You have been doing certain thing this way. Now you have to consciously ask yourself is this habit beneficial? Any better alternative?

I believe in our body’s natural ability to heal. Our illness is a wake-up call to warn us not to take our health for granted. If we take good care of our body, our body will recover from illnesses. However, let’s not wait until getting sick to know the importance of health. In some cases, it may be too late, depending on the severity of your illness.

I met a nurse while hiking the other day. I love hiking and meeting new friends, especially when they open up and share their life experiences with me. She revealed that the most challenging task of being a nurse is having to deal with some patients who are despaired of their own helpless physical states and taking out their frustration and anger on the nurses who are trying to help them. Now she is dealing with a patient who has become incapacitated after having a stroke. He vents all his anger on anyone who tries to help him. As she points out, his conditions were brought upon himself by unhealthy life styles. She said her nursing career encourages her to take an active role in her own health.

Some illnesses are indeed caused by bad eating and drinking habits as well as sedentary life styles.

Every time we put food and drink into our mouth, it could either be a conscious choice or out of habit (good or bad). We can eat food and have drinks that either nourish us or “malnourish” us. You can’t expect going to eat unhealthy fast food regularly and not to have a negative impact on your health. Or drink cokes like water every day and not to take a toll on your health. Or sit all day in the office or all night in front of TV and not have bad consequences on your overall health.

My problem is not so much in eating habits or inactive life style as in my erratic sleeping habits. I tend to stay up late when I get too engrossed in my reading or other tasks. I have to work on that to improve my health. Now it is already late at night, but I am still up writing.

What would be the remedy for my irregular sleep pattern?

Now I am on my summer break, it is hard for me to stick to a regular schedule. However, when school starts, I am going to set the alarm to force myself to go to bed earlier so I can get a good eight-hour sleep. Sleep is just as important as healthy diet and exercise. It has been scientifically proven that it affects our overall well-being, memory, executive functioning, even men’s sperm counts and the size of men’s testicles (hmmm, I was wondering how it specifically affects women.)

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop. –Ovid

What do you need to work on to improve your health?

Here are some of things I would also like to do to improve my health:

1. Meditation: deep breathing in the morning and before going to bed.

Close your eyes, take several deep breaths, and relax your whole body. Feel the relaxation flow through every part of you–from your head, down your neck and shoulders, your torso, buttocks, and legs, your feet, and toes. You are now fully relaxed.

–Barbara Stanny, Sacred Success (p. 98)

2. Visualization: use visualization to relax myself and bring positive energy into my life. Imagine myself in a place I want to be and in a state I want to be in.

3. Massage myself to stimulate blood circulation and energy flow.

4. Relax different parts of my body by tensing up the muscles and relaxing them from head to toes.

5. Continue to eat and drink as healthfully as I can and engage in activities I enjoy. Continue to do my daily walk and go hiking regularly. Alternate with exercises that move all joints of my body.

6. Surround myself with people that lift me up and remove myself from toxic relationship. Toxic relationship saps our energy and undermines our emotional health, which in turn affects overall health.

7. Nourish my spirituality with sources of Wisdom. As Jesus said, It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Body is perishable, but what is more important is to take care of what is imperishable.

Today is my declaration of living my life more consciously. This does not have to be limited to the realm of health but in many other aspects of our life–including what we do and what we say.