Improving and Maintaining Health and Well-Being Essay

Personal Insights and Relevance to Nursing Practice

Doing yoga and healthy dieting have impacted my understanding of my health. I have noticed that when I implement these activities as habits in my life, I start to notice improvements in my well-being. I feel more energetic, and my immune system becomes stronger. People who practice yoga regularly note that the body becomes strong and flexible, and the mind calms down. When I do yoga every day for a minimum of one hour, I feel my muscles are stronger, and my mind is calmer. In the past, I have suffered from high-stress levels; however, yoga helps me manage such problems. The main thing in yoga is to find harmony and peace of mind, and breathing exercises and meditation techniques help with this. Improved well-being, a sense of peace, and a positive attitude – are just a small part of the positive results that yoga gave me.

It is believed that the improvement of the body is a complex result of physical activity, mental work, and lifestyle changes. Yoga classes positively affect all life support systems of the body. The study held by Hilcove et al. (2021) showed that yoga interventions helped nurses decrease and control stress levels. Mindfulness-based yoga helped participants to prevent burnout and positively affected their well-being (Hilcove, 2021). Another research that was handled by Kim (2020) revealed that yoga intervention helps to solve problems with “chronic nonspecific lower back pain in nursing practice” (Kim, 2020, p. 7). Yoga programs are considered a tool for managing pain relief (Kim, 2020). The activity is also beneficial for the lungs and is recommended for patients with lung problems (Kupershmidt and Barnable, 2019). Thus, implementing yoga intervention in the nursing practice is an effective way to improve the well-being of the patients.

After the first weeks of classes, you can feel the benefits of yoga. It allows you to learn to feel your body, manage your health, and expand the range of your lungs. At the same time, the physical activity allows us to see quick results. Classes have practically no contraindications or age and gender restrictions. Initial data and level of preparation do not matter. Now joint lessons with children, couples, and wellness sessions for the older age category are popular. If a beginner pursues not only the goal of losing weight and getting a beautiful body but also accepting himself and his needs, learning to live in harmony with the mind and shell, then yoga will give him this.

Adding healthy dieting to yoga made me see an even bigger positive effect on my well-being. Because yoga aims to teach mindfulness, I have become more conscious of my diet. Drinking more water and cutting out junk helped improve my health conditions. The body needs to consistently consume a variety of nutrients, including proteins, carbs, fats, water, minerals, and vitamins in the right amounts and proportions. The risk of contracting certain diseases increases when specific nutrients are either insufficient or excessive. Healthy eating helps build up mental and physical vitality, enables weight maintenance without harsh restrictions, and aids in the prevention and treatment of diseases. Healthy eating and dieting are an important part of a healthy lifestyle.

Of course, the role of dieting in nursing practice can not be underestimated. Distinct types of patients with different health problems require specific diets. The study provided by Kurnia and Yulia (2021) showed that nutritional education is crucial for patients with diabetes and their families. Food affects the sugar levels in the blood, and thus, people who suffer from diabetes should pay attention to their food choices (Kurnia and Yulia, 2021). Dieting helps control many aspects of the human body and thus plays an important role in patient care. A complex relationship and interdependence exist between substances that enter the body with food. For example, calcium is needed to build and maintain bones. In turn, calcium can be absorbed in the body only in the presence of vitamin D (Riccio and Rossano, 2018). For calcium to function, phosphorus and magnesium are required; they act only in the presence of copper and zinc. Nutrition is one of the important factors of human health that provides adequate growth and development in childhood, high performance of the adult population, and active longevity of the elderly and old people.

Advantage for the Future Practice

The information I have gained from this activity will be useful for my future practice. Now, when I have explored the benefits that yoga and dieting interventions can bring, I will try to implement them when relevant. Nurses are responsible for contributing to the well-being of their patients. That is why it was highly motivational for me to analyze how specific activities affected my health and li