Healthy living is vital for a person’s physical and emotional wellness. Additionally, healthy living is necessary to prevent the development of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Unhealthy living may cause psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress (Penninx & Lange, 2022). Healthy lifestyle management is an effective program that provides knowledge on maintaining a healthy life. This vocation aims to encourage social relations that promote caring for one another for personal wellbeing. This paper analyzes the significance of the Healthy Lifestyle Management program and its role in improving students’ lives personally and professionally. Additionally, this paper addresses the Jesuit Values and their relevance in the healthy lifestyle management vocation.
Several factors, including healthy living, determine the quality of life. Healthy living involves maintaining physical, mental, and emotional fitness. Studying Healthy Lifestyle Management plays a significant role in developing healthy practices to promote overall health in society. In recent decades, society has been dramatically revolutionized, leading to emerging issues significantly affecting people’s health. There is a surge in the emergence of chronic illnesses and psychological disorders due to unhealthy practices being adopted in society (Penninx & Lange, 2022). Therefore, there is an urgent need to create awareness among the masses to address the physical and emotional conditions caused by unhealthy practices. Healthy living is a broad concept that varies from one individual to another. It is therefore essential to maintain close social relations to understand the uniqueness of each individual in handling unhealthy practices.
Healthy Lifestyle Management has been essential in promoting healthy living in students personally and professionally. Studying this program provides the students with the mental intelligence to live healthily. At the personal level, Healthy Lifestyle Management enables students to increase their energy levels, thus improving their performance (Strieter et al., 2019). Students engage in different activities that require both physical and mental energy. With the knowledge of this program, students learn to embrace routines and habits that promote good health. College students are often vulnerable to various toxic habits that may negatively impact their health. Engaging in these habits drains one’s energy physically and mentally, making it difficult to concentrate and make a meaningful contribution to their activities.
Healthy Lifestyle Management is necessary for improving the students’ creativity. Healthy living practices such as adequate sleep enables the brain to rest and operate effectively. Additionally, eating healthy and having regular exercises allow stable blood and nutrient flow in the brain, thus improving its development and operational abilities. As a result, the level of creativity among students improves, enabling them to think critically and analyze issues with deep understanding (Strieter et al., 2019). The alertness of the brain plays a significant role in cultivating creativity. Social relations have been vital in keeping the brain active. Students with the knowledge of Health Lifestyle Management have been maintaining effective social ties that are vital in improving the brain’s cognitive functions, hence keeping the brain alert.
Healthy Living Management has been essential in helping the students develop abilities to cope with stress. Students experience challenges that often result in uncontrolled stress when not addressed effectively. Stress can easily develop into a more serious mental condition such as depression. Understanding healthy living enables the students to engage in practices to boost their moods and self-esteem. Studies have indicated a close correlation between healthy living and low stress and anxiety levels (Strieter et al., 2019). Increased stress has often affected the decision-making abilities of victims due to negative thinking and lack of self-confidence. However, with the knowledge of Healthy Lifestyle Management, students learn effective ways of coping with stress, including thinking positively, exercising, and eating healthy, which reduces the production of cortisol in the brain, the hormone responsible for stress.
Lastly, the lifestyle management program improves students’ personal lives by promoting longevity in the long run. By adopting healthy living habits, students habituate living healthy routines throughout their lives, thus enabling them to stay fit in their old age (Strieter et al., 2019). The quality of life in the late adulthood stage is often determined by the living habits of the early and mid-life stages. However, the lack of knowledge on how living habits affect life’s longevity has made many students adopt unhealthy practices in their early adulthood, negatively affecting them in their late adulthood. Therefore, Healthy Lifestyle Management creates self-awareness within the young generation to adopt healthy living habits to live a quality life in their old age.
Professionally, the Healthy Lifestyle Management vocation has enabled students to advocate for healthy living in society. This program is majorly a preventive health mechanism to reduce the risk of developing various health conditions that are likely to impact one’s health negatively. Students studying this cause acquire the knowledge of identifying and counteracting unhealthy practices in society. One of the effective ways that students help society address the concern of unhealthy living practices is through acquiring intelligence to apply the social and medical aspects of the Healthy Living Management major. Students studying this course can understand the impact of emotional and psychological well-being as a practice of healthy living. The program equips them with the knowledge of the importance of practicing self-care and the responsibility of caring for others for the well-being of society.
The profession of Healthy Lifestyle Management enables students to understand the cultural and social aspects of healthy living. They are able to identify culturally unhealthy practices that may impact health negatively. Identifying toxic cultural practices is essential in developing recommendations for healthy living (Mamurov et al., 2020). Students can effectively implement various clinical and social practices that conform to different cultures in encouraging healthy living through leadership and responsibility skills. Additionally, students studying this program get to participate in various activities that equip them with the knowledge of understanding the significance of happiness in promoting mental stability. The close relationship between mental health and happiness has seen happiness reduce the vulnerability of developing mental disorders, thus resulting in psychological health necessary for longevity and general wellbeing.
The Jesuit Values play a significant role in the effective practice of Healthy Lifestyle Management. There are six major Jesuit values, including Magis, which encourages excellence; women and men for and with others which encourages sharing and sowing concern for the needy; Cura Personalis, which fosters respect of a person as a child of God; unity of heart, mind, and soul advocating for personal growth; Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (AMDG) which advocates for the Glory of God and finally forming and educating agents of change which encourages responsibility and ethical issues (Jesuit Values, n.d). The values are necessary for personal and professional development.
Applying the Jesuit values greatly influences the success of pursuing the Healthy Lifestyle Management major. These values instill a sense of responsibility in students and remind them of the critical role they need to play for the well-being of society. Commitment enables professionals in lifestyle management care to discharge their duties effectively without negligence or partiality. Additionally, the Jesuit principles create respect and care for the patients (Rich et al., n.d). This enables the professionals to perceive patients as people in need rather than clients. Respect empowers the student to treat the patients with dignity and care. For instance, in promoting healthy living in society, professionals with the Jesuit knowledge approach people practicing unhealthy practices with no criticism but with love and care to pursue them to adopt healthy living methods.
Jesuit values equip students pursuing the vocation of healthy lifestyle management with the perception that their profession is a social responsibility rather than a job. It, therefore, allows them to serve society without looking at the monetary benefits of helping others live healthily but because of the fulfillment that comes with helping the needy in society (Rich et al., n.d). This approach creates a friendly relationship between the professionals and their patients. Such a relationship is necessary to increase the awareness of healthy living among patients and enable them to adopt healthy living practices. Additionally, Jesuit values allow students studying the healthy lifestyle management vocation to develop the need to respect other people’s religious beliefs and subject them to a sensitive religious mechanism. Lastly, by understanding Jesuit values, students and professionals pursue the healthy lifestyle management vocation to develop the leadership skills necessary to make sound decisions and understand their consequences. Students with this knowledge tend to take responsibility for their actions and accept correction when proven wrong. Leadership fosters development professionally and personally by being open to new ideas and being receptive to change.
In conclusion, healthy lifestyle management is a vital healthcare profession for promoting healthy living within the community. This vocation is critical in developing practices that encourage positive living to avoid developing chronic health conditions and long-term mental disorders. Understanding the Jesuit values is essential in succeeding in pursuing the vocation in healthcare by cultivating the spirit of love, respect, and humanity between the healthcare profession and the patients. Furthermore, one develops leadership qualities vital for making essential decisions professionally and personally.
References
Jesuit Values. [Ebook].
Mamurov, B., Mamanazarov, A., Abdullaev, K., Davronov, I., Davronov, N., & Kobiljonov, K. (2020, March). Acmeological Approach to the Formation of Healthy Lifestyle Among University Students. In III International Scientific Congress Society of Ambient.
Penninx, B. W., & Lange, S. M. (2022). Metabolic syndrome in psychiatric patients: overview, mechanisms, and implications. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience.
Rich, A. J., Holm, S. E., Feltman, C., & Thomas, S. A Journey from Patient Care to Jesuit Higher Education: How a Small Group of Healthcare Professionals Navigated the Transition into Academia. Journal: Vol, 8(1), 7.
Strieter, L., Laddu, D. R., Sainsbury, J., & Arena, R. (2019). The importance of school-based healthy living initiatives: introducing the Health and Wellness Academy concept. Progress in cardiovascular diseases, 62(1), 68-73.