7 Ways To Boost Your Personal Wellness Today

We go through so much stress every single day that it might be a little difficult to focus on your personal wellness. However, personal wellness is something you need above all. Here are some basic things you need to start doing today to improve your personal wellness, and start living a fulfilling life

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Personal Wellness Is Something You Need To Live A Fulfilling Life

There are a lot of factors that affect our wellness, including physical, mental and social factors. Personal wellness is something we all need. It helps us be the best of ourselves so that we can live a life that we dream to live. Our wellness affects our actions as well as our emotions.

Improving your personal wellness will not only help you reduce your daily stress levels, but also prevent a lot of major diseases as well as promote a good mental health.

Here are some of the basic ways which you should incorporate in your daily life to start improving your personal wellness today. 

1. Get the Right Food, Hydration, and Exercise

Personal wellness starts from food and proper hydration. A healthy eating habit is going to build up a healthy body. 

My idea of personal wellness does mostly revolve around being happy for the most part. And believe it or not, your food is responsible for your mood as well.

For example, production of the feel-good hormone serotonin requires a healthy supply of complex carbohydrate through your diet. It's been proven that people with a low-carb diet suffer from depression more, and are stressed, angry and fatigued. Similarly, a diet deficient in omega-3, which is a healthy fat, will make you depressed and impulsive.

On the other hand, high levels of saturated fats are also linked with depression. And on top of that, we all know that gaining a few pounds does put a negative effect on our self-esteem, which is not good. We've all been there, right?

To function well, your body needs fuel. 

So, your aim should always be to consume a balanced diet, containing all nutrients. I know that certain nutrients like fats and carbohydrates have been labeled as something bad for our health, but not consuming them would only cause an imbalance in your body. Your body needs them as well for a proper, healthy functioning.

Now coming to the holy drink-- water.

We are 70% water. And by this statistic, I think you can guess how important water is to us.

Dehydration is detrimental to your health. Not only it's going to make to drowsy, fatigued and cause impaired thinking, but according to a study conducted by the University of Connecticut it has been found that even mild dehydration is capable of affecting your mood.

So make sure you are drinking at least 2 L of water every single day.

You will feel amazing.

Now, lastly, exercise. Did you know that exercising for 20 minutes is enough to reduce anxiety? Exercising is a great way to get that serotonin kick you need every day. You don't even have to go a gym or pay a lot of money to a trainer. Just start with 20 jumping jacks, or go for a simple walk in the neighbourhood. That's all! That's enough to make you feel good.
 

2. Get Good Quality Sleep

Sleeping is as important as eating or drinking. 

Providing your body adequate time to sleep is important because our body repairs itself, boosts the immune system, gets rid of all the metabolic wastes and processes new information while we sleep.

Your body literally heals while you sleep.

And that's not it.

According to Harvard University, sleep disturbances are not just a symptom of mental illnesses but they actually contribute to mental illnesses.

Inadequate sleep causes disturbances in neurotransmitters and stress hormones levels, and this affects your emotional health and increases the risk of depression.

So make sure that you are getting enough sleep to charge up your system. You should get 6-7 hours of uninterrupted sleep every day for being the best of yourself.

3. Don’t Overthink

Now, who hasn't done this? We all are guilty of doing this. 

But this is something that is triggering your depression and anxiety.

Thinking about your problems and their solutions is good, and is necessary. But overthinking never helps. It might make you feel that you are working towards a solutions but it actually ends up increasing your problem.

It also disturbs your sleep (study), and you already know now why sleep disturbance is detrimental to your wellness. By overthinking you are only increasing your chances of having mental illness (study).

It's the reason you are not happy; it's making you pessimistic and causing the mood swings.

It sure does that to me; that I know.

Stop blaming yourself for the mistakes you made yesterday, and stop worrying about the future.

Yes, we all overthink sometimes, but don't be a chronic over-thinker.

4. Acknowledge the Good Things in Your Life

Gratitude: This is kind of a newer addition to the field of personal development and mental health. A simple yet effective way to improve your overall personal wellness.

Saying thank you is not just good manners, but simply writing down or remembering about the things you are blessed is scientifically proven to be beneficial.

It has been found in studies that being grateful makes you optimistic, and can even help improve your relationships. Couples that practice gratitude have a stronger relationship and are more comfortable discussing about the things concerning their relationships.

Grateful people also take their health more seriously; they exercise and visit their doctors more for routine checkups. They are even less prone to physical illnesses.

What else? They sleep better, have better heart health, have less aches and pains, they have better self-esteem and mental strength.

I think these are good enough reasons why gratitude can help you improve your overall personal wellness. Be grateful for the things you feel blessed about from the bottom of your heart.

5. Make Goals

No one lives a life without a goal. Starting from school, to your career, to your personal growth; we always have some kind of goal in our mind, somewhere we want to reach. 

A goal gives us a purpose in life.

But, it has been proven that setting up goals does more than just giving you a purpose. According to some studies, being ambitious and setting goals actually makes you happier.

Writing down your goals is even a better idea! Thinking about the best possible version of yourself and writing about it in details makes you happier. It's a psychological practice, known as the "best possible self". I'd say, give it a try! What's in it for you to lose anyway?

Also, the higher your goal is, the happier you will be in long-term. So aim high. This is suggested by a study conducted in the University of California.

Now you know what you need to do next. What is your deepest desire? What do you want to be? Where do you want to reach? Figure it out, and set a goal.

6.Reduce Social Media and TV Time, and Get Social

Social media is both a good and an extremely bad thing. 

It's a good thing because now we can do and achieve a lot of things just by the means of social media. You can discover a lot of interesting people, and have a platform for yourself where you can share your views. And in fact there is a very high chance that you reached to this post through one of the social media platforms. It's a good way to stay connected with your friends as well as to grow your business, and stay informed.

So, yeah, it's a good thing, but only when you keep it limited.

I read about a study some time ago, which said that the new generation prefers texting rather than actually speaking to someone on call or face to face. Now, this a problem, because social media is actually making us anti-social. I know people who can chat well with me on Facebook, but when I meet them personally they would hardly say anything. I'm sure you can relate with this.

Social media is bringing us close, yet pushing away from each other.

Use it, but know your limit. Use social media no more than 30 minutes. That way you'll stay connected but not become anti-social.

Similarly, reduce your TV time. The more time you spend sitting in front of the TV, the less time you have for yourself. Watching TV for long duration has been linked with binge eating, which will give you a bad health in a long run, as well as reduces IQ as suggested by a study conducted in Japan.

Maximize human interaction. Socializing is good for both mental and physical health. It is proven to prevent depression and anxiety, reduce stress, as well as strengthens your immune system.

All you need to do is go old school. Less TV, less social media, and more actual, personal social interactions.

7. Smile at Yourself When You Look into the Mirror

Well, I don't have any study to correlate with this. 

It is something I do. I don't know why I started doing it or where the idea came from. I have no idea. But trust me it's very effective.

I started doing this out of nowhere one day, and ever since I have been happier. I look at myself and feel more content than ever before, even if I have been in the same state. I feel good, I look good (at least that's what I think).

You don't have to set aside extra time to stand in front of the mirror. Whenever you stand in front of the mirror, whether it is to comb your hair or put on a face mask, just smile. Don't focus on the pimple scars, the blackheads, the whiteheads, the crooked nose, or the unsymmetrical smile. Don't think about the past, present or future. Just keep your mind blank, and smile.

Soon you will start liking the person you see in the mirror even more. You will start accepting the good things about you, as well as the bad things.

I sometimes suffer from pretty bad mood swings, thanks to my bad habit of overthinking. So, whenever I'm being moody or having a blue day, I do this and it becomes much easier to get over it.

It helps me keep my soul charged up. When I'm having a bad day, smiling helps me prevent overthinking, and makes me optimistic. It helps me stay positive and not let small things bring down my positive energy.

Try it, and let me know how it works out for you.

Bringing about these small but effective changes in your life will help you live a more satisfactory and productive life. You don't have to spend a lot of money to be the better versions of yourself. Instead, make small, basic changes which will help you be content, and give you the happiness you desire. 

Don't be too busy to enjoy life, too lazy to not exercise or too careless to not notice what you are eating.

© Quirky Writes 2018