If you find yourself a keen individual in this United Plandom, I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘Healthy Habits’ on a regular basis.

What is a Healthy Habit; I hear you ask…

No fear. In this fortnights Relationship with Self blog, I am here to tell you all about Healthy Habits, what they are and why they are so important.

What is a Healthy Habit?

A Healthy Habit is anything that you do, or undertake, to benefit and maintain a good level of physical and mental health. Healthy Habits are used to promote health and wellness within your day-to-day life. Healthy Habits are completely unique to you as an individual, specified to your likes and dislikes.

We are all different. We have different traits, personalities, mindsets, goals, visions, and values – subsequently making it important to identify your own, personal Healthy Habits and implement them into your daily routine.

Why are Healthy Habits important?

Healthy Habits guide you, to form you into who you are. Leading a healthy lifestyle rewards in many more ways than you may think:

-        Energy boost

-        Strong immune system 

-        Maintained appearance and weight – boosting the all-important ‘feel good factor’

-        Improved mood

-        Preventing health conditions

-        Increased mental wellbeing 

When I started to get to know what Healthy Habits were, I assumed it entailed good nutrition and hydration, a good amount of sleep etc – although this is partly true, and these are of course important, as humans, we need much more than good nutrition and hydration to gain a sense of fulfilment and content in life. Let’s look at some examples of Healthy Habits:

-        Regular exercise

-        Take a relaxing bath

-        Make an appointment with your hairdresser

-        Visit the gym 

-        Change your mindset and think positively 

Introducing Healthy Habits into a busy schedule

Leading a hectically busy lifestyle can make it difficult to find extra time to implement Healthy Habits into your routine. Squeezing in 10 mins per day, or 1 hour per week, well…. It’s better than nothing! If you’re like me, and you struggle to find any amount of time, to anything for yourself, I hope you find these tips helpful:

-        Practise ‘Time management’ – Document your days over a period of a week. Keep a journal making a note of what you do within your daily routine and what time you do it. This will help you to clearly identify where you could fit in some Healthy Habit time.

-        Create a to-do list – Include all work, errands, and schedule

in some Healthy Habits time. You can start by making an initial list of all the things you would ‘like’ to do today. If you find that you have overestimated your day, move the less important tasks to a different day, prioritising Healthy Habits time, over the less important tasks.

-        Block out time – Depending on how often you feel you need Healthy Habits time, block this out in your calendar or schedule, as often or as little as you need to. Put your phone/laptop away and keep distraction minimal.

-        Reflection – Reflect on your life and use this time to create future goals. Make a note of everything in your life you are satisfied with, and all the things you wish to change. Without reflection, it is so easy to forget all the good things you have done, focus on the positives instead of the failures.

Did you know Make Me A Plan host #HealthyHabitsHalfHour over on Twitter every fortnight, on a Monday at 1pm?

You can join in with #HealthyHabitsHalfHour over on Twitter @makemeaplan, for more useful tips and insights into Healthy Habits. You can join in on Monday 25^th April 2022 at 1pm, using the following link https://twitter.com/makemeaplan

Be kind to yourself

PS- Ps – If you want some more guidance and to ponder on the big questions in life, why not check out the Philosopher-in-Residence series. Out every fortnight on a Thursday, and written by our Principal Planner, Anna Pascoe.  You can take a peek at the latest edition here https://www.makemeaplan.com/news/on-camera/