Four Important Elements to a Healthy Life
Wealth, Health, Beauty and Success are four elements that had, have and will continue to have an immense amount of importance. To some these things might be just materialistic possessions and to others they might relate to their underlying meaning. Both of these aspects are correct in their own context, but ideally every coin has two sides; hence similarly wealth, health, beauty and success also can have two meanings.
Wealth is an abundance of valuable material possessions or resources. Everyone wants to be wealthy. Some climb the wealth ladder gradually, through honest means. Whereas others might just make a leap from the 1st step to the top most step, gaining wealth through dishonest means. We all tend to associate wealth with money, our savings, our investments, our homes or other forms of “financial capital.” The word WEALTH comes from the Old English words ‘weal’ which mean ‘well-being’ and ‘th’ which means condition. Hence, ‘weal’ and ‘th’ when put together means ‘the condition of well-being’. Most of us are accustomed to looking at wealth strictly in financial terms or property and possessions. But in real, wealth is much more than just money.
Someone has very correctly said, “True wealth is measured by what you have, not what you do not have or what you have lost.”
True wealth encompasses tangible and intangible assets. Intangible assets include family relationships, time, and pleasant memories. When wealth is defined in such a manner, there is less ‘miserableness.’ True wealth consists of being happy, healthy, feeling successful and fulfilled, maintaining and enjoying loving supportive relationships, finding uplifting and satisfying work as well as having our desires and needs met and enjoying life to the fullest. If one can have all these things in their life – they are wealthy!
Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. We might think that if a person does not have any ailment, then he is healthy. But this is often not the case.
According to the definition, being healthy does not mean being just physical fitness. Being healthy also means that a person is mentally stable, at peace and content with what they have. Good health can be attained through regular exercise. Hence once again, we must work towards being healthy, and achieving our goal. We all may know that “Health is Wealth” and our health is in our hands. How many of us are really conscious about it?
Mental health refers to an individual’s emotional and psychological well-being. “A state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life.” Good physical and mental health plays a very crucial role in helping us perform effectively and efficiently and hence, achieve goals.
Beauty is often associated with celebrities or individuals who are good in looks. But are looks so important that one might forget the importance of the beauty within? I think not. In my opinion, being beautiful physically is a very comparative terminology, and different people might have different opinion about two ‘beautiful’ people. For example: A might say that Miss. X is more beautiful than Miss. Y, whereas B might be of the opinion that Miss. Y is more beautiful than Miss. X. Nobody really thinks about how Miss. X or Miss. Y is from inside, how their heart is, whether they are mannered, cultured or not. Gaining praise for being physically beautiful is easy, but one has no contribution in that. On the other hand, receiving praise for ones’ behaviour, manners and thoughts is indeed a very commendable thing.
Beauty is being able to see beyond the superficial, look within, look at the depth of being, not just the surface. If the heart is warm, and the smile makes one feel comfortable, then the beauty will reveal itself, by way of feeling. Beauty cannot be, should not be associated with flawlessness or sexiness. It is not necessarily a certain look, but more of an attitude and modesty. True beauty is to be confident in one’s self, not to believe that you are anything less then lovely. Beauty is not a contest; in life, there are no prizes for being the most ‘beautiful’. Beauty is timeless and hard to define.
A mountain reflected in a peaceful lake, a person who has inner peace, a cat quietly purring – they all reflect beauty. An old saying captures the underlying meaning of beauty perfectly: “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.”
Success is the progressive realization of worthy dreams, goals, and objectives. One never truly arrives at a destination called success, but rather is either successful or not successful at achieving goals and reaching objectives. In other words, success is not a destination, but each success is a step that we take on the path to our destination. In order to succeed, we must successfully navigate the path to our dreams, goals, and objectives. Success is such a vague term though, that it can be taken in many ways. We might consider ourselves successful if we make a lot of money, or if we are the youngest person in the history of the company to make president. Others still will consider themselves successful if they leave behind a loving family, people who care about them and the fact that whatever they did, they made some impact by doing it.
I believe that success is being able to connect with others, and make a positive impact in their lives. We can have all the money in the world, but if we don’t have people who love, or respect us, we truly have failed to live our lives. People identify the concept of success with having a lot of money, achieving fame, having a good career, finding your true love, raising a family, owning your own home, possessing all the things one ever wanted, being able to retire, and things like that. But countless people have achieved these goals only to find themselves feeling unhappy inside more often than they thought possible. They wonder if there is supposed to be more to life than all those things, or if they just missed a secret somewhere along the line.
A lot of people think that if they just have positive thoughts, ask for the desires and wait, they will come true. This is not true. Action is required on our part the right kind of action so as to develop our desires into reality. Hence, in order to be the rightful owner of wealth, health, beauty and success, we must make efforts, focus ourselves, and work towards achieving our goals. Our aim should not be just owning a bungalow, 3-4 cars, the most expensive clothes, but also understanding that at the end of the day, we leave all our materialistic possessions behind but take our good-nature and manners with us. These 4 elements held plenty of value in the past, present and will continue to do so in the future as well.
Denisha Sahadevan
