Human beings are like houses. Similar to a home that is surrounded by gates and aluminum 4×4 fence posts, we all have an external shell to protect us from outside germs and microbes, to keep our bodies at the right temperature, and to provide a waterproof barrier to the elements.
Inside we have organs. They are the rooms, furniture, appliances, and everything else we keep inside the places where we live.
Finally, the people living inside these houses and apartments, they are our soul. They represent our feelings, emotions, and moments of joy, agony, bliss, desperation, and everything in between.
And just like we have to protect a home’s exteriors, interiors, and the people who reside in it, as individual human beings, we also need to nurture our bodies and our minds. We need to help them grow, evolve, and become better than they are now.
From a personal development perspective, it means eating the right food, engaging in a suitable workout routine, taking time to cultivate a sense of spirituality, and building mutually beneficial relationships with others.
A Balanced Nutrition
A human body will not survive more than two months without food. And even that is a stretch. As for water, the period is much shorter, usually less than a week. Unfortunately, we are not brown or black bears, and we cannot hibernate either. We cannot indulge in exorbitant amounts of food and then sleep it off for close to 100 days.
Yet, many of us engage in extreme diets that do nothing but hurt our internal organs and result in premature aging. Wanting to lose those extra pounds as fast as possible, we cut off essential carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, and minerals from our daily calories, unaware of the deadly effects that this represents.
There are plenty of foods for a reason. If we didn’t need them, they wouldn’t exist. Balanced nutrition includes everything, even sweets. As always, the key is moderation.
Meaningful Workouts
How meaningful your workout is cannot be measured in length. If you do exercise for hours on end, that doesn’t mean you are getting a wider range of benefits than somebody who practices high-intensity interval training for 20 minutes a day, three days a week. Exercise is also not cumulative. Working out for three hours straight on Saturday is not the same as one hour on Monday, one on Wednesday, and one on Friday.
As with most things, a proper fitness regimen is about quality and consistency. It is only when you do great things often that you see great results.
A purposeful workout routine is also an all-encompassing approach to physical fitness. It places equal value on cardiovascular endurance, resistance training, and recovery. Keep in mind that the muscle fibers in your arms and legs are not becoming stronger as you lift the weights. Rather, they get to grow while you recover.
More Than a Body
Many people confuse spirituality with religion. Even if there is often a close relationship between both terms, they are not the same. I can be a devout Catholic, Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist but lack a deeper connection with both myself, and he whom I deem my creator. On the other hand, I can be an agnostic or atheist and still have a deep sense of self and my surroundings.
In simple terms, spirituality is about taking the time to let your mind heal and relax. It is about creating harmony in a chaotic world filled with work and family responsibilities.
If you find yourself lost or don’t know where to start, look into simple meditation techniques for beginners. There are plenty of options to choose from with a wide range of benefits to your mind and state of being.
Two Heads are Better Than One
In some cultures, people believe that until a man gets married, he is still a baby. Among the many reasons, perhaps the most important one is that he now has to co-exist with someone else. He needs to learn how to share and be selfless. He needs to think of we instead of I.
We live in a society where it is impossible to be fully independent. As such, we must learn to become interdependent, take care of one another, and work as a collective unit.
Building relationships requires effort, patience, and time. But it is through them that we learn about others as well as ourselves. It is through the eyes of others that we can see, accept, and improve on our flaws. It is also through them that we discover hidden talents and the true purpose of our lives.
Four personal development tips are eating well, exercising with intelligence, developing a spiritual side, and learning from others. Just as a house needs exteriors, interiors, and people to become a home, we need these for our lives to be wholesome and fulfilling.
