In an effort to bring more awareness to all the things we can do for ourselves to bring about wellness, this week has been named National Wellness Week. It’s true; wellness is more in your control than you may realize. Committing to the simple steps advised in the Wellness Week Pledge honestly could save your life.
The pledge asks you to:
- Change your breakfast: Give your day a healthy start with foods like oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, seeds, nuts and whole grains.
- Choose to move: Walk more every day by taking stairs instead of elevators, parking farther away from stores or work and/or taking a break from work and at lunch to go for a quick stroll.
- Hydrate: Drink a glass of water before breakfast, lunch or dinner. Or all of these!
- Connect with nature: Walk outside, breathe in the fresh air, and enjoy all that the outdoors offers us for a few minutes each day. Nature heals in so many ways.
- Make sleep a priority: Create a regular sleep routine – which improves the quality of your sleep – by sticking (reasonably) to a set bedtime and by not eating or working in bed.
- Embrace the power of touch: Recharge yourself and others by such things as giving or receiving a hug, foot rub or five-minute massage. Like nature, hugs heal!
- Give yourself the gift of silence: Take 10 minutes a day away from screens – phone, TV and computer – and enjoy the quiet. It’s the gift of stress relief, and calming your whole system down.
This is the basics. I could, of course, expand on all of the above (and have!). If you want more of the official Wellness Week pledge or details, you can find it at: Take the Wellness Week Pledge.
If all of this feels like too much, choose one thing to change. Decide to have a healthier breakfast for a week or so. When you’re ready, move on to another switch. You build solid wellness this way. Give yourself the way to win.
