Though humans have been striving to preserve their wellbeing since the very beginning, living life in 2019 has awoken a collective need to make wellbeing an intentional priority. As we navigate a world with unprecedented access to information, communication, and technology, we’re facing physical, mental, and social health issues as we’ve never experienced.
With our mental and physical health on the line, more and more people are becoming aware of how vitally important it is to focus on our wellbeing. Cultivating our physical, psychological, social, and spiritual health can help us experience our highest quality of living, allowing us to unlock our potential, engage with the world, and cope with life’s inevitable stresses and changes.
Learn more: “What is wellbeing and why is it important?”
5 reasons why you should focus on your wellbeing in 2019
Making holistic wellbeing one of your highest priorities can help you unlock your potential and feel more balanced in daily life. As you develop self-awareness and practice lifestyle habits that support your overall wellbeing, you’ll be able to recognize lurking symptoms of imbalance and take care of yourself in the ways that you need. Here are five reasons why investing time and energy into your wellbeing should be your priority, helping you live better in 2019 and beyond.
Focusing on your wellbeing can make you healthier
Even though we may not even be aware of it, our health is one of the first things we forfeit when we’re feeling bogged down with work, financial, relationship stresses, or family responsibilities. We spread ourselves too thin — sometimes without even realising it — and we start ignoring the self-care that we need to fight off illness.
Though an occasional slip in your self-care routine isn’t likely to have a huge impact on your health, the cumulative effect of overworking yourself can eventually catch up and harm your physical, mental, social, and behavioural health.
According to Chinese medicine, our health can suffer if we push ourselves to unsustainable extremes. Instead, Chinese medicine recommends creating a sustainable lifestyle that supports your daily sense of health and resilience.
Wellbeing Tip: Give yourself permission to say “no” to extra commitments if you’re feeling overscheduled or tired. Instead, devote some of your time and energy toward meaningful self-care activities, such as practising a relaxation technique or going for a walk in nature.
Improves your posture and mobility
Many of us spend as much as half of our waking hours sitting or lying. Alongside increasing our risk for chronic diseases and premature mortality, sedentary behaviours keep us in the same position with little to no muscle activity. This can strain our posture, cause muscle imbalances, and limit our ability to move our bodies fully and functionally. As we work longer hours and take fewer breaks from sitting, we may not realise how our bodies’ mobility has changed until we have difficulty performing a simple task, like putting on a seatbelt or bending down to tie our shoes.
In Chinese medicine, movement is seen as a form of medicine. For thousands of years, Chinese medicine has used Tui Na massage and Qigong exercises to restore the free flow of Qi throughout the musculoskeletal system and maintain and improve mobility for unrestricted and high-quality living.
Wellbeing Tip: Take regular breaks from sitting and make mobility training part of your routine 2-3 days a week.
Increases productivity and focus
Productivity and concentration go hand-in-hand. Internal and external distractions can disrupt your plans to start a project or tackle your to-do list. In addition to facing the internal distractions of stress and anxiety, you may feel pressure to adopt the culturally celebrated value of multitasking. Add 24/7 access to technology, and you may find yourself behind schedule, discouraged, and stressed.
Though multitasking sounds desirable in theory, your brain is not designed to simultaneously process multiple channels of information, a high volume of data, or more than one cognitively complex task.
Through meditation and balanced living, Chinese medicine has long aimed to guide people toward a mental state of clear focus, self-awareness, and cognitive flexibility. Instead of training people to juggle multiple tasks at the same time, these practices promote one-pointed focus. In addition to sharpening your memory, mindfulness can help you increase your focus, improve your emotional adaptability, and advance toward your daily and long-term goals successfully.
Wellbeing Tip: Abandon the belief that multitasking is the best approach for your productivity and try adding mindfulness practices — such as Qigong and meditation — to sharpen your mental acuity and self-determination.
Fosters positive relationships through mindfulness
As an inherently social being, your social relationships are vital for your physical health and mental wellbeing. Yet despite the fact that we now “devote more technology to staying connected than any society in history,” feelings of loneliness are rising.
Though social media can be a wonderful tool for staying in touch, more intimate forms of connection — such as phone calls and in-person meetings — are essential for maintaining close bonds. Honing your self-awareness through mindfulness techniques have even been shown to improve the quality of your relationships by empowering you to set healthy boundaries, improving your communication skills, and awakening your ability to relate to yourself and others more compassionately.
Wellbeing Tip: Instead of picking up your smartphone if you’re feeling bored or lonely, try practising a few minutes of meditation, or deep breathing techniques before reaching out to a loved one or friend.
Boosts your self-confidence
Self-esteem, which describes one’s perception of self-value and self-confidence, is highly associated with human health and psychological wellbeing. Higher levels of self-esteem can help you cope with a stressful situation and are even protective against some psychological disorders. Ongoing stress, however, can eventually wear down your sense of self-esteem. At the same time, low self-esteem makes it more difficult to cope with stressful situations. On top of this, social media use has also been shown to contribute to anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.
In addition to increasing your sense of self-compassion through mindfulness, physical activity is associated with higher levels of long-term self-esteem, as well as providing an immediate mood boost.
Wellbeing Tip: Make regular physical activity a priority you’re unwilling to skip. Enjoy at least 30-minutes of diverse activities at least 5 days a week, such as Qigong, swimming, jogging, cycling, or strength training.
Letting Go Qigong for balance and mental wellbeing
Letting Go Qigong (also known as Shaking) gently promotes circulation, joint mobility, equanimity, and mental focus and clarity. To practice Letting Go Qigong, come to standing with your feet hip-distance apart and pelvis tucked forward. Keeping your feet on the ground and your joints relaxed, start shaking your body by gentling bending and straightening your knees. Continue for 2 -10 minutes, breathing fully and deeply.
Put in simplest terms, you are the very best reason to focus on your wellbeing in 2019. Support your mental wellbeing and self-care routine through Qigong and Chinese medicine by visiting our blog or by exploring our library of ebooks and online courses.
