Things That’ll Help You Live Longer

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The infographic above is from Successstory.com and I think it makes a couple of excellent points.

1. The importance of sleep cannot be emphasized enough! Our bodies need sleep to revive, heal, and rejuvenate – especially when we’re stressed or sick. During “tough” patches, our bodies actually crave more sleep than usual but we often try to fight through it or tough it out. Big mistake! When we don’t get enough sleep (not just rest… but actual sleep), we end up paying the price for it.  Unplug, turn off the lights, and fall in love with the wonderful way getting a good night’s sleep feels.
2. Exercise and activity are essential for good health.  And here’s the thing – it doesn’t have to be a jog at the park or a workout at the gym. When you’re active, your heart doesn’t know if you’re giving it a great workout in your home with chores, in your yard mowing, or at the gym on expensive equipment. All it knows (and responds to) is that you’re giving it what it needs to keep right on ticking for years to come.
3. Be happy! Okay, it’s not always as simple as that, but you catch my drift. Try to focus on the good things in life and look away from as many bad things as possible. Even in a storm, you can think about sunshine, right?! Focus your energies and thoughts on things that make you happy. In the long run, it’s MUCH more important than most people realize.

Two Things I Would Add…

[shareable cite=”Joi”]Always have something to look forward to… something that brings joy to your thoughts![/shareable]

1. Have a good doctor and schedule (and keep!) yearly checkups. The sooner a problem is “caught,” the sooner it can be dealt with. A doctor can even let you know if you are “headed” in a bad direction. For example, I once had a bone scan that let me know I had ostopenia  – pre-cursor to osteoporosis. Learning this kind of alarmed me and by  kind of I mean completely.  With this information, I was then able to do a little research on my own and determine what foods a lactose-intolerant person such as myself could eat to get the calcium they need.  If I had not gotten that information, I wouldn’t have been able to make changes.
2. Always have something to look forward to!  This goes along with happiness to a very large extent, but I think it’s important enough to mention.  I hear from a lot of people who are looking for happiness or ways to cope with life-changing events such as “empty nest syndrome,” divorce, the loss of a loved one, etc. One of the things that is most essential is as simple as it gets – always, always, always have something to look forward to. It could be a favorite television show, new movies coming out at the theater, monthly family get-togethers at a favorite restaurant, sporting events… anything that gets you excited and gives you something to look forward to. Each day I look forward to the special time in the evening – after supper is eaten and the dishes have been washed. It’s when my husband, our cat, and I kick back and watch television (baseball, college basketball, football, History Channel, Animal Planet… ).  Something as simple as this makes the entire day even sweeter because I know the story’s going to end perfectly…. happily ever after, whether our team wins the game or not. I actually tell everyone who’s dealing with an empty nest to set up as many family events throughout the year as possible. Birthdays, holidays, special events, monthly cookouts during summer, and game-day get togethers are just a few ideas.  This gives you events to plan for and look forward to.

Infographic Credit: Successstory.com

[callout]If you have infographics you’d like to share with Self Help Daily’s readers, simply e-mail them to me (joisigers @ aim.com) along with the link you’d like linked to in the credits. If you don’t hear back from me, that does not mean I won’t use your infographic. Simply watch for it… I try to space them out a bit, so it may take a week or so. Thanks! ~ Joi[/callout]