I have had occasion to ponder, in the last couple of days, how very healthy I've been feeling. I mean, yes, I am suffering along with everybody else in the region as pollen explodes off the trees. And, in tandem with everybody I know, I've fallen (briefly) to the standard winter illnesses. But I haven't been SICK sick, you know? Not "I have to visit specialists and even they aren't really sure what's wrong" kind of sick. Which, sadly, I have been multiple times in the last decade or two.
I don't think it's any one thing. I think several things have come together to help me be a healthier person. At that point I think we can call it "lifestyle".
So, not in order:
Yoga. Yoga both relaxes me (which decreases my stress, which decreases susceptibility to illness) and strengthens my core muscles. Thanks to the latter, I haven't had a truly severe backache since before I first started yoga. I used to have the kind of shooting, gripping pain that made just standing up its own special kind of torture. I saw a chiropractor frequently, I had to wear a back brace often, and I was miserable to be around. Now? Remarkably bendy, and I actually notice the low level pain now. Because I can. It used to be shouted down by the hella bad pain.
Luck. No car accidents, nobody donating this year's flu to me, that sort of thing. Perhaps I would consider it lucky that I've never been in the right place to have children, as they seem to make all the parents sick all the time for the first N years.
Nutrition. I don't know if my diet has improved, or just changed. I eat a lot more salad than I used to. I still eat too many preserved foods (hello, delicious chicken sausage) but I eat a whole lot more fresh vegetables and fruits than ever before. And though I've never been a huge fan of vitamins, I now take a few that I think help me a lot. B-complex, for instance. D-3 (as I seem to be always low, despite my superhuman ability to sunburn.) I'm not convinced how efficacious C is, but I take some. Plus, digestive enzymes. Digestive enzymes = I almost never have a tummyache anymore. I heart them so much.
Marriage. There's nothing like another person caring for you, and you caring for them, to improve your quality of life. Plus, JD cooks all the time so I eat a lot more fresh home cooking than I used to.
Sleep. I'd have to ask Mom if this was true when I was little, but I find that I "get by" on 8 hours. I'm happier with 9. I'm truly rested with 10. I think I just plain sleep more than I used to, now. I made it a priority to get enough rest. I think it wasn't until I wasn't on a schedule at all, while thruhiking, that I realized that 10 hours a night made me feel great. I'm a bit envious of those of you who only need 4 to 6 hours a night, but it's quite clear that I'm not a member of your club.
So, to sum up: I'm a sleepy, well fed, lucky, stretchy, married woman. And that works for me.
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