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What is Healthy Living?

Finding a Path to Wellness
BY: T. Franklin Murphy | July  1, 2018 (edited February 6, 2022)

A young woman closing her eyes, face to the wind. A Flourishing Life Society article on Living Healthy
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We must find an individual path for healthy living that fulfills both our physical and psychological needs.
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There’s no single path to well-being. Although Google prefers clear concise steps to elevate an article in searches, we need more options than settling for a platter of AI shuffled data to find  what we need. We need more human touch to lift us to higher roads of existence. Creative thinkers continue to write books and philosophize about life, giving their own personal spin on what we need. Perhaps, the paths to healthy living can’t be reduced to simple steps; but the rewards of a constant and wise effort to satisfy basic human needs.
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What is Living Healthy?

Living healthy is a whole body and mind endeavor, balancing many factors to achieve wellness. Our minds and bodies don't operate independently, each intricately connected to the other. Our physical health impacts our mental health and our mental health boosts or draws from our physical health.

Living healthy requires attention to both. Some common ingredients of a healthy living lifestyle include rest, exercise, close relationships, healthy diets, and passionate interests. We also need external support of ample opportunities, medical care, and security. Living healthy is a joint effort between society and the individual.

See Nine Pillars of Wellbeing for more on this topic
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Key Definition:  

Living healthy means practicing a lifestyle that balances fulfillment of both psychological and physical needs.

Dangerous Shortcuts

Dangerous Shortcuts

Shortcuts may intrigue the wanderer; loudly beckoning a rewarding escape from weighty consequences and promising rest. Don’t go there. Tough futures and narrowed opportunities dwell in the shadows of ease, patiently waiting to haunt the cheater. Taking the path of least resistance seldom rewards and usually punishes with lost time, broken relationships, and difficult futures.
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Elements that Impact Living Healthy

Poor budgeting, non-competitive work skills, and procrastination cannot be overlooked. We must address these pernicious villains that rob the future of blessings. Their evils cannot be dismissed. Healthy living can't be won with a lucky throw of the dice. When life overwhelms, we panic, hoping for a magical escape. The struggling soul often compounds errors of poor preparation with new addictions, extracting weightier costs. The person now must contend with the original costs along with new debilitating addictions.

​​The easy path has a high cost. The flourishing dreams of instant wealth obscures the barren returns of poor odds.

Undisciplined lifestyles rob futures of vitality and richness. Purposeful choices, structured in wisdom and patience, stretch our souls, lifting us above momentary comforts, creating a life of purpose—not simple survival.
 
We must be wise, mindful of our directions, identifying pernicious habits and escapes. By embracing the less decorated but proven principles of living healthy, and patiently employing habits that work towards those goals, we begin a beautiful transformation. Persist when you are tired; change directions when you are too comfortable. Actions matter. Living healthy invites greater riches to the many moments yet to come.
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T. Franklin Murphy
T. Franklin Murphy
Wellness. Writer. Researcher.
​T. Franklin Murphy has a degree in psychology. He tirelessly researches scientific findings that contribute to wellness. In 2010, he began publishing his findings.
Psychology Definitions Data Base Link
Banner link to Flourishing Life Society's Mindfulness articles
Personal Development. A Flourishing Life Society article data base link
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Internal Link: Flagship article. Ten Beacons of Light.
Emotion article database
Defense Mechanisms. Flourishing Life Society article link
Flourishing Life Society Link. Emotional Fitness
Psychology of Wellness Banner link to Flourishing Life Society articles
Relationships article data base link
Human Flourishing. Flourishing Life Society article link

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​Other Flourishing Life Society articles of interest on this topic:

Living a Virtuous Life. A Flourishing Life Society article link
Hedonic Treadmill. A Flourishing Life Society article link
Eudaimonia: Living Well and Doing Good. A Flourishing Life Society article link
Life is governed by laws. Many actions involve several laws competing fro dominance.
Internal Link: Achieving our potential...Healthy growth depends on supportive environments. As adults, we must create an environment that provides nutrients and protection.
Futures depend on action following thought. We must do more than dream to build better lives.
Learning comes from more than pages in a book. Living knowledge must be experienced, converting words into actions.
Flourishing Life Society article link. A Meaningful Life
Flourishing Life Society article link. Nine Pillars of well-being
When we have meaningful purpose, life events take on a different color.
Anything You Want to Be. Dreams and Reality. A Flourishing Life Society article link
A Flourishing Life Society article link. Fear of Failure
The ancient practice of yoga is much more than an exercise routine. Yoga brings together the mind, body and spirit in a whole body cleansing experience.
Books, conferences and education are wonderful; but deeper wisdom comes from grander sources.
FLS Link. Realistic Optimism: Optimism brings energy to action, motivating persistence in the face of difficulty. Our wellness benefits most from optimism when it is based in reality.
A Flourishing Life Society Link. What is Healthy Living?
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