Happiness and Wellness
Wellness

Increase Your Happiness and Wellness with Daily Habits.

To be the healthiest version of yourself, focus on your entire wellness, including your mind, body, and spirit. The most common error when people attempt to be “healthy” is failing to focus on their total well-being, which is mostly physical in nature.

To be truly healthy, you must focus on your complete well-being, including your mental, emotional, and behavioral health, as well as your spirit and soul. You can add these wellness habits to your daily routine without much effort, and they will have a big impact on your personal well-being.

Wellness Habits for Your Mind

These first tips are daily wellness habits for your mind. This includes your mental and emotional health, as well as your overall wellness.

Feel free to choose as many or as few of them to try first. Select the ones that are most appealing to you. It is often easier to start with just one or two, and then, add more as you feel comfortable.

How Do You Start Your Morning Routine?

It’s important to start your morning in a gentle manner. This includes those very first few minutes after waking up. This is going to 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 a messy energy, then this could follow you around all day long.

morning wellness routine
Morning Wellness Routine

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 include habits you hate doing. If you try to force yourself to do something you dislike, you are setting yourself up for failure.

People often try to go too intense with their morning routines, which leads to more stress, and that is the opposite of helpful. Select routines that you feel good about.

With every habit you choose to add (or take away from) your morning routine, keep your desired calm and gentle state in mind.

Social Media/Unplugging Breaks

It’s all too easy to reach for your phone in the morning and check on social media. This is before you even get out of bed! Breaking or changing this habit 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 detoxes.

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, help to manage pain, and improve 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 the aromatherapy, but also salts and herbs in your bath for wound healing, aches and pains, improving your immunity, and many more benefits.

Epsom Salts – Try taking a hot bath filled with epsom salts. It can be very relaxing and helps to remove toxins for your body. If you are feeling sore or tired a good soak can help restore your spirits.

Daily Affirmations

The last wellness habit recommendation we have for your mind is to do with 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

Here’s an Affirmation video that I put together for you.

20 Wellness Affirmations

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 ae 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 wellbeing, 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 the 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 is 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 sparling water drinks. Just watch the amount of sugar and look for any added ingredients.

Include More Whole Foods

By focusing on adding more whole foods into your diet, you will be improving your physical health and wellness, without actually having to be on a “diet” or do anything too restrictive. Simply add in 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, 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.

To eat more fresh foods, try shopping with the seasons at your local grocery store and farmers market. This allows you to save money by buying the foods that are in season. Plus you will be adding variety into your diet without trying.

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.

Try to include lots of probiotic foods, if you find this is hard, then you may want 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, which is something we love to do. Select an activity that you enjoy.

Walking for Wellness
Walking for Wellness at our local park

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 in 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.

A fun way to stay active is to track the number of steps you do each day. You can do this with a health app or by purchasing a pedometer.

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.

You Tube has a great selection of free exercise classes to choose from. This could be anything from yoga to chair aerobics to a full blown strength training workout.

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.

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 your self from the inside out, digging deep into what your soul craves the most. This can help guide you in the right direction.

Mediation for happiness
Meditation for Wellness & Happiness

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, do 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 he 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, 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, that fills you up with love and happiness. Some days, you will include many of the same things on your gratitude list, and 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 minutes in the evening to fill up your reusable water bottles and put 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 much more likely it is that you will stick with it. To help get you started download our Wellness Journal below.

Wellness Journal
Free Wellness Journal

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *