Are you healthy? How do you know?

Do you brush? Floss? Limit sugar? Take the stairs? Get enough sleep? Eat vegetables? Exercise? Serve others? Hydrate? Pray? Read the Bible? Spend quality time with friends and family?

A short definition of flourishing is “holistically healthy.”

Holistic considers all the parts of a thing. It involves the interconnectedness of the components that make up the whole.

Health is more than the absence of illness or injury. It includes an appropriate level of overall thriving and well-being.

Flourishing Domains

One of the flourishing domains is mental and physical health.

Physical health includes all aspects of the body, including the proper function of the brain. But mental health is more than just normal brain function. There’s an “integrated distinction” between the body and mind.

It’s the person (not the body) that thinks, feels and chooses. But the person’s ability to think, feel and choose well (mental health) is strongly affected by the body’s ability to function well (physical health).

Mutually Interdependent?

In A Theology of Health, Tyler VanderWeele says, “The health of the mind and the health of the body are mutually interdependent. Mental health may affect physical health; physical health may affect mental health and aspects of social and spiritual well-being.”

It’s all connected!

Physical exertion improves mental health. Movement helps us feel better, function better, and sleep better. Better sleep reduces stress and improves mood. Walk, climb, dance, swim. Find an activity you enjoy and do it!

Conversely, poor mental health can negatively affect the other flourishing domains like relationships, happiness, and finances. We need to be as intentional about our mental fitness as we are our physical fitness.

Are you building up your mental and spiritual strength? Dr. Rick Hanson calls this “developing an unshakable core of resilient well-being.”

Start today!

Take 15 minutes you would spend on “screen time” to sit quietly and pray Psalm 139:23-24… “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”