Wellbeing Wednesdays #5 - Walks

(Image from 100 days of Sunshine)

    

This week's well-being Wednesdays is all about taking it outdoors and going for walks.  Walking is an easier idea to suggest now given that we have FINALLY started to get some nicer weather (although it has literally rained non-stop today!).  Living in England, it's important to get out when you can and make the most of the weather.  Ideally I would go for at least a short walk once a week to get some fresh air but, unfortunately, this doesn't always happen and I definitely notice a difference when I go for a walk after a longer period of being indoors.

Being outside can really help stimulate your mood.  Fresh air has proven to help with stress and anxiety and it's thought that oxygen helps with your serotonin (a hormone which helps us feel happy) levels.  If you would like me to talk more about serotonin then let me know and I'd be happy to do so!

When possible I like to find somewhere green and leafy or near water to take a nice, long stroll.  Not only does the fresh air help my mood but it gives me a little time to gather my thoughts, reflect on things or even switch off from some realities.

I also find walking a great opportunity to do something free and easy with others.  It's good for a little catch-up and sometimes it can be just what the other person needs to.  I find it's an extra bonus if you walk to a coffee or ice-cream shop too!

Comment below some of the places you like to walk to, these are just some of the ones I've had recently.

 

Wellbeing Wednesdays #4 - Hot Baths

(Image from 100 days of Sunshine)

Welcome back to Well-being Wednesdays.  This series is all about little things that I do to help with my own well-being in the hope that they might help others too.  As I've said before, many things are obvious and simple but sometimes it's just nice to be reminded to do those things.  Mental Healthy is in the news a lot recently and it's fantastic that it's being talked about but we also need to make sure that we do things for our own mental health.

This week I'm going to talk about a very typical idea - hot baths.  But, let me tell you what I do to make the most of that time and ensure I enjoy them.  There's lots of little things I vary between but I always make sure my both is hot and I always take an extremely long bath.  

When in there, these are some of the different things I do to try and fully relax and switch off:

1. Candles - again, an obvious one but if I'm having a hot bath then I'm doing it to relax and so I want to make sure I try and create the right atmosphere.  I make sure the bathroom is tidy and I light a couple of candles to put around the bath, just to help with the mood.  Sometimes these are scented and sometimes not.  It's all just about creating a pleasant environment.
2. Reading - I like to really make sure I switch off from reality when I'm in the bath and I find a great way for me to do this is a good book.  I won't go into this too much but I find it helps to have an easy read and something you know you'll be able to get stuck into and ignore reality with for half an hour or so (definitely an hour!)
3. YouTube or Netflix - Sometimes I want to switch off but I'm tired, far too tired to be reading so instead I find something to watch, usually YouTube on my phone (so far I have never dropped it in!) or, occasionally, I use my bath tray to watch Netflix on my tablet.  Again, it just helps switch off from reality and it's a chance I get to watch whatever I want.
4. Refreshments! - I'm not a big fan of food in the bath but I like to take a drink.  Depending on the day and my mood this is sometimes alcoholic but more often than not it's just water.  I'm taking this time out to relax and don't want to lie there thinking about needing a drink because I made my bath too hot.  
5. Music - Sometimes I like my baths to be silent, especially if I'm reading, but occasionally I like that time to sit with my own thoughts and when I do this I like to put some music on.  Typically, I just rely on Spotify for this as I like to vary between classical and chilled pop music.
6. Bubbles - Another typical thing but when I'm having my bath with the purpose of relaxing and not washing my hair I like to use a nice bath product to help.  Previously I have used Laura Mercier Honey Bath which is very luxurious and, whilst pricey, something I definitely recommend but recently I have been using Molton Brown Rhubarb and Rose Bath and Shower Gel - this is my all time favourite Molton Brown scent.  These also help to create a more calming atmosphere with their scents and general feels.  They're not as overpowering as other products and I like the softness they have to them.

Like I've said before, these ideas aren't groundbreaking but they're hopefully a good reminder of how to take some time and consider how to take care of your own well-being.  What do you do to help with your state of mind?
xx 

Wellbeing Wednesdays #3 - Making Life Easier

(Image taken from 100 days of Sunshine)

Hi everyone, welcome to Well-being Wednesdays!  Last week's post potentially involved spending a little bit of money so I thought I would make this weeks a completely free idea and it's probably one of my favourites because it makes one of the biggest impacts on my day to day well-being.  This week I'm going to talk about making life easier for yourself.

I'm sure lots of people have lots of different hacks and tips they use in their lives with certain things and I guess these are just some of mine.  I am fully aware that half of the battle with anxiety is getting yourself to do things.  There's often times when I know what I should do to help myself, what I could to do help myself and I think about it but I don't act.  So, perhaps it's easy for me to sit here and talk about these things and not so easy for you to do them but I have made these things part of my routines and so they get done.   Sometimes I think, I'm too tired to do that but then I remind myself how happy it makes me and I do it.

A lot of my tips, if not all, come down to preparation but I cannot explain how much easier they have made certain points of the day or week for me.  

My biggest one is sorting out my outfit the night before if I'm up early or going to work.  I know this seems silly and you think it doesn't make much of a difference but I promise you it does.  It's one less thing to do, think about and sort.

When I say clothes, I mean everything.  Full, outfit, all underwear and socks.  I like to have some time to wake myself up and through the week this just isn't an option.  Any way I can save time is a bonus for me.  When I get up, my husband is usually still in bed with the curtains closed and the lights off so I put all of my underwear in a little dust bag and hang it over the two hangers that have my outfit on for the next day.  Then, I put this at the side of my wardrobe so I know exactly where everything is.  My cousin laughed at me when I told her about this and thinks I'm ridiculous but I swear it makes me feel so happy in the morning when I know I have got everything right there, ready to go.  No hunting for socks or matching underwear. No getting the iron out.  No calling myself for not having any clean trousers to wear.  It's sorted, done and ready to go.

My next thing is another prep idea.  This one is to do with the weekly food shop!  We do ours on a Sunday as it's the best time for us but before we go we make a list of all the days we are both in for tea/dinner/evening meal (What do you call this?).  Then, we make a list of all the meals we want to have for tea that week and make our shopping list from that.  This also helps with food waste but it means we definitely have all of our meals for that week and don't have to go out through the week and get something (unless we want to!).

Another thing I use, again, helps with organisation.  This is something I could talk about forever. I could make multiple posts on this and I probably will.  Its to-do lists.  I love to-do lists.  I use them regularly I find the best time to write them is either last thing at night so you can stop thinking about what you need to do or first thing in the morning so you feel motivated.  Sometimes I write these down and sometimes I put these in my phone.  Because I don't want to ramble about this forever I will just give my one tip with to-do lists - don't be overly ambitious.  If you get to the end of the day and haven't even managed half, this won't make you feel good.  Be realistic about what you can get done in your day.  If you get everything done, add something on then if you want to but you only have so many hours and a to do list isn't something to get upset over.  

My last little idea for making life easier is the calendar app on my phone.  When, I switched to my new phone I realised how much I've come to rely on this.  As soon as I get an appointment I put it in.  Date nights are in.  Birthdays are in.  Gym classes are in.  Everything is there for me.  It really helps me with scheduling and not overbooking.  Being able to see everything laid out in front of me means I don't double book and I don't over book - I can still make sure I have some down time in there.  Whilst I certainly haven't cracked the work life balance I like to make sure I have time for regular me time, regardless of how short it might be!

I hope some of these tips have been helpful to you and you were able to take something from them.  I have some extra little ones if you'd like to know more about them.  Let me know if you try any of these, if there's any you do already or perhaps you have some of your own you'd like to share with me.

xx

Wellbeing Wednesdays #2 - Scents

(Image from 100 days of Sunshine)

 Welcome back to Well-being Wednesdays!  Last week's post was a little controversial with the idea of doing some house work to keep the house clean and tidy!  Today we are sticking with the same topic of environment and another thing which helps to create good Feng Shui in your home.  This one is a little less controversial but it might involve spending a little bit of money.

To help create a nice environment I like to try and make it as calming and relaxing as possible and a part of this is having nice scents throughout my home.  I find it welcoming to have different scents around my home and I love it when others comment on how nice my smell homes too!  It also helps to get rid of unpleasant or lingering food smells.  I always make sure I have strong scents in the bathrooms and candles to light in the kitchen.  

Having pleasant scents around the home really helps to make it feel more homely and an inviting place to relax in.  How you achieve this is up to you but I like to do this through a range of candles and oil diffusers throughout my room.  Although, recently I have been leaning towards the idea of plug in and spray diffusers alot more.  I find candles don't always create a strong scent and diffusers can be messy if there's young children or pets around the house.  They're not something that you want to spill!

If my anxiety is particularly heightened I further add to this by using pillow sprays and/or roll ons.  I currently have one of each, one for evening and one for throughout the day.  Through the day I like to use This Works Deep Sleep Stress Less which has now changed to Stress Check Breathe In and for the evening I've started using the Loccitane Relaxing Pillow Mist. They're probably not to everyone's taste but I find them very calming scents and using them helps remind me to just take a couple of seconds or minutes to breathe, calm down and focus.  I don't use them everyday but I also don't just use them when I'm feeling stressed or anxious.  This is for two reasons.  The first is because I don't want to start associating those smells with negative feelings and the second is that I like to try and take time out even when I'm in a good frame of mind.  It's always good to try and keep your frame of mind there!

Do you enjoy having scents around your home?  What do you for your well-being?  Let me know if this is something you try adding more of in your home and how you find it impacts your everyday mood.

xx

Wellbeing Wednesdays #1 - A Welcoming Environment

(Image taken from 100 days of Sunshine)

As one of many people who suffer from Anxiety, I consider taking care of my own well-being to be incredibly important.  There's lots of different things I do to try and manage this.  I also think it important that others take care of their well-being.  So, to help, this is my first blog of Well-being Wednesdays - a weekly series in which I discuss and share one tip every week on what I do to take care of my well-being and how you can too.  Some of these tips will be larger things that take up more time, some might cost a little bit of money and some are little additions or changes to your life which are easy to make.  All of them have made some kind of positive impact on my life, regardless of how small.  I imagine that many of these things won't be new ideas and certainly nothing very far outside of the box but sometimes we just need reminding of some of the simple things we can do to take care of ourselves.

Well-being Wednesdays #1 is a pretty controversial one!  It's keeping a tidy home (or space).  Whilst I FULLY appreciate that house work is not typically associated with well-being I find it makes a huge difference to my state of mind when I can come home or relax in a tidy and clean space.  If I'm trying to relax with mess around me, I find it very difficult to switch off from it as the thought of tidying or cleaning really lingers in the back of my mind.  If I come home and see that it's already done I feel relieved instantly.  This is also all part of having good Feng Shui in your home.  Feng Shui is something I've known about for a long time but only recently started looking into.  If you'd like me to talk more about it.  Let me know.

(Image taken from yelp.com)

I appreciate that not everybody is bothered by mess or having their home be particularly tidy and honestly I didn't think I was either but when I made more effort with my home I realised what a large difference it actually did make.  I find that the environment you're in can play a huge role in your state of mind and if there's something you can do to make an environment nicer for you then why not try it?  

My suggestion to you is just tidy and clean one room or space.  Ideally, the area which you either see first when coming home or the area you like to relax in most.  Try to keep it tidy for a full week and if you notice a difference in your state of mind then try to keep it up or even apply it to more spaces.  It won't cure anybodies anxiety or change anybodies life but for me it's a definite step in the right direction.

Let me know if this is something you already do and how it makes you feel or if you're willing to try it.  I'd love to know what you think of my well-being Wednesdays and how you get on with them.

xx