You might think that commitments – be they your job, parenting or voluntary work – prevent you from being able to improve your well-being. How can you devote time to that when your day is filled with things that need doing from the moment you wake up to the moment your head hits the pillow again? Making sure we look after ourselves is important not just for generally feeling better, but for avoiding long-term health problems, both physical and mental. And it can be done as part of your daily routine – you just need to look for the opportunities. Develop such a habit that you always incorporate small steps towards better health and wellness in your day to day activity. Make health and wellness your habit, not just something you read or see others doing.
Look after your mental health
Getting enough sleep (and good quality sleep at that), is vital for ensuring your brain functions as it should. It improves your mood and your ability to make decisions and use judgement. If you make a conscious decision to hit the sack with enough time for eight hours’ sleep each night. This way you will find your days become more productive, more fulfilling and you will be less irritable.
If part of your day is commuting on public transport, or taken up with jobs that don’t really need to be done, consider having a go at puzzles to get your brain working. This is a good way to alleviate stress and delay mental aging. You can also activate your brain by shaking things up a bit – taking different ways home from work and trying something new, for example, starting new hobbies or learning new sport activity.
Improve and maintain your physical health
There are plenty of ways to improve your health without tampering too much with your daily routine. For starters, you could try improving your diet. Start reducing the amount of saturated fat, sugar and salt you consume. Begin tucking in to more fruit and vegetables. You could even plan to try something new each week to keep things interesting. Develop a habit of seeing a healthy food as joy.
Do stretching activities during short breaks at work or while on the phone. This will increase your blood flow and reduce your risk of injuries. Stretching becomes especially important if you choose to join the gym. If you don’t like gym exercising, take up pilates or yoga classes or spend more time active outdoors alone or with your family members. These are sure-fire ways to improve your physical health – just be careful not to overdo it too soon or you might find yourself claiming for an accident before you know it.
Nurture your emotional health
According to mental health charity Mind, spending more time with people, and helping others, can do wonders for your own happiness. Perhaps you could start planning to go out with friends and doing more activities that involve others (whether you know them already or not). Socializing provides us emotional response that is very important to our psychological well-being. Take a few minutes to call a friend and see how they are, or maybe start volunteering somewhere that helps people.
It’s easy to get bogged down with life and the responsibilities it throws at you. But there are always changes you can make to improve your well-being. Your health is as important as anything else in your life – don’t let trivial things stand in the way of your personal health and wellness. The only person responsible for you is you.