The Importance of Physical Education

Physical education or health and physical education are the areas of knowledge that will ultimately drive our success engine. We are physical and spiritual beings. Our mind, body, and spirit are all connected and learning how they work together and how to care for them can save us from unnecessary pain and suffering. Conversely, knowing how to take care of our body, mind, and spirit will lead us down the path toward happiness, health, and wealth.

Cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases are four of the top killers of men and women today. All of these are preventable. Our seniors are too often unnecessarily frail and inactive although we are seeing that change. We have learned a great deal about preventative health, yet our children are obese, and out of shape and our seniors are far too often left to wither away in a nursing home. Our children are not only are out of shape but they aren’t learning basic athletic skills, which in turn make them more productive. They just aren’t outside participating in sports – especially neighborhood pick-up games. All of us who are involved with young people as teachers, coaches, mentors, parents, and grandparents have a responsibility to educate them, motivate them, and persuade them to get active, get healthy, and get in the game. The same can be said for the many seniors among us.

The most powerful tool of influence we have is to model good behaviors. We should be sure we are working on ourselves at the same time we preach to our children about the value of being involved and active in a sport throughout their lives, or the value of eating right and being fit. On this site you will find information, resources, and products to help you and those you love strive for personal excellence in the fields of athletics, health, and fitness. Each person who visits this site can begin by becoming a member. Each of us will have our own issues, goals, and obstacles to living a healthy lifestyle, but we must strive for excellence in this area. When we live it, we will feel the difference. We will find it much easier to dream, act, achieve, and enjoy. There are a few areas of health and physical education we will focus on at this time. They are fitness, nutrition, athleticism, and spiritual well-being.

First, I will discuss the area of fitness. Fitness and athleticism are very similar. You can be very athletic and not very fit or very fit and not very athletic. Fitness has to do with our muscle tone and the ability of our body to maximize its oxygen intake. Those two aspects of fitness are anaerobic and aerobic. We need to cover both. There are varying degrees of fitness and certainly we all don’t need to be in world class shape. We should though be fit enough that a day of physical activity does not lay us up for a week. In our modern culture if most of us had to put in a day of work on the farm as they did one to two generations ago we would be in trouble.

To begin a fitness routine you need to visit your doctor and let him or her know what you want to do. They will give you the practical advice based on your over-all health. In doing this fitness routine you should build in stretching, anaerobic exercise, and aerobic exercise. You most definitely do NOT need to buy expensive gym equipment or memberships at clubs to get started. There are a number of good programs you can do right at home. Having someone who will do this with you and hold you accountable would be a great benefit. Any fitness program you actually do and do consistently will help you in all areas of your life. You will have more energy, will perform better on the job, will feel less stress, and will sleep better. You must take action to achieve those benefits. The motivation to follow through and the building of the routine is most people’s down-fall. That is topic of a future article.

The second area is that of athleticism. Athleticism is really about body control. It covers things like stamina, eye-hand coordination, speed, and agility. It encompasses the skills that enable us to do many different physical tasks. It is also the skills that would allow us to participate in team and individual sports for our entire lives. Skiing, swimming, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, tennis, bowling, and of course golf are several of many sports that can provide a fun and competitive outlet for people of all ages. For those who are not naturally athletic becoming fit and actually participating in athletic activities and exercises can and will improve that athleticism. You can find that competitive outlet and not feel embarrassed about your performance. Just go get in the game.

The next area concerns nutrition. Nutrition a broad topic and can be controversial. There are basic principles that you need to understand. One of those principles is your body needs basic building blocks for your cells. It must get vitamins and minerals in the correct amount to operate to its maximum abilities. We get those vitamins in minerals by the foods and drinks we consume. The next basic principle is that the fuel for our body is calories. If we consume more calories than our body uses it converts the extra calories to fat. When we consume fewer calories than our body needs we burn excess fat. In each case we can develop serious health conditions if the problem continues for an extended period of time. One other fundamental principle is we must keep our bodies hydrated. Dehydration is an often ignored and serious problem in America today. Within those foundations there are numerous other nutrition related topics that can be discussed all of which can impact our overall health. There are a number of books that would be highly recommended reading.

The final category would be that of our well-being. It is this area that may well be the most important, yet the most misunderstood and the most difficult to share. Our well-being consists not only of our general health and fitness, but our spiritual well-being as well. It is that spiritual side that has be so over-looked in western medicine. We are spiritual beings anyway you look at it and denying that truth can lead to serious consequences. The challenge then is to determine exactly what is meant by spiritual well-being and how does one achieve it.

Spirituality goes beyond who we are. It includes a realm that science has yet to truly understand. It includes things like beliefs, values, emotions and intelligence. These aspects of a person’s personality are not easily understood, but profoundly impact who they are and their well-being. There are psychological processes that can show people how to change their beliefs, values, and emotions. We can do things to improve our ability to think and reason. At the same time, genetics plays a role in those areas and will influence health and well-being. Injuries to the brain can also change a person’s personality. Those factors play a major role in our well-being, but are only part of the spiritual picture.

Spirituality has played a significant role in healing in most religions of the world. Eastern religions and native religions have kept more of those healing arts in tact over the centuries than have the western, Christian nations. Any discussion regarding spirituality and health would be incomplete if it did not include a discussion of faith and religious creeds. It also must be noted that while religious people tend to live longer and healthier than non-religious people they do still get sick and die. Being religious does not automatically mean you will be healthy; however, if you are truly a convert of a religious faith you will tend to be healthier than those who don’t.

The real question would then have to be does it matter what religious faith you are? First, we must point out that ALL religions are mutually exclusive. They have core beliefs that set them apart from other religious views and those core beliefs cannot all be true. Given that fact it is a reasonable conclusion that it does matter, because each will have a different view on how an individual is to live their life and what happens to you upon death. It then would make sense to investigate the truth claims of the religions of the world. You may as well start your investigation with Christian truth claims because a fundamental truth claim of Christianity is that Jesus Christ was the son of God, was crucified, and was raised from the dead three days after he died. If the claims of Christianity are true Jesus not only claimed to be God, but he proved is deity. He further claimed that he was the only way to reach God, the father. If those claims are true then all other claims to the contrary are false.

In investigating the truth claims of any of the world’s religions – or even secular humanism and atheism – you could begin by asking God to reveal himself to you. If you were to do this sincerely every day for a couple of months while you investigated the claims of just one of the world religions you would have three possible outcomes. God does reveal himself to you and you begin to see the truth or falsehood behind the claims you are investigating, or he doesn’t reveal himself to you and you are left to use your own reason to conclude if there is a God, and if there is which of the world religions truth claims best match up with the reality we observe or accept the idea that there is no God.

If you do this you will be changed AND your health will improve. If you have a serious medical condition you won’t necessarily be healed, but you will feel differently about your condition thereby improving your health.

There are numerous books and articles for you to now read to educate yourself in these areas. Physical Education or health and physical education are absolutely two of the most important areas to study in order to find holistic health. For humans to experience true success in life their goals and ambitions need to be well-rounded and touch upon mind, body, and spirit. Those three areas of our being are completely connected and we need educate ourselves in each area.