Healthy

Daily Prompt

What actually is ‘healthy’ ?

To me, healthy can be so many things.. It could be a mindset, it could be your actual health or it could be a way of living. I’ve got health problems but to me, I am healthy in the sense that I have family and friends, I work as much as my body allows, I rest when I need to and I try to look after myself the best I possibly can. Although I smoke, I don’t drink or do any recreational drugs, if I have to stop doing something to rest, I do it.

It took me so long to realise that I can’t find any enjoyment in my life if I don’t look after myself.. That’s why I’m going to quit smoking. I should have done it a long time ago when the specialist told me never to touch a cigarette ever again, but I’m stubborn, I only do things because I feel I should do them, not because someone is telling me I have to. But, I think we are all like that, no one wants the choice taken away from them. We are all guilty of wishing we didn’t have to walk somewhere or do simple things like the weekly grocery shop. Imagine if that choice was taken from you. Imagine if one day you realised you needed a wheelchair or a walking stick and there was no alternative. Would you not wish you could just do that walk around the shop buying your groceries?

A lot of people will never have that choice taken from them, but I’m afraid it often comes without warning. As miserable as my health problems make me, on the days that I can walk and get myself washed and dressed, I remind myself how blessed I am, because some days I can’t do that. But, for others, they never have those ‘blessed’ days. No matter how bad things are in that moment, or any bad moment in your life, always try to find at least one thing that you are grateful for.

I am grateful for my parents, my boyfriend, my sister, my nephew and my brother in law. To some that might not seem like a lot, but that handful of people are the reason I carry on no matter how tough things get. I do have more family, but I have little to do with them, as I realised, after a very long time, that just because someone is your relative, doesn’t mean you have to keep them in your life. Don’t waste your time and energy on people who are only there to bring you down or cause you stress. I wish I would have learned this a long time ago.