We live in a world where living a luxurious rich life has become more important than living a happy and healthy life. We also live in a world where our life details and actions are not for our satisfaction, but for our followers to see, where eating healthy is important as long as it goes up on our Instagram stories, where smiling is important as long as our selfie is coming out great, where happiness is important, as long as it’s making out newsfeed much more interesting for people to see.
Did it hit you yet? I have to say, it hits you hard once you start realizing how much of your life is becoming what people want to see rather what you want from it. We get tangled in such thoughts and slowly start to lose ourselves. I have seen people coming to a point in their life that at the peak of their fame, they start feeling confused and lost which results in depression. The lives behind the screen are very different than on screen. Sharing is not the problem, sharing out of peoples interest is the problem. Whatever one does, it’s very important not to lose yourself in the process, instead, it’s supposed to make you find yourself!
Anyway, coming back to the beginning, why has our life become more important for others than ourselves? Why is it that life expectancy is decreasing with time when technology has successfully created such wonders? I was reading about it and I found out that the key to a long and happy life is not just money and exercise. It's so much more than that. You would be surprised to know that it has a lot to do with our social life than our financial life or our healthy lifestyle. So what gives you a longer and happier life? Find out!
Relationships and Connections:
So it took me a while to accept this as the number one reason for living not just happy but also longer. A friend was telling me about this and straight up denied believing in this fact and it was later that I came across a TED Talk that proved this point in a much better way. It talks about staying close to your people who happen to be your close ones including family and a few closest friends. However, the catch is that apart from these close relationships, interacting with people on a daily basis is also considered as a healthy activity. Talking and sharing ideas is the best way to distress for a human being. So even if you walk on a street and you are at a place where you are new and don’t know many people, you can simply start by passing a smile to someone. Not only would it make you feel better and make your brain cells to active but it would also make their day. Watch the video here:
Positive thinking:
Everybody keeps going on and on about how positive thinking is so important and that it does wonders. Have you ever thought how it reflects your life? Well, according to studies, it has been proven that positive thinking, as well as negative thinking, can determine what goes on in your life and how it ends. It also determines how you will be remembered after you are gone from this world. Negative thinking puts stress on your brain that can cause mental decline. However, with good thoughts, the chances of mental decline are much less. Mental exercises can help to some extent but the real deal is to mold your thoughts in a way that there is no room for unnecessary bad thoughts.
Promote love and Support for others:
It may sound very clichéd and general to you but you would only understand its deeper meaning once you start practicing it. It is not only something that you should do for other but also expect from them. Most of the time, we get too paranoid about others’ feelings and assume that they either don’t like us or they’re planning a scheme against us. This especially happens in office environments. What happens is that it becomes a cycle and people find it easier to have differences than to give each other a chance. Unfortunately, we are a generation that is comfortable expressing on social media rather than personal interaction. You may not be aware of it but its creating big difference to your life! Loving and showing gestures of care and supporting and encouraging each other is a great stress reliever! The less stress you take, the greater chances there are of living longer.
Eat, Sleep and Workout Smartly:
Of course, I was not going to leave this one out. We have talked about the mental aspects that could give you a longer life. Now I would like to talk about the physical ones that are pretty obvious but need to be taken much more seriously than we do. As far as eating is concerned, there are three key points that you must keep in mind:
- Don’t overeat! That makes your stomach expand and ultimately creates more room for food and you get used to of eating more than you should. As a result, obesity hits you and everybody knows how many other problems it causes!
- Have your meals on time. There are numerous diet plans available online that suggest different types of meals and snacks during the day. However, keeping it simple, my mantra is to have three meals a day and never miss out on anyone. More than that, it’s important to have it on it. Once you follow a routine, your body adjusts to it and you must feed it with food on its time.
- Eat smartly. Balance your diet with sufficient amount of protein, good carbs, fruits and vegetables and sum it to take only a particular amount of calories every day. Remember that you are lucky if you can take care of your health today. There might come a time when you would not be able to compromise on your diet either.
Similarly, exercise is a form of food to the body. It makes you stronger and more active. I have only noticed that once you start working out, it’s hard to turn back. So trust me, it’s all about just giving it a start! Life is giving you chances to make your tomorrow better then why wait for these changes to be taken away from you? Prevention is always better than cure and well... regrets.
I think I don’t need to emphasize on this much but take at least 7 hours of sleep a day. Most of the people love sleeping but did you know that if you sleep on time and for a particular number of hours, you won’t be falling asleep again and again all day!
It is never too late nor too early!
Whatever your heart wants you to do, your mind might give you reasons for not doing it. These reasons often include “well, it is too late” or, “isn’t it too early?”Well, it is not! Another key to living a longer life is to stay young at heart! Don’t worry about what people have to say, just go for what your hearts ask for. It is mostly our attitude towards life that keeps us going.