on Mon, 03 Dec, 2018
Self care, which is a way of ensuring one’s overall mental and physical health, has gotten an increasing amount of coverage in the media over the past few years. However, what basic self-care and self-help guides frequently forget to indicate is how our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health are tightly linked and dependent on one another. This is why people who only pursue a diet without adjusting their exercise habits or exercise while subsisting solely on packaged foods often remain unfulfilled at heart.
The good thing is that some small adjustments in each part of your life can have great effects, particularly when you are focused on bringing your entire body in sync with itself. With that in mind, here are some ways you can improve your overall spiritual wellness by making adjustments to your physical and mental health habits.
Reduce Stress in All Areas
Stress, in particular, can heavily impact your well-being and even your daily routines. If you are feeling weighed down by stress at work or in your family, it is likely that you do not feel energetic enough to work out or cook a healthy meal. You may feel like just going straight to sleep, even if you are too stressed to fall asleep. This is why it is important to work on reducing your stress.
One of the best ways to do that is by going a step further and eliminating several unexpected sources of stress. A messy bedroom or a cluttered home is a major indicator of overall stress. Your home should be a sanctuary where you can rest from the trials of the day. If it is messy, your mind will remain active and your stress levels will remain high. You can make your home less cluttered by taking a day or two to put up all of your belongings in the places where they belong. Get a basket for your shoes, a rack for your keys and hats, and go through all of your unsorted mail. Then, make your home feel like a spa by lighting candles, diffusing essential oils, and replacing bright or blue-tinted bulbs with soft, warm light.
Know How Your Body Is Connected
In order for you to properly take care of yourself, you need to know how everything is connected. Physical exercise, for instance, is heavily tied to mental health. Working out helps minimize the amount of cortisol in your body, which is a stress hormone linked to high blood pressure and overall tension. It also releases endorphins and other chemicals that help soothe your emotions and provide a sense of well-being. In this way, by working out regularly, you can help yourself feel better on another level.
The opposite is also true, however. Living a sedentary lifestyle causes stress hormones to stack up without any real form of release, compounding their effects. Whether you work at a job that requires heavy lifting or one that requires you to sit at a desk all day, not taking the time to exercise your whole body can cause pressure points, stiff joints, and achy muscles to develop, which negatively affect your mood and general well-being.
The good thing is that your body doesn’t require hours of exercise each day. Studies indicate that even just half an hour of uptempo working out (in other words, enough cardio to get your heart rate up for a particular amount of time) can have extremely positive effects that last for several days. Doing this every day increases the health of your heart while improving things as widely varied as your ability to think critically, digest food while absorbing the most nutrients, and feel more content with your current life as a whole.
Taking care of yourself requires attention on all fronts, not just exercise or food. By focusing on how each action affects another part of your body and reducing stress all around, you can start to be much more healthy and content with your life.
Photo Credit: Pexels
Article by Sheila Olson