Your friend exercises for an hour a day, eats in moderation, drinks no alcohol or coffee, and looks disgustedly at you when you smoke. "You have such a healthy lifestyle", people tell him.
But suppose he doesn't bother to read books or newspapers, stay in touch with current affairs, spend time with friends and family, or take breaks from his routine to relax, spend time in nature, or meditate. Is he still living a healthy lifestyle?
The western world fixates on physical exercise and diet as the measures by which we judge someone's approach to health. This narrow view ignores other aspects of life. Even the World Health Organisation states: "There is no health without mental health".
A holistic approach to health should address four domains:
1. Physical health, including training for strength, cardiovascular conditioning, and flexibility; not smoking; and eating a balanced diet.
2. Mental health - by this I mean not the psychiatric definition, but the fitness of our brain: reading, learning, solving puzzles, and challenging our mind.
3. Psychological health - simply being happy. There's no prescription for this - whatever works for you is what you should do. Spend time with friends, do art, dance, travel, exercise, cooking....
4. Spiritual health. Whether your spiritual batteries are recharged by meditation, prayer, communing with nature, yoga, or tantric sex, it is important to make space for this in your life.
A healthy lifestyle should not be a struggle, but it needs to be holistic. We are multi-layered beings, and our approach to health must include more than just looking after the body. Start today - in fact right now - by picking something from each area that you can begin or extend over the next few months.
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