Is Exercise Alone Sufficient for Health and Happiness?

(In my last post 'New Beginnings After Age 75?' I mentioned how I decided to take charge of my health by taking regular walks and exercise. I ended the post stating that I found it difficult to make this a regular habit.)

While wondering how I was going to make exercise a daily habit, I came across a YouTube video which showed that exercising on a ‘mini-trampoline’ or ‘rebounder’ was very beneficial for senior citizens.  The video claimed that it was non-stressful for our joints while providing exercise for all the cells in our body.  Compared to a treadmill, the rebounder was very reasonably priced and did not take up much space.

A few months ago, I bought a rebounder complete with a balance bar, similar to that shown above. The balance bar helped me keep my balance especially when beginning the exercises.  The rebounder is a boon because it motivates me to exercise whenever I see it in the corner of the living room! 

I think it is helping me gradually improve my fitness.  After about one month of jogging on it, I found my heart resting rate had improved from the earlier 84 beats per minute (bpm) to about 78 bpm. This encourages me to continue until I reach my target heart resting rate of about 70 bpm or less.

However, I found that exercise alone was not enough to make me want to get up each morning, full of energy looking forward to the day. 

I realized that I needed to do things in balance – not just for the body but for the mind and spirit as well.

What I needed was a new purpose!

In order to engage my mind, I felt that I should start once again building a blog and posting regularly in it.  I wanted to spread the ‘Joycentrix Philosophy’ which I had introduced in my book ‘Daily Happy Living’ several years ago. So, for the past couple of months, I was in the process of getting my website done. Also, I wanted the blog done regularly in the right way instead of in fits and starts as I had been doing some years ago.

I decided to use the enforced self quarantine due to the Corona Virus pandemic, as a challenge and part of my 'New Beginnings'.  

It was all the more challenging because I was in the middle of a bad asthma attack just before the Covid 19 'Movement Control Order' was begun!  The asthma was so bad I needed to go to the clinic to use the nebulizer to help me breathe.  Because of the seriousness, the doctor had to put me on steroids (prednisone or prednisolone) for several days.

It was also the time when the media was hyping up the fact that this virus was most dangerous for older people, especially for those with respiratory problems - in other words I was a prime candidate to succumb to Covid 19.  This only made me more determined to fight and prove that we can overcome if we put our minds to it.

I signed up to an online course called 'Write to Publish'. This course included all the steps needed to write, to create a website, to learn to promote and to publish our writing.

This was one of the best decisions I made since it makes the enforced 'staying home' a pleasure and not a chore. It also keeps me on my toes to complete the given assignments each week.  I do get delayed at times, especially with the technical details of building a website, but I kept sticking to it.  This blog is a result of all that effort.

I have also started writing my next book which is almost half-done. Surprisingly, I found that when I got started on doing something creative like writing another book or blog, I seemed to have more energy as well as more motivation to carry on exercising.

This brings me to the following conclusions about health, happiness and living life fully in our Golden Years.

• Have a Purpose to Life, a desired goal: This I believe is most vital to healthy ageing. It does not matter even if you are retired. A purpose or new goal will keep your mind active. If you have nothing to look forward to, you will be bored and will decline in health. I think that many of my college friends who passed away soon after retirement, did so out of boredom. (NOTE: Perhaps the best example of someone who is ageing healthily because of his purpose and goals is our Prime Minister and his wife who just celebrated their 63^rd wedding anniversary!)
• Exercise Regularly: If you don’t like exercising alone, get together with some friends at a gym or play games like tennis, ping-pong etc.
• Listen to Guided Meditation: Personally, I find it difficult to meditate by quieting the mind. So instead, each morning I listen to a guided meditation audio (for 10 to 15 minutes) after my morning exercise to put me in a good frame of mind. Guided meditation is when we listen to the speaker who guides us in reaching a calm, peaceful state of mind. There are also many ‘brain-entrainment’ subliminal audios which can help us gain control our over active minds.
• Make a Habit of Happiness: Happiness is a habit, just as worry is a habit. The thoughts that we allow to dwell in our mind is what creates the emotions we feel. For example, if I keep remembering, say an unflattering remark or rebuke from someone, then I will remain angry or miserable. But if I choose to think of other happier things, soon I feel happier. It is like watching a TV show that we don’t enjoy – we can always ‘Switch Channels’ to a show we do enjoy!

Similarly, we can ‘change channels’ in our mind to think happy thoughts every time we feel blue or have sad thoughts, thus making happiness a habit. I learnt this technique several years ago when my children were teenagers and we had some disagreement or misunderstanding which put me in a bad mood.

I then opened up a small album and looked at cute photos of my children when they were babies or toddlers. Immediately my bad mood disappeared and I could feel only love for my children – not the upset over the arguments etc.

Coming Next:  
From my next post onwards, in addition to updates on my personal journey, I will also be talking about my Joycentrix Philosophy and how the principles can be applied to our daily life to make Happy Living a reality!