Be Happy – Strike A Balance Between Health and Wealth

Health is wealth. But in the material world that we live in, we know and understand another reality. Health is a very important aspect of human life. It is very true to say that if health is lost, something is lost. Hence, when we speak about optimal living, this is the first point that we need to tackle.

But people understand health in different ways. For some, the absence of any disease spells good health. For some, health means being able to be fit and capable of performing all their tasks without getting spent. For yet others, good health means living longer. Though there are different ways that you may look at it, good health essentially boils down to one thing – Being able to make your life more productive and hence live a more enriched and optimal life.

If you give it a thought, wealth is an effect of good health, not otherwise. Only when you are healthy can you perform well and earn a better income. Your riches begin to increase as long as you are healthy. In fact, people build their financial securities for their old age, when they will be no longer able to work on account of ill health, right in their younger days. People salt money away for those days in which their health will begin to dwindle. This clearly shows one thing – we need good health to be able to earn money.

A few people have the wrong idea. They think that riches can buy good health. They think that when they have a large amount of money, they can keep diseases away by going for the best curative options possible. But, even the richest people die, don’t they? Health is a great leveler, we all know that but only few of us accept it.

But, as long as we live in the world we are in, we cannot shun the idea of wealth either. The optimal thing to do, therefore, would be to strike a balance between health and wealth. If you are looking at making your life better than what it is now, you have to learn this secret. Here are some things that you must take care of:-

Work For Money,

Don’t overexert yourself. It is all right to do so occasionally, but people who do it all the time never amount to much. They will be able to earn a good amount of money presently because of their doubled efforts, but they won’t be able to do so for long. Sooner or later, their health will begin to fade and they won’t be able to earn their usual steady amount of money too.

Work can take a toll on health in other ways. Socializing with your office friends, for example, could be disastrous to health in the long run. Make sure you know where to draw the line.

However early in the morning you have to begin work, always make sure that you keep at least a half hour for stretching and doing some meditative exercises. This will not just keep you healthy but will also help you do better at work.

Make research on various health plans and choose one for yourself. This is going to be quite beneficial to you sooner than you think.Living optimally means getting closer to the family, not escaping from it. Your Family and Your Life

For a lot of people, the family is the most important institution in their lives. It is an extended part of their lives. It is where they see themselves mirrored and make an impression of themselves. There’s an old saying that says a man is only as happy as his family is, and it is true even today. Any problem with the family is bound to show immediately on us, and hence if you are thinking about optimal living, you cannot ignore the family aspect.

However, society is changing today. We are breaking ties with our close ones even if we are living in the same house. There are many reasons that are fueling this. People are losing the emotional connect they had earlier. Celebratory family dinners, festival gatherings, occasions, all these things are dwindling away. People are bringing their work home and that’s taking them away from their family too.

This is leading to problems such as loneliness, depression, spats within the family members, periods of non-communication between members of the family, etc… each of which can take a serious toll on the lives of everyone involved. So what is the way to ensure you live more fruitfully with your family?

One of the main things you will need here is communication. Whatever the extent of your work is, however busy you are, do make it a point to speak with every member of your family every day. People from India have a great saying here – A family that eats together stays together. This is a distortion of the English saying – A family that prays together stays together. But if you were to think about it, both these sayings are quite apt. Both of them can be quite instrumental in bringing families closer. Make such a routine in your household. You may not pray together, but you can certainly eat together. Switch the television off during these meals. Schedule a fixed time each day. You will find that you exchange much more in these few minutes than you do in your entire day.

Families usually don’t expect much from you. All they want is that you stay responsive to them. They want to know that you are there for them. They may not expect material benefits from you, but they certainly expect the feeling of closeness and warmth that you can give them.

Make sure you give them this. Don’t drift away from your family. Tomorrow, if you happen to be alone, the biggest sorrow you will have will be of moving away from your family.

People who are closer to their families are happier. They are not alone. They can face the trials and tribulations of life together. Even as you try to discover your own individual freedom, try to keep your ties with your family members alive, and that doesn’t mean just the members of your family staying in the house – it refers to everyone that has any kind of familial connection with you.

3 Practical Essentials for Optimal Living – Food, Fun and Exercise

You need to be happy to have an optimal life. Happiness is brought by material things, however temporal that happiness might be.Different things drive different people. Those little joys and delights of life are not universal. Someone may be very happy when they are cooking, while others may be happy when they are listening to a poem by Keats. But, there are three things that cut across all borders of space, time and distance and make everyone happy. These are good food, great fun and playful exercise.

If you are here to create an optimal level for your life, you would find it very difficult to do it without incorporating these three essential elements in your life.

Food

Everyone likes food, though individual tastes might be different. In fact, people who say they don’t like food are lying. They do like food; it is only that they have not yet found what kind of cuisine drives them. It is because everyone loves food that we treat people with it whenever there is any cause célèbre. And this is true in all societies and countries, all over the world.

However, that does not mean you should hog on food. You should not use it as a means of stress-buster. That could have a very damaging effect. If you use food in a therapeutic manner, it could work for the moment, but soon it will raise its head in the form of obesity and the several other health problems that are related with it.

Have great food – visit those restaurants, whip up great recipes in your own kitchen, make a big deal out of it – but in moderation. You will find that great food becomes an essential part of your optimal life.

Fun

Another thing that really raises the happiness levels in people is fun, or you could say, entertainment. You might find perpetual bliss in popping in a DVD and watching it while lying on your couch. Or maybe you like to travel to unknown places. Or probably you just want to curl up and read a paperback. Whatever it is that defines entertainment and recreation for you, use it. Don’t deprive yourself of it just because you have too much work or because you think you don’t deserve to give yourself your bit of fun.

If you keep focus on what you really want to do, such small spells of fun won’t harm you. In fact, they will rejuvenate you and help you work better. Yes, you will meet those deadlines too, provided you don’t go overboard with your entertainment options.

Exercise

Exercise doesn’t always mean pumping iron. Sport is an exercise too, and for most people, sport is an integral part of life. If your life has become so busy that all those childhood games have become nonexistent in it, bring them out again. Join a club and play your favorite sport. Do this once a week if not more. You will soon find that your life has become much more enriched in quality.

What’s best is that you can meet new people who could become your friends. If your friends currently are just the people from work, it is a very sorry state of affairs. If you have to depend only on someone from the family when you have to catch a great movie, you are in a bad state. You need some friends you could hang out with without reservations – friends like the ones you had when you were in high school. Is it possible? Very much! If you are looking for friends, you must know that they are too. It is just about getting together. Sport can do this for you.

You get your entertainment and you also get great friends. Quite undeniably, this is a wonderful aspect of life – don’t downplay it!

Be Happy – Strike A Balance Between Health and Wealth.