Healthy Life Actions

A healthy life is a choice and an ongoing activity. I used to think a healthy body was a benefit of nature and a good genes. I've since come to the conclusion that pursuing a healthy life is something that one must seek out and actively participate. When I go online to look at health and medicine information, I've noticed that many of you are there looking up multitudes of small symptoms. It seems that many of us have lots of small health issues, aches, and pains that are part of our daily lives.
       For so many major health conditions and smaller health issues, I've noticed that the primary natural approach is to eat right, exercise, and rest. Does that sound familiar? It's the best approach to everything from losing weight, to protect against cancer, to having smooth glowing skin. I like to look at it as a three-pronged approach.

     Eat Right, mostly organic, with whole grains, lots of vegetables and fruit, and simple high-quality proteins.
     Exercise with aerobic activities like running or biking, stretching with yoga or pilates, with posture corrections and breathing.
     Rest is a very important part of the mix and something we often overlook—plenty of good sleep, physical relaxation of muscles, and mental relaxation with meditation.

     These are all steps that must be actively employed. We learn how to do them and then we practice them. Sometimes we are better at following, sometimes we backslide, always to come back to these three main elements of creating a healthy, vibrant life.

Follow Your Joy Into Balance

Living a good life is very much about health. It’s about eating right and about exercise and fitness. And yet, there is really so much more to a healthy life; it’s about our activities, what we do with our lives on a daily basis, and about the people we have in our lives. Paying attention to all these things is what allows a balance in life. Some of the daily activities that make up the bulk of our lives are some kind of engaging work, family and social connections, active entertainment, healthy eating and exercise, spirituality, the arts, and travel. We need all these elements in our lives and for the best quality in life we need them in balance. That doesn’t mean that we spend the same amount of time in each area, but that we don’t allow any one area to be overwhelmingly dominant of our time and efforts.

     I struggle, like all of us, to find that balance. Whenever I focus too much on any one area, I begin to feel the unbalance. Whenever I neglect any one area, I feel unbalanced. For many years, as I wanted to be a professional artist, I focused almost all of my time solely on art: making art, looking at art, studying art and artists. I learned a lot about art, yes, but also about myself since art is a foray into self. I did many other things, such as travel through various areas of Asia. I studied lots of interesting topics, such as history of plants and world religions.

     But art by necessity is a solitary occupation, and I focused on art to the exclusion of allowing people into my life. And any activities I did, I only wanted them to be connected to art. I did travel paintings. I would hike, but only far enough in to paint a scene. I neglected exercise to better spend my time on studying art. “Unbalanced” rang high.

     Now I’m spending more time at tai chi and meditation. I’m running again and exercising. I’m connecting more with family and rejuvenating old friendships. While studying art, I learned the importance of following my joy. And this is something I can recommend for everyone. Follow your joy into a balanced life.

Running, Over Age 50

Jimmy Carter Jogging

I used to run when I was in my 20s, 30s, and 40s. Then as the aches of getting older kicked in I slacked off. I always used to say to myself, "Use it or lose it." Because I have slacked off for so many years in a row, I have lost that easy conditioning. Now I want to get it back. 

     If you are like me and taking up running after age 50, the first thing to consider (besides asking your doctor, if you have health issues) is that you need to take it slow. Running slow is a good thing. Building up mileage or time slowly is a good thing. It will allow your heart and lung conditioning to keep pace with your muscle conditioning of legs and body. Slow is good. And running every other day allows time between runs to recover.
     I find it best to keep a comfortable easy pace. For me that is very slow, even slower than someone who is walking at a good clip. It's healthy to take it that slow, but it also has the added benefit of being easy on my motivation--I don't mind getting out there to run when I know it is easy and feels good.
     The important part of early training is to do the running regularly and make it a habit. Remember the saying 21 days to a habit? If you can keep up your runs for three weeks straight, it becomes a habit and that means you are less likely to lose motivation because its always harder to break a habit than to build one. Run slow, run easy, keep it fun and pleasant for those first three weeks.
     If you are training for a race or a fund-raising run, like a 5k, it would be easier to begin that training after those first three weeks. You will have a level of cardio-fitness built up. And the habit you've set is a good framework for beginning to build up the length or time of your runs.
     If you are like me, you are running to stay healthy and moving. I am not training for high mileage and and race speeds. I approach my running like I would do walking meditation. My big goals are to work towards good posture, breathing deeply, and relaxing my body. I count breaths or find markers that remind me to relax, just like I describe in the article I wrote for my website, SimpleTens, Muscle Relaxation of the Head and Back. I check in, scan my body, and relax everything. It feels good, I finish with good posture, and I want to keep running regularly.

Walking Meditation

Two things I do regularly can easily get my blood flowing, increase my concentration, and give me a boost to good feelings. One is simple— I take a nice walk. The other, meditation, takes time and needs practice but has great effects every time. I’ve discovered it’s easy to put the two together. It’s different than just plain walking, and it’s different than seated meditation. Walking meditation is controlled, thoughtful, and focused. It’s easy to learn, and likely takes a lifetime to master. However, “master” is not the right term for meditation since its really about process or practice and not  about mastery. If you’d like to learn how to do walking meditation, go to this article Walking Meditation Basic Techniques I wrote for the website www.SimpleTens.com.

I use the walks to practice my posture corrections, get my breathing going good, and for getting clear in the head. It helps me to relax all my tight back, neck, and head muscles. And it feels so good.