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Four natural ways to boost your wellbeing

Here are four natural ways you can boost your overall wellbeing.

The pandemic has highlighted the need for an effective self-care regime. It’s also highlighted the importance of having options you can use at home. Even when services are open, you may not always find it easy to access them.

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With that in mind, here are four natural ways you can boost your overall wellbeing.

Drink mindfully

If you are drinking purely for hydration, then stick to pure water. If you really can’t face pure water, then add some fruit or fruit extract. This can mean cordials made with genuine fruit or fruit, green or white tea.  

All other drinks should be considered treats. This goes for everything from sodas to alcohol via the likes of black tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. Limit your consumption of them and when you do consume them, do so mindfully. Take time out to enjoy them as treats. If you don’t have the time, stick to water until you do.

Analyze your diet

Hopefully, you’re already following the basics of healthy eating. If you’re not, then that should definitely be your starting point. Ideally, however, you should up the game by customizing your diet to your specific needs. This can mean either increasing your consumption of foods with general wellbeing benefits or looking for foods that help with specific conditions (or both).  

For example, there’s long been a strong link between reishi mushrooms and well-being. In particular, they’re known to have a beneficial effect on the immune system. You might therefore want to start adding them to your diet (usually as a supplement), especially during the colder months.

You may also have specific conditions you want to treat without resorting to medication (before it becomes absolutely necessary). Alternatively, you may want to boost the impact of any medication you are taking. Either way, you may benefit from investigating which foods could help with your condition. For example, turmeric can be very useful for joint pain.

Prioritize your sleep

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of getting sufficient, high-quality sleep. The problem is that there can be all kinds of reasons why you can’t get sufficient high-quality sleep. Some of these you can address through practical measures.  

For example, you can buy blackout curtains, add soundproofing, regulate the temperature in your sleeping area and make sure that you always use high-quality bedding. Sometimes, however, the issues aren’t physical but mental or emotional.

If your symptoms are severe, it may be best to see a doctor. In milder cases, however, all you may need is an effective nighttime routine. Essentially, you want to train your mind to associate a certain habit or set of habits with going to sleep. The best approach is to use habits that generally promote sleep in any case.

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For example, you might start your night-time routine with some stretches, followed by a filling meal and hot drink. Then you might have a bath, or gentle shower and then read a book for a while. Try to make it a paper book so your eyes get a rest from screens. You might even finish off with some meditation to clear your mind completely before sleep.

Change up your exercise routine

Like diet, the basics of exercise are much the same for everyone. It is, however, often very beneficial to stop and think about what specific exercises you do and how they influence your wellbeing. As a rule of thumb, your exercise routine should include a mixture of cardio, flexibility/balance training, and strength training.

All three areas serve important purposes. You don’t necessarily have to do them in equal thirds. You should, however, probably stay fairly close to this unless you have very specific goals. If your exercise routine starts to focus too much on one area, it can impact your overall wellbeing. For example, if you do too much cardio and not enough strength training, you may find you get injured easily.  

Additionally, you should look for ways to work out that appeal to you personally. It’s fine to check out what’s popular but if you don’t like it then move on quickly. It may be a great exercise in general but it needs to work for you to be effective. Likewise, have the confidence to stick with niche forms of exercise if you really enjoy them.

That said, certain forms of exercise have become popular due to the way they link physical and mental wellbeing. Yoga is perhaps the most obvious example of this. Other examples include pilates and tai chi. It can be well worth trying these to see if they work for you. Yoga in particular has many different forms to suit all kinds of different people.

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Your "not that regular" all-around gal, writing about anything, thus everything. "There's always more to discover... thus write about," she says in between - GASP! - puffs. And so that's what she does, exactly. Write, of course; not (just) puff.

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