Develop healthy habits!

Taking care of yourself will make the world a better place!

Area 1 - rest, relaxation, sleep. Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote that "Work is a craft, but perfect rest is an art, harmony between body, mind and imagination." We need rest, relaxation and sleep as we need air and water. Respect yourself by giving yourself the greatest luxury of our time, peace, rest, slowness. Reward your body with peace and it will avenge itself on you with vigor, creativity, efficiency, excellence and a quality, fulfilled life.

Area 2 - nutrition, eating habits, temperance. "You are what you eat!", Is no longer just a saying or a cliché but an obvious reality and not infrequently, cruel and unpleasant. Everything we introduce into us is seen in us. Obesity is not because of the greens and no flooding with water, to use a joke. Just as no healthy and beautifully sculpted body is a gift from aliens.

We must convince ourselves, until it is too late, that not everything that flies is eaten and not everything that is sold in the market or in the supermarket is good to be consumed. Although "all things are lawful for us, we all ought to be counted worthy," even the Holy Apostle Paul might counsel us today. Be careful what you eat and how much you eat. Both the quality of the food and its quantity are paramount. Give up harmful habits such as a high-fat, high-sugar diet, tobacco, alcohol, drugs, and so on.

Area 3 - exercise, exercise. We were not created as static beings, like a wall clock that only its tongues move. We were created for movement, for action. Every muscle in our body reminds us of this truth. We were conceived by the Creator as nomads, explorers rather than sedentary around the hearth. We were put in a garden in our genesis, in the middle of nature and not in a prison cell and tied with chains. The reality is that most of us are stuck in our routine and anchored in our office chairs when we were young and then we get home and sit in our armchairs watching Netflix. From athletics we turn to obese, from cheerful assets to grumpy passives, and if we don't start moving faster or running a little bit every day, we end up with Alzheimer's.

Although body care is not everything, neglecting it can turn everything into nothing. About the benefit of exercise, it would be superfluous to take up a lot of space here because there are many and some of them and you know them. However, I would like to remind you of some of them: exercise improves brain function, helps strengthen the immune system, reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes, reduces the risk of cancer, strengthens the heart muscle and lowers bad blood cholesterol. Those who exercise regularly have a high level of optimism, cope better with stress, are more resilient to mental illness such as depression, are better disposed and content, have a considerably better self-esteem and self-image than most of those who do not do sports and contribute to increasing life expectancy. The movement, therefore, severely damages pessimism, predisposition to disease and causes a better appetite and causes intense waves of serotonin, the hormone of happiness.

I think the day has come for us to decide to take more care of ourselves.

Let's not waste our lives abusing ourselves or letting ourselves be abused by others. It is time to break the chains of evil, envy, materialism, consumerism, stupid competition and have the courage to escape the meadows of inner peace, in the plains of restorative peace or to the heights of joy, simplicity, altruism and love. The outer world we live in is a reflection of our inner world, so let's make a corner of Heaven within us and then expand it outside of ourselves.