We live in an age of instant gratification. It’s the product of a digital era which immediately offers us everything on a plate; we can buy happiness with nothing but a laptop before us. It’s no wonder, then, that we expect everything to happen immediately. Even with the sedentary lifestyles that the majority of us live, we expect healthiness to be an easily attainable goal that we can achieve at the snap of our fingers.
You want to be slimmer? Try this 1-week crash diet. You want better skin? Try this new cream. Don’t like water? Drink this alternative. Without being too cynical, the point being made here is that healthy living can’t be achieved in the short-term. There is no “quick fix” to looking after yourself. It’s an ongoing part of… well, living. If you really want to healthy then you need to find permanent solutions. Regular maintenance is the secret to healthy living and here’s why.
Senses deteriorate in the long-run.
We’re going to start off by talking about the importance of sensory health because there’s certainly been an increase in people damaging their eyesight and hearing at younger and younger ages over recent years. Again, it’s a product of the modern world. The volume of music, film, and all media has become steadily louder, as volume seems to equate to quality, and the importance of the effect this has on our ears seems to have gone out of the window. You might not notice the effects today but you could tomorrow.
To counteract diminished hearing, your instinct is to turn up the volume but this only increases the damage to your ears; it’s an endless cycle. You need to not only see a doctor if you need a hearing aid but also limit noise exposure. You might not be able to hear as well but that doesn’t mean the same amount of damage isn’t being done. The same goes for your vision; if you’ve noticed that your eyesight has diminished, don’t counteract this by straining to see things. See an optician.
Sleeping habits have long-term effects.
A few late nights won’t hurt your health in the same way as eating junk food or being physically inactive, right? Well, your sleeping pattern has more of an effect on your long-term health than you might think. Again, regular maintenance should extend to maintaining a consistent and healthy sleeping pattern. It’s about getting an 8-hour sleep, more than anything.
Sleep-deprivation has been linked to migraines and other health problems that affect daily cognitive and physical behavior. Essentially, it affects other aspects of daily “health maintenance”. You could do some research on sites such as medical point if you’re interested in reading up on the effects of poor sleeping patterns beyond simply “feeling tired”. Remember, getting into a good sleeping routine today will have a long-term positive effect on your health. It’s all about regular maintenance, yet again.
Your mind is linked to your body.
You need to check your mind and mood levels regularly in order to maintain balance and healthiness in your life. The mind is a strange thing that we’re still trying to understand (neuroscience is far behind the rest of science). What we do know, however, is that the mind and body are linked very closely. That means your physical health massively affects your mental health (and vice versa). So you need to focus on keeping your body healthy by exercising in order to look after your mind but also to work through your mental health issues in order to keep yourself in a healthy physical state.
If you want to keep your mind and body in good shape then it’s all about checking in frequently with regards to the health aspects that we’ve discussed. Yet again, this explains why regular maintenance is the secret to healthy living.