5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Wellbeing and Holistic Health
Mental health, money, physical health and more - 5 easy tips to get you started on the road to an improved wellbeing
Welcome and thank you for checking out Optimise Me, a bi-monthly newsletter sharing research-backed, practical tips to help you optimise your self-growth and personal productivity.
As we hurtle further and further into 2023, you may have fallen off already, or the real pressure of maintaining an idealised year may have finally hit you over the head.
It’s hard, that investing thing people like to do. Being consistent is difficult for the best of us. Personally, I like to make things easy. I want it to be as easy as possible to live a fulfilling, happy and healthy life.
Here are some of the best, and easiest tips you can implement in your daily routine to improve your wellbeing and overall happiness.
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1. Improving your Mental Health: Social Media Fasts
When we think of fasting, our mind goes towards food. Fasts aren’t always pleasant - I’ve experienced everything from no-sugar fasts to water-only fasts. Fasts aren’t always concerned with food though. The term has expanded to encompass abstaining from other things that may bring joy, but can also facilitate depression if the dosage isn’t regulated.
Like social media.
Don’t get me wrong - I love social media. I think it is a powerful means through which we can connect with others, have meaningful conversations, and learn from diverse expertise. However, social media also has its drawbacks. Multiple studies have demonstrated a strong link between heavy social media usage, and increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm and even suicidal thoughts.
Enforcing a limit gives you the opportunity to take matters into your own hands. You spend more time in the present, focused, and with less distractions. It might feel strange to withdraw from the stimulation, especially if you are a heavy social media user, but after a while, you’ll find yourself wondering why you ever spent so much time on social media in the first place.
⚡️ ACTION: Try to spend some time fasting from social media, and intensely curate the content you choose to consume. Enforce a time limit for each app, and try to avoid using social media during the times you are most productive.
2. Improving Your Spiritual Health: Prayer and Meditation
A 2009 study on the effects of prayer on depression and anxiety found that members of a group had lower rates of depression and anxiety and were more optimistic after sessions in which they prayed for one another, compared to the control group (which had no prayer sessions). Another study found that there was a decisive link between stress reduction and meditation, with a moderate decrease in anxiety levels for individuals placed on a mindful meditation programme.
Spiritual health can be something that’s easy to neglect, especially if you don’t consider yourself a ‘spiritual’ person. Some folks find it difficult to connect to spiritual beings and third eyes. That’s okay - spirituality is all about understanding and tapping into the sense of a ‘greater purpose’ or something outside yourself. Sometimes, there’s a lot of pressure that builds up when simply relying on yourself, or focusing so much on your capacity to do. Tapping into mindfulness and the spiritual allows you to go big picture, curate a sense of awe around the world, and renew your sense of purposefulness.
⚡️ ACTION: Spend 10 minutes every day this week, either praying or meditating (or both) and track how it impacts your sense of self and wellbeing.
3. Improving Your Emotional Health: Connect With Loved Ones
I love feeling connected. I love my family, my friends, and my general community. I love being around people who love me. It has been an incredible contributor to my sense of happiness and wellbeing.
Despite the increased connectivity provided by the digital world, younger generations are reporting increased feelings of loneliness. It’s pretty simple but very underrated, but one thing I can really attest to really changing my wellbeing is committing to hanging out with my friends and family regularly. I try to organise at least 1 catch up with a friend on a weekly/ bi-monthly basis, in person, and it gives me so much to look forward to. It also reminds me that I actually have a community of people who love me, and who are willing to invest in spending time with me. Also, it’s actually just nice hanging out with loved ones.
⚡️ ACTION: Try to organise at least 2 in-person catch ups with people you love. Ideally, no shorter than 90 minutes. It can be over food, an activity.
4: Improving Your Financial Health: Save and Invest
This isn’t an article all about getting six-figures. You can get there, if you wish. But if that feels a little bit daunting, and you’re trying to ascertain some simple habits to transform your relationship with money, then what you need to practice is retaining money.
When you receive your paycheque, or any kind of money, how good are you at retaining or growing it? Do you meaningfully utilise your money, do you save on things that are important to you, and do you make crucial investments? Investments don’t have to be stocks and shares - you can invest in money-making personal skills, real estate, education, and various other things. Once you are able to save and invest as a principle, the retention and multiplication of money becomes that much easier.
⚡️ ACTION: Try to get into the habit of saving for one thing, and investing in another thing, each month. It may be having a saving goal for something you’d like to buy, or investing in stocks, or investing in your education.
5: Improving Your Physical Health: Take Regular Walks
You only have one body in this life (as far as we know) and it is important to cherish and respect it. That doesn’t mean you have to maintain the most elaborate work out plan, or simply eat vegetables. It means implementing simple, healthy and sustainable steps to ensure you are fit and healthy.
The benefits of walking include reducing the risk of developing breast cancer, boosts immune function, decrease sweet cravings, ease joint pain and support with healthy weight maintenance. I try to get 10k steps per day, and if I find that walking to work, taking walks after eating, and sometimes scheduling a walking work meeting, helps me stay active throughout the day. It’s low impact for those who may be suffering from any joint pains or challenges, and it’s pretty easy to do - requiring no equipment.
⚡️ ACTION: Try to schedule in at least an extra 20-30 minutes of walking per day - aim to do so after mealtimes, or during breaks across the day.
💡 Re-Cap:
To improve your mental health: take regular social media fasts
To improve your spiritual health: implement prayer and meditation
To improve your emotional health: connect regularly with loved ones
To improve your financial health: find opportunities
To improve your physical health: take regular walks
💥 Extra Goodies
I’m reading: High Performance - Jake Humphrey
I’m listening to: Spiritual Wounding, What it is and How to Heal - Adam Young, the Place We Find Ourselves
I’m watching: The transformative power of walk - Sandra James
Wellness encompasses a healthy body, a sound mind, and a tranquil spirit. Enjoy the journey as you strive for wellness. -Laurette Gagnon Beaulieu