Wellness is a head-and-heart combo. It’s not enough to prioritize physical wellness if my heart has been hijacked or if I’m distracted by the overwhelming news. But I know that my general daily health always improves if I pay attention to these five things.
#1. Drinking more water, for mental clarity and physical well-being. I make a Post-It note checklist to see how many glasses I actually drink …. It’s always less than I think it is. The checklist keeps me honest and aware. (The other day I downloaded an app called Plant Nanny, where I gave a virtual plant a drink every time I finished a glass of water….it was fun, but it kept me tied to my phone all day, which contradicted my next suggestion!)
#2. I flip my phone over, have my ringer off, and have my phone out of physical reach when I’m working. When I want to digitally detox and stop mindlessly checking my phone all day long when I’m at home, I change my phone to grayscale. When Instagram / Facebook isn’t in color, it doesn't hold my interest very long, and I do something else that’s more engaging than more phone time.
#3. Get up and move my body in all directions - standing and stretching up, reaching back, touching my toes, moving my neck in all directions, moving my eyes in all directions.
#4. Building intentional rest into my day. This is the newest and hardest one to do, for me. In those moments of stop and sit, without bouncing up to …. DO ANYTHING … I have to guard against grabbing my phone and instead just BE. Take some breaths. Check in with my body. Say a prayer. Send out a thought to someone. Stay with stillness. Be grateful for whatever has happened in the past hour, or past 15 minutes. Get in touch with whatever thoughts have been running in my brain, and evaluating them … have I been kind and compassionate in my thoughts about myself or someone else in the past few minutes? Or have I been running a mental thought pattern of how someone wronged me, or how I’m somehow not good enough? Then I stay, breath, and offer kindness. (Literally, I have to talk to myself like I’m training a dog: “Sit. Stay. Wait.” It keeps me amused and less self-critical. I KNOW that I bounce around like a small dog otherwise!)
#5. Connection to Nature. I go outside for whatever amount of time I have - just to catch some sunshine or smell the rain, to wave at a neighbor, to take the dogs for a walk, or to take a hike.
What do you do, for your general wellness?
Angela Hall
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