There are four aspects that comprise your health and wellbeing: your mind, spirit, body, and emotions. And all four of these need to be integrated, balanced and in harmony when seeking optimum health and wellbeing.
There are a number of ways in which you can elevate your health and wellbeing. But remember, while these will enhance your health, they can't create it for you if it doesn’t already exist.
So it’s important to focus on all aspects of you and to make time for yourself as often as you can.
Below are some suggestions that you could try to naturally enhance your health and wellbeing. Try implementing these 15 ways to Wellbeing, even just one at a time. A little every day will make a huge difference to your health, your wellbeing and will assist you in reducing and managing your stress.
1. Meditate
Meditate every day. Even just a few minutes a day can make a big difference.
Meditation is known to elicit peaceful, even blissful states, and your body benefits too, with reduced blood pressure, and reduced heart and respiration rates.
Studies show that people who meditate regularly are less stressed, sleep better and suffer fewer stress-related illnesses.
And it doesn't take long to notice the benefits. So light some incense or candles, pop on some relaxing music, and give it a go.
2. Breathe
Focus on your breath and breathe deeply. Do this regularly throughout the day.
Just a few minutes of mindful breathing can instantly reduce anxiety and feelings of overwhelm.
If you suffer from long-term stress, you may have become a short, shallow mouth breather without realising it. Feeling stressed causes you to breathe shallowly and inefficiently, but so too does shallow and erratic breathing cause you to feel stressed.
Focussing on your breath for a few moments is a great way of reconnecting to yourself when everything around you is going crazy.
3. Be Present
Practice getting out of your head and back into your body. Be present, and aware of your surroundings.
A couple of times every day, using an alarm or a mindfulness app on your phone...
- Stop for a few moments
- Notice what you are doing
- Notice how you are feeling
- Then carry on with what you were doing
Soon you will notice how what you are thinking affects how you are feeling.
Every. Single. Time.
4. Connect Emotionally
Humans are social animals and one of our most powerful emotional drivers is to find connection with others.
Without this connection we feel isolated and rejected by society.
One of the major factors underlying drug addiction and alcoholism is the feeling of not belonging.
So reach out and connect with friends and family, or even strangers on the bus or in your favourite store.
And take the time to give and receive a hug which has been shown to give your immune system a healthy boost.
5. Connect With The Earth
Earthing, also known as Grounding, simply means to connect physically to the Earth by some means, usually in the form of walking outside with bare feet, allowing your bare skin contact with the ground.
Connecting to the Earth’s natural energy is healing, as Earthing provides our body with electrons. These electrons neutralise free radicals in our body which cause inflammation.
So kick off your shoes if it's safe to do so and get walking outside in nature!
6. Play & Have Fun
When is the last time you saw a child playing and having fun while looking totally stressed out, weighed down by the worries of the world?
Exactly!
Children mostly live in the moment. Playing and being all in.
You can too. Spend just a few minutes every day, more if you can, seeing the world through the eyes of a child. With wonder, excitement, awe, and anticipation.
And play and have fun… but remember, it's just a game. No one likes a sore loser!
7. Tune In To Your Body
These days, we have forgotten how to tune in to our bodies, functioning as disembodied heads, and we no longer notice what it is our body is desperately trying to tell us.
Which is why a niggle becomes a twinge… which becomes a dull ache… which becomes a sharp pain... as our body tries harder and harder to tell us when something is wrong.
Or we overeat, ignoring or no longer hearing the signals from our body telling us when it's had enough!
So tune in to your body, it may take time to hear the messages. But your body will notice you are paying attention and it will communicate with you. Just be patient.
8. Laugh
He who laughs loudest really does live longest. Laughter has been shown to improve your cardiac health, reduce your stress levels, lower your blood pressure, and improve your general sense of wellbeing.
Laughter changes your body chemistry, altering your internal state right down to the level of your genes. Downregulating (turning off) genes which cause illness and upregulating (turning on) those promoting health and healing.
Not to mention, it gives you a great ab workout too!
9. Pet a Pet
It's been clinically proven that petting an animal such as a dog or cat, for even just a few minutes, can lower the levels of the stress-promoting hormone cortisol.
It has also been shown to lower your heart rate and blood pressure significantly.
So spend some precious time with your pet. And if you don’t have a pet borrow one, or volunteer at an animal shelter.
10. Give Back
Doing good deeds releases endorphins, helping you to feel good, the aptly named “helpers high”. So when you help others, you’re also helping yourself.
It can be especially helpful if you've been feeling sad or depressed. Just get out there and help someone and notice how quickly your mood lifts as your focus changes from you onto someone else.
Altruistic acts can help you feel more grateful for where you are and what you have, as often you’ll be helping out someone who’s worse off than you are.
So do what you can to help others, but look after yourself too. Don't end up taking on so much, or involving yourself in too many sad situations, that you end up being the one needing help.
11. Just Let Go
Holding on to anger... and frustration... and guilt... has a huge impact on your body. It takes tremendous energy to hold onto these emotions, energy you could be using to live your life.
When you release these emotions, or just let go, two immensely powerful words, a huge amount of energy is freed up for you to invest elsewhere.
So let go of who you think you are and the stories you tell yourself.
Let go of how you think things should be.
And just BE.
12. Be Grateful
Feeling gratitude has been shown to have many benefits. Not just psychologically, but physically too.
And so you should not only concentrate on avoiding negative emotions, like anger and fear, but you should also focus on cultivating positive emotions, such as gratitude, joy, wonder, appreciation, and trust.
Feeling positive emotions releases a neuropeptide called oxytocin, which shuts down the receptors in your amygdala, a part of the brain responsible for fear and anxiety.
Emotions such as gratitude and appreciation open your heart and raise your energetic vibration to new heights, raising your levels of health and vitality.
Try jotting down a few things you feel grateful for every day in a journal. You'll soon notice just how many things you have to be grateful for!
13. Get Out Into Nature
Most of us spend the workday indoors in front of computer screens, basking under the glow of fluorescent lights. Then we return home, plonking ourselves down in front of our television screens.
Getting out into nature, or even just being able to view nature through a window, has many proven benefits. Chief among them; reducing inflammation, fighting depression and anxiety, lowering blood pressure, and boosting your immune system.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there.
And bask under the glow of the sun instead!
14. Drink More Water
Water is essential to life. Sadly, most people living in the industrial world are dehydrated. People mistakenly think that tea, coffee, alcohol, and soda beverages are sufficient for our stressed-out and dehydrated bodies.
If we don't drink enough water, we become increasingly dehydrated and often we mistake a thirst signal from our body for one of hunger. And so we reach for a snack that our body doesn't want or need.
Roughly 75% of our body, and 85% of our brain tissue, is made up of water. So drink more clean, filtered water and your body (and waistline) will thank you for it.
15. Get More Sleep
If I were to tell you of a wonder drug which has been found to ward off colds and flu, help you curb food cravings, lower your risk of strokes and heart attacks, make you feel happier, less anxious and less depressed, as well as make you live longer, would you buy it?
Well, the good news is you don't need to pay a cent. All you need to do is get a full night of sleep. These claims are supported by the results of more than 17,000 studies into the benefits of sleep.
So drink some water, turn off your telly and phone, and get some zzzz.
