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I hope that you had a great holiday season and are ready to get back on the ball in 2010, whatever you do in life.
Many of us, especially in the western world, get overloaded at this time of year, leading up to the holidays. So, when we actually stop to rest, we are physically and mentally exhausted. This can lead to minor illnesses, such as colds and flu related symptoms. It can also leave us pretty run down in general. Therefore, we do not always enjoy the holiday season and can spend most of it in bed.
The New Year can be a great time for new beginnings and is also a great time to concentrate on you. Yes you! I do not mean at a vanity level, but at a mental, physical and spiritual level. You have to focus on yourself first, before you can help or be of use to anyone else. If you feel good, you can take on the world!
Here are my top tips to focus on for creating a new improved you:
1) Do more exercise! Yes the old cliché, but it is singularly the most important thing you can do for yourself. Improved health leads to better mental stability and outlook. This does not mean that you run a marathon by April this year. However, just taking small ‘kaisen’ steps (see one my previous posts) in an activity that you love, will benefit you greatly. Just start walking for 15 minutes, 3 times a week. Then build up the walking time as you get more confident, week after week. If walking isn’t your thing, try swimming or light cycling. If you are more of a social animal, join an exercise class (yoga, pilates, step etc), choosing the level that is appropriate for you. Remember, start small and increase your workload as you get fitter and more confident. Seek your doctor’s approval, if you haven’t exercised for a while.
2) Feel gratitude for what you have in life and what you have achieved. You may be reading this and thinking, what the hell is this guy talking about, I have nothing to be grateful for, my life sucks! However, we all can be grateful for the gift of life, the air we breathe, the beautiful world that we live in and the food that we eat. By the very fact that you are reading this blog means that you can read, you have had an education of some kind and that you have access to the Internet, so cannot be that bad off (on a relative worldwide level), even if you have to access the Internet via a public facility. You see, what I am getting at is that we all can be grateful for something and probably many things, if we contemplate a little bit. You do not have to be the richest person in the graveyard to have felt gratitude. Being grateful has nothing to do with material wealth. Try to view your life from a ‘glass half full’ position than from a ‘glass half empty’ position. Be grateful for what you have now, your family, spouse, children friends, health, mind, body. The list goes on. We all have something to be grateful for.
3) Do some mental puzzles to keep the mind active! Many people often forget about the brain when they think of exercise. They generally focus on the external, physically body. However, just like the physical body, the brain needs to be exercised and stimulated on a regular basis. Therefore, try doing some mental puzzles or a crossword. If you can stretch to purchasing a nintendo ds, there are some great games that go under the title of ‘Brain Training’. These are fantastic programmes, especially designed to give your mind a work out, stimulating all areas, logic and creative. If you have children, you can always borrow their ds and just buy the software. Finally, there are also some great memory improvement books around. The processes used to improve your memory also stimulate and exercise the brain, so you can get two benefits in one action.
Bye for now. Chat with you again, soon!
