5 top tips to be happier and healthier
5 top tips to be happier and healthier
As a natural health practitioner and holistic health coach and somatic yoga teacher, I put a great deal of emphasis on personalising treatments and class plans for my individual clients. Every body, every mind, every energy sphere is its own complex and unique conglomeration of forces, and should be treated as such.
One person’s plant-based burger is another person’s poison.
And so I really dislike these click-bate headlines that use a random number of bite-size shots of information to over-simplify what are usually very complex issues. But here I go!! I tailor the advice that I give according to each person’s own situation, but I do find myself giving some advice over and over. Here’s my top 5 tips and reminders to suit almost everyone:
1) Drink more water
Not juice. Not tea. Water! Your body needs water and by mixing sugar, caffeine, bubbles, dairy etc you are increasing intake of less useful stuff and potentially preventing efficient beneficial hydration and tipping your blood sugars unnecessarily. Whether you should be cutting out caffeine or sugary drinks is personal to your circumstances, but making sure you drink plenty of water is universally beneficial. How much is enough? It depends - how much you exercise, sweat, what else you eat and drink through the day. A good base line is to try to drink 2 litres of water each day. Use a bottle or jug so that you can measure the volume and know how many bottles or jugs you need to get through to get 2 litres. Try not to drink more than a pint in any one hour. Really hate drinking water?? Try adding some cucumber or mint leaves or fresh ginger to hot water.
2) Sleep well
Easier said than done! I know! How much sleep you should be getting depends on your personal circumstances and the things that you need to help you sleep will be different from the next person. But here’s a few tips. Some of them may suit you. Some may not:
Set a bedtime and create a bedtime routine
Be screen free for 60 minutes (or for as long as you can) before bedtime
Try listening to some music that you find calming or relaxing
Use an essential oil that helps you unwind
Click here for a few more thoughts and tips about getting a good night’s sleep.
3) Breathe
Encourage nasal breathing and encourage flow through both nostrils. Notice if you have a habit of mouth breathing and see if you can breathe through your nose instead. When you breathe through your nose, your nasal cavities processes the air that passes through, preventing tiny foreign particles to pass through and adds essential moisture and warmth. Nose breathing also efficiently regulates the amount of air that passes through and even has a part to play in balancing your pH and regulating your nervous sysetem.
If you have blocked sinuses or other impairments that make nasal breathing difficult, check with your GP and natural health practitioner for suitable solutions. You may find using essential oils such as peppermint or a respiratory blend useful to help ease air flow and encourage broad use of the lungs. If you’d like tips about how to use essential oils then do get in touch with me.
Try taping your mouth to prevent mouth breathing whilst you do activities around the house - reading, washing up, nothing too strenuous to start off with. A small piece of masking tape over both lips holding the lips gently closed can be a useful way of noticing if you habitually mouth-breathe without realising. If you feel comfortable having tried this, then try taping your mouth overnight. (A small piece of tape is sufficient to gently encourage the lips to stay together.)
Try alternate nostril breathing, also known as nadi shodhana
Click here for details
4) Quit sugar
OK… this is a big one. And actually drastic and generally unnecessary! But quitting processed sugars, sweeteners, and sugary drinks from your diet for a short period of time, say a fortnight or a month, can give you a good indication of how you might feel if you consider cutting down additional sugar and can set you on the path to balancing your diet and gut microbiome and, in the long term, evening out your energy levels as you eliminate the sugar slumps.
Cutting down on sugary foods can be so much more challenging than you might give it credit for if you’ve not tried before. And if going cold turkey on all the sweet stuff seems akin to sapping your life of all its joy, perhaps consider keeping a sugar diary for a week.
By replacing your morning coffee with green tea
you can lose up to 87% of what little joy you have left in your life!
Write down every time you have something with sugar or sweetener in such as coffee, cake, snacks etc. and note that there may be sugar in things you hadn’t considered, such as bread, pasta sauces, pickles. Also note that fruit is high in fructose - a form of sugar. Include this in your food diary, as this adds to your blood sugar level fluctuations. Making note of this for a week will highlight how much sugar you consume, and that awareness will inform whether you need to cut down. I absolutely do not condone eliminating all sugars from your diet. Fruit is part of a very healthy diet. But I do suggest becoming more aware and noticing if you can eliminate some unnecessary sugar boosts.
Tip: If you have fruit as a snack in the day,
try having some nuts at the same time, or something else with protein content - this will decrease the sugar upper/downer that you would get from the fructose snack on its own.
5) Check in with addictive behaviour
An addiction is characterised by a physical compulsion and a mental obsession leading to the repetition of an unhealthy or problematic habit. This might involve alcohol or food or shopping or checking social media or exercising. An addiction might be immediately obvious, such as a drug or cigarette addiction, or it might be more subtle, such as an addiction to exercise. Exercise is an ultimately healthy past time. However, if you are exercising to the point where your health, relationships or responsibilities are suffering, then perhaps it is driven by an addictive compulsion or is a coping mechanism. Notice if you ever lie about your habit. This can be an indicator that it has an unhealthy hold over you.
An addiction is only a problem if it’s problem.
Facing up to addictive habits is the first step. The next step is admitting it to others and seeking advice and help. Talk to a friend, a doctor, a natural health practitioner or check specific online forums for your specific situation. Check in with the 12 steps program.
And if you’re all over these then here’s a bonus 5 for you:
Learn new things
Take up a gratitude practice
Speak kindly to yourself
Notice and chose who you surround yourself with
Do mindful movement - check out a somatic practice here
What would you add to the list?
