Wellbeing – often when I talk about this with delegates on coaching or training sessions, they tell me they often can’t fit this in to a busy life. They see wellbeing as a “nice to have” and for when they have time. Or they see it as very specific: working less hours, going to the gym three times a week, taking a nap and so on.
I’m a huge advocate of daily wellbeing – small things you do every single day that have a much stronger impact on your mental health; things that also enable you to deal so much better with a busy life and have more balance.
Here are some of the wellbeing wins I’ve been experiencing lately:
- Taking micro breaks – throughout the course of a day, I’ll look for opportunities to do this whether that is lifting my eyes away from the screen for 5 minutes or stepping outside into the garden and taking a few easy deep breaths.
- Making lunch in the mornings – such a smug feel-good thing to do! But also makes life so much easier and ensures I’m eating healthily.
- Getting enough sleep – these days I put myself to bed earlier and get those 7- 8 hours so that I can work and focus better the next day.
- Reading for 10 minutes each night – surprisingly easy to fit in and allows me to escape into another world and switch off.
- Learning a new language – our brains love to learn new things. I’m on Duolingo each day doing 5 – 10 minutes of Japanese. It’s gamified so feeds directly the reward centre of my brain but in a much more positive way than mindless scrolling.
- Phone boundaries – I have automated my phone so that focus is on all day and means that there is only one half-hour window for social media. This is more than enough, I find!
- Slow mornings – in a world where we are bombarded with stuff from the moment we wake up, the slower intentional morning is probably one of the most impactful things for me.
Reggie Hubbard talks about the power of taking a purposeful pause and invites us to imagine what would happen if we checked in with ourselves as much as we check our phones.
There is lots more including the huge importance of daily movement – I try to get outside every day and walk in nature first thing. I definitely notice the days when I don’t do this.
The point is that these are simple and maybe even obvious things to be doing yet we tend not to prioritise smaller actions in this way or tell ourselves that we need to be getting on with something else. I found myself doing just this the other day – the sun was out for an hour and even though I had work I could be doing, I decided to sit outside with a cup of tea and just enjoy the sunshine on my face and the gift of being alive. In these moment we (re)connect with our true selves and show up better as a result.
