• Know that if you miss your goal for the day or the week, that it’s okay. Don’t let yourself throw in the towel, figuratively or literally, because of a bad day. • Be understanding towards yourself. You won’t be at your best or most motivated every day, but even half a workout is better than not moving your body at all. Types of Exercise to Suit Your Life: • Yoga – With varying intensity levels, yoga is the perfect way to stretch your body and calm your mind. • Tai Chi – Tai Chi is a low-impact Chinese martial art. It helps develop mindfulness and body awareness while being kind to joints and muscles. • Qigong Walking – Extolled for its benefits to your body and mind, this type of cardio involves intentional breathing while walking. The intensity can be scaled up as you get stronger. • Dancing – Dance your stress away and increase your overall fitness. Dance is a great workout that you can do at home by throwing on your favorite music and seeing where your inspiration leads you or finding a guided class online for more structure. • Circuit Training – Get your blood pumping by repeatedly running through a set series of weight and cardio exercises. This is another excellent option for home – there are lots of tutorials and ideas online for ways to set up a circuit that suits your fitness level. • Pilates – Like yoga, pilates are focused on body strength and flexibility. There are pilates machines and also many body-weight- only pilates moves. • Tennis – If you’re looking for a high-energy form of exercise, you’ll love tennis (‘love’ pun intended).
spection routine is a fancy phrase that you check in with yourself for a set time. Often, we are the aspect of our lives that gives way to the pres- sures of work, friends, and family, and having structure around a self-check helps ensure that your well-being doesn’t get moved to the back burner. Going to therapy is a good way to get to know you better and understand what you need in your introspective routine. You might notice that you already have a place or time of day that you tend to do this; if so, put more intention around that to ensure you get that routinely. If you don’t, make it a priority to notice how you feel when you do certain activities, what you like, what makes you think, and create time for those things. It’s all about intention. Create time for yourself – This seems simple but can sometimes be the hardest to put into practice. Our lives can be so fast-paced and the demands on our time so high that creating time for yourself seems like an unreachable luxury. Or you find that it’s hard to relax when you take that time without thinking about the mountain of things awaiting you. Keep trying. It’s a skill that can be developed and one that will ultimately benefit not just you but those in your life, too. Get new hobbies – Sometimes, we get stuck in a rut and forget that the world is full of new things to learn, new people to meet, and new experi- ences to have. Getting out and doing something new might take you by surprise with how much it revives your mind and spirit. New activities not only help you to relax but also offer you new abilities to overcome self-doubt. Whether it’s an activity you’ve never tried before or something that’s been on your mind for a while, finding a new hobby is like throwing the doors of your mind open to let the fresh air in. Start by thinking of the place in your home that you spendmost of your time. Then choose an area you feel inspired to implement, see how quickly that gets your motivation pumping, and go along from there. It doesn’t have to be perfect after one weekend, just choose a place to start, and soon you’ll be looking back and wondering how you could have lived without your zen garden, wellness space, and overall serene home!
dictate your schedule but knowing what your body naturally prefers when it’s rested can help you balance your sleep cycle if you need to adjust it. • Exercise for sleeping – Moving your body before going to bed can help you unwind and get better sleep; just make sure it’s the right kind of movement. Try to save high-intensity workouts for earlier in the day; it takes your body a few hours to truly come back to rest. If you want to exercise right before bed, many yoga positions won’t elevate your heart rate enough that it’s counterproductive to sleep. • Tips for getting back to sleep – We all know that feeling. You woke up, maybe you tried to hold on to that sleepy feeling, but some- thing kept you awake. All is not lost, though; there are a few things you can try to get back to dreamland. If you’re tossing and turning for more than 10 minutes, take yourself out of bed. Try reading in a comfy chair or walking around your house. If you want, a quick outdoor walk and some deep breathing might help ease you back to sleep. DEVELOPING SELF-AWARENESS Creating an introspection routine – An intro -
IMPORTANCE OF SLEEPING Aside from working from home, sleeping is one of the main things we do in our homes. While scientifically, the reason we need to sleep is still a mystery, there are some things we know can improve the quality of our sleep: • Sleep early – This one can be elusive if you’re not naturally an early sleeper. Still, if you can teach your body to go to sleep earlier, you’ll generally be able to sleep for more time, which is beneficial to your overall stress levels. • Manage your sleep – Certain things that we do can harm our ability to get a good night’s rest. Trying to eat a few hours before bed will improve your sleep since your body won’t be busy digesting and will be able to rest. Unplugging and avoiding screens and noise is an excellent habit to get into. If you’re a bedtime TV-watcher, try to keep your screen time outside of your bedroom and find some - thing like a book or a crossword puzzle to do in bed. • Sync with your body’s natural cycle – If you allow your body to catch up and be rested, you’ll find out when it naturally wants to sleep. Of course, it might not be possible to let it
109 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
108 SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
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