It’s no secret anymore – to be healthy in body-mind-spirit, you need a balanced diet, regular exercise, sufficient sleep, a decent amount of water and, yes, inspirational thoughts. Even if you stop fizzy drinks for a week and just keep drinking eight glasses of water, things will begin to improve. Our body is 70 per cent water, so you’ll be like an ocean at high tide. You sleep eight hours restfully, you’ll wake up zestfully. You eat low-fat food with a nice mix of protein, carbs, vitamins and minerals, you’ll find your mind clear as a day where the sun has risen and the mist dispersed. You exercise for a few days, not heavy exercise, but enough to feel stretched and fresh at the end of your session, you’ll find yourself gliding, literally. Get some inspirational quotes into your head and you will be motivated. For sure, little sparks make big fires.

You get from life what you put into it. And to a wordsmith like me, even the words you think and say are pointers to your good or bad health. Sure, there’s a fiendish relish in using melodramatic (even foul) language, but those kind of words do send micro-tremors down your muscles, nervous and immune systems. Over the years, these tremors turn into traumas where they contribute to back problems, premature greying hair, hair-fall, acute anxiety spells to name a few. So, use your words with care, yes? Describe situations with dignity. For instance, instead of using negative words such as failure, catastrophe, calamity, bad luck, replace those with hopeful phrases such as ‘minor setback’, ‘another possibility, ‘speedbreaker’.

I’m no prude, but I believe that an elegant phrase turns away wrath, a kind thought a day keeps depression away, an appreciative comment dispels anguish. Why make life foul when it can be fulfilling? The right lifestyle and language help us rise to occasions. So, let’s fill our heads with high thoughts all day - they are oxygen to our spirit.

(The writer has co-authored the book ‘Fitness for Life’ and teaches the Fitness for Life programme.)

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