Staying Healthy — Outside and In

Sitting in the waiting room of the doctor’s office, I looked through the magazines on her table. Many were of general interest: gardening, fashion, sports. I focused, though, on the ones about health.

As I flipped through the pages of those health-oriented magazines, I noticed two distinct categories: articles about physical health, and those about mental health. 

This got me wondering about health both outside and in. What determines each? What’s the difference between them? How does one impact the other? What can I do to protect or even improve both?

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Some of the articles explained that physical health is maintained or even improved through food, water, exercise, and rest. Each should be good quality and in the proper quantity, and each should be balanced with the other. That seems simple enough, though of course there is more to it.

The articles discussing mental health reported that it is maintained or even improved through a positive attitude, a sense of purpose, love, clear thinking, and positive social connections. But as with physical health just mentioned, there is more to it.

For one thing, physical and mental, outer and inner, are not entirely separate within us; each influences the other. As examples, we know that laughter is good for digestion, tears help to remove toxins, smiles and hugs make us feel warm inside, a fun evening helps us sleep, and worry can keep us up at night.

This Yiddish proverb humorously reminds us of the desirability of being healthy both ways: “What good is a good head if the legs won’t carry it?”

 A few years ago, I attended a BIBO workshop. What does that mean? “BIBO” is an acronym for “breathe in, breathe out.” Setting the obvious need to do that aside, this same pattern in our daily living calls for balance and time to do what we enjoy. When we’re immersed in something we love, perhaps a hobby or the arts, we find our body relaxed and our mood elevated. If the activity is challenging physically, we can try to explain it as a “runner’s high” or endorphins, but the same thing can happen even in sedentary situations.

The explanation: we’re not just physical or mental beings, but rather a blend of these interdependent elements, along with a third component – we are also spiritual beings. The true nature of our spirit. our soul, is unknowable, as it transcends this earthly life. Yet we do know at least some of the ways to keep our spirits healthy: prayer, meditation, forgiveness, and selfless love for others.

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In social or collective activities, we can become our best, healthiest selves. In various arenas of life, when we cooperate with others at our highest level, then it is almost as if our coming together in companionship creates a new entity. The Universal House of Justice, drawing on words of Abdu’l-Baha, wrote that we should endeavor to:

… love each other, constantly encourage each other, work together, be as one soul in one body, and in so doing become a true, organic, healthy body animated and illumined by the spirit. In such a body all will receive spiritual health and vitality from the organism itself …

No one is blessed with perfect physical health, and we all have times that challenge us mentally. Bringing the two into balance is a step toward congruence. We are healthy when our thoughts, words, and actions carry the same message. Beyond just consistency, there is an inner and outer integrity with this state of being. We are who we are, and we express it through our daily living. This is a sign of being healthy — outside and inside.