For every column I’ve written for this newspaper, I tried to come up with some spin on the things necessary to take care of yourself and your body. After all, if you don’t take care of your body, where are you going to live?

This literary offering if I may be so bold as to label it that, is more of a story of what motivates me to try to help people get a better understanding of the impact that they have every minute of every day on their own lives and the lives of others by the choices that they make.

Now, since I’m a physical therapist, my passion is to help people use exercise, and nutrition in a lot of cases, to give them a strong chance at improving their quality of life. That’s it. Bottom line … I’m a feel-good clinician.

I want you the reader and every patient that I touch or teach to feel better and live life to the fullest. Why?

I drive past a cemetery on a regular basis as I’m a non-compensated Uber driver for my children and their activities.

Very often, I would say 50% of the time I travel past that cemetery in mid-afternoon, I see an older gentleman getting out of his car, lifting his travel wheelchair to push a water jug about 100 feet to what I think is his wife’s grave site. This sweet man is so faithful to taking care of flowers and the plot that represents his dear wife’s life and legacy that he rarely misses a day unless the weather is subpar. So, what does this mean for you?

If you love someone that much that you would be that dedicated, it means that someone loves you that much as well.

Making better choices in your life and including exercising or eating foods that benefit you are two really easy ways to add life to your years and that means that those people that love you get to love you longer. That’s it!

I invite you to not only move more and eat better but to start to step out of your own being and look around and smell the proverbial roses to see the reasons why living one more day, week, month, year, decade might be worth the challenge of eating right and exercising. There are people out there that want you to live better for longer. I think that is worth the small price of prioritizing your health.

Be well and do good!

Joel J. Digris is a Schuylkill County resident with a master’s degree in physical therapy. He is currently employed by Achieva Rehabilitation as an outpatient provider of physical therapy and serves residents in Carbon, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties.

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