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The Power of Healthy Habits

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There are two types of habits:

Habits we DO…and habits we DON’T

I spent the last two days in the hospital. A dear loved one suffered an experience identical to a mild heart attack. The doctor’s determined she had hypertension and high blood pressure as a result of stress. Upon letting her leave the hospital, the nurse prescribed 4 practices to improve health and avoid unhealthy conditions:

1. Relax more

2. Let go of stress

3. Eat healthier

4. Exercise regularly

These are common sense habits that everybody knows they should do, yet most people don’t.

The habit of NOT doing them then manifests in all kinds of unhealthy conditions: disease, obesity, mental illness, depression, and the list goes on and on.

This time in the hospital was the universe screaming “HEY! Pay attention to your health!”

Most of us know someone who has gone through this, and ideally this call to positive change will come sooner than later.

Here’s some specific action steps for each of the 4 habits we should all be doing:

1. Relax by meditating regularly. Don’t get weirded out by the word “meditation”. Make it easy on yourself:

Sit or lay down in a comfortable position. Close your eyes. With your eyelids closed, turn your eyeballs up a little bit. And focus your attention on your breathing.

2. Letting go of stress is a conscious choice, a decision. You must WANT TO and CHOOSE TO let go of stress, anger, anxiety, guilt. The hard part is admitting it. Admit your stress, identify the source, know what you want instead, and WRITE IT ALL DOWN. There is a mysterious power in writing down these things. 

To take this a step further, RE-EXPERIENCE those emotions. Put yourself back into those exact feelings, and decide to let them go.

3. Eating healthy is pretty easy. Focus on things that are natural. Fruits, vegetables, nuts. Meat that is not cooked in fatty oils. Water, tea, milk, and juice that’s not from concentrate.

4. Exercise regularly. The hard part for most people is boredom. If exercising is boring for you, find a sport or physical hobby that excites you and challenges you. Doing this will help improve your fitness, clear your mind, and enhance your general happiness and well being.

Please share your favorite ways of maintaining good health!