We’re all the way up to H for Health — almost 1/3 of the way through the Growth from A to Z series!   Health is another one of our broader topics, so rather than getting into all the nitty-gritty we’re going to look at a few general areas where mindful choices can make a difference to your health.  (If you want more specifics, you can check out my natural health site, Naturally, Holistically Healthy — and be on the lookout for my e-course that’s launching hopefully in early summer.)

Eat Well

Eating nutritious food is the single best thing you can do for your health.  A body can’t function well without the building blocks it needs.  You can live the healthiest lifestyle ever in every other way, and if you’re not getting enough of the nutrients you need, it’s only a matter of time before functions start malfunctioning.

We talked about eating for the letter E, so instead of repeating myself, I’ll just direct you to that post.

Make Healthful Lifestyle Choices

Of course eating what you need isn’t the only positive choice you can make.  Usually food and exercise are the only things we really think about, but they’re not all there is.  Some lifestyle elements that can make a difference to health include:

• exercising (or “moving” — it doesn’t necessarily need to be “exercise” in the conventional sense)
• getting plenty of sleep
• getting regular sunshine
• spending time barefoot
• breathing freely and deeply
• drinking adequate water
• allowing time for rest, relaxation, and play
• laughing regularly

Minimize Toxins

The previous two sections talked about positive choices — those things we want to get more of in our lives.  In this last section, I want to talk about negative choices (so to speak) — that is, those things we want to eliminate from our lives.

Imagine trying to keep your car running well while someone keeps tossing debris into the gas tank.  The car probably wouldn’t run very well for very long, as things started to get gunked up and the gas could no longer flow freely where it needed to.

But we do this to our bodies all the time — continually dump debris into our figurative “gas tanks.”

There’s a reason I said “minimize toxins,” not “eliminate toxins.”  Nowadays you’d have to be a hermit in the mountains somewhere to avoid all toxins — and you probably still couldn’t.  So I don’t worry about the things I can’t reasonably control.  I do, however, try to prioritize the things I can control, knowing that I can’t control the other things.

Some sources of toxins to be aware of:

• unnecessary stress (not a “conventional” toxin, but still damaging to the body)
• food, especially lower-quality sources (and yes, we have to eat!  Just be aware and go higher-quality when you can)
• personal care products
• cleaning products
• building supplies & household furnishings

Houseplants can help filter out a lot of the toxins that are a matter of air quality.  Just be careful to choose varieties that aren’t poisonous to eat, if you have small children or pets.

Growth from A to Z — H: Health