I use to have the belief that our health is the foundation of everything we want to achieve in life, I might be wrong to you but read the next paragraph before you conclude.
Everything a man will become in life has to do with his health because it is difficult to go tackling challenges when you are not fit for them health-wise. The saying "health is wealth" tells us how much important our health is when trying to be successful. It doesn't have to be just financial success, it can be academics, marital, career, or any other areas of life.
In 2016, my sibling missed a scholarship exam he has been preparing for over 6 months.
Due to the family financial challenges, we were on the lookout for scholarships he could participate in to help ease the burden of our education for our mom. He prepared so hard and I was just so confident about him, I remembered how we both studied together so that I could assist him where he was lacking behind.
The chances of getting the scholarship were much because 12 students were entitled to a year of sponsoring their education provided that you are in a higher institution. He started showing some feverish signs a few days before the exam but we weren't paying attention to it until he was grounded a day before the exams.
He was on a drip while the exams were going on, he wanted to force it but he was vomiting and had no stamina. If the exam was something that he needed, that would have been the end of everything. Let imagine, he was going for a very competitive contract or he has a project deadline is that day and he is yet to complete it.
Our health matters most and mustn't be joked with because not paying good attention to it can result in things that might be irreversible.
According to the Oxford languages, health can be defined as a person's mental or physical condition. The definition simply tells us that our health is made up of two components which are physical and mental health.
We often judge our state of health with just physical wellness forgetting that our mental wellness matter a lot as well, both physical and mental wellness work together and must be in a perfect condition for us to be productive in life. It doesn't have to be about any diseases, a person can be free from any form of illness can still be struggling with their health. No wonder the World Health Organization said "Health is a state of complete mental, social and physical well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” in 1948.
I mentioned earlier that our health is made of two components which are physical health and mental health. The question now is "which is more important between the two?".
It would be wrong to place one above the other when talking about physical health and mental health.
Physical health
Our physical health has to do with the proper functioning of the body system which is a very wide one if broken down because it has to do with fitness, the body organs, and so on.
The word "body organs" would make you understand what physical health is about and maintaining good physical health is determined by more than one thing.
Maintaining physical health:
Our physical health can be determined by a lot of things but let treat a few.
Physical activities we involve in on daily basis:
This involves the activities we engage in such as exercise, work, etc to keep in good shape.
Engaging in different physical activity that benefits the body does a lot of good to the proper functioning of our body system.
Diet: The things we take into our body have a lot to do with physical health and foods can have a great effect on us if we choose wrongly what we feed ourselves.
I recently wrote an article on how the food we eat can affect us, you can read more through the link here.
Poor feeding has resulted in many diseases the world is struggling with today because we do lots of junk food compared to good food.
Environment: Many of us don't pay much attention to our environments and how they can have a great effect on our health.
Living in an unhealthy environment exposes us lot of health risks and that's why we must ensure to always keep our environment healthy.
Mental health
Just like we can't overlook physical health, our mental health is very important because having good physical health without proper mental health is disastrous.
Mental health refers to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional well-being. It is all about how people think, feel, and behave. People sometimes use the term “mental health” to mean the absence of a mental disorder - source.
Our mental health has to do with our reasoning/thinking, how we handle stress mentally, logical decision making, how we interpret situations and others.
Maintaining good mental health is easy but difficult if we are not disciplined enough. Things that can help you keep your mental health in order:
Meditation: meditating helps us prepare our mind ahead of things we are facing and yet to face, it helps us find calmness in the turbulent moments of life. There are different ways we meditate today and it includes reading, yoga, etc.
I embrace reading a lot because it is easier for me to read great motivational contents that would help my already prepared mind to go through life up and down to achieve success at anything I am doing.
Avoiding Negativity: Negative things corrupt our mental health, it exposes us to having fear/ distraction/ impossible mindset dominate us which would eventually make us lose confidence in self ability.
Do away with gossip.
Don't allow your thoughts to soak up rumors.
Don't live your life based on people ill thought about you.
Always see possibility in whatever you are engaging in/with.
Feed your mind with hopes as your take every step in life.
It would wrong to sacrifice either of the two components of our health for each other because we need both for a proper living, you do agree with me that to achieve anything great in life requires us to be physically and mentally fit.
Reference
Physical and mental health are both important, they go hand in hand so the person can do the things he wanted to do. Sometimes the mind thought he can do it, he thinks positively but sometimes the body is weak. In contrary, sometimes the body is ok but the mind is not. These too should be good both