Self Care Sunday: new year edition
Happy New Year from all of us at Amy Wright & Co.! If you made it to 2022, that was no small feat. The last two years have felt like “The Hunger Games,” and many days, it did not feel like the odds were ever in our favor.
We want to support you in stepping into the new year resolute and committed with some easy-peasy self care tips. Self care is not meant to feel like “one more thing” you need to cram into your day. Rather, it’s the habits we practice daily that contribute to us feeling more at peace and more empowered at the end of each day in the aggregate.
Here are five tips for upping your self care game in 2022.
Pause
Drink
Move
Sleep
Play
Pause
The holidays are often a busy time, pandemic or no pandemic. The pace required to keep up with gift making/buying, cooking/baking, hosting or going to parties, kids’ activities, supporting other family members is not sustainable all year. Take a moment or several in the new year to pause. Whether it’s a meditative brain break, a stretch or walk around the office or house to refill your cup while working on a big project, or sitting in your car for a few minutes by yourself before you go into your office or into your home at the end of the day, give yourself permission to pause.
Drink
No, we don’t mean that kind of drinking. You are not a lizard. You are 50-70% water by volume. Drinking water will help flush out holiday excess, as well as lubricating joints, delivering oxygen, and improving the appearance of your skin.
Move
You don’t need to work out hard for movement to be beneficial for your entire body. Thirty minutes of movement a day is good for your heart, lungs, bones, joints, muscles and mental/emotional health. Get movin’!
Sleep
If you’re practicing regular pauses, fantastic! Don’t forget to get your rest every night. Eight hours of sleep improves memory and attention span, improves quality of life and helps us live longer, curbs whole-body inflammation and reduces the risk of certain diseases, supports maintaining a healthy weight, spurs creativity and supports peak performance. Go to bed!
Play
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!” (Sort of.) Kids are naturals at this, and as adults, we tend to get swept in the do more, better, faster hustle of life. Turns out, having fun makes us more fun to be around. Play (participating in sports, hobbies, playing games with others, coloring, enjoying movies, music, comedy, etc.) makes us more pleasurable, optimistic, and is vital for problem solving.
In his book Play, author and psychiatrist Stuart Brown, MD, compares play to oxygen. He writes, “…it’s all around us, yet goes mostly unnoticed or unappreciated until it is missing.” This might seem surprising until you consider everything that constitutes play. Play is art, books, movies, music, comedy, flirting and daydreaming, writes Dr. Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play. Read more on “The Importance of Play for Adults” here.
We hope you create or continue to live a life you love in 2022. We wish you all peace, love, and good health in the new year.
Next Sunday, we'll talk about emotional health. Subscribe to our blog and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LInkedIn to join the conversation!