Being healthy and mentally fit is one of the most important parts of our lives. Physical health and mental health controls our body fitness and to a great extent the healing process when we are sick or injured.
Swimming is the best non-impact exercise that will keep you healthy and fit. Swimming also helps you to lose weight if overweight. A hot bath in hot tubs help you to reduce stress and anxiety, and helps you to heal certain sport and accident related injuries.
A Sound Mind dwells in a Sound Body -If you are mentally sound your will be physically sound and vice versa. So, mental health and physical health are equally important to stay fit and healthy.
Mental Health
Staying mentally healthy is a bit more difficult than staying physically healthy. There are many factors in our daily life that affect our mental state. Some we have some control over while others we don’t. The mental health is shaped from our childhood and everybody around us contribute to that; our parents, siblings, friends, teachers, coaches, neighbors, neighbor’s dog, the bully in school, even our enemy.
Most of the time our mental state is influenced by who we give most importance to; intentionally or otherwise. Parents, siblings, and friends help shape our mental health in our childhood.
When we are adults, we have more control over our surrounding. Office environment, friend circle, the environment at home, our attitude to ourselves and others, tidiness, the way we dress up, confidence in ourselves, what we eat, drink or smoke, all affect our mental and physical health.
Take control of your environment and bad habits and with some positive attitude, you will be mentally healthy. If you are not mentally healthy, you will not be physically healthy – never.
Benefits of Mental Fitness
A mentally healthy person will lead to a healthier and happier life overall. There are many benefits of mental fitness:
- Improves immune system
- Reduces stress
- Reduces blood pressure
- Improves self-confidence
- Prevent cognitive decline
- Improves memory and brain power
- Increases self-confidence and much more
How to stay mentally fit
Some simple ways to stay mentally fit:
Daydream – good dreams
Think positive thoughts – Think of all the positive moments of your life.
Exercise – swim, run, and jog. Physical exercise improves mental health.
Pick up a hobby – An idle mind will ruin your mental health. The hobby will keep you occupied and away from stress and negative thoughts.
Keep yourself busy – Volunteer – Volunteering for social welfare will boost your mental health. You will feel good about yourself and at the same time make others happy. Volunteering will also improve social life.
Set goals and follow up – Set achievable and easy goals. Learn to play bridge or chess; both are good for brain activity and fun. Set a deadline, otherwise it may never be achieved.
Engage in stimulating conversations – Talking to friends and family will stimulate your brain.
Laugh – Laughter is the best medicine. Have fun, share jokes with other. Watch funny videos or movies and laugh; laugh by yourself, better to laugh with others.
One of the best way staying mentally healthy is staying physically healthy. If you are mentally healthy your body will fight sickness better and will heal faster. It also works the other way round.
Physical Health
There are many ways of staying physically healthy:
- Eat healthy
- Eat smaller portion
- Go easy on the drink – alcoholic drink
- Drink lots of water
- Don’t smoke
- Practice good hygiene
- Control weight
- Sleep well
- Exercise regularly
- Keep mentally fit
Eating healthy and in smaller portions are very good habits to stay fit. Eat mostly fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, stay away from saturated fat. Cut back on fast food. Eat balanced food and drinking plenty of water.
Don’t smoke or drink, they are really bad for your health and can damage your vital organs.Maybe one or two drinks a day is okay, but avoid drinking all together if possible. Only reason alcohols don’t have any warning labels is because of the taxes the manufacturers pay.
Sleep
While sleeping may seem a very easy thing to do to some, it is very difficult to many. Lack of sleep will negatively affect your health. Each year, nearly 60 million people in the USA suffer from a sleep disorder.
How much sleep you require will vary with your age. One an average a person should sleep 8 hours a day, for an infant it’s 12-16 hours, for kids up to 12 years old its 10-12 hours. These numbers are just guidelines, the actual numbers vary from person to person. Nonetheless,long sound sleep will improve your overall mental and physical health.
There are many reasons for the sleeping disorder. It may be caused by gastrointestinal problems, allergies, chronic pain, anxiety and stress.
If you have trouble sleeping try a hot bath in a hot tub. Read on to know how hot tubs can help you sleep better.
Exercise – Swim Regularly
Running, jogging, and walking are some of the easiest exercises. They all help you stay fit and healthy. Swimming is the best exercise that burns calories and works your whole body without putting a lot of stress on your joints as running and jogging do. Below is a chart of calories burned by a 150 pound woman:
|
Exercise |
Calories |
|
Walking, 3mph |
280+ |
|
Jogging 5mph |
500+ |
|
Swimming |
500+ |
|
Running (10-12mph) |
750+ |
|
Swimming Butterfly |
800+ |
As water is 800 times denser than air, swimming takes lot more effort, hence burns more energy. At the time, the buoyancy of the water reduces pressure on your joint. Making it one of the safest exercise.
There are certain circumstances when your physical condition will not permit you to the high impact exercises such as jogging and running. It may be because of your backbone injury, knee joint injury or any other injuries which may even impede your walk. It may be your body weight restricts you to do any exercise. Or maybe your old and your muscles have trouble supporting your body weight. Swimming is your solution. You can swim every day without risking any injuries to yourself.
Swimming is a low impact workout which is easy on your joints and an exercise that works most of the muscles of your body. Here are some benefits of swimming:
- It helps you build strength
- Keeps you flexible
- Tones muscles
- Relaxes you
- Relieves stress
- Improves balance
Hot Bath in Hot Tub
To reduce stress, muscle aches, back aches and sleep disorder take along bath in the bubbling water of a hot tub.
The jets in the tub are placed in strategic positions that massage different parts of your body from neck to foot. The jets in different positions have different strength and pressure. For instance, your back muscle is thicker than your neck muscle, so water from narrow stream jet will not be comfortable on your neck. There are hot tubs whose jet pressure and force can be controlled individually.
The hot bath increases your body temperature which dilates the blood vessel and increases blood circulation, tissues become more pliable. The increased pressure regenerates dead tissues and helps you heal faster. The jet action and the hot water stimulates your body to release endorphins that help to relieve body aches.
A hot bath 60 minutes before going to bed will help you to fall asleep faster and sleep better. The hot bath loosens your muscles and raises your body core temperature. And when you go to sleep the rapid drop in the body temperature will help you sleep faster.
Better yet, get a swim spa, which is a combination of a small swimming pool and spa or hot tub. You get the swimming exercise. Swim spa being much better insulated than a swimming pool, is better suited for swimming all year round. Rain or shine, you will never get an excuse for skipping your daily exercise.
Plus, you get all the benefits of a hot tub i.e. the body massage by the water jets and the relaxing and pain relieving effects of the bubbling hot water. Swim spas are expensive but you will be surprised to know that they actually cost much less than an in-ground swimming pool.
Conclusion
It does not matter which type of exercise you prefer at the end of the day it about staying fit and healthy, both physically and mentally. Swimming is as good an exercise as running if not better. But it’s safer and more relaxing. The only thing you have to do is learn to swim.
