Men's Health and Men's Minds: 7 Steps to Optimal Health and Taking Charge of Your Life

Men have feelings too! They are deserving of a life of optimal health, vitality, and happiness.

Both men and women need warm, loving relationships for a healthy life. Sharing Your life with people gives you a sense of identity, adding dimension to your life and life's purpose.

If this is lost or depleted from your life, it may have detrimental and disastrous effects on your health. 

Both personally (having been married for over 43 years with three sons, also my dear my father whom I came to know and care for in his later years), and professionally (having counselled and treated many men throughout my 27 years of clinical practice), I have come to have a fairly comprehensive understanding of men.

And men, too, want a life of health, happiness, love, commitment, and purpose.

So where do you begin?

Modern medicine tends to turn your health into a numbers game—weight, BMI, cholesterol, blood pressure, heart rate. Getting on top of these problems all comes down to the foods you eat, your lifestyle habits, engaging in regular exercise, learning positive coping mechanisms for stress, and simplifying life to enjoying the fundamentals like peace, joy, happiness, love, and nature.

This just seems to have the ability to turn you away from wanting to implement any type of health strategy because it just seems too hard.

The major problem for men isn't so much that they don't want to be healthy; it's that they are not expected to have any thoughts towards their health. Especially from a longevity perspective.

Over the centuries, you have been programmed that you are the protectors, providers, and procreators. Now, in modern times, all of this has changed. Your role has taken a broader spectrum with a need to bring a balance to not just your male attributes but to bring out a balance with your feminine side, so as to communicate more effectively, acknowledging that you do have feelings and also want a life of purpose, love, and meaning.

Food - the foundation of optimal health

Understand the elements of healthy eating, having a balanced diet, and minimizing animal protein to one serving per day, that being lean and the size of the palm of your hand. Fill your daily intake with fruit and nuts for snacks and of course vegetables. Your root vegetables are great, healthy sources of protein, as well as adding eggs and fish to your daily intake. Eliminate fast and junk food, as well as highly processed foods. Your green vegetables provide you with vitamins and minerals for healthy heart, brain, bowels, circulation, and detoxification.

With your food stick to the "KISS" principle - "Keep it Simple Stupid". Not meaning that you are stupid for one minute, but we can all fall into the trap of making it too complicated. I have found talking with my clients in my clinic that the most challenging meal is breakfast because many people are either in a hurry or not hungry. So follow this link for easy breakfast suggestions.

Relationships

Relationships play a vitally important role in your health and well being. Choosing relationships where you have similar foundational dreams, goals, and expectations is of vital importance.

Be supportive within relationships with one another of each of your needs. This will vary throughout life. Be on the same page as far a family values and commitment are concerned.

In past times there has been a lot of injustice and inequality both for men and women. However, you don't bring about equality by becoming an island to yourself without working out how to live with one another. Compliment one another's  differences, bringing you into some form of balance, significance, and importance.

Difficulty talking about your feelings

Generally speaking, as a man, you are aware of the difficulty you have talking about feelings, fears, and anxieties, even to people that are closest to you. As a man, you tend to think, "If I put on a brave face and just get on with it, everything will be alright."

One of the biggest killers of men today under 45 is suicide. In 2014, 4,623 people took their own life. 12 men every day, 1 man every 2 hours: 41% of men who contemplated suicide felt they couldn't talk about their feelings.

Then you have the slow suicides: Smoking, and overconsumption of alcohol and drugs in an attempt to push the feelings away. Then to top it all off, it is all just too much to think about food being eaten. It's all too hard!

It's OK to talk - Talk to someone who you can trust, who you know isn't going to judge you, but instead be supportive of you in a positive and constructive way.

Follow this Link for the - 7 Steps to Take Control of Your Life for Optimal Health and Happiness

Change in equality is is not brought about by emphasizing a person's faults. Equality is brought about my recognizing each person's attributes - Julie Doherty