The modern-day work routine is fast-paced, and work demands often mean it’s easy to lose the work-life balance. Too often, we return home from work, diving into social media or unhealthy habits that don’t serve our body’s need for rest, leading to interrupted sleep patterns.
Many people resort to short term solutions to stress, for example, convenience food, Netflix, and a casual glass of wine. Though these will feel relaxing, they can contribute to increased fatigue, lower mood and disrupt our sleep. To manage stress long-term, we need to engage in more healthy habits and provide our bodies with a consistent routine for winding down after work.
Swap Screen Time for Reading:
Rest is one of the critical pillars of our mental and physical wellbeing, so it’s essential to understand how to improve this aspect of our lives for optimum health. Engaging with screens before sleep has been proven to affect how quickly and well you sleep at night.
Televisions, computers, phones, and tablets all emit blue light, which may suppress melatonin, which plays a critical role in the sleep-wake cycle. Consequently, blue light can delay sleepiness and interrupt your sleep patterns. You can pair healthy habits with CBD oil (available at Area52.com) to help regulate melatonin.
Instead of spending time on screens, pick a new book and spend time reading instead. You’ll give your eyes a rest from blue light while also fuelling your brain with new knowledge, ideas, and creativity.
Meditation
Lots of research suggests mindfulness meditation can improve our emotional wellbeing by encouraging us to focus on the present moment. Too often, we get caught up in the stressors of our workday and sometimes feel anxious for what tomorrow may hold. Therefore, meditation provides us with space to focus on our breathing and process the negative thoughts and feelings that may not be doing us any good.
Aromatherapy Candles & Oils
Engaging all our senses can be a clever way to improve our mood and positively impact our relaxation ability. The use of colour and scents can be beneficial for your mood. Peppermint and citrus are known to uplift moods and wake you up in the morning, while lavender is the perfect de-stressor for relaxing after extended workdays. You can invest in incense sticks, aromatherapy oil diffusers and aromatherapy candles. All of which would pair perfectly with a bath.
Exercise
Exercise may be the last thing you think of doing after a long day at work. However, it’s incredibly beneficial for our mood and overall physical and emotional wellbeing. Also, you don’t need a gym membership to go on a run or long walk. Exercise improves our stamina, cardio, and overall aerobic condition. Plus, it supports healthy weight management. Exercise is known to release chemicals in the brain called endorphins. These react with the receptors in your brain, which produce positive feelings like those caused by morphine.
Change out of work clothes
Changing out of your work clothes helps mark the boundary between home and work, which can help create a mental association for relaxation. Taking off your work clothes will help you release some of the stress from work, while comfy home clothes will remind you that it’s ‘me time.
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