peace and quiet”. As a result, we cut ourselves off from people and usually end up on the sofa again with a laptop on our lap. We all need a moment of peace and quiet and a break from the hustle and bustle. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if it lasts longer, we end up feeling worse. There are people who are more sociable and need more contact with others, and those who are less sociable and don’t feel the need to be with people as much.

3. DON'T LOCK YOURSELF INSIDE FOUR WALLS

However, despite these differences, there is no one who feels perfectly comfortable being completely alone for any length of time. If only we go out to others and open up to new acquaintances or nurture relationships with loved ones, we will see how much fun we can have doing even the simplest things together! We will certainly forget about the problems of everyday life for a while and thus take care of our mental health!

4. DON’T EAT JUST ANYTHING!

Our health depends to a large extent on the way we eat. Therefore, in order to feel healthy, it is necessary to take care of a proper diet. We should avoid highly processed products which contain large amounts of simple sugars, saturated fatty acids and artificial food additives. Let us enrich our diet with fresh vegetables and fruit, wholemeal cereal products, nuts and fish. We don’t have to introduce a dietary regime straight away, because sometimes a few small changes in nutrition are enough to feel much better!

5. DON’T BE A NIGHT PERSON!

Sleep is a very important time of the day for our body. It is a period when our body can regenerate and prepare for the tasks that await us the next day. Unfortunately, our modern lifestyle makes us neglect such an important issue as sleep. Instead of sitting in front of a computer until late at night, let’s go to bed earlier. Let’s make sure that our sleep lasts 8 hours!