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Create a Healthy Lifestyle: Secrets of Health and Happiness by Michael A Panar List Price: $16.95 5.5" x 8.5" (13.97 x 21.59 cm) Black & White on White paper 220 pages Sunbury Press, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-1620060797 ISBN-10: 1620060795 |
Create a Healthy Lifestyle will help you to achieve a healthy lifestyle in a more "holistic" way, involving four aspects of the human condition: physical, mental/emotional, spiritual, and social health. Cultivating all four of these dimensions will bring you closer to health and happiness. Throughout this book you will discover "secrets" of a healthy and happy life. A healthy life style will be within your reach. No matter where you are in life, and whatever your age or limitations, a healthy lifestyle can be yours. You will learn to enhance self, become proactive and resilient. You will master the secrets of a healthy body, mind, and spirit-as well as positive and healthy social relationships. Once you mastered the four dimensions, you will be ready to find a balance of mind, body, spirit, and the social self. A healthy lifestyle will be yours. Enjoy the journey throughout this book.
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Changes: A Guide through the Crossroads in Life |
Author´s Reflections
I have worked with families through different stages of the life cycle. Each stage of development, or period in time, has its own challenges. During the beginning of the family, there needs to be a more mature love that takes the place of romantic love and passion. This is a formidable goal for many couples, since they relished the passion and emotions of romance. The couple also needs to get to know each other through empathic listening. If this does not happen, it would be difficult for the couple to achieve a parental alliance, once children come into the home.
The years of childhood and adolescents have their own changes and challenges, for the children as well as the parents. The goal towards secure attachment for the child is vital during this time, and the need for the parents to separate their own marital relationship from the role of parent. During adolescence, it is imperative to adjust to the need for identity and autonomy in the adolescent.
Secure attachment, involving unconditional love, needs to be nurtured through childhood and adolescence. It will help prepare the child to eventually leave home in a healthy way. Any unresolved problems in the “family of origin” may inhibit the growth of autonomy in the young adult child. It will inhibit the healthy functioning of the adult child. The young adult may also stay in the parental home for a longer period of time and revert back to the previous unhealthy pattern of childhood. Parents can easily fall back into this unhealthy pattern with the adult child.
Once the children leave the “empty nest” the parents are faced with their own changes. They may discover that they really don’t know each other as they thought they did. There will be new challenges to improve their relationship, or work through the problems of estrangement in the empty nest.
But the empty nest can be a positive change, where the couple can enjoy a new genuine love for each other. The couple needs to work on developing a new partnership in the “empty nest.” This stage of life doesn’t have to be “empty”, but rather a more fulfilling and satisfying time in life.
I have worked with couples during all of these times in a person’s life. I usually had most or all family members in a counseling session, each experiencing different changes in his or her life. It’s helpful for each family member to understand what the other is going through. This will help each person to cope with one’s own changes, and to understand where the other person is at the same time. This will complement and synchronize the changes that everyone is going through, so that it would be easier for each person.
Frequently, I worked with one person—a child, adolescent, or adult. This was challenging because it was more difficult to understand what was going on in the family. With one person in a counseling session the individual would disclose thoughts, feelings and experiences. The individual’s perception of self and family would be expressed. Usually the individual had a particular problem that needed to be resolved, but it always dealt with some type of change that was happening in the person’s life or family.
It is very important to help the individual or family to cope with the changes that are happening at the time.
Essentially, I really believe that if you become familiar with the possible changes that can occur in life, it will be easier to prepare for them. And the better prepared you are, the easier it will be to cope with the changes—and respond to the changes in a more positive way.
There are also many changes that can occur in your life that are unexpected, such as: marital separation, divorce, remarriage, single parenting, and the death of a loved one. It is important that you are able to cope with these unexpected changes, when they do occur. Being healthy in four dimensions can help you cope and become more resilient with these unexpected events: physical, emotional, spiritual, and social. Of course, nurturing your health in these four arenas will help you to adapt to any changes or transitions in your life. It will make you more resilient.
On aging, it is very crucial that you take care of your physical and emotional health through your life, but it is even more critical in the later years and through the aging process. Along with taking care of your physical and mental health, you need to cultivate healthy relationships, which include the spiritual aspect of your life.
I always encourage exercise, relaxation, and meditation as a part of a healthy life. There are suggestions in my book about the kinds of exercises you can use. It is up to the individual to choose the exercises that you can easily do—and it would depend on the condition of your present health. You can start doing these exercises, no matter where you are in life at the present moment. But it is crucial that you start today.
Your mental or emotional health is also crucial. It is pivotal that you develop your “emotional intelligence.” You need to take control of your negative emotions and feelings. This is not easy, especially if you have been overreactive in the past and present, and if you experience changes in your life. In my book, I discuss ways of enhancing your mental health and become a “master” of your feelings and emotions.
In my book, I also explain the link of the spiritual with the “social self.” As you are able to nurture your social self there will be a growth in your spiritual life. Nurturing healthy relations inside and outside of the family become a priority.
In my book and in my counseling, I also address the need for family members to work together in the care of an elderly parent or family member. This will be even more crucial as the baby boomers become older. More people will have a need for caregiving. It will be even more crucial for families to work together to help the primary caregiver and the older adult in need of care. I discuss some of the main issues in my book.
The most important skill to cultivate is to learn to respond in a positive way to the changes in your life. This is not easy, but it is vital that you don’t react emotionally or withdraw from the situation, but to work at constructive ways to resolve the problems associated with any changes or transitions. Achieving a balance in your life is essential and being opened to positive alternatives. I always worked at helping people to make a more positive response to the changes in life. Every person will experience these changes in a different way, but you can learn to respond to them in a positive way.
I hope my book can be helpful to individuals and family members through their life changes. You will get more out of the book, I feel, if you read it from the beginning to the end, and then read any particular chapter to refer to as needed.
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