You may be surprised to learn how health and happiness are linked. However, when you think about it your health directly impacts your happiness and vice versa. To discover a few ways in which your health and happiness are linked, simply continue reading.
How health and happiness are linked:
Nothing is more important than your health:
Your health is the corner stone of your life. As in order to explore all of the extraordinary opportunities which life has to offer you, you have to maintain your health. As in example, if you’d love to travel the world, it’s definitely important to maintain a standard of fitness and health. While if one of your dreams is to raise a happy family, it’s important to make your health a priority in your life, so that you’ll be able to enjoy seeing your children grow up.
Your mental health also directly effects your happiness:
Just as your physical health should be a priority, your mental health should also be one of your life’s top priorities. As your thoughts and feelings and your ability to control the thoughts which you feed your mind, directly impact your happiness. So it’s well worth training your mind to focus on the positives in your life, instead of focusing on the challenges and gripes in your life.
Of course, what is positive for one person won’t necessarily be a positive for another, as mental health is different for every individual. It is important to focus solely on your journey, so take as much time as you need to figure out what it is in your life that you find challenging and whether this is creating a direct impact on your mental health. Although it is your journey, there is, of course, no reason why you couldn’t turn to the internet to help spark thoughts on how you feel. You could also talk to other people. In fact, this is a great way to uncover deep feelings that you might have been afraid of admitting to yourself.
The reasons for each person will vary, and you may already be aware of what you are experiencing, but it might not be until you have this conversation or read a blog post like this one that you realize that your job is leaving you feeling stressed, burnt out, and dreading each day. It could be another important part of your life, like a relationship or friendship being toxic rather than healthy, that is causing more stress than it should.
When you realize what that something is that is causing stress and directly impacting your happiness, burying it back down isn’t the solution. This won’t make it magically go away – you will continue to experience the same feelings you are, and this will likely only get worse. Instead, you need to take action and make some changes in your life as soon as you can.
Seeing something or talking with another can unlock a realization about what is directly impacting your happiness. Therefore, it makes sense that seeing suggestions and advice on what you can do also help. Take a look at the below:
Situation 1: When it is your job
No matter what industry you work in or what job you have, stress is a perfectly normal response you will experience at some point in your career. Sometimes it can even help you perform at your best. However, when stress is prolonged and you are experiencing this on a daily basis, burnout is possible. This can, in turn, lead to unhappiness in a job. However, you don’t have to stay put when you feel this way. You have two options: leave the company you are working for or change jobs.
Take a step back and decide whether it is the company or environment you are working in. You might be confusing your unhappiness of the job with the gloom of the workplace. A toxic workplace will ensure negativity thrives, and no matter what changes you make in your personal life to improve happiness to try and enjoy your job again, nothing will change for you. Assess the toxicity in your workplace. Is success ever rewarded? Are ideas shut down by those above you? Is miscommunication common? When you answer these types of questions, you will be able to determine if it is time to find a new place to work.
If you answer these questions and conclude that this is a perfectly healthy and non-toxic place to work, but you still feel unhappy, then now is the time to assess your job role. Take the following example. If you are a registered nurse, working long hours, hardly seeing your family, and on the verge of burnout, a job switch to a new industry may work for you. However, if you joined the healthcare industry because you are caring, passionate about looking after others, and want to make a difference in the world, you don’t have to switch industries altogether. You just need to look at other roles available that could improve your happiness. For example, if you would prefer to work in an environment that is less stressful or intense all the time, you could consider becoming a school nurse. You could work in a clinic instead of a fast-paced hospital or even open up your own practice. Roles like this would enable you to work less hectic hours. To reach this point, you may be required to go back to school to earn the relevant qualifications. As an example for the job roles mentioned, a nurse would need to take and earn a post master’s NP certificate to become an NP in a concentration of your choice.
Situation 2: When it is a toxic relationship
Every couple, at one point, will find themselves fighting; some will face problems and overcome them. Many will not register that they are in a toxic relationship for a long time until they read about the signs, like forms of violence, harassment, or even abuse, whether verbally or physically. When you realize that you are in a relationship that is no longer bringing your joy and you feel angry, sad, or anxious all the time about what they will do, you need to end the relationship as soon as possible. This won’t be easy, so make sure that you have the support of your loved ones around you and involve the authorities if you need to. It won’t be until you leave the relationship that you can start to move forward.
Take note of the above, as it could send you in the right direction, even if the examples aren’t completely relevant to you. For example, you might work in a different industry but can still use the advice and guidance about switching jobs to improve your happiness
Don’t feel afraid to seek help:
If there are periods in your life when you feel down and find it difficult to stay positive, don’t be afraid to seek help. Whether it’s a sympathetic ear from a friend or a session with a qualified, experienced counsellor. As sometimes being able to talk through your feelings, can help you lift your mood.
When you’re healthy you have more energy to enjoy life:
Another key reason why it’s important to maintain a healthy lifestyle, is that when you’re fit and healthy and take great care of yourself, you’ll have more energy to enjoy each day.
This can help you in your day-to-day work life and ensure that you are putting your all in. As a result, you could impress your bosses and find yourself being put forward for promotions. With promotion opportunities and potential pay rises, this could make a huge difference to your personal life. You could spend more on luxury items that bring you joy, or you could save more money for life moments like buying a bigger home, going on vacation, and enjoying more experiences. This, of course, does need to be a delicate balance. If you put all of your energy into your job and don’t leave any for your personal life, you might not enjoy life as much as you could. You may feel too burnt out to enjoy your vacation, day trips, or luxury items. You don’t want to feel like all you do in life is work, so make sure to nail down the balance.
If you want to increase your energy levels by improving your health, there are multiple things you can do, starting with getting enough sleep every night. You need to be eating a healthy diet, always with a hearty breakfast, walking as much as you can, reducing your stress, and drinking more water. These will all make a difference to your health, which has a positive knock-on effect on your energy levels.
Being healthy is crucial to leading a long, happy life:
It doesn’t matter how old you are, forming healthy habits is always going to benefit you. However, Those who reach their twilight years are often those who have taken care of their bodies and their minds, over the span of their lives. So if you want to continue leading a healthy, happy life as you age, it’s a wise idea to start early and to start taking care of your body now.
You will need to be following similar practices of healthy lifestyles as mentioned above to increase energy. However, you should also make sure to incorporate as many of the following habits as possible too:
- Exercise – whether this is swimming, cycling, walking, or dance, find a type of exercise that gets you moving, the blood pumping, and stress at bay.
- Be grateful – look at what you have in your life and be happy that you have what you do.
- Smile more often – this will release dopamine and will naturally make you happy. The more you smile throughout your lifetime, the happier you will be, so start as soon as you can.
- Declutter your home – a clutter-free home could result in a clutter-free mind. This could reduce stress levels and ensure that you are happier. However, you should still fill your home with the items you love and that bring you joy. Don’t feel like you need to live the minimalist life to feel happy. Again it is about balance.
- See loved ones – spending time with those you love is a great habit to form that will not only leave you with great memories but will leave you feeling happy before, during, and after the meet-up.
Spend more time at one with nature – being outside is a natural mood booster, so get outside as much as you can, whether by walking instead of driving, sitting outside in your garden or balcony, or chilling in your local park.
Working out will help your body produce endorphins:
Working out will also help your body produces endorphins which will instantly improve your mood. Sometimes the best way to improve your mood is to get outside and to get some fresh air and some exercise. So if you don’t workout on a daily basis, it’s a smart idea to slowly start adding daily workouts to your schedule.
Even on the days where you’d much rather stay indoors, it may be a smart idea to motivate yourself to lace up your trainers and to head outside for an adventure. It may take you some time to fine-tune the type of exercise you like, but the difference it can make to your life in the long term is worth the effort in the beginning. Make sure to stay as consistent as possible with your exercise to see real results. However, don’t rely on this alone if you are basing your happiness on these results, as healthy eating and exercise go together
Hopefully you now have a far better understanding of how your health and happiness are closely linked and how pursuing a healthy life will lead you to ongoing happiness.
To read more on topics like this, check out the Health category
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