healthy body, healthy mind

A Healthy Body Makes a Healthy Mind? )
Posted on November 16, 2013by fanbin23

Many people believe that “A healthy body makes a healthy mind”. I hesitate on the word “make” — Assuming a healthy mind means something like integrity, happiness and optimistic attitude, I believe that people who have a healthy body usually also have a healthy mind, but a healthy body is not necessarily for a healthy mind. The players in professional sports leagues are probably the most physically healthy people in the world; however it’s not uncommon to hear news of their troubles, such as crimes or family violences.
A healthy body shares some common causes with a healthy mind. The process of pursuing a healthy body requires good discipline. It’s easy to exercise for one day, but one must endeavor to keep exercising to stay in a physically healthy condition. Long distance running is a well known way of having a healthy body. To prepare to run a full marathon, one has to repeat many moderate or long distance running practices. It’s such a painful process that one likely to give up if he/she doesn’t have strong will power. If a person has such will power, it’s no surprise that this person can be successful at other things. A person achieves many life goals is likely to have a healthy mind.
A healthy body can be a factor of a healthy mind: physically healthy people usually have more energy to work on things they care about, therefore have a better chance to enjoy their lives. In contrast, physically unhealthy people may be disturbed by their health issues. Their concerns can distract them from doing things that would make them happy.
A scientific study also tried to discover the secret relation between exercise and the mind. Scientists found a chemical substance called endorphins [1], which can be reproduced by human body during exercise, excitement, spicy food tasting, etc. It can interact with some other substances in the human body to generate a feeling of well-being. A well-known effect of endorphins is “runners high,” which is said to occur when people exercise so strenuously that their bodies reach the threshold of endorphin release. Scientists are still not sure of the amount of endorphins the human body can generate or how much it impacts a human’s mind. But at least most of the running enthusiasts I know are all very nice people.
The ex-Google VP, the founder of Google China, a role model of many Chinese young students and entrepreneurs, Kaifu Lee, was recently diagnosed with cancer. He said he should have spent less time on work and more time on doing things that would have kept him healthy, especially sufficient sleep and exercise. This tells us that at the end of the day, fame and wealthy will not make people happy if they don’t have a healthy body. We should get away from the chair and the computer some time everyday to exercise. It might not make us better people, but it’ll make us lead longer and happier life