How to Look After Your Wellbeing
In this blog post I share my personal relationship with prioritising my wellbeing. I offer five ways you can take steps to focus on your wellbeing.
My relationship with looking after my wellbeing has gone up and down throughout my adult life.
There have been times when I had a regular practice of different activities to look after my wellbeing mostly to reduce stress.
This included going to gym classes, swimming, boxing classes, yoga, meditation, meal prep, gratitude practices and tracking my screen time.
I didn't do all of these all at once, but I did a few of the activities during the same time period.
There were other times, mainly during my undergraduate uni days, where I would go on several nights out in one week, have minimal sleep and eat takeaways!
For most of us it's a challenge to have a 100% healthy lifestyle all the time.
Plus a balanced lifestyle is different for every person.
I love sleep, I used to be able to sleep for 10 hours some nights! However, over the last year and a bit I have had disrupted sleep (motherhood life), which of course isn't the best for anyone's wellbeing!
At the moment, taking care of my wellbeing looks like:
Going outside for a daily walk
Mindfulness in everyday life
Gratitude practice before falling asleep
Drinking lots of water
Short and simple yoga postures
Some days I will do a couple of things on the list, others I'll try to practice them all. Everyday is different and simply having the intention to do one thing that helps me feel happy is enough.
Your list will look different to mine and to someone else's.
Everyone has different thoughts on what aspect of their wellbeing they want to focus on.
I wanted to share this to reassure you that I'm not perfect at always prioritising my wellbeing.
Especially before I share my suggestions on ways that you can focus on your wellbeing.
5 Ways to Focus on your Wellbeing
Reflect on What is Important to You
Take some time to think about what matters to you in your life.
You can write this down as a list or as doodling if you enjoy having things in a visual format.
When you have your list, reflect on how taking care of your health and wellbeing relates to each area of your life.
For example, family- using tools to look after my mental health will give me more energy to support my family.
Pick a specific aspect you would like to focus on.
Wellness includes a wide range of topics.
Choosing one area can reduce the feeling of overwhelm and that you won't have time to focus on it.
There are eight dimensions of wellness.
Physical
Intellectual
Emotional
Social
Spiritual
Vocational
Financial
Environmental
Once you have picked your area, reflect on what you would like to develop/work on.
For example, area- physical wellness
Work on - feeling less tense in my body
Then decide what three actions you could take to work towards your desired outcome.
For the above example this could be, doing gentle yoga or stretches twice a week; listen to a guided meditation before going to sleep every night; have movement breaks throughout the day.
Often when you focus on one aspect of your wellbeing it will have an impact on other areas of your life.
Decide how you will know when you've reached your aim
It can be hard to measure when you have reached your desired outcome.
One way you could do this is by tracking how your body feels each day for X number of days.
Or rate on a scale of 1-10 how tense you feel in your body (if choosing physical wellness).
You can adapt this to the area of your choice.
Remember Your Why
There will be days that you don't feel motivated to do something to support your wellbeing.
On these days, try not to be judgemental or critical towards yourself. Notice the thoughts that arise and acknowledge them before letting them pass.
Remember not everything that you think in your mind is true!
At times when you want to feel motivated to continue, think back to your reason for starting to give yourself some kind encouragement.
You don't need to spend a huge amount of time each day; you can pick something that takes a few minutes to help you feel calmer.
Have Fun
Try not to put too much pressure on yourself when doing the steps above.
Explore bringing elements of fun into your activities to keep them exciting!
To End
I hope you found these tips useful and that they help you take steps to prioritise your wellbeing.
Would you like to feel supported when taking steps to focus on your mental health and wellness?
I have limited spaces available to work with me, from August, in my 1 to 1 Transform programme.
Over 8 weeks, you'll be guided to discover a calmer mental space with yoga nidra meditation and regular contact to support your mental wellbeing.
If you are a parent to a neurodivergent child and would like to take steps to focus on taking care of you to feel rested and have more energy, I would love to work with you.
Discover more by clicking here.