Being truly healthy needs a lot more than watching what you eat and taking a quick stroll on the street every evening. Complete wellness must take into account all aspects of your health—your physiological, mental and emotional health all need equal attention when you’re trying to get healthier and lead a more fulfilling life.
This summer, follow these time-tested tips to gain control of your wellbeing, so that you can live each day to your full potential and enjoy life as it comes.
Face your fears
Take control of your emotions. Face feelings, emotions and fears that keep you from making the most of your life. Make deliberate efforts to step out of your comfort zone so that there is ample opportunity for you to face your fears and overcome them.
Taking this path will not only boost your mental wellbeing, it will make you want to live life to the fullest.
Learn to make firm decisions
Develop your decision-making abilities. If you tend to get confused when faced with choices or take too long to make simple decisions, cultivate the habit of taking firm and timely decisions by weighing the pros and cons of every option objectively and impartially. This will give you greater control over your life and enhance your self-confidence.
Keep cool with natural summer beverages
Eliminate the false sugar rush from your life. Say a firm no to soda and other store-bought beverages. Stop bringing them home and stop buying them when eating out. Look for other cool drinks to beat the heat, such as cold coffee, iced tea and buttermilk.
Also cut down on alcohol, but don’t try to give it up altogether. Take it slow and have one less drink each time you’re drinking. You’ll quickly start to feel the effects on your body and mind.
Take a hard look at your work life
Pay attention to your professional life. Does your work make you happy? Is it something that you just need to do for survival? Can you afford to quit and follow your passion? Is there something you can do to make your work more enjoyable?
Take a step back and look at your work and career from an outsider’s viewpoint. Decide if you should continue or quit, ensure that you can justify the decision to yourself and then stick with your choice no matter what.
Get active
Find time to exercise. If you don’t, ill health will catch up with you sooner than you think. No one gets away with living a sedentary lifestyle for long. If jogging or working out at the gym is not your cup of tea, find other ways to move your muscles, such as swimming, walking, biking, yoga or dancing. The idea is to leave the couch and get moving, even if for as little as 20 minutes a day.
Join a group of like-minded people who do physical activities that you enjoy. It will give you the impetus to get up and get out of the house.
Step into the unknown
Try something that is completely unlike you. Learn how to meditate, join a yoga class, take a crash course in gardening, or meet ea hypnotherapist or regression therapist to learn more about your past lives and experiences that could be affecting your present.
Anything that brings a fresh new perspective into your life should be welcome, as long as it doesn’t pull you down with its weight.
Make friends with fresh produce
Make it a habit to eat at least two summer fruits every day. Buy fruits and vegetables in advance to avoid running out of supplies mid-week. If you don’t like to cook or don’t have the time for it, choose veggies that can be eaten raw. Also make conscious decisions to stop buying processed foods, baked goodies, and other unhealthy items that you tend to binge on when hungry.
Reduce your intake of foods made with flour and incorporate delicious salads into your weekly meal plan. Remember that healthy food need not be boring.
Stop dressing to impress
Dress well—it’s a great way to build your self-confidence and make you feel good about yourself—but do it for the right reasons. Trying to dress in a way that others will like or approve only makes us anxious. Moreover, it makes you buy and wear clothes that may not resonate with your true personality.
You may not realize it, but your clothes do impact on your well being. So make it a habit to dress well every day even when you’re at home, but do it for your own joy and not to impress others.
Take care of your skin and hair
This advice holds true regardless of your gender or how busy a life you lead. Taking care of your skin and hair may sound like a vain indulgence if you’re not used to it, but it pays big returns as you age. Start early so that once you’re in your thirties or forties, you won’t have to lose sleep over dull skin or thinning hair.
As long as you keep it simple (and affordable), caring for your skin and hair can be easily inculcated into your everyday life.
Minimize your screen time
While it’s true that binge watching is sometimes the only option on a weekend, but the more time you spend glued to the screen, the more you lose out on the experiences you could be having with friends, family or on your own. Watching your favorite show is not a bad idea at all as a form of entertainment after a long day’s work, but devoting entire weekends to the screen is not a wise choice, particularly when you’re trying to change your lifestyle.
Make it a point to have outdoor experiences on your day off, even if it’s simply sitting at the waterfront and watching the waves. Get away from gadgets and you’ll be rewarded with a feeling of joy and wellness that’s highly addictive.
