What have you been doing lately for your self-care?

Self-care is often neglected in our busy lives.

When you’re responsible for work, tasks and other people, it’s so easy to miss looking after ourselves.

According to a study done by wayahead.org, 75% of Australians surveyed admitted that stress in their lives adversely affected their physical health

What soothes your soul?

For me, natural beauty, and spending time in creation has pulled me out of dark moments.

It reconnects me to my heart.

Also, my connection with my close loved-ones.

In a study done on stress, every person who was connected in relationships with some form of close community – whether this was through their colleagues, social group, church or close family, said that the connections gave them courage through stressful times.

Feeling alone and unsupported can be a major cause of stress.

Stress is by far the most insidious, serious problem we face when it comes to preventing disease and living long and healthy lives.

New research states that it’s our response to stress that makes it unhealthy or healthy for you.

Oxytocin is a hormone in our body that protects your cardiovascular system; it helps heart cells regenerate.

Oxytocin is enhanced by social contact & social support. Human connection helps save lives.

Another cause of stress is our thoughts and mindset.

Mindset is defined as an attitude, disposition or mood (a set of rules you create to either live the life of your dreams…or not).

The mind-body connection is undeniably strong and there is now so much research to prove it.

It’s surprisingly simple how easy it is to improve our health and wellbeing by what we choose to focus on.

If we focus on our problems, they get bigger.

If we focus on the good things that we have and are grateful for them, generally speaking,… more of them tend to come our way.

Focusing on our self-care is a crucial step in elevating our wellbeing.

In order to make self-care a priority, it needs to be ritualised.

It’s not what we do as a one-off activity, but what we build into our lives as habits.

Your habitual behaviours are nothing other than actualised neural networks.

If you want to change your habits you must first seek to change the way your neurons are wired together.

Think of it as a series of roads inside your mind. If you want to end up in a different location you must take different roads to get there.

Developing wellbeing is not designed to prevent problems.

It’s designed to help you to stop falling off the horse, and ultimately to help you get back on the horse if you do fall off a whole lot quicker.

Here are some simple things we can easily build into our lives daily for self-care:

1. Write down 3 things you are grateful for every morning or night

Grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and they report feeling healthier than other people, according to a 2012 study published in Personality and Individual Differences. 

Writing down what you’re grateful for is such a simple practice.

Even if you already feel like a grateful person, there’s something magical about writing it down and reflecting on it every day.

2. Do some simple bodyweight movements or a short walk before or after breakfast, lunch or dinner or before every shower.

Our muscles need strengthening, especially if we sit a lot and as we age.

You don’t need a full-on gym routine to stay strong. You can look up bodyweight movements on YouTube and follow along.

3. Do a few quick stretches after every hour we sit at our computer (every 30 minutes even better!)

How many times have you intended to do this, but the next thing you know the whole day has passed?

This one takes setting a reminder alarm.

4. Write a list of the people who bring out the best in you and send an encouraging message to one person each day.

We all need encouragement.

Sending a daily encouragement text or voice message is a lovely daily practice that helps others and also makes you feel good because you’re contributing to making the world a better place in a very simple, but powerful way.

5. Spend daily time in nature getting fresh air and sunshine.

It’s so easy to just sit inside all day if we’re not intentional.

When you’re planning your day, include even the smallest amount of fresh air and sunshine.

Even if it’s just a short walk or reading a book outside while you have lunch.

How do you like to elevate your soul?

Are you feeling fatigued or burnt out? 

Do you find stress from your relationships difficult to navigate?

Do you find yourself with unhealthy habits that you want to change? 

My upcoming ‘Elevate Your Wellbeing‘ Workshop on October 15th shows you how to navigate the tough stuff of life, develop a constructive and flexible mindset, and bring you back to a beautiful state of health, happiness, and wellbeing. 

It helps you get out of your head, to stop thinking about what you need to do and gives you the capacity to JUST DO IT.

You’ll learn how to train your brain to stop procrastinating. You’ll discover the power that’s hidden inside of you, that will enable you to START, TAKE ACTION and maintain a new YOU.

Learning these important lessons in life has truly been a gift. I’d love to share them with you!

—> Learn more about the next Elevate Your Wellbeing workshop here