'A healthy outside starts from the inside.' Physical fitness is a combination of physical, emotional and mental fitness. This means that person must be mentally healthy in order to be physically healthy. Eating healthy and working out daily keeps your body fit. But when your mind is healthy, you will feel more alive.
Mental illness does not have an accurate defenition. It is a state when a person's thoughts, emotions and behaviors are not stable. This is caused mainly due to stress, traumatic encounters, social disadvantages etc. Also this can be a cause of genetic factors or due to poor physical health. Most of the time, we itself can determine if we are healthy or not. For example, if you are tired but still you are unable to sleep, it's a symptom that says you are not mentally healthy. There are many other symptoms that indicate your mental fitness, which can be different for different people.
Just like physical illness, mental illness also can be cured. Just because you can't see mental illness like a broken bone, it doesn't mean you don't need any cure. Regular fitness exercises like yoga, morning walks and meditation have proved to be a great cure for mental illness. One can consult an expert doctor and seek help. Even though this has become a very common illness, few social constraints hold back people from seeking help. Mental illness does not mean that a person is insane, and it is nothing to be ashamed of.
As a conclusion, I would say that mental health is as important as physical health. And always remember the words from Nelson Mandela that "Exercise is the key not only to physical health, but to peace of mind."
✍️with love GK