Physical Health & Mental Health

Both Physical Health & Mental Health are important but what is physical health and what is mental health?

Well the best definition of health i have ever heard is:

Health is not just the absence of illness its the ability to recover from illness.

Throughout our lives there will be many times we become unwell, weather it be something small like a cold/flu, a minor/major injury, a major illness such cancer or suffer from some kind of mental health issue.

A healthy individual will be able to recover from any illness that comes their way, where as an unhealthy individual will suffer more from the illness or be unable to recover fully from it.

This can be a physical illness or a mental illness.

So the major question becomes.. what can we do to make sure we are our mind and body is as "healthy" as possible to give us the best chance to recover from any illness that may come our way.

We can do this by focusing on some major key elements of both mental and physical fitness.

Mental Fitness

Emotional: Self-acceptance, self-esteem, resilience, and the ability to manage overwhelming emotions.

Social: Friends and support network as they bring companionship, inclusion and enrichment to our lives. 

Financial: Low levels of stress due to money issues, feeling in control of your finances, being able to handle financial setbacks, and being on track to achieve your financial and life goals.

Physical: Healthy diet, regular exercise, and enough sleep to reduce your risk of developing chronic illnesses such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and depression

Physical Fitness

Note how one of the mental health categories also includes physical. But we can break down Physical Fitnes into the following categories:

Cardiovascular endurance: the ability to perform exercises at moderate-to-vigorous intensities for a prolonged period of time.

Muscular strength: how much force your muscles can exert or how heavy weights they can lift.

Muscular endurance: the ability of your muscles to sustain exercise for a period of time.

Flexibility: the ability to move muscles and joints through a full range of motion.

Body composition: your body’s ratio of fat mass to fat-free mass like muscle and bone.

Conclusion

Sometimes we can end up focusing on only 1 or 2 of the above categories, its important all of the above categories are taken into consideration if we are trully looking after our mental and physical fitness.

So be sure to look after both you mental and physical fitness.