We all had our bodies well before we started working, and if taken proper care, we’ll have them long enough even after we retire.
If we start managing our health like our careers, the possibilities and rewards are then endless.
What Are The Points Which We Ignore When Working Towards A Career?
Believe it or not, ignoring our physical health becomes super easy when we are working all the time. In office jobs especially, we are stuck at a desk all day, often times grabbing a quick bite to eat, or ordering something in.
One remains inactive all through the day, and by the time we are done with the day’s work, it might feel too late to fit in any quality exercise.
Sitting all day long is just not what our bodies were meant to do! If one ignores the idea of living a healthy, active lifestyle, they could be at a risk of weight gain, or some illness.
Why not add 30 minutes of exercise into one’s daily routine? A short walk (or a brisk one for that matter), a jog or perhaps some yoga postures will have a colossal positive effect on us both physically and mentally.
The fact is in managing a healthy body weight by eating smart and exercising well helps us increase our chances of living long and healthy lives that it makes us feel better in the present too.
While we are not favoring a particular dress size or deifying anyone’s “perfect body,” there are general guidelines as for what’s considered to be a healthy weight range.
Irrespective of whether one’s goal is framed around lowering the cholesterol or lowering the numbers on a scale, making changes to become healthy and fit takes discipline and hard work, just like any other major achievement. Good health demands hard work to sustain even after one has achieved it.
It is common knowledge that jobs can be stressful, especially if we are working most of the time. That constant stress can cause one to burnout and affect other areas of their lives. One can become tired, irritable, and if it continues, could also lead to many serious mental issues.
Our mental health is far more crucial than a few extra hours on the job, so one has to make sure to take a break and clear their head. One simply has to remember that health is wealth, after all.
Signs And Symptoms Observed When Health Is Ignored
“Ignore it and it will pass away!” is a pretty lazy explanation to unexplained symptoms like an ache or a pain, or maybe a bout of nausea or indigestion.
The point is one has to see if the symptom lasts because if it goes away it wouldn’t have been too serious in the first place.
And many traits do seem to vanish as mysteriously as they occurred – with no treatment. Doctors often prefer this approach with patients too which they name it as ‘watchful waiting’ or plain simply ‘observation’.
On the other hand, some symptoms are grave warnings of underlying disease and one has to absolutely do something about them, with immediate effect. But how does one know what is serious and what isn’t?
To help in this regard, researches in the US have compiled a list of the symptoms that require urgent medical attention as they’re prone to indicate serious diseases.
- Unexplained weight loss: It can sound like a blessing in disguise to those overweight people but weight loss is not an uncommon thing for many chronic underlying illnesses like cancers, chronic infections, depression, etc. where people easily lose 5 to 10 kgs within 6 months period.
- Persistent fever: The rare mild fever for no apparent reason is common and needn’t be of any concern. But if it continues over a week it needs to be given some medical attention as it may imply an underlying chronic infection, cancer or some other illness.
- Unexplained variances in bowel habits: This is one of the signs for a bowel disease alike inflammatory bowel disease or cancer.
- Severe diarrhea that continues, constipation that remains two weeks or more, blood in the stools, or consistent hard black stools are the warning signs.
- Persistent abdominal symptoms like nausea, abdominal pains, loss of appetite, vomiting for no reason which can all suggest gastrointestinal disorders such as ulcers, cancers, and infections.
- Chest pain: Another sign of heart disease is when the chest pain is crushing that can also be observed in the jaw or in the arm. Sweating and breathing difficulties accompany it as much.
- Sudden unexplained headaches: Observed more in people of 50 years of age and above, it may indicate that there’s something severe going on in the brain like an infection or a tumor.
- The chances of a tumor are further enhanced if there’s also a fever, stiff neck, rash, vision changes, mental confusion, seizure, weakness, numbness, or speaking difficulties.
- Sudden loss of function: This means sudden weakness or numbness of the face, leg, or arm on a side of the body and/or loss of speech with some trouble in talking or understanding speech or blurring/loss of vision.
- This indicates a stroke or a transient ischaemic attack where urgent treatment is required.
- Confusion: Changes in a person’s behavior or thinking, disorientation, hallucinations, in someone who is normally clear-headed is a warning sign of probable low blood sugar, side effects of drugs, possible head injury or a psychiatric condition.
- Shortness of breath: Sudden trouble in breathing – gasping for air and wheezing may specify lung or heart disease.
- Hot, red or swollen joints: There’s probably some underlying arthritis or joint infection that is crying for an urgent treatment.
If our lives seem to get busier by the day, one can easily begin to experience anxiety hardly even realizing it. So, daily take a few minutes to self-reflect.
One should ask themselves if they were worrying excessively or are feeling restless and nervous? Or are they feeling irritable and have great trouble to calm down and relax? If so, then they are likely to welcome anxiety into their life. Never ignore the symptoms!
2. Exercise
The plethora of benefits that come with regular exercise like lower rates of depression, reduced stress, better sleep, endorphins release, improved self-esteem, can all have a tremendously positive impact while releasing anxiety.
Be it going for a run, lifting some weights at the gym, or just having a brisk walk, regular exercise can simply help one to ward off those all-consuming anxious feelings.
3. Focus On Self-Care
Be selfish about the “me” time. One must take time out to treat themselves by getting a massage or taking a long bath.
Sleeping for a few extra minutes than normal also helps and being nice to oneself and others every day also helps to keep grounded.
4. Learn To Relax
The benefits of relaxation are no less as one enjoys getting sick very less often alongside better memory, and far lower risk of stroke and depression, to name a few.
Despite the demanding jobs and fast-paced lives, getting time to relax or perhaps meditate can be hard. But it is not impossible, and is very necessary! One should start doing meditation or going to a yoga class.
Even integrating breathing exercises into one’s daily routine can also be incredibly easy as it can help to reduce one’s stress and make them feel relaxed.
5. Seek Treatment
Anxiety is highly treatable with extremely effective therapies that deal with anxiety disorders, even more so than medication as it addresses the root cause of the anxiety and not just the symptoms.
If one experiences anxiety quite frequently then it’s probably permeating into more areas in their life than they realize. There are many who fail to realize how much their stress and anxiety will eat them up and control their life.
By being able to effectively treat one’s anxiety with therapies that work wonders and having enough relaxation, one need not be a victim to anxiety anymore.
What’s More Important: One’s Career Or Health?
It’s our health. One may or may not assent to this, but a job can simply kill them. As someone dies a slow death stretched out in a duration of 30 to 40 years with the mind-numbingly boring work. How would one feel if they wake up tomorrow and couldn’t wait to get out of bed anymore before getting to work?
Imagine loving what to do for a living and feeling more vibrant than one can ever have. It is absolutely possible as sitting all day at a desk may be bad for anyone. It can be the type of bad which is linked to heart disease and cancer.
If one has a desk job, make sure to take plenty of breaks where one can walk around, stretch, and watch what they eat. It is necessary to remind oneself regardless of how “successful” they are in a career if they are too ill to enjoy their life, it’s pointless. Self-care must always come first!
A job doesn’t define an individual necessarily and is far from being the most important aspect of their life, yet many people think their success in life has a direct relation to their career.
Health is like money, yet one never can have a true idea of its value until they lose it. One perhaps may not agree with this, but this drive for success is simply taking their lives.
There are only one life and one body which means an individual can take only that much that is within the range of their physical and mental capacities. Anything that takes a toll or exceeds beyond these limits will immediately result in creating stress in one’s life.
Staying up late, eating bad, and skipping exercise or physical labor implies risking one’s future – There are two certain outcomes that one pays for this behavior, either they’re not looking good or they slowly burn out and get wiped out very soon.
Putting up work before health is not worth it as it’s not only terrible for the health, it’s ultimately bad on the work front as well which means to produce the best work one needs their best energy, and they can’t have it unless they are not looking after their health.
To achieve whatever in life, our health should be the highest priority, it should simply come first.
