As mentioned in the previous post “Why Exercise?” Exercising benefits not only physical health, but also mental, psychological, and social health. What we feel on the outside is just a glimpse of what’s happening on the inside of our bodies. Dr. John Travis, (the Wellness Inventory creator), decided that rather than treating sick people, he would dedicate his life to inspiring people to be well. With his breakthrough wellness model, the Illness-Wellness Continuum, Dr. Travis focused on self-responsibility and engaged the whole person — body, mind, emotions, and spirit.

          Our journey to wellness starts with our intentions because the relationship between our intentions and our actions is the same as the relationship between acorns and trees. The question we should ask is, can intention alone influence our health?

          In fact, our intentions are as important as our actions. For example; after you have paid $20 for your meal at a restaurant, if you see a hungry homeless person outside, you may give him a dollar. This dollar will not satisfy his/her hunger, but it is your intention of participating in nourishing this person that counts. Intentions are how we imagine ourselves and what we think our role is on this earth. Intentions are the deepest point in our existence, and they act as the foundation of our health.

          Illness and health are only the tip of the iceberg, as Dr. John Travis states. To know the causes, you must look beneath the surface. We see only a small part of the iceberg, but most of its mass lies below the surface. Your health is only the outcome of what is beneath the surface, and the deepest point in our iceberg is our intentions. Because intention reflects our understanding of the meaning of life. It is molded in us and difficult to change. Why? Because it is the message that we spread to other people, and our being.

          Wellness reflects your concern about your physical, psychological, and spiritual health. Wellness is being able to use your mind constructively to serve the purpose of your existing, and express your emotions effectively to those around you. When physical, psychological, and spiritual wellness are absent, it will create an imbalance between your spirit and body that will turn to a poisoning energy and translate to aggression towards yourself and to those around you in the form of anger, hate, arrogance, greed, stress, anxiety, etc.

          When a person gets sick, most people think this illness will be diagnosed and fully treated by pills. Only a few people will understand that this illness is also a wakeup call to rebalance our spiritual and physical lives. The true danger comes from our inner-self- not from outside. Most of the tragedies and suffering that happen in our lives are just a reflection of our inner selves. When treating a disease with pills, without understanding the cause of the disease, you are just suppressing the disease inside your body, and it may come out again in another form.

          To achieve a complete wellness we must rebalance our inner-self with our physical self and correct the way we see ourselves and the world around us. Once we achieve wellness we will gain wisdom and adapt to the nature or our existence.

          What we choose to eat, builds every single cell, texture, and organ of our body. A new study in the field of Epigenetics (which means “Above Genes”), revealed that what we choose to eat influences how our body selects the genes. These genes either will be read and activated or unread and suppressed. That means we are not captives to our genes. Our body has the ability to activate the healthy genes and restrain the unhealthy ones. This method of genes control can be implemented by choosing a healthy environment and paying attention to what we eat and drink.

          For a healthy diet, your focus should be on the quality of the food rather than the quantity. In your mind, you should divide your stomach into three parts, one for food, one for drinks, and one for air. How do you determine this? Stop eating while you still feel like eating, leave the table while you still could eat twice as much, and don’t respond unconsciously to your desires.

          Reducing calories intake will help prevent many diseases, such as excessive weight gain, high blood pressure, increased cholesterol levels, diabetes, and other disease related to aging. In a 2012 study conducted by University College London (UCL), scientists studying how genetics and lifestyle can be adapted to offset the effects of aging stated: Eating 40% less food could extend your life by 20 years.

          Nobody wants to get sick, and no one knowingly chooses a disease, but we do choose diets and lifestyles that are harmful to the trillions of cells and cells’ membrane that are the first in line of defense against diseases. Take consuming salt, for example; salt is included in almost all our meals. In his book “Never be Sick Again”, Dr. Raymond Francis mentioned that “Salt-rich diets force excess sodium into cells, disturbing the normal and healthy sodium/potassium balance. Among other problems, excess sodium interferes with cellular energy production, causing fatigue. Sodium attaches itself strongly to water molecules, so when more sodium goes into the cells, so does more water. Water retention elevates blood pressure and causes weight gain. Dietary salt contributes to an increased incidence of cancer and metastasis, cardiac disease, stroke, kidney disease, bronchial problems and kidney stones. By avoiding processed and packaged foods, most of our excess dietary sodium can be eliminated.” Similarly, consuming too much sugar can be very harmful to our health.

          A bad diet does not only make you feel sick, but is also a factor in causing fatigue, tiredness, and lack of energy. Our body is designed to be healthy and in balance, but we insist on eating foods that leave our body fighting a biochemical chaos throughout the day to restore its balance.

          No matter what diet we follow; what we drink of water should be a priority, because it forms 70-90% of the living cells in our body. Water is the source of our life, and most diseases we suffer from are only shouts of appeal to hydrate. Water is responsible for the balance in all our systems. Some people don’t feel the thirst, instead, their brain reads thirst as hunger. Many people commonly make the mistake of waiting to feel thirsty to drink water. You feel thirsty only when your body is dehydrated and in desperate need of water. One other common mistake that most people make is to replace water that has no taste or smell with other satisfactory drinks, such as tea, coffee, and soda. These beverages are diuretic drinks that contribute to severe dehydration. An adult body needs 8 cups of water in a mild weather day and even more on hotter days.     

          Hormones, artificial ingredients, and our ignorance about what makes our food today caused the 21^st century’s most dangerous and common disease: obesity. Now over 500 million people are suffering from obesity. It kills 3 million people around the world every year.

The time we live in forces us to adopt diets and habits that are harmful to our body and causes us to gain unnecessary weight that will increase our chances of getting sick. Being aware of what you nourish your body with, and constant exercising helps you enjoy life without having to carry extra pounds everywhere you go.

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         Technology and fast transportation are blessings that have made our lives easier and more productive. They also allow us to connect with friends and family anytime, despite the distance between us. But unfortunately for many of us, these technologies have become a silent killer. We rely on them too much, and we have stopped using our physical ability to perform simple tasks that we can do without the help of technology. We have gained weight, our kids have become excessively overweight, and even some police officers and military personnel have become obese. The accessibility of these technologies makes us oblivious to the benefits of participating in physical activities. According to the World Health Organization, “Physical inactivity (lack of physical activity) has been identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality (6% of deaths globally). Moreover, physical inactivity is estimated to be the main cause for approximately 21–25% of breast and colon cancers, 27% of diabetes and approximately 30% of ischaemic heart disease burden.”

          Exercising is the type of activity that requires physical effort using our muscles that demand energy disbursement, that increase our mobility, strength, and overall health, and should be performed regularly. A study published in Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2006 outlines the benefits of exercising. The studies showed that exercising helps you to lose weight/maintain your healthy weight, reduce high blood pressure, reduce the risk for type II diabetes, and help prevent some form of cancer and symptoms of depression, etc. The regularity and intensity of the workout necessary vary depending on your needs and the diet you are following.

          Many people blame their lack of exercise on exhaustion and tiredness, but that is not correct. If you are sleeping a reasonable number of hours, your lack of energy is due to poor diet and physical inactivity. Study after study reported that people who perform light exercise regularly have more energy and sleep better, even though they are not sleeping longer.

          Exercising does not only benefit physical health, but also improves mental, psychological, and social health. One study placed physically inactive adults on a six months exercise program, and researchers noted an increase in their brain mass. They concluded that regular physical activity can improve brain cells’ health, as well as the health of the nervous system, and improve the functionality of your senses.

          Moderate to high-intensity exercise helps to increase the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), that stimulates the growth of new brain cells in a process known as neurogenesis. This doesn’t happen during our normal daily activity. Exercising also increases blood flow to the brain, which helps kids and adults have higher self-esteem, and better ability to make plans and decisions. Exercising also stimulates the body to produce hormones that are responsible for happiness, such as endorphins and dopamine and reduces the amount of hormones that give us anxiety, such as cortisol and adrenaline.

          In conclusion, with the right amount of exercise, we can take the stress and exhaustion out of our lives, and be healthy, happy and feel alive.

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