Growing Up Physically

Growing Up Physically: Achieving Balance in Adulthood is part of the holistic way of life. More people are aware of the need to find and stay in balance to live life to the fullest. It sounds simple but requires a conscious effort to stay there. Your mind, spirit and emotions affect the teeter tatter of life. It takes work to stay healthy, happy and balanced.

Growing up is a process not a fixed place that a person achieves when reaching a certain birthday, graduating, getting a job, moving out of your parents home, going to college, getting married, retiring or other milestone events that most adults experience in the course of their lives. Staying balanced in a holistic way is the key to enjoying the positive aspects of adulthood. We must grow up physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually to achieve the best that life has to offer.

Growing up physically takes place over our entire life span. It is amazing how a helpless infant can learn to walk and talk in the first year of life. Major body changes take place during puberty, hormone effects show when we get hair in different parts of your body, our voice changes, or menstruation begins. Gradual changes continue over your life span like getting glasses at forty and so on. Aging brings loss of strength, arthritis and other wear and tear issues. The better you care for your body when you are young the easier aging will be. Of course your personal genetics and family history are issues that factor into your overall well-being.

The body you have is the only one you will get. It is important to respect and take care on your body to stay fit, exercise and eat right, get enough sleep and rest to prevent and avoid illnesses and accidents that could contribute to your dis-ease and even early death. If you get ill you are temporarily out of balance. You physical state takes top priority and must heal to reestablish balance.

Many adults are out of touch with their bodies. So many of us fill our bodies with alcohol, drugs, tobacco, sugar, preservatives, we breath dirty air, and drink water that is less than ideal. We ignore stress and become chronically anxious. We ignore aches and pains and other warning signals hoping they will just go away. Others plunge into fad diets or crazed fitness regimes to fit some cultural notion of beauty and attraction. In other words we don't listen to our bodies. Some people become obsessed with their bodies and develop problems that can lead to serious illnesses like anoxeria or bulemia or compulsive exercising.

Moderation is the best way with every part of your life. Eating well, good groomig getting enough quality sleep and exercising is best. When you are out of balance your body will let you know by shutting down and you will get sick. This is the consequence of not listening to your body. If you continue to ignore the signals you may get seriously sick even die.

Learn to pay attention and respect your body. It is often the first warning system if you are in danger, physically, emotionally, intellectually or spiritually. It tells you when an old fear is being triggered, when your stress level is overloaded, when you are full, when you need a vacation to get more sleep. In our busy world we have learned to ignore our "body talk". To stay balanced we need to reconnect with our physical selves to stay as healthy as possible and enjoy all that life has to offer.