6 Things to Do for a Healthy Mind & Body

Life is unpredictable. Some days are just picture-perfect, like an Instagram-worthy post, while other days, you may be struggling to cope with the pressures of work and juggle personal commitments. Through the ups and downs of life, it’s your mind and body that keep you going day and night.

But do you do enough to take care of them?

Like most adults, you’re always busy with responsibilities to fulfil and commitments to meet. Amidst a busy routine, it can be difficult to carve out time to take proper care of your physical, emotional, and mental health. But if you don’t, it won’t be long before your body is exhausted and your mind is battling a mental fog that seems hard to brush away.

The good news is, you don’t need to do a whole lot to pay attention to your mind and body. You can start this very instant by building small, meaningful habits that get you out of autopilot mode so you can start caring about yourself and reclaim your well-being. 

In this guide, we explore six tiny things you can infuse in your life for a healthy and balanced mind and body.

6 Doable Tips for A Healthy Body & Mind

1. Do a Self-Check-In

Most people continue to work in autopilot mode without realising it. But deep down inside, they may feel overwhelmed and consumed by life’s stresses and pressures, finding no time to look after their mental or emotional state.

In times of stress, sitting quietly and naming the emotions that are bothering you is a powerful way to introspect and stay calm. You can supplement this with a few minutes of deep breathing and meditation to bring in some relief. However, it’s important to distinguish if it’s only a fleeting emotion that’s taking a toll on your well-being or if it’s something deeper. 

If you often find yourself struggling to relax, have trouble falling asleep due to stressful thoughts, or can’t seem to manage stress, consider reaching out for professional help. Based on your personal experiences and beliefs, you could connect with a life coach for general strategies, a counsellor for continued mental health support or perhaps try a specialised approach with an acclaimed hypnotherapist like Susannah Saunders at City Hypno.

Coaches and therapists like Ms Saunders do more than teach you ways to manage stress; they also use holistic therapies to help you calm your mind, confront negative thoughts, feel more relaxed, and be more resilient.

Tip for Beginners: Assess your mental and emotional well-being with a self-check-in from time to time.

2. Groom & Glow

Many factors contribute to maintaining a healthy body, including a balanced diet, daily movement and exercise, good sleep, and personal hygiene and grooming. With a busy life, it can be difficult to follow a detailed grooming and skin care routine, but paying attention to how your skin and appearance look goes a long way in impacting your confidence and how you present yourself.

For example, common imperfections on your face may seem minor, even with regular skincare and grooming, but they have a lasting effect on your self-esteem, how you perceive yourself, and how others perceive you.

But if skin imperfections are something that bothers you and weighs you down, you may want to consult a skincare specialist near you. From blemishes to milia treatments, Northampton, London, and across the UK are replete with skincare specialists offering non-invasive procedures to reduce skin imperfections and help you improve your appearance and self-confidence.

Professional treatments work best when supplemented with regular grooming and skincare routines. Ultimately, there’s no better feeling than feeling comfortable and confident in your own skin.

Tip for Beginners: Start taking better care of your skin with a quick 3 to 5 step skincare routine if you haven’t created one yet.

3. Nurture a Green Thumb

Nature can be soothing for your body and mind. Taking a short walk in the park or looking outside the window at the vivid greens and blues can have a calming effect. 

But if you’re truly invested in being one with nature, take some time out of your schedule to nurture a green thumb. Even absolute beginners can start by getting saplings and planting them in pots. If you can get an allotment, start by raising herbs and greens in a little patch and take it from there. Things get more interesting when you start learning about composting for beginners, tricks to combat a winter frost, or finding the best automatic watering systems.

Gardening can teach you more than just growing plants. You also learn how to be patient, battle uncertainties (like pests, weeds, and weather conditions), and enjoy the fruits of your labour. You’ll soon find that it’s easy to get lost in the magnificence of nature and make it a part of your daily life. 

Raising your own green patch is not only great for being more ecologically responsible but also works wonders for your mental and emotional well-being.

Tip for Beginners: If you work long hours with no time to build a garden, get a resilient desk plant to give a little attention and a lot of love to.

4. Rekindle A Hobby

Kids indulge in hobbies of all types, from indoor ones like collecting stamps and stickers and drawing and crafts to outdoor activities such as swimming and hiking. But as adults, which of your childhood hobbies have you continued? Working on a hobby in adulthood can work as an instant stress buster while creating or building something meaningful.

If you don’t have time for an outdoor activity, rekindle an indoor interest like building jigsaw puzzles, drawing, or crafts. Sewing and fabric-based projects are a popular choice. Not only do they let you immerse yourself in a passion project, but also, with practice, they also help you make great gifts for birthdays and the holidays. If you’re committed to completing a sewing or embroidery project, it’s easy to find materials and fabrics available online on dedicated haberdashery websites like Realm Wholesale. You’ll find everything from colourful sewing threads to iron-on patches to complete your projects.

Whether you want to start a sport like football or relearn how to play the violin, hobbies for adults, including seniors, improve mood, boost creativity, enhance cognitive function, and build connections with like-minded people with similar interests.

Tip for Beginners: If you’re confused about which hobby to start with, rummage through your school projects, and you may just find your answer.

5. Unplug from Screens

We’re living in a generation constantly surrounded by bright, blue-light-emitting devices that seem to get smarter by the week. But between toggling multitasking apps and podcasts from famous influencers, people have forgotten to “disconnect to reconnect” with themselves.

The constant lure of updates from work and social media notifications can leave your mind overstimulated, turning it into an unconscious source of stress and anxiety. Devices help us stay connected, but developing an overreliance on them has made it difficult for many of us to go even a few minutes without our smartphones or laptops.

If you feel constantly overwhelmed by the time you spend in front of screens, no matter their size, it may be time to unplug. Start by distancing yourself from devices before bedtime and during meal times, and observe a tremendous change in your focus towards real-world commitments.

When you feel confident, go ahead with a temporary digital detox, which is a personal commitment to limit or eliminate use of digital devices. Disconnecting from your devices will help you reconnect with yourself while rethinking your relationship with technology. Take up activities like exercising, reading, and journaling to fill the time you spend in front of the screen. 

Tip for Beginners: Turn off app and email notifications. Set timers or modes for receiving notifications only during work hours.

6. Move Every Day

Living in the age of expensive bariatric surgery, appetite suppressants, costly detox fixes, and questionable longevity testing, if there’s one (free) thing you can do for a healthy body (and mind), is physical activity. Regular physical activity in the form of exercise, outdoor activity, or walking can have incredible short-term and long-term benefits, from controlling your appetite and mood to keeping you fit and reducing your chances of metabolic health conditions. 

There are endless forms of physical activities to choose from, from cardiovascular activities like cycling and dancing to strength or resistance training exercises like squats, lunges, push-ups, and rows with weights or bands. 

Even though people know the advantages that regular physical activity brings, they cite a lack of time and knowledge about working out. The good news is that you don’t have to enrol at a gym or a fitness centre to begin. You can start with any form of movement as long as it’s not less than 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week.

If you have mobility issues or certain health conditions that restrict your movement, always consult your physician or a healthcare professional before you begin or level up.

Tip for Beginners: Start small, even if it’s a 5-minute brisk walk every day, and work your way up.

To Sum Up

Maintaining a healthy mind and body is the key to leading a more balanced and fulfilling life. No matter how busy your life is, it’s possible to make small changes to take control of your emotional, mental, and physical well-being.

You don’t have to follow all six tips at one go. Pick one or two habits that are the easiest to integrate into your routine, and slowly build them as a regular habit. Impactful change comes with consistency, not by something you do once and forget. Gradually, you’ll be able to cover all of them and see noticeable positive changes in how you feel, move, and live life.