And the first one is the truth: you do not have time. With early meetings, overflowing inboxes, project deadlines, and all other things that you are expected to do, it already seems like you are being torn in six different directions.
You do the best you can to fit wellness in there, a hasty exercise session here, a half-baked meditation session there, but nothing ever takes. It is not that you do not care, but the majority of wellness tips do not apply to the life that you actually lead.
So this is not just another list to add to an already overbooked day, to make you feel even more grounded as a working professional, trying to deal with the chaos of the modern world.
This is not the same. It is more about how to incorporate wellness into the life you live. No fluff, no guilt, but little, sustainable changes that make you feel yourself again.
Key Takeaways
Wellness is a rhythm that fits your real life requirements.
You already get little bits of time you have to use them purposefully.
The clear-minded is guarded by mental resets, boundaries, and movement.
It is not necessary to be perfect, you simply have to come back.
Even in the most hectic days, small rituals create sustaining energy.
Restarting what Wellness means in Your World
Perfection has brought out the hijacking of wellness. We have been spoon-feed with pictures of chiseled workout regimens, green juice, pre-dawn workouts, and silent escapes. But that is not the life of yours.
You are not rising up at 5 a.m. and doing breathwork on a beach and then conducting a team-meeting. You are wondering whether you had a coffee already or whether you just dreamed.
This is the reason why your definition of wellness should change. It is not doing it all.
It is not about what is wrong or right, it is about what works, in a way it feels possible. Perhaps, it is a silent intermission in between Zoom meetings. Perhaps it is the exercise of bending your back when your coffee is brewing. Perhaps it is growing up and learning to say no to an additional meeting. Wellness, that is well, also.
When you realize that wellness is not about a routine, but a variable rhythm, everything becomes different. You quit the idea of perfection and begin to hear what your body, your energy, and your time are capable of.
You already have the space in your Day
You may not think that, but your real day is full of small gaps. You simply do not notice them because they are buried in scrolling, multi-tasking or taking a breath in between assignments.
And in the five minutes during the call between that one and the other, or between that moment when you are on your way to work, or that moment before you reply to the next email, that is your opportunity.
It is not a matter of getting some extra time. It is realising the time which already exists and applying it to a new goal. This may be as easy as leaving your table to stare out of the window for a minute.
Or breathing deeply three times waiting on the conference software to load. These small spaces which are used deliberately are powerful.
Not only because they make you relax, but also because they make you remember that your wellbeing is important to you – even even when you are in the state of remaining busy.
You are not giving yourself extra responsibilities. Breath by breath you are recovering it.
Live the Way You Move- Not the Way the Internet Says to Live
Come on. Working out is usually being promoted as a full-time job. You are instructed to dedicate one hour a day to it, hit your macros, count your calories, invest in the right shoes, sign up to a program, and go hard. But when you are already stressed out, this does not encourage you. It gets you even before you start.
Here then is a new slant: why not make movement not something you had to earn or to do correctly? What would happen, though, if you would treat it as something you do, naturally, frequently, gently?
Perhaps, you are going to stretch your shoulders when your coffee is brewing. You might do pacing when on phone rather than sitting at your desk. Perhaps you listen to music and clean up your places and start dancing across the rooms without considering reps and sets. Exercise does not have to be vigorous. It must be consistent. It must fit in a way it feels.
Make yourself free to move and you body will appreciate it. Your thoughts become clear. Your shoulders relax. You are more a human, more awake, more stable.
That is the type of wellness you can work on.
Re-setting Your Mind within a coffee break!
This is one thing that most people do not realise until they burnout; your brain requires breaks as much as your body does. It is not only sleep at night but actual, conscious rests in the day when it is not trying to problem-solve, respond, create or analyse.
The best part is that mental resets do not have to be long term. Actually, the shorter and more frequent they become, the better they will be in the case of a busy player like you. The difficult bit is to remember to do them.
The best thing is to connect a reset with something you already undertake. Before entering your first session, you should spend half a minute before closing your eyes and breathing deeply. Once you have completed a difficult task, take time before getting into another one even by just standing, stretching, or walking to the window. It is not time wasted. They are gas stations.
You do not have to clear your mind and go somewhere mystical. All you have to do is break the cycle of constant input so that your nervous system will have time to adjust. These resets will make you more focused, reduce stress and appear clearer and calmer at the time that matters.
You are not a robot | So, create boundaries as human beings do!
Technology has ensured that individuals can work anywhere easier than before. It has also made it more difficult than ever to quit working. The notifications, the pings, the red notifications badges, they just never end. And that, with time, slowly sucks the clarity, creativity and peace out of you.
Wellness is safeguarding your attention because it is a precious and scarce resource. This could imply dedicating an hour of your day on your phone on silent mode. It may imply the refusal to look at emails at a specific time. Or just telling fellow workers to respect your focus blocks unless it is urgent.
This is not selfish. It’s strategic. Since, when your mind is responding to the inputs all of the time, it is unable to create, reflect or even rest. You were not made to be available all the time. The cycles of work and stop, of concentration and rest are yours to have.
As you recover your digital space, you start recovering your mental space as well.
Energising Your Body Without Making Meals Math
So let us speak of food. You are fully aware of what you ought to be consuming, namely, more actual foods, less canned products, more water, less missed meals. It is not the problem of knowledge. It is time, energy, and brain space.
How then can you eat well and have a busy day already? You simplify. You establish practices rather than publicity. Perhaps you switch between three favorite lunches that you enjoy and do not make you feel lethargic. Perhaps you carry a reusable water bottle with you and take a few sips during points in between work. Perhaps you prepare only enough snacks so that you have a decision on weekdays.
It is not meant to be eating perfectly. It is to quit eating as a reaction to pressure and to begin eating as a means to boost your endurance.
It does not have to be complex to eat well. It must be friendly, steady and unequivocal.
The Things You are Not Changing Are Wasting Your Life
Majority of professionals grind through each day as though it is a continuous meeting. The wake up to the wind down is all the same. However, it is transitions, the in-between moments, when the energy is either lost or regained.
Consider those moments between quitting work and dinner time. Or those few minutes when you have just hung up and are ready to check your inbox once more. These are opportunities to restart not race. You might get up and stretch. Slowly wash your hands and take some breath. Take off work clothes and then relax.
The rituals are more important than the routines. They make stimuli in your mind and body that there is something changing. They provide a resolution, relieve stress and set you up for the next thing.
And when you make those transitions, then you do it purposely, then you do not spend a day feeling like you are grinding it out, you are feeling like you are keeping a beat that you can actually get up to.
What You Do in Weekends Is What Gets You Through
It is not only the weekends to do errands and laundry. They are also the time when your body and your mind can restart. And when you just cram them full of more screens and backlogged activities, you go to Monday already in the hole.
You do not have to take a weekend off to recuperate. All you have to do is to incorporate some literal pauses. That can be going out to have coffee rather than bringing it to your laptop. It may involve a whole hour of unscheduling. It could refer to reconnecting with a friend, nature, music or silence.
Recovery does not mean unproductiveness. It is a matter of realizing how it feels like to live without the pressure. And when you discover how to take care of that feeling at least a bit, it alters the way you present yourself when another week starts.
Come Back Softly When It All Falls Apart
You are not going to ace this everyday. There will be weeks that will be chaotic. Wellness will go out of the picture. You will miss the gym, consume anything convenient, disregard the water bottle and forget how to relax.
And that is alright.
Getting back on the track is not the main thing, it is the ability to find yourself when you lost yourself. Without guilt. Without self-punishment. By a single breath and a little choice of words, which says: I am still here. I still exist.
Perhaps the initial step backwards is to drink water as soon as tomorrow. Or working out to one song. Or simply recalling that your wellbeing is not a thing you have to stop caring about now that you are in the middle of a mess.
It is not an ideal healthy lifestyle. It is just returning, and returning, and returning, in the slightest of all the manners.
My Thoughts | You Simply Have to Use it in a Different Way
The thing is that you do not require some new schedule, a more excellent planner or some additional motivation. All you have to do is to look at your day differently. Look at the spaces which exist. Look at the habits which assist you already. Look at the rituals that may carry you when you allow them.
Wellness to the busy professionals is not about learning more. It is not about forgetting the fact that your health, both mental, physical, and emotional is what enables all the other things to happen.
It is not self-centered. It is the most sustainable plan that you have.
So today is the day you quit waiting until you have the right time to take care of yourself.
Start here. Start small. Start now.