A lifestyle is the way a person lives. It includes patterns of behaviour, consumption and entertainment, and it reflects a person’s attitudes and values. It also affects how a person looks and feels. Generally speaking, a healthy lifestyle is one that balances these elements and is conducive to the individual’s health and well-being.
It’s easy to say that a healthy lifestyle is good for you, but it can be difficult to cultivate and incorporate into your life. There are many ways to be healthy, from eating right and exercising regularly to avoiding smoking, drugs, alcohol and junk food. Healthy habits can improve your mental and physical health, reduce the risk of certain diseases, lengthen your lifespan and save you money. However, it’s important to find your own version of a healthy lifestyle, as what works for one person may not work for another. If you’re having trouble getting into a healthy habit, try starting small and gradually increasing your activity levels. This will help you avoid putting too much pressure on yourself and make it easier to maintain your new habits.
In terms of research, there is a tendency to focus on the behavioural component of lifestyle when discussing its relationship with health. This is largely due to the prevalence of theories that focus on health determinants. This type of theory limits the concept of a lifestyle to healthy and unhealthy behaviours, and ignores other aspects of lifestyle that are relevant to the individual’s wellbeing such as their identity, values, and life span.
The term ‘lifestyle’ has been defined and used in many different ways by various fields of knowledge, and as such it is a complex and abstract construct. The current article reexamines the main definitions of the term in the field of psychology and sociology in order to shed light on some possible future directions for research on this topic.
For example, in Adlerian psychology, the word lifestyle was used to describe a pattern of reactions that a person might display to external stimuli. This was a response that was determined during childhood and guided the person’s actions, feelings and emotions throughout his or her life.
In social theory, the notion of a lifestyle was analysed by Georg Simmel and Pierre Bourdieu. Their models differed in their approach to the concept, but they were both based on a comparison between external causes that determine an individual’s positioning within a field and internal factors such as his or her inclinations, desires and interpretations. The combination of these elements constituted what is known as the “habitus”. This concept was a basic point of departure for the development of a model of lifestyle. The reexamination of the main definitions of this concept has allowed us to identify its components and understand its multifaceted nature. The model has the potential to allow for future studies on the role of lifestyle as a key determinant in the area of health.