With our new normal, it’s important to create a space at home where we can meditate, practice yoga, workout, and take care of all our wellness needs
If you thought by September 2020 we’d be back to our normal pre-Covid lives, you aren’t alone. But things aren’t returning to “normal” for many of us, and we’re all trying our best to keep up.
Many schools returned to virtual classrooms this fall, just as many professionals are still working from home. Social distancing protocols aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
So it’s no surprise that many of us feel we’re struggling to maintain our overall wellness.
This is especially true as many of our gyms and yoga studios are still closed or operating at limited capacity. It’s a reality that’s been especially hard on our physical and mental health. Because without our wellness spaces, it’s easy to feel adrift and neglect our wellness needs.
But making time for our health and wellness is more important now than ever.
We’re still in the middle of a pandemic. And the confusing, stressful realities of living through this event means we need to make sure taking care of ourselves is a priority.
So while returning to our usual routine at yoga and fitness studios is still a long way off for many of us, it’s still possible to make time for our wellness.
Not only possible—but essential.
Why is making time for fitness, meditation, and your overall wellness important?
Reduces Stress
It’s possible you’re feeling more stress and anxiety at this time than ever before. And there’s no doubt that if you feel anxious it’s hard to feel good. But there are ways to find your peace again.
Meditation has been cited in multiple studies as a great way to reduce stress. Whether you sit in focused silence or follow a guided meditation using something like the Calm app, you benefit from spending a few minutes of your day focused on the here and now instead of the many worries of your life.
Exercise is also incredibly helpful for managing stress.
Exercise reduces the levels of adrenaline and cortisol in your body. These are stress hormones that are released when your body senses a threat. These are useful when you’re facing immediate danger, but constantly elevated levels keep us in a state of anxiety and stress that makes it impossible to fully relax and recover normally.
Using exercise as a natural way to lower adrenaline and cortisol levels will leave you feeling calm, refreshed, and more focused for[1] the rest of your daily life.
Improves Mood
Many of us have felt trapped through quarantine and saddened by everything happening in the world right now.
Exercise won’t solve the world’s problems, but it can improve your mood.
When you exercise, endorphins get released. These endorphins are feel-good chemicals in the brain that naturally elevate your mood and reduce pain.
And another bonus is that exercise takes your mind off your concerns. When you’re focused on getting your body to perform physical challenges, you’ll find your mind is cleared of all the worries that have been running you down.
Take charge of your wellness at home by creating your own wellness space
When your home becomes the place for everything in your life, there’s no doubt being home starts to feel overwhelming.
When you’ve been trying to cook, clean, take care of the kids, oversee your kids’ online education, and do your own job, it’s no wonder your house may feel like a den of chaos rather than the zen sanctuary you need.
You don’t even need to have half of those responsibilities to still feel tired of sitting in the same few rooms every. single. day. To have your home feel stale with cooped up energy.
And it’s hard to separate your workspace from your relaxation and wellness space. There’s a reason many of us prefer going to the gym or yoga studio than doing it from our home. It gives us time in an environment cultivated for our wellness.
But when many of these places won’t be fully accessible to everyone for some time, we have to do some work in our home to make sure we don’t forget to take care of our health and wellness needs.
Fortunately, all it takes is some minor changes to your home—even to just one room—so you can have a space to attend to your health, fitness, and overall state of mind.
The first step is to clean!
If your space is sparkling clean and pristine, then you’ve already taken steps to reduce stress from your environment.
But if you have clutter accumulating in your home, you’re letting in stress and chaos that can be avoided.
Household clutter can raise cortisol levels in your body and make it harder to focus. Clutter and mess is a distracting and constant, nagging reminder that there are other things you haven’t taken care of yet.
So the first step to making your wellness space is to establish a clutter-free zone in your home.
And as you start tidying up, you’ll find it doesn’t take nearly as much time as it seems in your head. Plus you’ll feel soothed by the outcome.
Create a calming, empowering space just for you
You don’t need a home gym to make room for wellness in your home. All you need is a private space with enough room for simple fitness, yoga, and meditation.
If you have a private room or office, great. But even a decluttered corner of a room is all you need to create a wellness space.
Whether you have a whole room or a part of a room to work with, here are some ideas to spark your planning of a wellness space for you:
- Choose a spot with plenty of natural light
- Find a space with a view of nature
- Decorate with artwork or sentimental objects from travel, family, or friends
- Buy some small house plants for the area
- Soothing scents or essential oils to help you relax
- Enough room for your yoga mat and to easily move and stretch in any direction
You want to include anything in your wellness space that makes you feel at ease and empowered.
And if it’s a room you share with others and you can’t leave your wellness corner set up, that’s no problem! Even the act of setting up your space can be part of the ritual that gets you into the headspace to focus only on yourself for a little bit.
Taking care of your health and wellness from home is all about being flexible and doing the best you can.
So whether the current times have you feeling anxious or you think you’ve been coping well, take stock of how you make time for wellness each day. And if you haven’t been, it’s time to find a place in your home to make just yours to account for your physical and mental health.
Sources:
- Thorpe, Matthew. “12 Science-Based Benefits of Meditation.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 5 July 2017, www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-benefits-of-meditation.
- Publishing, Harvard Health. “Exercising to Relax.” Harvard Health, www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercising-to-relax.
- “Exercise and Stress: Get Moving to Manage Stress.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 18 Aug. 2020, www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/exercise-and-stress/art-20044469.
- Resnick, Nathan. “5 Scientific Reasons Decluttering Your Home Will Make You Happier.” Thrive Global, 19 July 2018, thriveglobal.com/stories/5-scientific-reasons-decluttering-your-home-will-make-you-happier/.