These are the two most important aspects of life: health and relationships. They rely on small habits that easily get neglected in our busy lifestyles. The good news is that they don't require much effort to get a good hold on; a little effort every day is enough to maintain good health and strong relationships.
1. Health: The Foundation of Everything
Health is the foundation of everything. Talk to any older person, and they will all tell you to live a healthy lifestyle. But because health issues are usually a delayed consequence, young people often neglect good habits until something bad has already happened.
Without good health, we can’t live the lives we want, making it very difficult to feel content. Once we develop a chronic disease, we lose our freedom to live independently without a hospital nearby. I won't even go into the more serious problems, which can definitely create a mess in anyone's life.
Fortunately, science already provides guidelines for living a healthy lifestyle. Though we can’t control every factor, it is already pretty clear that having good habits lowers the risk.
2. Relationships: Our External Social Anchor
While health is a more internal aspect, relationships are the external aspect of a healthy life. Humans evolved as a collective species. No one can survive on their own, and therefore our brains are sensitive to social connections with other people.
We feel happy when we help others, and we feel anxious when people say negative things to us. Relationships are more important than we think in many ways. Maintaining good relationships with other people (though not necessarily everyone) and developing a close community are highly ranked factors in research.
Taking Baby Steps Forward
Don’t worry if you haven't taken these two aspects seriously before. These are not things that can be changed overnight. Let’s take baby steps to develop the correct mindset and habits to secure the foundation of a good life.