Background

Conventional health care professionals accept the view that the body represents one functioning system and the mind another [1]. Health and a healthy lifestyle do not solely correspond to physical fitness; being healthy also means being mentally and emotionally fit. A healthy lifestyle is vital in eliminating or minimizing the probability of several CDs and NCDs and boosting one's overall self-esteem, thus encompassing overall physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being. A healthy lifestyle isn't a mere phrase; it's a phenomenon of how one should live one's life with a vibrant and lively mind and body. This phenomenon, however, cannot be achieved in a single day or months. It requires the day-to-day investment of one's time and efforts for achieving a perfectly healthy life free of ailments and diseases.

Definitives of a Healthy Lifestyle

A healthy lifestyle is measured by the therapeutic measures one takes to maintain their life. A person seeking a healthy lifestyle follows definitive healthy habits, which go forth to mold and shape life into a healthy one. These habits constitute simple practices such as abstaining from drinking, smoking or consuming unhealthy and unhygienic food products to maintain a healthy weight, going for regular health checkups. Also, focusing on maintaining a healthy eating habit, such as doing regular exercises and adequately maintaining a circadian cycle by regulating mental and physical stress and strain, which is quite difficult in today's modernly hectic lifestyle but not unattainable. Circadian rhythms optimize physiology and health by temporally coordinating cellular function, tissue function, and behavior [2].

Habits, however, aren't built in a single day, and nor does the lifestyle. As such, a healthy lifestyle requires healthy pursuit towards attaining the same. Which further needs a persistent approach and dedicated mindset, which is again attainable by some essential aforementioned healthy habits. Thus, the trick to healthy living is making rudimentary changes in one day to day habits and actions, taking one step at a time.

Exercise

Exercise is the most basic and entirely thriving means of healthy living. It is nothing but the engagement in one or the other sort of physical activity which elevates the heart rate beyond the standard/resting levels. It is crucial in preserving and maintaining the physical and mental health of a person. The benefits of exercises remain indispensable and inevitable regardless of their extent (viz. heavy or light). The light exercises may consist of going for a walk, jogging, stretching, etc., while high-intensity exercises may include running, cycling, weight lifting, etc. The level and type of exercise also influence the level of health benefits. However, one should begin any exercise concerning body capability and capacity. In other words, one should start small form light exercises and then move to more heavy ones; thus, preferably perform any exercise under the supervision of a trainer or instructor. 

Why exercise?

Obesity closely associated with an increased risk for metabolic and cardiovascular diseases [3]. Routine exercise helps one control the increasing weight and regulate body fat, thereby preventing obesity. It burns down the extra fat within, thereby not only maintaining one's weight but going forth reduces the risk of severe NCDs, including obesity. Not only obesity, exercise further reduces to a minimum the probability of other NCDs as such as heart disease, diabetes, colon, breast cancer, uterine and lung cancer, hypertension, etc., by regulating and maintaining the sugar level of the body. Furthermore, it improves blood circulation in the body, reducing heart diseases such as coronary artery disease, cholesterol, and heart attack, and reduces triglyceride levels.

It is said that a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Exercises thus not just improves our physical health but mental health as well. During exercises, the body releases chemicals vital in improving one's mood and make them feel more relaxed. It further helps in coping with stress and negates the chances of mental fatigue and depression. The chemical secreted by the brain improve the overall functioning of the brain.

One of the chief attributes of exercising is it strengthens your bones and muscles. Regular exercise helps people of different age groups to build strong bones by slowing down the loss of bone density at the later stages of life. Regular exercise may also reduce men’s risk of erectile dysfunction (ED). While for those already suffering from it, exercise may help improve their sexual function [4].

Perks of a Healthy and Balanced Diet

A balanced diet is filled with all the nutritional needs of a person and satiates a person’s overall bodily requirements. Be it the need for calories, fats, nutrients, a nutritional food has an adequate abundance of these in apt quantity. A healthy/ nutritional diet provides all the nutrients a person requires without surpassing the advisable daily calorie intake. Unlike junk foods (as the name itself is suggestive), a nutritional diet ensures the longevity of physical and mental fitness, provides one with more energy, improves the way one’s body functions by strengthening the immune system, thereby reducing the possibility of diseases to a minimum. Furthermore, it also prevents general health concerns such as getting overweight or underweight by providing the necessary nutrients one needs, thereby eliminating any nutritional deficiencies. Physical fitness would ensure no ailments, which in turn would help the mind function properly.

Yoga and Healing

Like exercises, yoga's practice would further help the body increase its potential for healthy living and functioning. Yoga can significantly improve physical and mental health if it is made a part of the daily routine. Yoga functions to transform the body to become more flexible, adaptable, and energetic and help the mind maintain its focus upon the things of significance instead of wallowing into health concerns, craving for the healthier self. The continuous practice of yoga has multi-dimensional benefits such as maintaining blood pressure, improving cardiovascular health, better flexibility, greater muscle strength, perfect posture, better pulmonary functions, lower blood sugar, and strengthening muscle and bones.

Our health is the constituent of both the mind and the body, so keeping both healthy is the penultimate definition of healthy living. With yoga, one gets the perks of healing and strengthening both the mind and the body together. It functions to make the body and the mind fit, thereby making them function to their full potential. In a much deeper sense, yoga can also be considered a workout for the soul. Thus similar to other exercises, it conditions the mind and body to function with their utmost capability, beneficial for the overall growth and development of a person's self. It functions to keep both mind and body healthy and focused, making a person more intellectual and creative, increasing one's overall performance in all spheres of life. A healthy mind and body is undoubtedly a better performer than the one lacking in either of them.

Furthermore, yoga also helps a person suffering from one or the other health issue to heal and cure oneself. It also functions as a healer of the mind and the body. There are several aspects of yoga that help cope with stress and mental agony and recover a person, thereby healing both his mind and the body and functioning as a means to heal and cure. It helps to cure mental fatigue, anxiety, stress, depression, breathing issues and brings mental peace, calm and tranquility to the mind and the entire nervous system, which is indispensable for the healthy functioning of the mind and the body.

Mending the Mental Health

In a very rudimentary prospect, mental health is nothing but emotional and psychological well-being. Mental health is constituted by our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It is a significantly important aspect of a person's life and is vital through all the stages of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. It affects our all-around thinking: how we think, feel, and act. It is also detrimental to how we handle stress, relate to others, and make our choices [5]. Over time, mental illness has resulted in some of the most challenging health problems faced by society, accounting for vast numbers of hospitalizations, disabilities, and cases of suicide. This further degrades down to the loss of the country's productive capital and the economy, resulting in the loss of billions of productivities [6]. Of the total global burden of the disease, 14% have been attributed to neuropsychiatric disorders. Chiefly responsible factors are the chronically disabling nature of depression and other common mental disorders, alcohol-use and substance-use disorders, and psychoses. Such estimates have drawn significant attention to widespread mental disorders against public health [7].

Conclusion

Conclusively, several factors cumulatively operate to influence and affect the public health and lifestyle of a person. All these factors are vitally significant in bringing about a substantial change in a person's life as they are the most fundamental and quintessential constituents of a human life-form. Thus for being a perfectly healthy being, free of ailments and diseases, a rather full-fledged consideration needs to be rendered over the overall well-being of both mind and body. The reason being both these aspects are nothing but the two sides of the same coin, while either of them remains individually incomplete in the wake of the absence of the one.