As much as we may like to believe they are, our bodies are destructible. The more you push them, the faster they fall. If you are not looking after your physical and or mental health, it’s going to bite you in the behind eventually. When we are stressed, we take our time to breathe, practise mindfulness and consider all the happy thoughts in the world. But what are you doing for your body when that starts to fall apart?
You could be adding Platinum Naturals vitamins to your weekly grocery shopping and feeling the benefits, but if you’re not paying full attention to the physical movement of your body and how things have changed, you are not going to be able to make things better for yourself. So, when the going is getting tough, you have to stick it out and get going. Here are some of the ways that you can take better care of your body.
- Make the time to exercise. You are too tired. You work too many hours. The kids have exhausted you. Have I hit the nail on the head with your excuses so far? Taking time for exercise doesn’t mean you have to go to the gym for three hours every day. All you need to do is slot in a walk. Take the stairs. Park the car further from the office so that you have to walk longer to get there. It’s the little ways that you can help yourself that will help your joints and help your body physically. In the evenings, when you know that you need to wind down, start using some yoga exercises to move your body slowly and gently while you are watching your favorite movie. There are always ways to slot in exercise if you have the inclination.
- Make time for sleep. Another thing we often put off as adults. It’s understandable, we spend 8 to 9 hours a day at work and with the commute, and then we spend time with our families or friends, and then we get maybe an hour to ourselves every evening. We tend to push the limits of our wakefulness because we want to spend a lot more time for ourselves. If you’re not giving yourself any sleep, however, you are not going to find any time for yourself because you’ll be too exhausted to enjoy anything. It’s a vicious cycle. When you can, make a point of setting yourself a bedtime. Whether you have to go to bed at 10:00 PM and wake up at 5:00 AM, slotting that bedtime in for yourself gets your body used to a sequence where you will be resting.
- Nourish your body well. There is no such thing as giving up every single food group because all you will end up doing is binging on it. Instead, be increasingly mindful of what you eat and make sure that the food that you consume is good for your body. Eating well means feeding your body what it needs, and it’s not going to need a nightly pizza. Relish the food that you eat and pay attention to the flavors and textures that you are eating. Not only will this nourish your body, but it can also awaken your sensations and make eating a pleasure and not something you do while you are in between jobs.
- Slow down when you are in pain. It’s not the easiest thing to do at all. When something hurts it means that something has gone wrong and the more you push yourself the worse it’s going to get overtime. Being able to slow down and rest and not push your body too hard will help you to heal faster and that can be exactly what you need.
- Just slow down. If you want to truly look after your body and pay it some attention, slow down the little bit and just rest. Just because you are sitting on the sofa watching your favorite Netflix show doesn’t mean you are doing nothing. When you work hard all week and you are raising a family and still seeing your friends and going to the gym, you need just a moment to be able to do nothing for anybody else and just do for you. You don’t have to be 100% productive all of the time, because in some cases you are just as productive letting your body rest then you are doing anything else. Take your time and let your body feel the rest you give it!
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