To keep our internal wellsprings flowing, we turn to these wellness tips for a bit of help.
What does wellness mean to you? In this day and age, it’s a more powerful word than ever. Does it mean free from covid? Does it mean low cholesterol? A healthy BMI? What about our mental health? Does that count? Most likely, it means all of these and more. Wellness is sustainability in its truest sense.
The importance of wellness has become increasingly evident in recent years, as research has shown that poor health and lifestyle choices can lead to chronic diseases and other health problems. In fact, the World Health Organization has identified non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes as the leading cause of death worldwide, with lifestyle factors such as poor diet, lack of physical activity, and tobacco use being major contributors to these diseases.
Stress and anxiety are our body’s natural reactions to a range of situations from work and parenting to the loss of a loved one. And for many people in the UK, dealing with stress is a daily occurrence, with more than 74 percent admitting that they feel so inundated with these unpleasant emotions that they’ve found it difficult to cope. However, ongoing stress can eventually affect a person’s mental and physical health, so finding ways to reduce and manage it has become essential.
Get a health assessment
First things first: make sure there aren’t any underlying conditions that could be causing your stress or symptoms that mimic stress like digestive upset, and trouble sleeping, among other issues. As we age, changes happen to our bodies and minds. For women especially, the symptoms of health conditions are typically milder, and it can be challenging to determine a cause when you’re not feeling yourself. Talk with your primary care physician about the changes to your stress levels and other issues you’re noticing to rule out any underlying conditions or risk factors.
Wellness tips
While the concept of wellness may seem overwhelming at first, it is important to remember that small changes can have a big impact. It is never too late to start taking steps toward improving one’s overall well-being. By making conscious choices and taking actions that promote physical, mental, emotional, social, and environmental health, one can achieve optimal wellness and lead a fulfilling and meaningful life. From cutting out bad habits and getting your daily exercise intake to reducing your caffeine intake and practicing meditation, we outline some of the best natural remedies for stress below.
Take time for yourself
It’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of life. But taking time for yourself is one of the best things you can do for your health. Whether you spend time in nature, engage in a hobby, meditate, or read, taking time each day to calm your mind, connect with yourself, and recharge is important.
Between juggling our relationships, family, friends, children, career, and many more commitments, finding time for ourselves and indulging in some much-needed self-care can be challenging. Although it is a common misconception that self-care is selfish or self-indulgent, it is essential to put those views behind you, as it is vital for ensuring that you are healthy, can do your job efficiently, can care for others correctly, and get through the day as well as you can.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen self-care explode in popularity. Now it’s hard to check our social media pages without being bombarded by the latest bath products or facial creams, which has caused a polarising view of the topic. As the name suggests, self-care is designed to benefit you, so what you practice might be entirely different for someone else.
Whether you wind down with an hour-long bubble bath or participate in an online yoga class, there are tons of ways you can practice self-care and make yourself feel calmer. But it’s essential to stay on top of it! To avoid slipping back into your stressed state of mind, set aside an evening a week to dedicate to your self-care ritual so you can apply yourself to physical and emotional tasks to the best of your ability and cope with daily stressors.
Focus on nutrition and exercise
Healthy eating is essential at any age. It can help reduce the risks associated with heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. It can also help you manage your weight, which is especially important as our metabolism slows as we age. Focus on replacing unhealthy or processed foods with fresh produce and clean proteins. Also, make sure to drink plenty of water. Exercise is another important part of staying healthy and fit, as it can boost your mood, reduce stress, and increase your energy. Exercising regularly can also help improve your sleep quality and reduce stress.
Fortunately, it has become easier than ever to get your daily physical activity in due to the emergence of video-sharing software like Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft Team.
Using software like the above, you can sign-up for virtual exercise classes, which you can attend wherever and whenever you’d like. Whether in the break room at work or the comfort of your own home, you don’t have to commute to physical premises or be around people if you’d rather not!
Ultimately, getting your one-hundred and fifty minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity weekly can help you clear your thoughts, feel more positive, and give you the ability to deal with your problems in a calmer mind frame, making it an excellent natural stress buster.
Develop a good sleep routine
Sleep is important no matter what age you are. While it’s important to sleep for a long enough amount of time each night, it’s also important to sleep well. To improve the quality of your sleep, try to make your sleep routine as consistent as possible. This can include avoiding blue light, eating several hours before bed, and turning off any devices in your bedroom. That’s right, turning off the devices.
Electronic devices like smartphones, tablets, and iPods have become a massive part of our personal and professional lives. While necessary for completing specific tasks, they can also increase stress levels.
We could be having a wonderful day, then reach for our phones and see an upsetting piece of news or a nasty comment on our latest Instagram post from a stranger, and then our whole day is ruined. Due to this, it is essential that you keep a balance between your online and offline lives, as too much exposure has been linked to numerous mental health disorders and increased stress levels.
Not only this but having a high screen time can also affect the amount of sleep you get per night. This can also be linked to mental health disorders like depression, anxiety and increased feelings of stress. But fortunately, there are many ways to reduce screen time during the day and before bed!
From trying to avoid mealtimes in front of a screen and putting your phone in another room when going to bed to turning off notifications and setting a timer, there are a number of ways to minimize how long you spend looking at your phone and other electronic devices. Doing so will make you feel more refreshed and more focused on the things happening around you, which can directly affect your stress levels.
Cut out bad habits
During extreme stress, we often think there’s nothing better than heading over to our drinks cabinet and pouring ourselves a tipple as a pick-me-up or heading outside and sparking up a cigarette/having a couple of puffs on our vape pens. Or even heading to our local Starbucks and ordering ourselves a specialty coffee (hold the whipped cream).
However, although smoking and caffeinated/alcoholic drinks are one of the most popular forms of stress relief, they’re not all that good for us in the long run compared to our other suggestions on this list. Although doing these things during stressed-out moments might make us feel better, the effects are only temporary, and eventually, all your stress will return.
Thus begins a cycle of relying on these crutches for temporary relief and never actually addressing the main issue: the root of your stress. To avoid getting stuck in this cycle, it is essential that you refrain from beginning it or making efforts to reduce participation in them as much as possible. For instance, if you’re the kind of person who seeks relief from a cigarette during periods of stress.
Slowly try and reduce your tobacco consumption, and instead, focus on the issue from which your stress stems. Now we understand, especially if you’ve been an avid tobacco user for most of your life, that it can be challenging to reduce your intake quickly. If you think you’ll struggle, consider using vape pens to help ween you off traditional cigarettes. (To help you get started on the sites of independent vape stores like Grey Haze. Consider visiting their website to learn more and see how their products could help you begin your journey towards cutting out bad habits completely today.)
Wellness products
The best way to take care of ourselves is to let our bodies do the brunt of the work. And that means foods and supplements that heal and protect, routines and rituals that nurture and rejuvenate. These wellness products will boost your health, your mood, and everything in between.
mykind Organics Vitamin C Spray
Millions of people increased their vitamin C intake during the early days of covid lockdown for immune-boosting. It’s such an important nutrient in fending off and recovering from all manner of germs. But did you know vitamin C also helps with stress reduction? And if we need anything as much as immune protection these days, it’s also a bit of stress relief.
Try Alicia Silverstone’s MyKind Organics vitamin C. The actor and entrepreneur (and mom!) takes such care to ensure the products are made with the highest quality organic and sustainably sourced ingredients. The spray is super convenient to keep at the desk or when on the go.
Traditional Medicinals Ginger Tea
Ginger is an incredibly powerful multi-hyphenate. It’s a digestive soother, an anti-inflammatory, and it helps fight unwanted viruses and bacteria. It’s even been linked to cancer prevention.
But if nothing else, ginger tea is a calming ritual, like any cup of tea. Traditional Medicinals is the category leader because the quality assurance can’t be beat. The company works closely with its farmer partners in organic ingredient production. Based on traditional European herbalism, the formulations have been relied on for ages.
Public Goods Uplift Essential Oil Blend
Essential oils are often dismissed as woo-woo hippie stuff. But science shows us that scents are powerful — going directly to the brain, which can trigger a whole host of responses, including pulling up age-old memories.
One thing they can do is change our moods — almost immediately. And essential oils are the way to go for that instead of toxic air fresheners or candles. These pure plant extracts are potent concentrations that can do a lot with very little.
The essential oil blends like the citrusy Uplift. It is so fresh and bright, like cheer in a bottle. And research shows citrus scent may have benefits on our mood. And adding to that mood boost is knowing that Public Goods only makes sustainable products that are better for the planet, too.
Athletic Greens
There’s so much hype around the brand, and it makes sense. You could literally eat nothing else but this stuff and be healthier than most people. It packs in all the nutrients including protein and fiber as well as all the vitamins and minerals that even the healthiest eaters have trouble getting in their diet.
The company is green in other ways, too: offsetting freight emissions, working with cGMP-certified suppliers, and prioritizing plastic-free and recyclable packaging.
Yuve Probiotic Gummies
Adult vitamin gummies are great for those who hate swallowing pills, especially if that has made you inconsistent with your vitamin habit.
These vegan gummies from Yuve are delicious and effective. They are sugar-free, vegan, and organic and use ingredients grown through sustainable farming in the United States.
Related on Ethos:
