Usually when someone says "healthy" we instantly think of the our weight, or the way we eat. though those things are an important piece of our health, we also contribute to our health by having a healthy mind, because, well.. a healthy mind breeds a healthy body, and vise versa!
It's May!
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and few things have been more important than mental health over the past year. The pandemic has led to an unprecedented decline in the physical, mental and social well-being of Americans. It is up to us to not only help ourselves, but to reach out to others to help get through this together in a positive way.
Here are 7 steps the have a healthy mind in a healthy body:
Daily Physicality: Exercise for at least 20 minutes most days of the week.
Intellectual Curiosity: Spend some time in focused thought, exploring new ideas every day.
Foster Creativity: Challenge your mind to connect unrelated ideas in new and useful ways.
Human Unity: Create and maintain close-knit human bonds and a social support network.
Spiritual Connectedness: Identify a Source of inspiration that is bigger than you.
Energy Balance: Balance Calories in/Calories out, and reduce your carbon footprint.
Voluntary Simplicity: Embrace the liberty that comes with wanting and needing less.
Our Minds are a powerful thing. Having a healthy mind is as important as having a healthy body!
“Do less.”
“Simplify your life.”
“Stop being so busy!”
Tip 1: Reduce procrastination
Procrastination is the act of delaying tasks, despite potential negative consequences. According to Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology in the U.S., around 20% of U.S. adults are chronic procrastinators. And a study of 865 office workers in the U.K. found that employees spent an average of two hours procrastinating during their working days. The most common form of procrastination involved browsing social media.
Tip2: Focus on micro self-care activities
Maybe, you don’t have an abundance of time to spend on self-care. That’s okay! Self-care doesn’t have to be a huge commitment every single day. Instead, you may find it helpful to focus on micro self-care activities.
Spend two minutes taking deep, intentional breaths when you wake up in the morning.
Listen to short podcasts, like The Mindful Kind, Practicing Human with Cory Muscara, or Small Things Often from The Gottman Institute.
Do some simple stretches before you go to bed at night if you don’t have time for a full yoga class.
Read a book for ten minutes during your lunch break.
Put on your favorite song and sing or dance when your energy dips in the afternoon.
Tip 3: Make screen time a lower priority
When you arrive home from work, and you feel depleted, try not to turn on the television straight away. Instead, engage in a self-care activity that helps you have fun, feel calmer, or recharge your energy. For example, you might go for a mindful walk. You could listen to a meditation. You could have a meaningful conversation with a loved one.
Once you’ve completed the self-care activities you want to do, then you can enjoy some screen time. There are two main benefits of this habit — first of all, you won’t get engrossed by a compelling show or fall down the rabbit hole of social media and run out of time for other self-care activities. And the second benefit is you’ll probably reduce your overall screen time. Excessive screen time can lead to a variety of problems, including bad posture, less physical activity, vision issues, back pain, and poor sleep.
A little bit of screen time can be part of your self-care routine, but it might be more beneficial to include a variety of other activities in your routine, too.