Connect To Your Healthy Body: 10 Basic Principles

Everyone has gone through periods of their life where they feel disconnected from their bodies. This often happens after a period of stress, illness or major changes. Your daily rituals get disrupted, you shirk on healthy habits, you start cutting corners—and before you know it, you feel lost within yourself. How can you get connected with your healthy body again?

Our bodies are the temples of the Lord, within which dwells the Holy Spirit. We owe it to God and to ourselves to care for this body, because it is the vehicle we are given to do good in: unless our bodies are healthy, we can’t do the things we need to do, for ourselves or for others. Here are some ways to get back “in touch” with yourself again.

1. Get physical. One of the best ways to get back in tune with your body is to exercise—however you like to do it. Whether it’s a walk on the beach, an aerobics routine, a bike ride, a rock climb, or dancing around your living room to your favorite song, get active. Feel the blood rushing through your veins and pumping through your heart. Feel the breath coming in and out of your lungs. You’ll feel more alive in minutes. Keep it up, make it a routine. You’ll never regret it.
2. Get out of a rut. Have you gotten trapped in a stale, unsatisfying routine? Are you uninspired? Shake things up a bit. Instead of driving to work, try taking the bus, biking, or carpooling with friends. Instead of eating your lunch inside, take your brown bag out to the park or even just outside your office building. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Read the newspaper in a different order. Miss your TV shows for once and build a model airplane with your son. All of these things will make you more self-aware and connect with yourself…as well as with others.
3. Get outside. Modern life demands we spend far too much time inside, under fluorescent light bulbs and in dimly-lit rooms. Bring the sunshine in: not only does increased light exposure help regulate your Circadian rhythm for better waking and sleeping, you get essential vitamin D from the sun. Get into the Great Outdoors. This is God’s temple, made with His own hands, and it is beautiful. No one can help but feel more alive after the sun has warmed their skin or the breeze ruffled their hair.
4. Eat right. Ditch the junk food—it’s like trying to power a high-performance automobile with kerosene! Sure, a burger every now and then isn’t a big deal, but if you eat fast food or processed foods all the time, you’ll be overweight, nutritionally deficient, and feel…well, blah. Eating wholesome, whole foods will not only boost your nutrition and lower your intake of bad stuff like preservatives, additives, sodium, sugar and bad fats, it will increase your energy levels, improve your skin and your general outlook! Reach for an apple instead of a cookie; eat a salad instead of an order of fries. You will be amazed at how much better you feel.
5. Spend time with loved ones. This one is so important: if you’ve become isolated from your friends and family, you need to re-connect. It’s better for your mind and body, since we are social creatures by nature. We are designed to fellowship with each other. You need to interact with your spouse, your children, your family, your friends. They offer support, love and help—and vice-versa. You will feel energized and more appreciative of your life after you’ve passed some time with your child, a favorite nephew or your wife, doing something fun and completely unnecessary.
6. Do something creative. Even if you’re not an artistic person, you can awaken an atrophied sense of beauty by just appreciating the creativity of others. If you’re not a painter or writer, go to a museum and see the work of others up close. Cook, draw, sing, dance—just do something that gets your mind going and your senses tingling. Let the inspiration God gave to you and to others revitalize your senses and your sensitivity.
7. Take a day off. No, this doesn’t mean lying in bed all day, unless that’s what you need after a long period of over-work. This means take some time off, even if it’s just for a few hours, to do nothing but relax in the way you want to. Make no demands on yourself or on others: just enjoy your time.
8. Meditate. This simple trick involves quieting and calming your mind. It will decrease your stress levels, lower heart and respiration rates, calm brain waves, and help you to get back in focus. No, yoga isn’t required: just a quiet, solitary spot, where you can close your eyes and let your mind drift. Think about the goodness of God, about the positive things in your life, about the things you have to be thankful for. You will come out of meditation feeling more alive, awake and humble—and in better control of yourself.
9. Indulge yourself. Everyone needs to be taken care of a little every now and then, and it’s not evil or completely decadent to be pampered. Even if you’re not a woman, getting a manicure, pedicure, massage or new haircut can really change your outlook on life in a positive way. It will improve your self image and decrease your stress.
10.  Get rid of the junk. Sure, this can mean doing an intensive spring cleaning, but it can also be figurative as well as literal. Take an inventory of your life. Take stock of the things you value and concentrate on. Look at yourself objectively and even critically, and figure out where you need to make some changes, where you could stand to improve. Then take action. Make a plan, stick to it. Today, not tomorrow. The future waits for no one, and procrastination never did anything good for anyone.