The Key to Improving Your Health
What is The Key to Improving your Health?
Do you want to eliminate pain? Lose weight? Gain weight? Reduce anxiety? What is your "thing?" There are many techniques to improve your health, but none of them work if you don't put them into action!
Regardless of what you want to improve, below are 5 principles that I use daily that have helped me get where I am today. I have taught thousands of other people to utilize these principles for their pain (and subsequently their lives) and, every time, the person becomes a much happier and more successful individual.
I've suffered numerous chronic injuries throughout my body, struggled with business, been sued, fired, struggled in relationships, and have been ridiculed by hundreds of thousands on social media. In all of these instances, I have utilized these principles with great success.
These "principals" are all practices! You will never be perfect with any of these, and they must always be worked on and improved constantly. None of these ideas are new; they are just the truth about how you make lasting improvements. If you are continuing to look for quick ways to reduce pain, lose or gain weight, or improve some other area of your life, STOP and read these below concepts. There are many more concepts that can be focused on, but let's start here.
1. Practice Patience
"Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we are waiting." -Joyce Meyer
Health improves over long periods. In this modern age, we are addicted to instant gratification. The problem is that nothing worth having comes quickly and easily - love, health, and finances, to name a few. If you do receive one of these things quickly, you will likely lose it just as fast. Multiple tinder dates, surgeries, weight-loss pills, and the winning lottery do not address the underlying issue of why you were missing that thing in the first place. Surgeries might address the specific area that is injured, but WHY did it get injured in the first place? THAT still needs to be addressed. Lottery winners usually lose all of their winnings in a short time because they never built the framework of knowledge and understanding about how to gain, retain, and grow wealth.
When it comes to your health, we must celebrate tiny wins daily. Because improvements occur over months and years (rather than hours), we mustn't focus on our end goal all the time as we will likely give up! I'm sure you have experienced this several times with New Year's resolutions.
Want to eliminate your pain? Celebrate the fact that you can tie your shoes today when last week you couldn't reach your ankle. It is a great goal to want to lose 50 lbs, but make sure to celebrate the fact that you did some exercise today and ate unprocessed food. Celebrate that you lost 2lbs this week. Want to gain 20lbs? Celebrate the fact that you ate more protein and achieved a calorie surplus for the day. Now, do this every day…
2. Practice Consistency
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Will Durant
We have been told numerous times how to eliminate pain or lose weight, but the problem is that the tools to do so must be repeated daily. This can be a challenge because the motivation to do the work ebbs and flows weekly. Think of something in your life that you are REALLY good at - how did you get good at it? You probably practiced that skill daily (or at least every other day). This same principle is how we make improvements with our health, relationships, finances, etc.
Everyone reading this is a habitual person, whether you believe it or not. Are you habitually late? Do you habitually go on walks for your lunch? Do you habitually watch TV when you get home? Do you habitually go for the fruit rather than the ice cream?
Our life is the sum of our consistent habits. Replacing unhealthy habits with healthy habits will, you guessed it, make you healthier!
When it comes to your health, it is important that we eat whole, unprocessed foods, go on a short walk or exercise daily, and are taking time to relax and breathe. These are all simple things once you learn how to do them! This is shown within our Limitless program.
Struggle to stick with a habit? Don't rely on motivation. Rely on consistency. Health is a necessity, not a want. Make it a priority. There are numerous instances where I am not interested in working out, eating well, or reading a book, but I do it because I need to. To me, those things are no different than needing to go to the bathroom.
3. Practice Exploration
Treat your body like a science experiment.
I have been asked a million times how an exercise should be performed. "Should I do it like A, B, or C?" I usually respond with, "yes."
YOU are the person that lives with you 24/7, and you know more about your body than anyone else ever will. I have always encouraged people to do "all of the above" and see what feels best. As a result of doing all of the above, people come to their own realizations - this is the most impactful way to learn.
I could tell you that exercise option "B' is likely more efficient than exercise option "A" or "C," but then it wouldn't be as impactful as you making that discovery yourself. You wouldn't truly learn it or understand why.
The same principle goes for foods, diets, mindfulness practices, and restorative practices. Try ALL of the available options out there and form your OWN CONCLUSIONS. Create your own set of rules that works for you and how you live.
4. Practice Gratitude
So many positive things happen to us each day; why do we always focus on the negatives?
When you are struggling with pain, weight loss, or mental health, we will often focus on what IS NOT working for us and why we aren't any good. It is essential to focus on the positives in our daily lives. Each day, write down 1-3 things that you are grateful for. Gratitude comes in all "shapes and sizes." It could be something as small as loving how the light shines through the leaves on the trees outside your home or as big as something like a job promotion.
One gripe people have about practicing gratitude is that people start to write the same things down and feel as though they should be writing something new. Screw it! Write whatever the hell you want and be cognizant that the thing/action/person you are writing down brings you joy. I often write these same things, "coffee, love, and cuddles with the boys." Those things make me happy.
Doing this kind of work helps me focus away from negatives that might crop up (being sued, pain, business stress, etc.). Even if it only works for a few minutes, it is a time where I sit with myself and focus on the present—every little bit of happiness counts.
Regardless of how terrible your situation may be, there is always something to be grateful for. Retreat to the beauty and randomness of nature if you are struggling to find it.
5. Practice Having Fun
Making improvements to your health can feel cumbersome… or it can be FUN.
Learning and growing in inherently enjoyable for human beings. Unfortunately, poor health is seen as a travesty, an upset, or out of our control rather than being something that can be an enjoyable learning experience. Shift your mindset around your health.
I have always believed that EVERYONE should have a Master's Degree in their own body. Business, Finance, Law, and Engineering are cool, and all, but the thing that makes all of that happen is our body and mind. Our health is our Whealth.
With that being said, improving your health is like the beginning of college. You are about to embark on a journey of discovery (or maybe you already have) that will be filled with awesome realizations (lectures and homework), celebrations of small wins (quizzes and tests), and stories for you to share with others who are struggling (helping classmates). The last thing on this list is by far the most fulfilling part of being a human being - the opportunity to help someone and make a positive impact on their life. There is nothing more fun and enjoyable than that.
Do you practice any of these principles already? What skills/abilities are you exceptionally great at in your life? If you are REALLY good at editing newspapers, playing music, arguing, sales, soccer, computer programming, etc., then you have used several or all of the above principles already. It's time to apply these to your health. Practice a healthy skill daily, explore the capabilities of your mind and body, have fun while doing it, and be grateful for the successes along the way.
Until next time!
-Andrew at Whealth
