It doesn’t have to take much to improve health and wellbeing. In fact, sometimes, the smallest acts and changes in our routine when done regularly can have the biggest impact! Self care doesn’t always have to mean expensive spa trips and elaborate acts of self love. And self care definitely isn’t just for the bad times in life either.
Self care is for every day. Not just the bad days. We should be looking after ourselves and doing things to positively effect our well being every. single. day. This is something I’ve been focusing a lot on this year – and I think a lot of people probably have since the start of the pandemic.
Related reads:
- 50+ Amazing Self Care Goals To Improve Your Life
- 30 Self Care Ideas in 30 Minutes Or Less
- Unusual Self Care Ideas If You’re Bored of Baths & Candles
But today I wanted to share some teeny, tiny almost insignificant things we can do every day (or nearly every day – circumstances depending) that will improve health and wellbeing. Today, tomorrow and every good and bad day to come.
Small routine and mindset shifts can do incredible things for your body, mind, soul and spirit. So don’t neglect these small things which will undoubtedly improve your health and wellbeing!
6 super easy ways to improve health and wellbeing:
Drink enough water
Obvious. But one that gets frightfully overlooked. I have a connection to water. Water calms me and has ever since I developed an anxiety disorder back in 2011. I sip on water when I’m feeling anxious, I think about water if I need to calm my racing mind and being around water is an absolute dream. But drinking enough water is so overlooked but it’s the easiest thing to do to improve your well being. If you don’t like plain water, there are plenty of alternative!
Related read: The Surprising Benefits of Drinking Water
Stretch – it feels good!
Taking 5 minutes for yourself when you get out of bed in the morning to just stretch it out can feel wonderful. Like literally, it feels amazing. Why wouldn’t you want to do it?! Basic arm, neck, shoulder and leg stretches, which take 5 minutes of your day but can have an amazing effect on the rest of it. If you have pain which isn’t going away or something you feel needs more attention, it’s always worth checking it out with your local GP or a physiotherapy specialist such as Physio Comes To You.
Related read: Yoga Poses For Lower Back Pain
Express gratitude
This doesn’t have to mean from a rooftop, with a speaker in the middle of town. You don’t even have to do anything in order to express gratitude but feeling grateful and actively thinking about things that you’re grateful for that day can have a huge psychological and mental benefit on your overall well being.
I kept a gratitude journal a few years ago and wrote down one thing I was grateful for every day for a year. I completed it but it didn’t really work for me because by the end, I felt like I was scrambling for things to write. Now, I simply take a few minutes each day to think about or say out loud what I’m grateful for in that moment.
Breathe (and do it properly)
Since learning more about Yoga, I’ve learnt a great deal about the importance of breathing and the effect it has on the body. There’s so many difference types of breath we can do (I’m not qualified enough to explain them nor do I know all of them) for difference situations and just taking stock of your breathing throughout the day can be so beneficial.
I’d highly recommend researching breathing techniques, especially if you’re looking to improve your mental wellbeing more. We lose the ability to breathe properly as we get older so simply learning how to breath through your diaphragm again is magical.
Improve health and wellbeing by getting outside
I know this is a difficult one because everyone’s situations are different and there may be a ton of reasons why you can’t make it outside on any given day but just for the sake of this post, let’s keep it in. I always, always, always try and get outside at least once a day. I work from home so I don’t have any need to commute and working from home certainly has a impact on this one (which I’m sure you’ll agree with if you work from home yourself).
In the summer, I take my laptop outside to work (if it’s not too hot, in which case I’m in front of a fan!). In the winter, I’ll take my dog for a walk over a nice park we have near us. There’s so many options!
Work on your posture
Ugh, one I am awful at but definitely have started noticing more. Your posture can have a huge effect on things such as muscle aches, headaches or tense shoulders. We spend so long hunched over our phones and laptops that we forget how to sit properly! In fact, right before I started typing this sentence, I realised how hunched I was and quickly sat up straighter. Again, take stock. Notice.
