The best way to be the healthiest version of yourself is by focusing on your total
wellness, including your mind, body, and spirit. Far too many people just try to be
“healthy”, but it can be very subjective and is often focused on physical health alone.
But to be truly healthy, you need to focus on your total wellness, including your mental
health, emotional health, mindset, spirit, and soul.
The following wellness habits can be added to your daily routine very easily, and will
make a big difference in your personal wellness for a more balanced and peaceful state.
Part 1: Wellness Habits for Your Mind
These first set of daily wellness habits are for your mind, including mental and emotional
health, as well as your overall well-being when it comes to your mindset and mental
state.
You can choose all of these, or simply add the ones that are most appealing to you.
Gentle Morning Routine
The way you start your morning, including those very first few minutes after waking up,
will determine your mindset for the rest of your day. If you tend to be chaotic and
stressed within a few minutes after waking up, getting distracted by social media, or into
messy energy, then this might be following you around all day long.
A better option is to focus on having a gentle morning routine. One where you wake up
in a calm state, you have some simple habits that are soothing, quiet, and easy to
accomplish, and a routine that doesn’t feel too busy or includes habits you hate doing.
People often try to go too intense with their morning routines, which leads to more
stress and that is the opposite of helpful.
With every habit, you choose to add (or take away from) to your morning routine, keep your
desired calm and gentle state of mind.
Social Media/Unplugging Breaks
This should absolutely be added to your morning routine, but it is also a great idea to
have social media breaks during other times of the day as well.
While social media isn’t inherently bad, it can do a number on your mental health
without you even realizing it. What often happens is something seems innocent enough,
but what you read or watch begins to affect you. If you are sensitive to certain types of
media or information, then you might want to take some social media detox.
This can be as simple as turning off notifications on your phone so that you only check
social media when you feel mentally prepared for it. Another option is to have “no social
media” hours in the day where you commit to not checking it at all.
Aromatherapy and Herbal Baths
While this might not be something you need to do every single day, it is good to start a
habit of using aromatherapy and herbal baths. You can combine these habits, or use
aromatherapy with essential oils during meditation or simply while relaxing.
Aromatherapy – With aromatherapy, you inhale essential oils in many different forms,
which can then soothe your mind and body. Depending on the oils you use, it can have
a wide range of mental and physical benefits, including reducing stress and anxiety,
helping to manage pain, and improving your sleep.
Herbal bath – You can also take an herbal bath using not only essential oils to get
many of the same effects as with aromatherapy, but also salts and herbs in your
bath for wound healing, aches and pains, improving your immunity, and many more
benefits.
Daily Affirmations
The last wellness habit recommended we have for your mind is daily affirmations.
People often look at affirmations as just positive words you say to yourself, but they are
so much more than that. One important thing to remember is that your subconscious
believes what it is told. It is often your inner conversations and what you keep repeating
to yourself that is absorbed by your subconscious.
With affirmations, you start telling a different story. If you do this often enough and with
conviction, you will notice your mindset and your life start to change.
Here are some ways you can use your affirmations:
* Write down positive affirmations every morning in your journal
* Choose 2-3 affirmations to keep repeating to yourself throughout the day
* Put your favorite affirmations on sticky notes and place them on your bathroom
mirror
Part 2: Wellness Habits for Your Body
When you think about wellness, your physical health probably comes in mind. This
includes wellness habits related to your diet, hydration, exercise, and more. All of these
are included, but we are going to take a slightly different approach.
These habits are those small changes you can make every day that will gradually
improve your health and well-being, but won’t feel restrictive or like you are trying to
force yourself to make too many changes at once.
As with anything, it is consistency that helps the most when introducing new habits
into your routine, especially when it comes to changing your diet and movement.
Multiple Forms of Hydration
One of the most important wellness habits you can incorporate into your lifestyle s
hydration. You absolutely need to stay hydrated, no matter what the weather conditions
are, and whether you are going through a rigorous workout, or sitting at your desk for
hours working.
But hydration is not just about drinking water. This is a big part of it, but there are many
ways you can hydrate your body.
Drink more herbal tea – The first option is to drink more tea! Tea has less caffeine
than coffee, and it is made primarily with just water, so you often feel more hydrated
after you drink it. Depending on your dietary preferences, you might want to avoid
adding anything to it like sugar and cream, but of course, that is up to you.
Eat foods with a high-water content – The foods you eat can also make a difference
in how hydrated you are. Many foods contain a higher water content and actually help
increase how much water you consume in a day, such as lettuce, zucchini, cucumber,
strawberries, apples, watermelon, and tomatoes.
Make your water more interesting – Of course, drinking water is an amazing way to
get more hydration. If you have a hard time drinking just plain water, you can drink
infused water, where you flavor it with fruits and herbs. Another option is to occasionally
drink flavored sparkling water.
Eat More Whole Foods
By focusing on adding more whole foods into your diet, you will be improving your
physical health and well-being, without actually having to be on a “diet” or do anything
too restrictive. Simply add more whole and clean foods to the meals you are already
eating.
Include more roasted or cooked veggies as a side dish to your favorite meals, and add diced
up chicken breast to your pasta to boost the protein, enjoy a green juice you make at
home instead of the bottled stuff you purchase at the grocery store, eat a Greek yogurt
bowl with berries and honey, instead of a bowl of cereal.
The more you choose whole foods in their natural form and prepare meals and snacks
at home, the better you will begin to feel. It is a little more work, but well worth it when
you notice how much better you feel.
Balance Your Gut Bacteria With Probiotics
The other diet-related wellness habit we recommend is to add in some more probiotic
foods. Probiotics will help to balance your gut bacteria, offering the good bacteria your
gut needs for proper health and digestion.
If you can get enough probiotic foods, then you won’t need to take a probiotic
supplement every day. Some foods with probiotics include:
Kombucha
Kefir
Sauerkraut
Yogurt
Spend More Time on Your Feet
Before you begin adding exercise into your daily routine, gradually get used to moving
your body more simply by spending more time on your feet. This can include going for
walks, but it doesn’t have to.
Think about ways you can simply do more things when you aren’t sitting down. For
example, when you are talking on the phone, can you stand up or walk around a little?
This act alone not only burns a few extra calories, but it helps get your body moving
more often. You get into the habit of being on your feet, and soon enough you do it
without even having to think about it.
You can also think about other habits that actually get you standing or moving around
more often, just naturally through that habit. If you are trying to cook at home more
using those whole foods we talked about, you will be standing in your kitchen more
often each day while you prepare your meals. As you can see, it is those little
changes you make each day that get your body moving a bit more.
And of course, you can try to walk more as well. Walk to places you need to go to if they
are within a normal walking distance, park near the back of parking lots, find more
weekend activities with your family that are a little more active.
Find Enjoyable Ways to Move Your Body
Beyond trying to be on your feet more, it is still a good idea to add in some exercise. But
the most important thing when you have your overall wellness in mind is to first find
some enjoyable forms of exercise.
Weightlifting and running might be great workouts, but if you feel like you constantly
have to force yourself to do it, turning it into a daily habit is going to be a lot harder.
Instead, find forms of movement you actually enjoy doing, but give you a similar
workout. For example, you might be someone who prefers kickboxing for cardio, or you
may like bodyweight exercises to strengthen your muscles, instead of lifting heavier
weights.
It is really up to you how you choose to incorporate exercise into your routine. You don’t
have to jump on the latest workout trend just because your friends are doing it. Find
something you love, and it will be much easier to stick to.
Part 3: Wellness Habits for Your Spirit
When thinking about your spirit and what wellness habits would help the most, think
about internal healing and shadow work, healing yourself from the inside out, and digging
deep into what your soul craves the most. This can help guide you in the right direction.
Here are some things to get started with:
Meditation
It really doesn’t get much better than meditation for your daily wellness habits when it
comes to your soul and spirit. Meditation helps in so many ways, from allowing you
some moments of calm and peace each day, to improving your mindset and allowing
you this time to enter a more mindful state.
Meditation comes in many forms, so you don’t have to force yourself to sit quietly with
your eyes closed and try to clear your mind for an hour every day. Meditation can be as
simple as sitting down to write and focus on your daily affirmations, doing a quick breathing
exercise, or be more mindful when you have a quiet moment.
Start with guided meditations – One of the easiest ways to start meditating is with
guided meditations. Start with no more than 5-10 minutes at a time, otherwise, your mind
starts to wander and you will keep checking the time instead of concentrating on the
meditation. You can find free ones on YouTube that you are able to listen to with your
eyes closed. Just follow along for a few minutes a day and see how your life changes.
Sound Healing
If you have ever listened to a song that suddenly shifted your mood, or listened to rain
sounds at night to relax, then you have an idea of how sound can completely impact
your mindset and how you feel. This is where the beauty of sound healing comes in.
Sound healing is a type of therapy often used to help you relax, get into a meditative
state, or even to use it for tapping into your own intuition. People use it for many
different things, but at its core, sound healing can help you to find balance and
harmony, which will drastically improve your spirit and mindset.
Many products are now sold to be used for sound healing at home, such as singing
bowls and gongs. However, to go one step further, consider a sound healing session
with your local Reiki healer.
Gratitude
Believe it or not, something as simple as having a daily gratitude practice is an amazing
way to find more peace, appreciate your life, and really balance your energy and spirit.
Gratitude is something people don’t often consider. It is much easier to be wrapped up
in what is causing you stress or frustration, focusing on your big work tasks, or
relationship troubles. It can be hard to just sit down and think about all the blessings in
your life, and everything that you are grateful for.
By adding a gratitude practice to your daily routine, you give yourself a few minutes
every day where you can reflect on the good in your life, and focus only on what you
appreciate the most.
Set a goal to write down 10 things every day that you are grateful for. They can be your
basic needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter, and small things like your morning cup of
coffee, or surprising things like a gift someone gave you. You can be grateful for your
home, your job, and security, your friends and family, your pets, or even your favorite TV
show.
Think of everything that makes you smile, that brings you joy, that makes your life
easier, and that fills you up with love and happiness. Some days, you will include many of
the same things on your gratitude list, and on others there will be something new to add.
Creating Your Daily Wellness Routine
When it comes to creating a new daily routine, remember that it is all in those little
habits you choose to add to your life. As with anything else new that you start, go slow.
Choose no more than 1-2 habits to start at a time, and find a way to fit them seamlessly
in your life.
If you want to start drinking more water, spend a couple of minutes in the evening filling up
reusable water bottles and putting them in the fridge. This only takes a few minutes and
becomes part of your evening routine.
If you want to start keeping a gratitude journal, add this to a part of your day when you
tend to sit at your desk or at the dining table, and know you will have about 5-10
minutes without interruptions.
The less complicated you make your routine, the more likely it is that you will stick
with it.
