The 5 Critical Components to Optimize Your Health

Everyone wants good health but few of us realize that we can influence how healthy we are. There are five different skills that affect your health. These skills can be optimized if we are truly desirous of maintaining our health.

Before discussing them though, I want to point out one thing. My best friend died last May from melanoma (skin cancer). He was the maximum practitioner of these five skills and any other technique you want to name. His weakness, though, was that he ignored traditional medicine when he should have run to a regular doctor at the first signs of melanoma. Don’t be so caught up in these five steps that you ignore signs of major disease.

With that said, what are these critical five steps? Let’s review them.

1 – Optimism

Optimistic thinking is a skill that recognizes that our thoughts influence how we feel. Optimists believe that defeat is a temporary setback or a challenge. Difficulties just doesn’t knock them down. To learn more, look up Martin Seligman’s Learned Optimism, a summary of Dr. Seligman’s 30+ years as a research psychologist or the positive psychology community.

2 – Disclosure

This simple skill is very simple. Just tell others about how you are feeling. Disclosure is significantly related to improved health and higher levels of self-esteem. Norman Anderson’s Emotional Longevity describes in detail how you can about improving your disclosure to others.

3 – Relationships

Another simple skill is being involved with people. For example, years ago, it was learned that joining groups was one of the most effective techniques for controlling depression. Likewise, being close to family members and having strong social connections are highly related to long life and health. So, start planning that next party or social interaction.

4 – Get an Education!

Individuals with more education and social status live longer. It’s simple. Just go to school, get more education and your income will follow, as will your longevity and health.

5 – Meaning

Making your life meaningful is important to your health, your attitude and your enjoyment of life. We need to recognize our goals and then go for them! Being happier is a function of striving to do what we feel is important. So get on with it.