As some of you may know, I was lucky enough to have been on Holiday recently and whilst my baby slept, I would sit with my wife on the balcony and observe the superficial maintenance of the hotel gardens. Guys trimming the edges, hedges and people sweeping up, sprinklers spraying etc. It struck me that it took a lot of time and effort in order to keep the grounds looking so good, but most of this maintenance would go unnoticed by the people who stay at the hotel. Admire this great exterior briefly, but read on to find the real message behind this email.

“Why’s Dom waffling on a bout this?” I hear you say? Well, bear with me. Firstly I realised that this happens with humans as well. Some people spend an awful lot of time and effort on things which make them appear attractive, well groomed and well maintained and perhaps those who focus less on external appearance don’t spend so much time, or even realise how much time others may spend on maintaining this exterior.

BUT

and it’s a big but, which I like (said Sir Mixalot)…it’s not all about what’s happening on the outside that’s important. The hotel I stayed in was lovely, but not simply because it looked nice from the outside. It was so well run and so many things are happening behind the scenes in order to ensure that our stay was a good one. Plumbing, air conditioning, strong foundations to the building, chefs working hard in the kitchen. And then, for the second time I noticed the stark similarities between this and the human body.

You can focus on your exterior by all means but what is equally, if not more important is to focus on your air-con (breathing), your plumbing (your circulatory system), your kitchen (eating the right foods) and your foundations (your muscles and bones).

Your bones and muscles become weak if you don’t challenge them, your lungs don’t function well if you don’t get your breathing rate up regularly and they become clogged if you do things like smoke. Your arteries become blocked if you don’t regularly clear them out by pumping high pressure blood through them, which is a result of raising your heart rate through exercise and if you eat and drink more calories than you require, you end up increasing your body fat storage which puts extra stress on the bones and joints, meaning that your foundations become weaker and unstable. The good thing about being a human is that if you do the inner maintenance, the outer maintenance tends to take care of itself!*

So take care of the inner aspects of your health. It’ll be worth it in the long run.

*You might need to shower and brush your hair as well