Making the necessary changes to feel great inside and outside is often something we are going to start ‘tomorrow’ and the one thing we never get around to doing. Feeling great isn’t a 1000 step process, and it doesn’t need to be over complicated.
It is making small manageable changes that will make you feel great and will allow you to take advantage of what life has to offer. With four changes in your routine, you will be feeling great inside and out in no time at all!
Change One: Exercise
Exercise is great for three reasons.
1 – It makes you healthy and keeps you fit. Nothing is a bigger confidence booster then when you are feeling great and exercise allows this to happen.
Exercise is also a crucial way of maintaining and achieving a healthy weight and weight goals. Other health benefits also include maintaining clear skin, developing bone and muscle strength and density while also contributing to preventing illness and diseases.
2 – It is impossible not to feel happy after a workout. During a workout, unless you really love to exercise you will feel exhausted, horrible and probably counting down the minutes. This is normal, and you shouldn’t let this scare you away from exercising.
When you exercise your brain releases endorphins which are directly responsible for making you happy and fighting stress. The release of endorphins is the reason why you often feel happier after exercising along with being able to think clearly.
3 – Regular exercise reduces the risk of anxiety and depression and can be a form of managing mental illness. With exercising releasing endorphins, the endorphins react with the brain and reduce the perception of pain. When reducing the perception of pain, it can also act as a sedative, mimicking the feeling and effect of anti-depressants and anxiety medication.
Exercise doesn’t have to be a three-hour gym session; it can be taking the stairs rather than the lift at work. Walking to the shops or just going for a run down at the local park. The more effort you put in and the more regularly you exercise, the easier it will become and the better you will feel.
Change Two: Get adjusted
Feeling good is means being comfortable with our bodies. Now and then our bodies feel off, and it not only affects our day to day activities but also how we feel. Everything needs adjusting now and then, and our bodies are no different.
This is why chiropractors are a great way to fix those little issues so you can get back to feeling great quickly. There is often a misconception about Chiropractors that all they do is crack your bones and cracking holds no effect on your wellbeing or health. But this is untrue. Not all patients will need adjusting as sometimes deep tissue massage and manipulation is all that is required. Adjustments are effective and able to help relieve headaches, muscle pain along with helping to relieve stress, improve your mood and sleep.
The cracking of bones and popping sound is often enough to turn people away as they think it’s the bones popping. This isn’t true and shouldn’t scare you away. The popping sound is actually cavitation, a release of gasses and has nothing to do with your bones. Many of the issues our bodies have are from our day-to-day activities that are disturbing the alignment of our bodies. Having regular adjustments allows us to continue with our routine without any pain and to the best of our abilities.
Change Three: Write it down
You might think this one isn’t going to help you, rather than feeling better you will instead feel like a twelve-year-old girl writing into your diary. But writing down your emotions not only helps identify how you are feeling but also provides the opportunity to reflect on why you felt that way.
When we label our emotions through writing them down we acknowledge them, firstly allowing us to work through our feelings and to analyse our current situation. Identifying how we feel is often a calming technique. You take a step back and identify what you are feeling and take the steps needed to work through it.
Along with identifying our emotions, writing them down allows us to identify the sources and triggers of certain emotions. Once you get into the habit of identifying and writing down your feelings and the reasons behind them, you can analyse your days and categorise them. You can identify what is creating a positive emotional experience and what is negatively affecting you.
From this point, you can actively limit the situations that create negative emotions and try to increase those that have a positive effect on your wellbeing and overall feeling of happiness.
Change Four: Sleep it off
Sleep is crucial to how you feel. If you are continuously running on empty, no other changes will make any difference. Every person is different and so are their sleep schedule, and the optimum amount of sleep needed. It is recommended to have around 7-9 hours of quality sleep a night.
For many, 3-5 hours of sleep is currently what we are surviving on, and it’s is no wonder why we are turning to the coffee machine or naps to save us daily. It is also the reason why we aren’t feeling our best.
The first step to increasing your hours asleep is to make sleep a priority! One of the easiest ways to do this is to download a sleep app or set an alarm. Set a time for weeknight and a separate time for the weekends, for when you want to be in bed. An easy way to tell if you are getting enough sleep is judging how you feel when you wake up. If you can’t physically keep your eyes open, you should try and get a few more hours of sleep in.
Finding the right amount of sleep to suit you is about trial and error and listening to your body. Try and stay away from caffeine and technology such as TV or phones for at least an hour before bed, for your body to be relaxed and ready to sleep.
In a week you will be able to feel how much sleep is affecting you and all the positive effects rest has. You will have more energy, be in a brighter mood and even experience fewer cravings.
Feeling great is about making small changes that only require a little bit of effort and determination. Stop saying you will start to work on how you feel tomorrow and start today! It’s easy and worth it!