A Body in Balance
David is always busy. He never seems to find enough hours in a day. He gets home from work exhausted, stressed, and simply too tired to help the kids with their homework. He collapses onto the couch and switches on the TV, shutting his brain off for a few minutes.
Sally is tired, too. She’s worked all day and now that she’s home, she has to prepare dinner for the family, and get the kids into bed. She wants to stop for an hour and just spend time with her children, but David is on the couch and she knows there isn’t much time to get everything done. So she finds herself yelling at the children to “Get cleaned up!” “Hurry and brush your teeth!” and, “Why isn’t your homework done?”
Finally, it’s time for bed. David, now rested, is amorous, but Sally is exhausted. Yet again, they fall asleep disgruntled with each other and their marriage tears just a little more. Tomorrow, they’ll go through the routine again.
For many people, life today is a treadmill, ever increasing in speed. In Western societies, we live a much more complex and stressful lifestyle compared with times past. When we stop to evaluate our busy-ness, we discover we’re spending less and less time on the things we value most.But to change our situation to one in which our lives are in sync with our values seems so difficult, it’s overwhelming.
Creating such a balance in one’s life doesn’t occur automatically; it’s something we need to seek then act upon.
wellness
The idea of wellness and wellbeing encompasses more than notions about exercise and diet; rather it’s a holistic concept that includes every aspect of self. Wellness includes improved personal health—the result of good nutrition, physical activity, stress management, optimising weight, acceptance of self, interaction with others and personal fulfilment.
Optimal health isn’t simply an absence of disease, but effectiveness and fulfilment in all areas of life: at work and at home. It has been defined as “a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health” (American Journal of Health Promotion, 1989, 3, 3, 5).
the wellbeing web
There are five significant areas of our lives that must be in balance to achieve a fulfilled life: physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual. Each of these aspects is interconnected and an imbalance in one area will affect our wellbeing in each of the others. For example, if you’re working a lot of overtime, you can become stressed and tired. Too tired to prepare a balanced meal and your nutrition is impacted; too tired to go for the walk, and your physiology suffers. Your stressed mind makes you less patient, so you snap at loved ones or avoid social interaction.
It’s important, then, in aiming to achieve wellness, to embrace the complex nature of the whole person, so take a look at each of these five areas of health.
physical balance
Physical health plays a vital role in personal performance and the energy with which you interact with your world. Your physical health forms the foundation to other areas of life. You need to avoid fulfilling the old saying, “When you’re young, you spend your health to gain your wealth; when you’re old, you spend you wealth to regain your health.”
To achieve optimal physical balance, it’s important to ensure that your body is receiving good nutrition. Also, physically useful daily activity—as opposed a vigorous exercise—can be gained by simply walking the dog, cleaning the kitchen floor or taking the stairs to the office. Everyone can do some of these exercise forms every day.
Make sure you get out into the sunshine and fresh air every day for a dose of vitamin D. Time in the fresh air will also provide an opportunity to relax and unwind away from stressors.
And never underestimate the value of rest for high physical and mental energy: a lack of sleep affects all areas of one’s health, from the ability to think and cope with stressors to providing the energy needed to get through the day.
social balance
Your relationships with the community, your family and friends affect your health and provide health benefits. Relationships impact mental health. Good relationships are a buffer against stress and anxiety, while relationship problems can often trigger poor health behaviours, such as smoking, excessive alcohol intake or faulty thinking leading to low self-esteem and depression. Relationships, especially those within the family, affect each area of optimal health—physical, intellectual, social and spiritual.
Outside your family circle, your extended social network is also significant. Relationships provide a buffer against the wider, meaner world, supporting you through its trials, helping you to creatively solve problems through providing perspective and in celebrating the good times.
When your social life is confined to the workplace, it’s obviously lost when you change jobs or take a transfer. The same is true for school and other scenarios. It’s important to have a broad social network, having friends with whom you can share, relax and plan positive events. In many instances, this social “community” is found in a church community.
emotional balance
Our wellness is affected by the way we see and value ourselves, by our perspective on life and our view of others. Each of these beliefs will affect how we relate and, in turn, shape our relationships. Our view of self underpins every aspect of our life, from our interactions with others to our ability to create an effective balance in all aspects of life.
We need to give time to ourselves as well as others. Take the time to refresh and relax, whether by having a hot bath, or just spending time without the kids. It’s important to establish an effective balance between “me time” and “thee time.” An inability to manage your time will impact your health in terms of demands on time, work or responsibility. In order to maintain a balance, you need to be in control, and sometimes that means saying no.
intellectual balance
We have an in-built need for intellectual stimulation in order to feel satisfied and worthwhile. This doesn’t necessarily mean going to university or holding an important office, but simply continuing to keep our mind active, whether it’s learning to change a tyre or embroider. We need proactive stimulation for adequate personal growth.
In turn, when we challenge our own thinking and behaviour, and seek to learn and grow as a response to our experiences, we’re able to adapt to our changing world.
spiritual balance
A belief in a higher power gives a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging and a sense of worth. Spirituality affects mental health: When an individual believes in a higher power, they have a focus outside of themself, which helps to discourage preoccupation with self or dependence on others.
Spirituality can also affect our physical health, where a belief in a higher power may prevent stress-related negative health behaviours and increase social support and aspects of resilience: love, hope, generosity and trust.
what studies show
What difference does it make to your life by maintaining balance?
The Adventist Lifestyle Study* is arguably the most extensive and comprehensive life study undertaken anywhere to date. The findings of this huge study over decades reveals that people with a more balanced life do live longer (some 10-20 years more), enjoy better health with a lower incidence of cancer, heart disease and other illness. They’re more content due to being motivated by a sense of purpose, which also gives peace of mind.
Seventh-day Adventists, upon whom the lifestyle study was based, have a philosophical commitment to a moderate, healthful lifestyle, but anyone can enjoy these same benefits.
Health is, after all, more than the absence of disease; it’s a total approach, living life to the full, taking care to maintain a balance.
where to begin?
First, assess where you are at now. There may be as many as five things you could change to give yourself a more balanced life. But don’t attempt them all at once. Just choose one for the moment, for this week or this month to improve the balance in your life. Which is the most important of your values? In which aspect of your life can you begin making changes? Once you have dealt with one thing, move onto the next, and so on.
Small lifestyle choices made now add up over your lifetime to powerfully affect your wellbeing and determine your quality of life.
* The Adventist Lifestyle Study was conducted over 12 years and involved 34,000 Seventh-day Adventists in California, to identify why Adventists lived longer than the general population and what lifestyle habits contributed to this. The principal researcher was Dr Gary Fraser of Loma Linda University, USA.
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