Deadlines, pressure to succeed and sensory overload in the big cities… Today there is hardly any space to deal with your own health and body and just do what is good for you.
And that’s despite the fact that there can be serious consequences if we completely forget to improve our general well-being over a long period of time .
Therefore, in this article, we have compiled 10 everyday, strength-giving tips to help you face the challenges of life with full energy and joy.
What is “general wellbeing” anyway?
It is clear that everyone has their own ideas about what is good for their body and health. Nevertheless, we are all pursuing the same goal: we want things to go well for us!
Only in this way are we able to enjoy life and take on the challenges of everyday life with full force and even have fun at the same time. We can only give 100% when our body and psyche are not suffering!
But apart from that, it’s the small, empowering moments that make our lives worth living. They give us security, give relaxation and increase inner satisfaction .
When we talk about “ improving general well-being ”, two components always play a role: the psychological and the physical.
On a psychological level, our goal is to have calm, clear, and self-empowering thoughts that are free from fear and dissatisfaction. On a physical level, on the other hand, we want to be healthy, pain-free and full of energy!
In order to be able to sustainably improve well-being, we have to focus on both levels, whereby they always influence each other. A good deed for the body is therefore always a good deed for your psyche .
The following “ tips to increase your well-being ” will therefore provide you with some inspiration and help you to live your life with more energy and relaxation at the same time.
10 tips on how to increase your well-being
We have tried to put together tips that you can incorporate into your everyday life at any time . After all, a high level of well-being should be achieved in the long term and not just at very specific times.
Of course, you don’t have to implement every piece of advice every single day – that would be next to impossible. Rather, they should be a constant companion in your life and be integrated into a healthy regularity . Nevertheless, there are certainly one or two tips that you can establish as a daily ritual .
Exercise
Hardly any other factor is as essential for increasing your physical well-being as exercise. It gets your circulation going, including the blood and lymph flow, releases happiness hormones and ensures that all vessels and cells are optimally cleaned and supplied with nutrients.
This alone ensures that you can improve both your inner and outer well-being . Because if the body is well supplied on all levels, the central nervous system gets the feeling of security. Stress hormones are reduced, relaxation occurs and constructive hormones such as endorphin and dopamine are increasingly released.
But be warned! For the purpose of increasing your mental and physical health, extreme sports are not advisable because of the high level of stress . Rather, you should focus on moderate forms of exercise that stimulate your body in many areas. Yoga, walks in the fresh air, hiking, as well as various games such as volleyball, soccer, etc. are good for this. If you do strength training, never neglect your stretching exercises to loosen up tense muscles.
Get enough and good sleep
Action and recovery go hand in hand . That’s why sleep is the best thing you can do for your health after extensive exercise sessions. During sleep, all resources in the body can be ideally transported to where they are needed. Your endocrine system gets a reset while muscles, hair and skin are re-synthesized and your organs are cleansed.
This and much more only works ideally if you get enough and quality sleep . An intact sleep rhythm is certainly most important for this, but the phase before going to bed is also fundamental. Skip heavy food, electronic entertainment about 1-2 hours beforehand and instead take time to let your system cool down. An (audio) book, time with family and friends, meditation or a body care routine are best suited for this.
Exactly how long you should sleep depends on your lifestyle, with many studies showing 7-8 hours as the ideal bedtime.
Reading tip: Ashwagandha – the “sacred sleeping berry” from Ayurveda
Eat clean
Exercise, sleep and a good diet could be called the basis for a good sense of well-being. Through nutrition, you ensure that your system is supplied with the best raw materials, which in turn can be transported into the cells through exercise and sleep.
The more vital substances and the fewer harmful substances your diet contains, the less your body has to use its own energies to keep all functions running as well as possible. Ergo: You feel much better and have more resources for the really important things.
A clean diet, with which you can increase your well-being , should always be balanced. Specifically, this includes lots of fruit and vegetables, high-quality protein from organic meat and fish, and healthy fats from eggs, seeds and nuts. Carbohydrates should also come from “clean” sources, which include rice and whole grains. You should also consume secondary plant substances as regularly as possible.
On the other hand, the following ingredients and substances that are harmful to your health should be avoided:
- Sugar
- trans fats
- preservatives
- alcohol and tobacco
- White flour
Good social relationships
As a social being, humans are dependent on social contacts. Laughing together, physical contact and conversations lead to an increased production of serotonin and endorphin, which can measurably increase well-being .
So if you’re feeling down, set up dinner for your friends or give your loved ones a hug.
Build in relaxation times
In a world where everything has to be done quickly, quality relaxation times are worth their weight in gold. Massages, good food, a wellness day, sleeping in once a week… all of this supports your health and can help to increase your inner well-being in a relatively short time.
In order for your relaxation times to really serve their purpose, it is important that you have completed all your tasks in advance. This makes it much easier for you to switch off. If you hardly ever reach such a state, you should consciously reserve 1-2 times a week for relaxation phases .
If you were finally able to switch off properly again, it can also help you through a phase of listlessness .
Tip #6: Fresh air and sunlight
Whenever you feel bad in everyday life and neither head nor body are really up, a walk in the fresh air is the solution. The increased flow of oxygen alone invigorates your cells and has an inspiring effect. In combination with light exercise, this acts like a reset for your organism and helps you to improve your health.
Most of the time, 10-20 minutes are enough for you to be able to devote yourself fully to your tasks again!
Otherwise, a lot of fresh air in combination with sunlight is essential so that your body starts up its systems and you can start the day full of energy. Both stimulate the circulation, heat up hormone production and trigger a small surge of euphoria.
Incidentally, these tips are also advisable if you are suffering from temporary and mild depression.
Listen to happy and uplifting music
Music has a pretty strong effect on our mood . A sad song makes us wallow in melancholy within seconds, whereas a happy song activates our cells in no time and encourages them to move.
So if you’re not feeling so well, your favorite song or a good playlist can very quickly improve your well-being.
The important thing is that you don’t overdo it with the music. Auditory sensory overload can set in very quickly, which tends to cost you more energy than give you energy.
Build in rituals
Small rituals give your nervous system familiarity and thus security . They are a constant reminder that “all is well” and require little mental or physical effort.
Therefore, you should establish one or the other daily ritual for your life. Exactly what you prefer is entirely up to you. Possible ideas are:
- Read before bed
- Meditate after waking up
- Baking a cake (with the family) at the weekend
- Apply a rich body lotion in the evening
- Drink a glass of red wine in the evening
- write diary
- Make the bed
- Drink one healthy smoothie a day
- Do 10-15 minutes of yoga a day
Be open to new experiences
Rituals and routines are important so that you can carry out everyday tasks with a high level of well-being. Nevertheless, variety in life should not be missing. New impulses are fulfilling and challenge you. They make you grow mentally and physically, which is not negligible for intact health. After all, everything that stands still for too long begins to rust.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you have to do something new every day with all your might. However, you should not close yourself off to new experiences. Even small changes can work wonders in everyday life, such as taking a different route for a walk, brushing your teeth with your weak hand, or changing your work environment.
You should always integrate new types of movement in sports, too, to give your nervous system the chance to learn .
It is also advisable to visit unfamiliar places, meet new people, or learn a new skill from time to time so that you can increase your psychological well-being . Such experiences are great suppliers of endorphins and fill your life with joy.
Keep your environment tidy
Increasing your well-being requires a calm mind—that’s pretty obvious. And one way to achieve this couldn’t be simpler: cleaning up !
When we live in a tidy environment, we have fewer disruptive factors around us and we feel good in the truest sense of the word. A spring cleaning, a clearing out campaign or daily small tidying up rituals are real balm for your mental health.
