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Healthy Personal Growth

Have you ever heard this: I learned to eat, before I learned to walk, before I learned to work!  Well, maybe not many times, my brother says that all the time he knows the importance of prioritizing your body and healthy personal growth before doing anything else such as work.  I always remember that when I am so wrapped up with something I am doing that I forget to take a break, but my stomach won’t forget, it will do anything and everything, from sounds like whales in the office to blocking my thinking path, which is when I realize I need to take a break and take care of myself.

Health is not only about eating, as a matter of fact if you want to start on a healthy path and achieve personal growth, you must start on that topic because what you eat can make a huge difference of what you are trying to accomplish, and you already know that, what I am trying to address here is that eating healthy does not always mean low-calorie, artificial sugar, or chemically formulated “diet” items you may be consuming.  It means eating the most natural, “live” items our bodies need such as fresh, raw, fruits and vegetables, and those vegies that can’t be eaten raw should not be overcooked, just slight cooked, enough to bring out their best (color, crunch, nutrients, etc.).  So, once you make an inventory of your foods, consumption times, and amounts, then you can take control of your intake and move on to the physical area of your body, the exercise and workout that helps your muscles, cardiovascular system, and cells to give you the healthy body you were always intended to have.

There are many facets to personal growth and self-development, such is the saying “body and mind” to tell us we need a good balance to succeed in anything we set our minds to. Negative and positive influences are everywhere, because of a lack of focus most will tend to be influenced by negativity, for example, crime can influence people to accept and live by criminal activity, like telling lies when you tell yourself something that it is not true, you begin to believe it to be true.  One must be careful on the information and activities one chooses to follow, because if they are negative they will influence you in a negative way, but if they are positive… well, I think you can call that a healthy influence.

When I selected the title to this page, Healthy Personal Growth, I was thinking that physical activity can also be influential, therefore doing nothing is a negative influence because our bodies need activity to stay healthy.  We all hear the good feeling people experience after a good workout, honestly I am usually exhausted, in pain, and not feeling great, but wait, I do sleep better, think sharper, and have more energy to do things I tend to disregard on busy work days such as cooking healthy meals, spending time with the children just talking over one of the TV shows they watch, etc.  The importance of being at your best for the family tends to get confused with what our priorities ought to be, we say we put family first but if you don’t take good care of yourself physically and emotionally, you can’t really be there for the family or those important people to you.  So I guess I can join the crowd that say they feel good after a workout, mind you I need a cocktail of minerals, vitamins, and proteins immediately after my workout, and if I miss it I feel it for days!

I guess we must become aware of anything that influences us, and separate negative from positive, when you are aware of your thinking patterns and what influences you, you are in control of your future because you learn to discard the negatives, the nay-sayers, and anything that approaches us with the intent to break us, and we learn to correct our mistakes, become responsible for the things that we say and do, we then learn to accept the positives and their influence and at the same time we exert the same to others, for example, a smile is such a simple exercise, I had to learn the benefits of it and how easy it is to loose it, I was going to work one morning and traffic was bad, I started to feel anxiety, frustration and a whole bunch of ill feelings, knowing that just putting a smile on my face could change everything, I started to smile, it was difficult at first, but once it was there, believe me, everything took a different perspective.

Once I heard an audiobook I borrowed from the library, which at the moment the name and author escapes me, but I learned some truly valuable practices from it and I want to share with you a couple of them.

• When you go to a store and you are looking for a parking space, don’t park closest to the entrance, park farther away, that serves two purposes, one you exercise by walking a little extra, and two, it gives a little of you to those who really need the space, even if you see a fool take one of the spaces, know in your heart that your intentions were good and that is a positive no one can take away from you.

• I heard a short story about a husband and wife in this audiobook, the story was told by the child, it was about “edifying” which I only thought to be important in business, but for some dumb reason I didn’t make the connection of edifying your own family. The story tells about how the parents always talked good things about their spouse, didn’t have to lie, it was  simply edifying, even when the person talking to them was saying terrible things about their spouse and expected agreement and similar comments out of the conversation.As a bad habit we find ourselves always trying to say similar bad things about our family when talking to someone who is doing that, not that we mean harm, but because we are not in control of our thinking and we allow ourselves to be influenced, we fall prey to the bad habits of negative people and like a chain reaction, it doesn’t seem to end. As an experiment I figured I could try that simple ‘edification’ strategy, it worked! . When I stopped talking like those people and gossiping negatively, the effect was like an armor putting an end to any negative vibes, and at home things also changed, I can only assume my own attitude changed.

Well, of body and mind means just that, exercise your body to maintain good physical health, energy, and drive.  Be in control of your thoughts, avoid negativity and practice simple, good habits such as smiling and opening the doors to others. Oh, and eat healthy, in moderation, lots of vitamin C, and less artificial ingredients in your food.

I hope you enjoy this page and find it… if not informative, at least amusing.

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Posted by: Ana Rivas, July 15, 2011