Five Simple Steps to Improve Your Health
Good health takes effort, but it's worth it to feel better each day. Mastering the basics is important, but so are less conventional methods of wellness. If you are looking to improve your health, here are some tried-and-tested ideas to help you engage.
Make Sleep a Top Priority
We all need a decent amount of uninterrupted nightly sleep. When we lose rest, it affects every aspect of our bodies, from our memory to our immune system. Long-term sleeplessness can lead to serious issues, including an increased risk of heart attack. You may have bad habits that contribute to insomnia, like drinking too much tea or coffee. Are you on your phone or tablet late at night? Do you not follow a regular sleep schedule? All of these can make falling asleep a challenge. Don't drink or eat heavily in the evening, and find ways to release worries before bed, even if that only means writing down thoughts. Every little step can certainly help.
Your Time at Home
It may surprise you, but your home affects your health, especially the air quality. In fact, the air in your house may be far worse than outside your home. We use chemical cleaners that linger, there may be mold and spores where you can't see them, and even the paint or varnish you have used could leak toxins into the air. To help purify your indoor atmosphere, get an air filter with a MERV 8 rating or better. MERV 8 removes up to 90 percent of airborne fragments from the air you breathe, including dust, mold, pollen, and smoke.
Just like poor indoor air quality, clutter in your home can negatively impact your health. When we let messes pile up, stress significantly increases and positive energy decreases. It also becomes more difficult to clear space for activities we enjoy. Set aside time when you can for decluttering; store, organize, throw away, and donate items you don’t need. When it’s time for a deep cleaning, hire a cleaning service, which costs $123-$223 in Atlanta. You’ll feel better knowing that you’ve transformed your home into a haven of relaxation.
Acupuncture and Medical Qigong
When our bodies are unwell, there could be more going on than meets the eye. That's where traditional Chinese medicine, such as acupuncture and Qigong, come into play. When our energetic bodies are out of alignment, we feel the effects manifested as physical unwellness. Qigong is used to restore that balance and bring our energy into alignment with our well-being. In other words, it removes negative blockages to fully restore your health. Acupuncture acts similarly, focusing on pain reduction for those of us who suffer from chronic conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome. The sterile needles help to move your Qi, your energy, to once again balance and heal your energetic body. These are ancient practices that have been studied by modern medicine and found to scientifically work to restore overall wellness.
Find Balance
When stress overflows in our lives, our health suffers. Your immune system weakens, your energy decreases, and you are more susceptible to depression. No matter how dire your anxiety levels, there are things you can do to relieve your worries. Often, we cannot let go of stress because our mind has the habit of dwelling on negative thoughts. We need to recognize these patterns and disrupt them to establish new, healthier ones. That can mean positive mantras, focusing on what you can do now over what you cannot, or taking steps to create a relaxing spa day at home, such as giving yourself a hot rock massage (kits are available online for $67.09) or taking a warm shower, etc. Whatever your approach, the object is to not dwell on thinking about the worst and train ourselves to overcome these habits.
Eat and Exercise for Health
How we eat and exercise can affect how we feel. When we eat unhealthy foods, our energy levels drop and we become sluggish or heavy. Fortunately, eating well doesn't need to take hours of preparation. Avoid junk food in the home, and batch-prepare nutritious food to make eating during the week easier. Not exercising causes a similar reaction, making us tired and compromising our immune system. Working out can be scaled to your needs and practiced in small increments if you have no time. Squeeze it in where you can, but make sure you're doing roughly 20 to 30 minutes of daily exercise to raise your well-being.
It may seem like quite a few steps to add to your life, but they are pretty straightforward. After all, our health is the only thing we truly possess. It takes just a few more minutes each day to incorporate healthy strategies to have you feeling better in no time.
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