What is lifestyle?

Outline

A thought provoking moment

What is Lifestyle?

Choose your own lifestyle

Lifestyle a key to happiness

Article

• A thought provoking moment

After a long and hectic week, today I had some free time. So, I went to see Nancy, my neighbor, and a great friend. We sat on her terrace and started sipping freshly brewed coffee. We met after a long gap, that’s why we had a lot of things to share. So, we kept on gossiping about random things. Then Nancy took a small gap and out of context said that lately she was thinking about improving her lifestyle. She thinks that her present lifestyle is unhealthy and she had to alter it with a healthy and groomed one. I instantly agreed with her and said that she should do this. Because I am a witness of some unhealthy habits of Nancy and being her friend, I wanted that she should get rid of them and adopt a healthy lifestyle. 

Nancy looked at me and gasped a deep breath and said that she knows that her poor lifestyle is impacting her whole life in the worst possible way and has taken off the quality of her life. But the problem is that she doesn’t know how to change her lifestyle and where she should start. These words made me silent for a few seconds and I looked at the confused face of Nancy. It was the moment that I realized that despite being an educated person, Nancy doesn’t know how she can change her lifestyle and where she can start this journey of change. Then I questioned myself beside Nancy, how many other people around me and how many people all over the globe don’t know the answers to some basic questions? Like, 

‘What is lifestyle?’

‘What elements comprise lifestyle?’

‘How can we change our lifestyle?’

This thought made me restless and provoked me that I had to do something to spread awareness about this important topic. While I was lost in my thoughts Nancy was saying that she had to sort out her lifestyle before it was too late. I held her hand and said that I was going to help her in figuring out everything that collectively makes her lifestyle and for this, she had to read my new series of articles. Nancy instantly agreed as she keenly wanted to improve her lifestyle and get rid of the rotten one. 

I came back to my house placed my laptop on my study table and typed the words,

‘Kick and Live’

This was going to be the title of my series of articles about lifestyle and I found no other more suitable title than this because to alter your present lifestyle to a healthy one you have to kick out many rotten things out of your life and then live a quality life. 

• What is Lifestyle?

Lifestyle means someone’s way of living or the things that a person or a group of people usually does. 

So, lifestyle is the set of values and ways people adopt to spend their lives. It includes all of the choices that we make in our daily lives, like how we spend time, how we spend our finances, how active we are in our daily lives, whether we are focusing on our personal growth or not, what kind of foods and drinks we are preferring, how we are handling our relationships and connections, etc. 

Your lifestyle can always be influenced by your family, friends, and even by the society in which you are living. So, to live a healthy lifestyle, one should always live around people who have the same choices. 

• Choose your own lifestyle

The lifestyle of two persons can never be the same. Everyone around us has a different set of preferences and opts for different lifestyles. Some people might have a very healthy lifestyle and opt for daily exercise and healthy food. But others might not be such active persons and may like to eat unhealthy junk food. On the other hand, some people may have a busy lifestyle filled with work and social activities. While others might have a quiet lifestyle and like peaceful activities like reading, painting, gardening, etc.

Our lifestyle should be according to our preferences and its selection should be based on our personal decision. We should always choose a lifestyle that would make us happy and satisfied, instead of making others happy and thinking about what others are doing. 

• Lifestyle a key to happiness

Our lifestyle has a key role in our happiness and health. A healthy lifestyle would make us happy, and satisfied and lead us to live a healthy and long life. On the other hand, an unhealthy lifestyle would lead us to diseases, dissatisfaction, and distress. So, it is in our hands to choose what kind of life we want to have and then we have to select our lifestyle accordingly. You can choose to exercise regularly, eat healthy and organic food, and avoid junk food and unhealthy sleeping patterns. We can also choose to spend our time doing constructive and positive activities like gardening, reading, decorating our living spaces, and cooking for ourselves and our loved ones. But on the other hand, you can also spend your time in front of the screen of your television or mobile phone which would hurt your eyes and nerves or you can spend your time sleeping for excessive hours and eating unhealthy junk food which would ruin your health. 

Like Nancy, many around us want to change their lifestyle and opt for a healthy one. In this regard, the first thing that you have to do is to change your mindset. If you cannot change your mindset and thoughts then you can never change your lifestyle. Your brain is the epitome of control for your whole body. Whatever you do is controlled and regulated by your brain. So, you have to tell your brain that you are going to change and then enable your brain to make you achieve that change on permanent basis. The first step in re-designing or reshaping your lifestyle is to bring change in yourself and next step is to keep that change intact on long-term basis. By following these two steps you would be able to alter your lifestyle.