What is Good Health?

Across the world, people read magazine articles, watch DVD workouts, and talk to friends and doctors to find out one very simple question…What is good health? Good means morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious. And health is the soundness of body or mind; freedom from disease or ailment. By definition, good health has both a physical and spiritual counterpart. So if we take this into consideration, do we really have good health? Throughout our lives we have never really been taught the proper way to eat. We all have fooled ourselves into thinking that “less” is better. The less I eat the more weight I will lose and the healthier I will become. You cannot think that you are going to lose any weight by eating less. On the contrary, your body needs additional fuel (more food) to suffice itself when you begin to start living a healthier gym life. By starving the body of its most common routine of nutrients, the muscles inside of the body begin to feed off of the muscle tissue first, then later to the fatty cells, causing the body to go into a starvation mode and begin to store necessary food in the body. One main reason is because the body isn’t used to all of a sudden going from being rejected of what is most common (eating several meals throughout the day) to eating barely enough to survive. In doing so, your brain tells your body that we will not be eating today, so the next time we eat, our body will store that food, because our body is not sure of the next time we will eat. As a result, the body begins to gain weight and not shed the calories from the food that is normally converted and used for energy.

Spiritually, good health resides on your ability to master self, your surroundings, and your ability to control your low desires as well as external and internal impediments that cause sickness and disease. Whatever religion or spiritual life you subscribe to, it plays a vital role in the quality of your overall health. Meditation and relaxation helps to calm and eliminate stress, while prayer and chanting have the same effect. Thoughts are also a major contributor to the spiritual side of good health. Negative thoughts breed negative energy which causes stress and stress weakens the immune system. On the contrary, positivity provides the perfect balance and upswing to your energy levels, which reduces stress and the many health risk that come with it. Not to mention, thoughts become actions and actions becomes habits and habits build character. This is why we start routines, such as going to the gym, and then quickly fall off after a week or so. We failed to get to the habit forming stage. Through our thoughts, we develop the will to win or the will to lose. Our spiritual self has to synergize with our physical self.

Good health has both a spiritual and physical counterpart. Skinny and stressed does not equate to good health. Neither does overweight and happy. The two are synonymous. Your physical life should be a reflection of your spiritual life and they should balance out to provide the perfect formula for a prolonged life full of vitality. Remember that gradualism is the key to mastery and with a will to win, good eating habits, and hard work in the gym, we can keep our body away from sickness or disease. After taking all of this into consideration, we must now ask ourselves, "do I have good health"? Now that we have properly defined what good health is, the next step is the take the necessary steps to improve or make a total transformation.

Ebonye X-Potter is Owner of Kemestrē Body Care, a natural and holistic approach to skincare; also, Founder and Executive Director of Seed To Save, Inc. youth outreach organization in Indianapolis, Indiana.