Are You Really Healthy?

Everybody is concerned with health nowadays. Even in our small town the only decent playground is full with thousands of morning walkers. Gymnasiums are crowded. Treadmills, stationery cycles and similar equipments sell in millions. These are all welcome developments,no doubt. But I am afraid that the focus is too much on the physical health neglecting the other more important aspects of real health and well being.

When we say that a person is in perfect health we mean at least three things. Number one she is not suffering from any disease and enjoys a good physical health. Number two, is that she is a highly balanced individual having emotional stability. Here we mean the health of the mind – the mental health. She is not subject to any neuroses, psychoses or CODs (compulsive obsessive disorder); nor is she in the grip of depression or paranoia.

Number three is the health of her intellect. She has good decision making skills – she can weigh the relative merits of the available alternatives and take intelligent decisions in life. Whatever she is engaged in – be it the job of maintaining a home or heading a corporation or the profession of a neurosurgeon, she does it well.

Now comes the fundamental question. We do quite a lot to sustain our physical health. But do we care to do any thing to sustain the other two aspects of health? If you do not have a healthy mind or a good, working intellect what is the use of physical health?

What can we do to improve the mental and intellectual health? Simple. In the same way you exercise the body you need to exercise the mind and the brain. To maintain emotional or mental health, my prescription is literature – classic literature. It could be Shakespeare, Bharatiyar, Tulsidas, Kalidas or any one. Reading books like Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, Brothers Karamazov by Dostovesky, The Razors Edge by Somerset Maugham will refresh your mind, churn your emotions and leave you peaceful in the end. Reading a good short story, a good poem or listening to good music or seeing a good painting will all go to improve the emotional health.

Here I have to particularly condemn the TV. We cannot escape the television. It is addictive. But TV is a health hazard especially to emotional health. Next time you sit before the idiot box for three hours and see a popular movie, you just write down your exact feelings after the movie is over. You will feel empty and burnt out. Because your mind and intellect has been kept perfectly idle when you were watching the TV. On the other hand when you read a book, your mind is very active visualising the situation portrayed by the author. So you feel fresh after reading a good book.

And finally for enhancing your intellectual health you will have to learn something new constantly. It might be a new recipe, a new software, a new language, a new hairstyle or a new make-up technique. You may learn to swim, driving a car, or even white-water rafting. You can also solve crosswords, riddles and puzzles. All these activate neurons in your brain and prevent the ageing of your brain.

When your work (as a housewife or a Manager) does not provide adequate physical exercise, you deliberately exert your body by jogging or walking. Similarly if there is not enough intellectual stimulation in your work (because you have been doing the same work for years) you need to look for ways to deliberately exert your brain. Please remember that any faculty that is not used by us will soon be lost for ever.

If you consciously adopt this three-pronged strategy to health, not only will you live long but also live happily. May you be blessed with perfect health – physical, emotional and intellectual.

 

Dear Suganthi,
Thanks for the post, Suganthi. I posted this some two years back and I am happy to get a response from you today.
I am happy you have decided to take steps to improve all aspects of health.
Best of luck,
regards,

 

Dear Sudha,
Thanks a ton. I had completely forgotten about this article till Ms.Sugandhi came here and posted a comment.
Sudoku is for the intellect. My exercise time with Sudoku is an hour a day. Useful websites are Sudoku-san - Your Sudoku Assistant and Web Sudoku - Billions of Free Sudoku Puzzles to Play Online
We need to do something for emotions also. I am reading Thiruvaimozhi by Nammazhwar for that.
For emotional fitness any good emotionally touching story is enough. There are some who out of affection for me would say, "Even Varalotti's stories are enough." I am yet to buy that proposition.
Did you read the Accountant and Prostitute post? Some comments are quite interesting.
regards,

 

Dear Meenakshi,
thanks for reviving a discussion that was started almost 4 years ago. At that time IL had less than a hundred members and I would be happy if my thread became a hot thread (one needed just 150 views to become hot) I wanted to run a whole discussion on total health, but there was no response and I had to abandon that.
Thanks again. You are right. Books don't sell. the average time before the idiot box has gone up. And the serials are becoming sillier by the day. God save the world.
love,
sridhar

 

Dear Sirisha,
thanks a lot for coming into this thread, almost four years after I posted it. And thanks again for the kind words you have aboy my post.
You are right. OCDs don't get the attention they deserve. Let alone OCDs, even much obvious conditions like dyslexia gets noticed as we saw in Taare Zamin par.
BTW, Sirisha I am now writing a series in this site about our relationship with God. I have posted five episodes. Each episode is independent of the other. From the grace of Madurai Meenakshi to the love of Sri Renganatha, and the compassion of a psychiatrist and a sage, everything is there. Why don't you have a look at it?
Click the link below my signature to read the fifth episode. You may then read the other four.
Nice knowing you,
love,
sridhar