Three Things You Can Do To Improve Your Health While Working From Home
Being an entrepreneur invariably means working from home, sitting hunched over a computer for long hours perfecting your product/pitch/plan, I know, I’ve been there.
And it can also mean neglecting other aspects of your life in order to get things done.
Like your health.
How many times have you told yourself you’ll take a break, go for a walk, make a healthy meal, go back to the gym WHEN you have more time?
But you’ll never have more time. So you need to make the most of the time you’ve got.
It’s hard to juggle it all when you’re first starting out, but it’s important to remember that your health underpins everything and without it all your hard work will mean nothing!
In order to be productive, focused and, of course, successful you need good health. You need to be the best version of yourself that you can be.
So here are my three top tips that you can start using today that are free, simple, take no time at all and will give you more energy, more motivation, better focus and less stress. And not just that, you’ll also decrease your chances of developing a whole range of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, obesity, even cancer.
Sound good? Let’s go.
1. Breathe
Navy seals, yoga masters, Buddhist monks, and some of the most successful people in the world like Oprah and Tony Robbins, all rely on breathing techniques to stay in control and on top of their game.
So why don’t you? Most of us don’t breathe properly. In fact we spend a good deal of our life literally holding our breath.
When we’re stressed we subconsciously hold our breath. When we panic we take shallow breaths. And even when we’re breathing normally we don’t use the full capacity of our lungs.
Breathing is how we get oxygen into our blood, the more oxygen in our blood the more energy we have, the better everything works. And when we breath out we release carbon dioxide, a waste product from our cells, through our lungs.
Our breath is also connected to our mental and emotional health, so if we spend just a small amount of time concentrating on our breath and doing deep breathing exercises we can improve our mental, emotional and physical health. It’s no coincidence we’re told to take slow deep breaths when we’re in a panic about something. Breathing grounds us and brings us into the present.
There are lots of breathing techniques that you can try, like pranayama, and box breathing, but if you just concentrate on taking 5 deep breaths regularly throughout the day you will reap the benefits.
2. Move
Studies have found that sitting for long periods during the day is as bad for our health as smoking cigarettes.
Horrifying right?
And this quote from Dr Levine from the Mayo clinic really hits the message home:
“When we sit for long periods our body stagnates, the lymph doesn’t flow and toxins start to build up which puts us at risk of cancer, heart disease, obesity, muscular issues, type 2 diabetes and depression.”
Just from sitting!
And the problem with this is the only answer is to sit less. Going to the gym even for a couple of hours a day, or getting plenty of exercise at the weekend won’t make up for all the sitting we do the rest of the time.
So you need to find ways that you can move more during the day.
Get up from your desk and move around, take your calls standing up, put the radio on and dance, stretch, do some yoga, whatever you can do to get yourself moving more, do it.
I use an app called Focus@Will which plays music for 25 minutes, then a timer goes off and I move around for 5 minutes, and that repeats throughout the day. I get so much done in those 5 minutes! I use the time to tidy up, do washing, vacuum and so on, killing two birds with one stone.
Studies suggest we can’t focus fully for more that 25 minutes at a time, so it fits in well with getting up from my desk, but if that doesn’t work for you just set an alarm for every hour.
3. Drink
Water that is.
Most people suffer with mild dehydration and even mild dehydration can lead to a host of problems including fatigue, problems with concentration, poor memory, joint pain and headaches.
And if you don’t drink lots of water regularly I can almost guarantee you are at least mildly dehydrated. And we get so used to being dehydrated that we think it’s normal to feel like that.
We’ve stopped thinking about water as an option when we feel thirsty. We reach for tea or coffee or (God forbid) fizzy drinks – all of which are diuretics – they increase the amount we pee so they make our dehydration worse.
Our body is 2/3 water. Every single process in our body relies on water to work efficiently. If you’re not drinking enough water everything has to work harder just to do the things it’s meant to do. Your body will be sluggish, trying to keep everything moving smoothly without the lubricant it needs to do it. And our cells, our organs and every biochemical process all depend on water to function.
Water lubricates our joints and allows them to move easily. It regulates our body temperature and eliminates waste products, so water effectively cleans our systems. It makes our skin smoother and less prone to wrinkles and blemishes.
Not drinking enough water increases the burden on waste disposal functions like the liver and the kidneys. And can also lead to constipation making it harder to eliminate waste from the digestive system.
Drinking more water will instantly make you feel better.
Action Plan
Don’t underestimate the power of these small changes, over time they will make a big difference. It’s about giving your body what it needs to do its job properly – so it can function to the best of its ability.
So, set a reminder on your phone right now to go off every 30 minutes or hourly and each time it goes off get up and move around, take 5 deep breaths and drink some water.
Pretty soon you’re going to feel amazing!
(FYI I have no affiliates with anyone/products mentioned I’m just giving you the information I use myself – apart from Vitality TV obviously which is my other website and totally free!)