- 30 Days of Healthy Living, Lifestyle Medicine, Living Lifestyle Medicine, Mental Health, Relationships & Connectedness, Stress Reduction
15th January – self-compassion
Practice having self-compassion At the moment we are all dealing with so many different pressures and sources of stress. I am hearing every day from my patients about the challenges they are facing: changes to work, working from home, being furloughed, being out-of-work, key-workers being overworked and busier than ever to meet the demands of the pandemic, parents trying to juggle the demands of homeschooling and working at home, people who have been unwell, people with unwell relatives, the list just goes on and on and on… One thing which almost all of my patients say to me when they tell me how difficult they are finding things is “I…
12th January – warm bath at bedtime
🛁 Have a soak in a warm bath before bedtime. This is one of my favourite healthy habits, and it’s so simple, yet so effective. There a several benefits to a warm bath. 🛀🏼Firstly, for me it is just “me time”, the kids are in bed and it’s quiet and if I’m in the tub I literally can’t be doing anything else. In contrast, if I was trying to sit to have a quiet few minutes anywhere else I’d be tempted to go and just do whatever chore I had remembered needed doing that moment… A warm bath at bedtime can help you get a good night sleep in a…
- 30 Days of Healthy Living, Lifestyle Medicine, Living Lifestyle Medicine, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Physical Activity, Research Evidence, Stress Reduction
9th January – Get outside in nature
🌱Spending time in nature has been shown to be an effective way to improve feelings of wellbeing. There is evidence that spending time in nature increases serotonin levels – which is commonly referred to as the “happy hormone”. 👩💻An article from 2019 suggested that if we spend more than 2hours a week out in nature, wellbeing scores are significantly improved. Interestingly, it doesn’t matter whether people get their 2hours a week all in one go, or in multiple smaller doses of being outside, the benefits are still just as good. Logically, it is possible that the benefits might be even better if you can combine your healthy habits; time outside…
