Being Healthy- What does it Mean?

We all wish to remain in perfect health and most of us are  taking adequate steps to be healthy to the best of our knowledge especially in current pandemic situation. But does the health only mean taking care of your body? What does it mean to be completely healthy? As per WHO health is a state of complete well-being, physical, mental and social.” In this blog we shall cover about the types of health and what does each type mean and signify:

Physical Health : This is the type or part of health on which most of us focus, the health of our body. The body is the temple of the soul and hence we do our best to keep it in best shape. In todays world physical appearances matter a lot and thus we try to be in shape not just for health but also for being accepted and appreciated in the society. In the pandemic we are more conscious about increasing our immunity to safeguard ourselves. So physical health includes the following aspects:

• How well our body is functioning.
• How well our organs are working.
• Our Immunity and stamina.
• The strength of our muscles and body.

Mental Health : Mental Health means how well our mind works. It has nothing to do with the intelligence. It simply means how well do we cope and respond in day to day situations. The mental health is our ability to handle stressful situations and deal with them without any negative impact on our mind or body. Stress can cause a number of mental as well as physical illness. People consider that only absence of any mental disorder means that the mind is completely healthy. However mental health includes:

• Absence of Any Mental Disorder.
• Ability to work productively and efficiently.
• Able to cope with day to day life situations.
• Ability to handle stress without any negative impact on physical and mental status.

Social Health: Social health is the ability to form cordial relations with the other people in society. The social health included:

• Ability to form meaningful relationships.
• Ability to adapt with different social situations.
• Ability to act appropriately in social settings.
• Ability to communicate effectively.

Emotional Health : Emotional health refers to the feelings you experience most of the time. It is okay to feel negative emotions like anger, sadness, helplessness sometimes but if a person is feeling only the negative emotions all the time it may lead to have a huge impact on the emotional health. Emotional Health affects all the interactions we have, the way we respond to the situations, persons, the way we behave and the way we are, and thus emotional well being is of utmost important to maintain mental, social, and even physical well being. The mental and emotional health  can be described as matters of mind and heart.  Emotional health includes:

• Ability to Feel Positive Emotions like Love, Happiness, Hopefulness, Empathy, Forgiveness etc.
• Ability to cope with the negative emotions like anxiety, restlessness, anger, stress etc.  and keep them at bay.
• Ability to express all the emotions in a healthy manner.
• Ability to make valid decisions considering all the aspects without being affected by momentary emotions.

Spiritual Health : Spiritual Health means finding the meaning and purpose of life and following a set of beliefs, morals and principles to make our soul healthy. Spiritual health may mean finding the oneness with God or nature to some or finding the peace within oneself to others. The purpose of our lives does not mean that we have to attain enlightenment only it just means giving a meaning to whatever we are doing in our lives.

• Ability to find the meaning and purpose of  our life.
• Ability to find oneness with God or nature.
• Ability to find satisfaction in life.
• Ability to be at peace within oneself.

Environmental Health: Environmental health refers to the well being of the environment around us that can impact the health of human lives  and lives of all living creatures around us. The environment refers to soil, water, plants, air etc. It also includes the biological, social, physical and chemical factors of our surroundings. Environment health includes:

• The well being of natural elements around us.
• The well being of all the other living creatures around us.
• The biological, social, physical and chemical factors of our surroundings.
• Our relationship with the surroundings.

Being healthy is a vast term. We need to not only concentrate on our physical health but also focus all the other factors that contribute to our overall health. In following articles we will discuss how to ensure the overall health. Hope we all will together strive to be completely healthy.

Apoorva Yadav Kamboj.