Health is a condition of mental, physical and emotional well-being where infirmity and illness are absent. It is a state where we feel satisfied with our bodies, strong and capable of handling the different aspects of life as they come our way, rather than the ones that society would have us believe are part of our natural condition. The dictionary definition of health is being well balanced, having good health, not suffering from any illness, having an active life, feeling confident and relaxed. Health is about feeling better about yourself and having a positive attitude about things such as your own health, that you take for granted.
The three components of the definition of health are psychological, physical and social. The psychological aspect refers to our attitudes towards our health, a person’s internal thoughts and beliefs about their bodies, their capacity for self-care and their relation to society, the people they live and interact with. The physical aspect of health pertains to a person’s ability to meet their needs through their active lifestyle, to perform activities that they require of themselves without harm to themselves and their environment. And lastly, there is the social aspect of mental health, this is all about how you interact with other people and how you adapt to your environment and how you meet the needs of others in a satisfying manner. These three components are interrelated and dependent on each other in order to be able to define what good health really is.
There are many things that can cause a person to be ill or unhealthy such as stress, exposure to disease, alcohol and tobacco use, nutritional deficiencies, lack of exercise and poor personal hygiene. There are also many physical ailments that can cause distress to the body and mind like cancer, hypertension, stress, arthritis, anemia, bulimia, depression, dementia and other diseases that have no cure. In most cases, when we have a combination of these three components, it results to a person who is mentally and physically healthy but not physically or emotionally well-balanced. This means that he has a great challenge in maintaining a proper balance between the three components and achieve the personal health status well-being.
