Health and Wellness

By Derek Tahara | Vice-Editor

Health and Wellness is a daily part of the human experience — from our sleep to physical and mental health. It is important now more than maybe ever with a virus taking a toll
on us physically, emotionally and mentally.

For me, health and wellness is a significant aspect of my daily life as I love to work out and be active. Prior to the pandemic, I was in a solid rhythm at the gym, pushing my body to the limit — and then the virus happened and everything changed. I started to put on quarantine-weight due to unhealthy eating habits, but after a friend’s advice to eat healthier and try out a daily routine of 200 push-ups (four sets of 50) along with my regular workouts, I started to shed some of the weight I gained.

This brings me to the Buddhist value of impermanence or change.

Some changes such as working from home and sheltering-in-place are out of our control due to the virus, but health and wellness changes are in our control, but it depends on the mindset.

At the beginning of incorporating my friend’s push-up routine along with my workout, I could barely do five sets of 40 push-ups, but after months of building up my body, I can do four sets of 60 push-ups.

In my opinion, mental health is just as vital as physical health because when you finish a grueling workout or other physical exercise, you feel physically exhausted, but mentally, you accomplished something. I think this is why people bought a lot of weight-lifting and exercise equipment during the pandemic, simply because they missed going to the gym and working out is a stress-relief for most.

Mental health is a subject that should be carefully examined by experts in the future. It can get better with the help of psychologists and apps such as Calm or Headspace. I hope impermanence will seep into the mental health aspect of our lives, but how that change is brought upon us depends on us and the people we surround ourselves with.