Health, the First Condition for Happiness!

There are warning signs ahead for the health of modern people due to increasing environmental pollution, bad eating habits, improper diet, lack of exercise from convenient transportation and computerization of work, and so on. Medical skills continue to improve, but emergence of unprecedented diseases and of mutant virus is also one of the factors that threaten health.

So people today pay more attention to health. Almost everybody takes dietary supplements and healthy foods, gets regular checkups, prefers organic products, and purchases anything that is known to be good for health. Many books introduce secrets to living healthy, and health related information overflows online.

Why is it that people are interested in health and make lavish investment in it? It’s because they want to be happy. Francis Thompson, an English poet, said, “Health is the mother of happiness,” and the great French philosopher Michel de Montaigne said, “Wealth, fame, knowledge, virtue, and love all become obsolete and perish without health.”

You can be happy when you are healthy. When the parents are sick, the children cannot be at ease, and when the children are sick, the parents feel sicker than them. Just as the whole body hurts when a part of the body hurts, so the whole family suffers if any member is sick, because the family is destined to be together.

Meaning of being healthy

Then what does it mean to be healthy? Can we say that a man is healthy as long as there is nothing wrong with his limbs and he doesn’t need to go see a doctor? Practically yes, but being healthy doesn’t only mean that there is nothing wrong with the body and there is no physical pain. As more and more people are suffering from stress and mental illness these days, the World Health Organization [WHO] has defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

Even if someone is physically healthy, if he lives dejectedly without finding the reason to live, can we say that he is healthy? What if someone, who is vicious, makes all efforts to gain benefits by cheating others and makes people fall into misfortune? Such a person cannot be defined as a healthy person according to the WHO’s definition of health.

Former U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy had diseases when they were in office, but they didn’t regard themselves as sick. Fyodor Dostoevsky, one of Russia’s greatest novelists, wrote great novels despite his chronic disease epilepsy, and Beethoven left behind a legacy of groundbreaking compositions despite his diseases such as cirrhosis, jaundice, hypoacusis, etc. Physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), which causes weakness in voluntary muscles throughout the body, and received a terminal prognosis at the age of 21. Despite struggling with the disease, he continued to conduct vigorous research, making significant contributions to scientific advancement.

People, who have overcome physical limitations with strong mental health, show that everything depends on mindset. There is a saying that goes, “Being healthy is better than being handsome, and having a correct mindset is better than being healthy.” It is true that pain from a disease or disability makes our mental world fall apart. However, our mental world has power to overcome it.

Even if one does not have control over his body because of illness, if he is satisfied and lives a thankful and meaningful life, isn’t he healthier and happier than someone who has a healthy body but complains and grumbles every day?

Promote health with a good mind and a smile

We take water from a faucet for granted and don’t realize how precious water is until the water is cut off. Likewise, we don’t really feel thankful for being healthy until we get sick. Even people who confidently say that they are healthy keenly feel the importance of health once they suffer from severe sickness.

We need to take care of health when we are still healthy. If you want to be healthy mentally and physically, then you shouldn’t neglect physical training. The basis for physical fitness includes getting enough exercise and sleep and eating regularly as well as getting rid of habits harmful to the body such as drinking and smoking. However, even if someone tries to develop physical strength and eats all the healthy foods, if he easily gets angry for trivial matters and is filled with negative thoughts, then it is no different than pouring water into a broken jar.

Dr. Arnold Fox, an internist, says, “Patients don’t know that every negative thought they entertain is as dangerous as a physical germ.” Negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, despair, hatred, and anger harm the stomach, and people who are cynical or think negatively are more likely to get a stroke.

People say that stress is the source of all diseases. 75% of the heart diseases are related to stress, and many diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, sleep disorder, neurodermatitis, and cancer are deeply related to stress as well. We need to have a good relationship with other people to be healthy. According to a research, people who have fewer relationships with others and who feel lonely have higher risk of death than people who don’t.

In summary, people who control their minds with a positive way of thinking and keep a good relationship with other people can be healthy physically and mentally. Loneliness is poison. Although a family lives together in the same house, they feel lonely unless they communicate and understand each other. Pay attention to your family members and share your emotions with them through love and care, and they will not feel lonely. Love and consideration helps boost resistance to diseases, and laughter blooming in the family is the best medicine.

The family is the best when you are sick

When people get sick, they usually cannot control their emotions; they show their irritation to those around them even over little things and get easily choked up. When they are sick abed for a long time, they can be stricken with anxiety and depression, which leads to degradation in their quality of life. It is said that a sick person becomes like a little child. When they are sick, either physically or mentally, they all want to be comforted, leaning on somebody. Then their family members can be a great help to them. Having a sick family member is so bad, but it is a great blessing that he or she can receive heartfelt care and attention from the family.

When one of your family members is sick, you can teach your child the importance of family by comforting the sick member and sharing his pain. The dad does the mom’s work when she is sick, the mom shows great care for the sick dad. Letting children bring water to their sick sibling or having them draw a picture for their sick grandmother is also a good way for the children to strengthen brotherly love and filial piety; they can feel great at the thought that they’ve also participated in caring for them. If parents do not take good care of their sick family members, their children too will turn away from their family members when they are sick.

There is nothing more disappointing than seeing that your family is indifferent when you are sick or having a hard time. Since people have different constitutions and immune systems, some get a stomachache and some are fine even though they eat the same food. Also, since people have different brain structures, the amount of pain that they feel is different; some people easily endure stimulation, while some have a hard time enduring the same stimulation. So, when someone in your family is sick, you shouldn’t indifferently say, “You’re just being a crybaby,” or, “Why don’t you go see a doctor?” but you need to take care of your sick family member with warm love and concern.

If a family member gets sick often or is ill abed for a long time, both the patient and the family members of that patient become tired. However, they shouldn’t show signs of irritation and tiredness to the patient or make him feel that he is a burden to his family.

Family cohesion becomes stronger while all members of the family are getting through hard times together. When one gets sick, he feels hurt easily, even at trivial matters, but he is also easily moved; he is moved by a bowl of warm porridge or a handwritten phrase. Sickness may be considered misfortune, but shared sorrow is half a sorrow. When family members give the sick member strength and encouragement with positive words and the sick one can be comforted and smile, that family is never unfortunate.

Somebody said, “One of the biggest mistakes that people make is losing health to make money and losing money to regain health.” They will be lucky if they can regain health by spending their money, but in many cases they cannot recover their health no matter how much money they spend. Keeping your health and the health of your family is much more important than making your family happy by earning a lot of money.

If your family is healthy both physically and mentally, you need to know that you are enjoying the greatest happiness. Even if someone in your family is sick, if all your family members support the sick one with one mind and get through it together, your family can be happy. Take care of each other’s health by having positive conversations and sharing good laughs together. Happiness always follows you as long as you are healthy.