Managing Our Health From Top To Bottom

Our health and the health of our loved ones have taken on greater significance over the past year. We have seen how fragile good health can be. While in general we know we should eat better and exercise more sometimes we get lost in all the medical advice that is out there.

Managing our health does not need to be this complicated or confusing. Here are a few tips to help you make the most of your health including taking full advantage of the resources you have, thinking about your body as a whole, and making sure to spend time on your mental health.

Take Advantage Of Health Coverage:

If you have access to health insurance make sure you are taking full advantage. Taking advantage does not mean that you have to start to negotiate insurance contracts on your own, but does mean you need to read up on what is offered by your plan. What doctors are in-network? What annual procedures are covered? How do you set up an appointment?

Are there telehealth options available? What is the typical cost for basic tests and procedures? The more you know about your particular insurance the better you will be able to take care of your health. For those of us who do not work a traditional job that automatically comes with insurance, we have the additional challenge of having to explore our options including the marketplace, Medicaid, and medicare to find the insurance which best meets our needs.

Understand That It Is All Connected:

When it comes to our health it is vital that we remember it is all connected. Our bodies are made up of many different systems and when one system is struggling our overall health can suffer. When we pay attention to all systems, including the body systems often overlooked, we are able to catch issues when they are still small.

Sometimes random symptoms can be pointing to conditions that we need to be proactive about. When in doubt have a doctor check it out so that you can find small life changes which can increase your standard of living. Overall the more attention you pay to each body system the better you are at keeping them all working at top form. For example, if our guts are healthy, then our heart is more likely to be healthy, and our kidneys will be able to run better.

Mental Wellbeing/Self Care

We often can forget how much mental wellbeing can affect our overall health. Statistically up to 1 in 4 of us are dealing with a mental health challenge at any given time. In addition, this past year has meant that many of us are dealing with these struggles for the first time and can find it feels overwhelming. When such struggles make it hard to get out of bed, rob us of our sleep, or make executive decision-making hard, our physical health can suffer too.

We might struggle to have the energy for the health and wellness tasks we normally do such as maintaining our fitness routines or preparing healthy food options. In such cases sometimes a powerful first step is to simply name what we are experiencing. By naming these experiences we are better able to connect to others and know that we are not alone in our struggles.

Mental wellbeing is also tied to taking time for self-care. We need to make sure we take breaks as needed, get fresh air, and in general be gentle with ourselves and our mental health. When we find that naming our experiences is not enough and we are unable to manage our symptoms on our own it may be time to talk to someone else.

This can take many forms from setting up an appointment with a therapist or finding a peer support group filled with individuals who know exactly what you are going through, how hard it can be, and what worked for them as they tried to feel better. We will have good days and bad days and days when we need to reach out to others in our support network because it is a bit too much for us to deal with alone.