The Physical compass point
concerns our bodies. Physical health promotes a sense of well-being. Develop
life-long habits to take care of your health. Learn to eat moderately but
wisely and avoid harmful substances. Get enough sleep. Be active and get some exercise
on a daily basis— take walks, play a sport, or work out on machines at the gym.
No time? You can build in exercise by taking the stairs rather than elevators
or getting a parking place that gives you a little hike. Just as your body can
be a target organ for stress, producing physical symptoms without a medical
basis, it can also help you to relieve stress through exercise.
Get regular medical checkups and
pay attention to symptoms that may need medical attention. If you are unsure if
a symptom is serious or not, it will not hurt to have it checked out. It may
save your life, as occurred with the following young man, in whose life I
happened to intervene:
At
the age of 25, John started having
unusual headaches that he had never had before. He had a high pressure job and
thought the headaches were related to stress, but when exercise and relaxation
did not relieve them, his girlfriend mentioned the problem to me. I suggested that
he see his regular doctor and arrange to get a CT scan to rule out a serious
condition I feared, a type of ballooning of an artery in his brain. He did, and
the scan confirmed this condition, which is so rare that is often not diagnosed
before it suddenly ruptures and results in death. This young man was lucky. Paying
attention to his headaches rather than ignoring them led to an evaluation,
diagnosis, and an uncomplicated surgery that saved his life.
In
future blogs, we will discuss more ways to approach our whole health picture holistically.
For now, however, take care of this important part of life, your body, by
providing what it needs as well as heeding any warning signals.For more information, see my first book, Keep Your Eye on the Prize! (www.keepyoureyeontheprize.org).
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