Rebuilding, repairing, relaxing, and rejuvenating

Daily writing prompt

What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?

Before every weekend and every school vacation, the principal at my last school would always encourage my fellow staff members and I to “relax, refresh, and rejuvenate”. I know it sounds a little touchy-feely, and for that matter, maybe the terms “self-help“ and “self-care“ fuel the same; but it doesn’t make them any less true.

People need to take care of themselves. That statement sounds kind of obvious; and yet it’s amazing how many people do not make their own health andwelfare a priority. Self-care goes far beyond just eating well and getting enough sleep. We need to take steps to keep our mind sharp, our empathy, sharp, as well as keeping our body strong and rested.

As man, I think this is especially true. We are told, maybe not explicitly but implicitly, that men are supposed to be providers. That men are supposed to take care of others, sometimes at the expense of their own personal health. I’ve never said this out loud, but in someways, I think that is part of what drove my dad to a relatively early grave. Lately I made “outliving my dad” a priority. With that in mind, here are a few things I like to do in order to take care of this mortal shell of mine…

Exercise

I know I talked a lot about my attempts to stay in shape or even lose weight. This goes back to my initial for 12 years ago when I started hitting the gym as “ a release valve”. Because I’m at a different place in my life, having kids having a full-time job and being 12 years older, I’m not able to spend as much time at the gym; nor exercise as ferociously as I once did.

Lately, I’ve been working out primarily to keep myself in better shape, more specifically to get a little bit of muscle tone. I’ve managed to lose a few pounds, but this point that’s not the end IB concern of my working out. These days, I’m trying to avoid waking up stiff or sore or feeling my knees hurt every time I take so much is one flight of stairs. So far it seems to be helping.

These days, I’ve been mixing walking with trips to the gym and yoga workouts. I don’t work out every single day, as I’m starting to believe more and more in the concept of “rest days“. Unfortunately, for me, sometimes my rest days turn into rest weekends.

Reading and “brain games”

I think I see people joking a lot about as we get into our 40s and 50s is our sense of forgetfulness. We seem to forget what we’re doing in the middle of random every day tasks: Why did I walk into this room? What did I need to grab before I leave the house?

Just because becoming more forgetful is a natural part of aging, that doesn’t mean that I have to accept it gracefully. I’m trying to make more of an effort to read recreationally just to keep my brain a little bit sharper. I think that’s also, at least indirectly, part of the reason why I have been writing as frequently as I have over the last year. I’m also trying to, as corny as this sounds, play some games on my phone that are said to help stimulate the brain. Even just something as simple as a game of bingo gets me thinking and helps with my band-eye coordination.

Mental Health and Wellness

In a lot of ways, physical fitness ties in with mental health and wellness. When I exercise, my mind feels clearer. lots of other people say the exact same thing.

Yoga in particular, has a way of calming my mind. I’m not really sure of the science, the psychology or even the philosophy behind it. This is something that warrants more research on my part.

Another part of my constant struggle with my mental health is keeping my anxiety and check. I do take medication daily in order to help with that. For the most part, I have my anxiety under control. I do also speak to counselor every other week. But even at that, the visits with the counselor has been less frequent lately. Of course, that’s not to say that I’ve got my mind completely and balanced, and everything worked out. But I think I have a pretty good understanding of what causes my anxiety, and what triggers to look out for. More than that, I think I have accumulated a good set of coping mechanisms in order to deal with my anxiety once it sets in.

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