One of the most important gifts you can give yourself, is wellbeing. It doesn’t have to mean jet set holidays, days at the spa or a healthy meal every now again. Wellbeing is about having good mental health, high life satisfaction, and a sense of meaning or purpose. Who wouldn’t want that for themselves? And guess what? Wellbeing can be achieved through small acts that symbolize to you, that you matter.
Unfortunately, we often become distracted by what life throws at us which leads us to neglect our own wellbeing. When time is limited, and we have an ever-growing to-do list we often sacrifice the time we had set outside for ourselves in order to complete our list of things to do. It’s often easier than explaining to someone why we didn’t get their ‘thing’ done for them.
Fortunately, there is a way that you can start to make wellness a habit and integrate it into your day whether it’s a work-day, weekend or holiday. First you have to take the decision that your own wellbeing is important to you, followed by an appropriate commitment to yourself about what that means and how you are going to achieve and maintain it.
5 fundamental actions to achieve daily wellbeing
1. Freedom in structure
Contrary to popular belief there is freedom in structure. Many people rile against the idea of regularizing their wellbeing activities, preferring to be spontaneous. Unfortunately, in my experience those waiting for spontaneous opportunities to take care of their wellbeing, never find them. Set aside time for the activities that take more than 30 minutes to do otherwise they run the risk of becoming aspirational wellbeing activities.
2. Combine with connection
If you’re more of a starter and likely to run out of steam taking care of your wellbeing you may want to consider buddying up with a friend or joining a group. This way you have the bonus of connection as well as the activity i.e. exercise, sewing, dance class etc. And this could be good way to maximise your time.
3. Foster healthy relationships
The relationships we develop and maintain in life are essential for wellness. We derive a sense of worth from being loved and appreciated by other people. Having respectful colleagues, clients, and great family and friends can really give a boost to our self-confidence and happiness because we’re all here to support one another.
4. Develop and monitor wellbeing habits
Habits are created by doing something over and over again until it becomes a part of us. Without good habits, we’ll struggle to accomplish anything. Choose a few wellbeing habits that you want to foster on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Keep track of your progress and do them with regularity so that they become ‘a thing you do’ rather than a ‘special thing you’re doing’. Once you’ve integrated them into your life you can add to them.
5. Be kind to yourself
During busy times we may slip back into old habits or genuinely need to forgo a wellbeing activity to meet a deadline or rest instead. Recognize that that has happened and learn from the experience. It isn’t helpful to get cranky with yourself or engage in negative self-talk. Consider what you would say to a friend and say that to yourself, remembering a friend would want the best for you.
We’re not meant to constantly be in fight or flight mode and to only rely on sleep to restore us. We need a combination of activities that restore or soothe us on a daily basis and contributes to our overall wellbeing. Taking care of your wellbeing is a proactive way to managing daily stressors and avoiding their cumulative impact down the track.
Introducing Personal Prosperity Prompts
If you don’t know where to start with your wellbeing, I have developed The Personal Prosperity Prompts Deck, a set of 99 unique cards plus a blank one, designed to give you simple, fun, quick ways you can take care of your wellbeing on even the busiest day. The Personal Prosperity Prompts Deck is gender-neutral and offers you the flexibility to carry out the challenge at any time of the day, in any location AND you can choose to carry them out on your own or with others. Nobody needs to know! And that’s not all. Each challenge is designed to be carried out in 15 minutes or less.
So gift yourself some fun, and accept the challenges to implement at home, work or ‘out and about’ – the choice is yours!
Click here to purchase your own set of Personal Prosperity Prompts.
About the Author
You know how it is when you meet an interesting person at a social get together, and you just want to spend the time talking to them? You ask them about themselves, their opinion of your front of mind topic, and you really hope to stay in contact with them afterwards? And you do this because you’ve found someone who ‘gets’ you. They’re easy to talk to, full of quality information, unfazed by your fears, and provide hope that your dreams can come true. They help you realise you’re not broken, you just need some different strategies. Well, I’m Martine Barclay, and that’s what I do. As a Leadership Coach, Psychotherapist and Counsellor, I help professionals reconnect to parts of themselves they left behind somewhere long ago.
Need help finding parts of yourself? Get in touch!
