What is a healthy life? Or, why am I starting this blog?

I see the world in terms of its impact on the health of any individual's life. Your eating and exercise habits, your relationships, your career, your spiritual values - they all contribute to the level of health in your life.

I'm going to guess that if you are reading this blog, you would love to have a perfectly healthy life - that you would like to be at a perfect weight, have the perfect romantic relationship, have perfect friends, have the perfect amount of money, have the perfect career. Hey, I would, too.

But one thing I have learned is that a life does not have to be perfect in order to be healthy. Perfection is not possible, and the more you strive for it, the less likely you will be to achieve it. The harder you try for it, the more you will stress yourself out, and the less healthy your life will be.

So, if it's not about perfection, what is a healthy life about?

It's about balance, between discipline and indulgence, between stress and relaxation, between the good and the bad.

How do you achieve that balance? Only you can decide that. What is balance for me may not be balance for you. What works for me may not work for you. I can pass along information, tell you how I relate that information to my own life and even give advice on how you can do the same thing. You are, of course, free to take or leave my advice, or modify it to fit your own needs.

Since I am just starting this blog, I should probably answer a critical question before we go much further. Who in the world am I, and why do I presume I can give advice to anyone?

I am just a person with a skill for writing who tries to live the best life I can. I am not a health professional of any sort. I am a communications professional with a background in journalism who is jumping into the “blogosphere.” Go to my Web site to learn more about me.

Since journalists are trained to interpret, distill and disseminate information for an audience, I can do this for you. My chosen topic is health. I have a passion for health topics and healthy living. I enjoy researching and reading about health and applying it to my own life. Sometimes I agree with what I read; sometimes I disagree. It all goes back to that balance thing.

A healthy life is one lived as well as you can, with as much care and attention to the only thing you will have for your entire life: yourself. You only have one body, one mind and one spirit. It is important to nurture those three aspects with the choices you make.

I realize that genetics play a big role in your lifelong health, but so does lifestyle. It's the lifestyle part that we can - and should - control, to the best of our ability. How do we do that? Well, that’s what this blog is all about. I hope you’ll share the journey with me.