27 Simple Wellness Tips for Healthy & Happy Living

Prioritizing your wellness is important for ensuring you live a healthy and happy life, and taking constructive steps to improve your wellness can have significant positive impacts on your mental and physical health.

But, how much do you actually know about wellness and do you know exactly what tips you can use to feel the full health benefits? Well, that's what we're here to discuss. In this blog, we'll be covering what wellness is and why it's important, including 27 simple wellness tips to improve mood and your relationship with your body.

What is wellness?

Before getting into how you can improve your wellness, it's important to first define what wellness is. Wellness is the physical and mental acts we partake in to gain better mental and physical health. Wellness is important for ensuring we live an enjoyable life as well as a long one, as there's a big difference between surviving and thriving!

Wellness isn't just about incorporating the occasional epsom salt bath into your nightly routine, it's about ensuring that your overall health and mental wellbeing needs are met throughout your life. That goes for ensuring you eat well, get enough sleep, look after your mental health, fill every day with fun activities and ultimately enjoy life.

It's important to remember that wellness is not something to be 'completed'. What we mean by that is that it's not something you can achieve and forget about, it's actually something you should be in pursuit of your entire life. This is important because your wellness journey should follow all the stages of your life. For example, you might want to incorporate a glucosamine supplement in your diet as you get older to decrease the impact of diseases like arthritis.

In a nutshell, it's a journey without a destination, and you should be on it for the rest of your life.

Sometimes, we get lost in the idea of wellness, thinking that in order to be truly 'well', we have to book lavish vacations, take spa days and take part in regular detoxes. Whilst this can be true, there are so many smaller routines you can incorporate into your daily life that have a significant positive impact on your wellbeing. Staying in pursuit of healthy living doesn't necessarily mean you have to splash the cash!

Why is wellness important?

Wellness isn't just important for making sure we feel good about ourselves, it's also critical to the maintenance of our everyday health. Wellness practices like eating healthy foods, getting enough exercise and drinking plenty of water ensure that we steer clear of any nasty diseases like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even heart disease!

When you practice wellness, you're giving your body the best possible chance it has to fight off threats, so make sure you equip your body with the best arsenal you can because you'll thank yourself for it!

Our mental wellbeing also has a sizable impact on our overall health. Employing wellness techniques also helps to protect our mental health, ensuring that we can tackle the day with a positive mindset and can enjoy life. Your mental health dictates how you sleep, eat, interact with others and concentrate, so ensuring that you prioritize wellness is a must for ensuring that you put your brain first!

Practicing wellness also ensures that we take personal responsibility for our own life. This is important for becoming more independent and boosting self-esteem. When you rely less on others, you'll feel more empowered to take risks and challenge yourself, which can have a positive impact on your life. Self-esteem is also what drives you and makes you feel confident, so ensuring that your wellness routines support this is of utmost importance.

Wellness can also help you reach some of your fundamental life goals. For example, if one of your goals is to lose weight to better your physical health, incorporating wellness practices into your daily life can help you reach your fitness goals. This goes for almost all of your life goals, so why not try out small techniques and see if they give you the boost you need to thrive!

15 wellness tips for a healthy lifestyle and better mental well being

We know that with life's obligations, it's hard to put yourself first day-to-day. However, it's not impossible to practice wellness and build up your self-esteem, even if you work full-time or take primary responsibility for your family. In fact, there are so many small routines that you can do every day that take very little time but have a big impact on your wellbeing.

Here are 27 health and wellness tips that you can incorporate for a healthier lifestyle and better mental wellbeing today:

1.  Cook yourself a healthy meal

In a world saturated with processed foods, takeaways and convenience cooking, it would be unrealistic to say that we all don't sometimes put our healthy eating on the back burner. While it can be difficult to think creatively and come up with healthy meal ideas every night, incorporating some healthier alternatives into our cooking can have a great impact on our gut health and mental wellbeing.

It doesn't need to be fancy, just consider throwing in more vegetables and whole and super foods than you usually would into a pot and see what happens! Cooking regular healthy meals with less processed food, sugars and unhealthy fats can significantly lower your chances of having high blood pressure and reduce your cholesterol levels, which can reduce the risk of scary diseases like vascular dementia, heart attacks and strokes.

Cooking for yourself and not for convenience is also a worthy investment in yourself, as it's a good stop on the road to self-sufficiency. Take the time to practice mindfulness whilst you cook to turn your cooking experience into a yummy and meditative activity!

2.  Choose organic foods

Organic foods refer to food that hasn't been treated with man-made fertilizers, pesticides, growth enhancers and additives to livestock feed. Whilst organic foods aren't necessarily more nutritious than their cheaper counterparts, you ensure that you're not ingesting any chemicals from such additives when you eat organic foods.

Organic diets typically mean that you're exposed to less chemicals which may have an impact on your health. Although there is yet to be concrete studies on the impact of organic food on overall health, it's probably best to seek more organic alternatives for peace of mind if you're likely to stress over how many chemicals you're ingesting every day.

3.  Focus on good posture

Hands up if you've ever felt that pain in your lower back and at the base of your neck when you've sat on a chair that is definitely not built for use during an eight-hour workday. Well, it might not just be the fact that you need a decent chair with actual lumbar support, you may also be suffering from the ever so common- poor posture disease.

Ok, it might not be an actual disease, but poor posture can really impact your confidence and wellbeing. Of course, the obvious side-effect being pain. In fact, 1 in 6 Australians reported having some kind of back pain, with health officials stating that most cases can be solved with simple adjustments to posture.

If you're a desk dweller for most of the day, pay special attention to the curvature of your spine and ensure that you're not overly slouched or angling your neck too much. This can lead to a build-up of stress in your upper and lower back, leading to aches and pains that no one wants!

In fact, ensuring that you keep your spine straight, shoulders back and neck level can significantly reduce the amount of wear and tear on the supportive structures that your body relies on to keep yourself upright and secure.

4.  Incorporate physical activity into your daily routing

Those of us that work and live very sedentary lifestyles could majorly benefit from getting some more exercise every day. This is especially important for those of you who perhaps work in desk jobs and spend the weekends relaxing and recuperating in preparation for the next week. While this is important to ensure you're properly rested, your fitness and cardiovascular health can take a hit as a result.

Taking part in regular light exercise helps to keep the scary illnesses away, in fact, the World Health Organisation states that regular physical activity is proven to help keep your weight low, and prevent many noncommunicable diseases like hypertension and certain types of cancers.

Physical activity also promotes the production of endorphins, also known as 'the happy hormone'. This means that those who suffer from chronic low mood, depression, anxiety or seasonal affective disorder can greatly benefit from getting their heart rate up for an hour or so a day!

5.  Establish a healthy eating pattern

We're all guilty of skipping breakfast if we're running late, or deciding that lunch isn't super important because we're stuck in a meeting, but getting yourself in a good eating pattern is imperative to overall wellness.

Scheduling your eating times is a good way of helping you maintain your energy levels throughout the day, so you don't get the dreaded 3pm sugar crash that has you eyeing the door to go home. Your blood sugar and insulin levels play a big part in your mood, energy and motivation, so ensuring you have a good level at all times is critical.

To do this, consider breaking your meals down into smaller portions and eating regularly throughout the day. For example, instead of eating just three meals, why not break them down into six small portions and eat at staggered times. Coupled with plenty of protein and fruits, you'll feel full and energized all day!

6.  Use your lunch break well

Most of us typically use lunch breaks to catch up on emails, scroll endlessly on our phone and quickly stuff a sandwich into our faces just before the hour is over. Whilst this can be effective in terms of swiftly getting back to work, this doesn't give your brain enough time to decompress.

When you reach your lunch break, it's likely that you've spent at least the last few hours staring at screens, frantically answering phone calls and cramming as much work in as possible. This is a lot for your brain to digest, meaning by the time it reaches your lunch hour, it's important to give it ample time to digest the events of the day so far and recharge so it can take on the rest.

Consider taking time away from your devices during your lunch hour, put yourself on, do not disturb and leave the confines of your office for a few minutes. Why not take a walk briefly? This time away from harmful blue light that your devices emit can decrease your chances of stress and ocular headaches and improve your sleep quality.

7.  Practice deep breathing

When you're not paying attention to your breathing, it's likely you're taking shallow breaths and don't adequately oxygenate your blood, causing you to feel tired and fatigued too quickly. Consider taking deeper and more measured breaths, as this is a more efficient way to oxygenate your body and destress your muscles.

Taking 30 seconds to a minute to focus on breathing deeply in and out gives your brain a little break and allows your lungs to exchange carbon dioxide from your blood more efficiently. This slows the heartbeat and stabilizes blood pressure, making you feel more relaxed and less stressed.

8.  Use a fitness tracker

Anyone who owns a smart watch or a smartphone is likely to have access to a fitness tracker. A fitness tracker tracks how many steps you take during the day, with some smart watches also monitoring your levels of activity, how many calories you burn, your BMI and vital signs.

While fitness trackers aren't life changing in themselves, they are a good motivator and can hold you to account when you haven't done enough physical activity. Smart watches in particular may send you regular notifications to stretch or move around to get the blood pumping around your body.

This is also great for those of you who want to monitor your progress in your fitness journey, allowing you to keep tabs on what you're eating and how much physical activity you're taking a day.

9.  Eat less processed foods

Processed foods typically contain an unhealthy and unsustainable level of sugars, sodium (salts) and unhealthy fats. This means that eating heavily processed foods could be keeping you from any weight loss goals you have and could be contributing to high blood pressure and cholesterol.

While everything is typically OK in moderation, it's not good to make a habit out of ingesting too many processed foods. To help you cut some of these out, here are some typical examples of heavily processed foods you may have in your kitchen:

• tinned vegetables
• cheese
• sugary breakfast cereals
• snacks like unhealthy chips, crisps and pies
• cakes
• biscuits
• processed meats like ham, bacon and pates

10.  Spend time with your friends and family members

Let's have a brief break in talking about what we put in our bodies and talk about the importance of nurturing our happiness. A lot of us are guilty of putting off seeing our friends and family in favor of a day in front of the TV. While this can be healthy, especially after a particularly long work week or if you're super introverted, humans are social animals and need contact to function normally.

Consider organizing a get together with your nearest and dearest to give your social battery a recharge. This doesn't have to be a big occasion, just consider a coffee date or a small dinner party to catch up on all the events in your life. At the very least, it's an opportunity to take your mind off work.

11.  Eat more fruits

Eating more fruits and vegetables is a great way to get in your extra vitamins and minerals whilst also indulging in a sweet and tasty snack. Most of us forget about how tasty fruit is until we revisit an old favorite, and the best part is, they're super convenient.

Eating more fruits is also a good source of fiber, which is a carbohydrate that your body can't digest into extra sugar. This means it helps to regulate your sugar process and keep your blood sugar and hunger levels at an even measurement. Soluble fibers also slow down the body's digestive system, allowing you to absorb the maximum amount of vitamins and nutrients from your food.

Insoluble fibers help to bind stool, meaning you have a healthier colon and less uncomfortable trips to the bathroom!

12.  Take a short walk as part of your morning routine

Why not ditch the 6am scroll through social media and take up an early morning walk as part of your daily routine. Not only is this a great way to get your heart pumping and increase your energy for the day ahead, this is also a good chance to get some early morning vitamin d from the sun.

Vitamin d is crucial to the body's regulation of the immune system, calcium and phosphates. For those of us without a biology degree, this means that vitamin d helps to support your bones, teeth and muscles. Being severely vitamin D deficient can lead to a number of scary illnesses like bone deformities, rickets in children and musculoskeletal pain, known as osteomalacia.

This is also a great opportunity to practice some mindfulness and decompress before the workday. Try using the time to get yourself into a positive mindset, plan the day and perhaps plan what you'll do for yourself when you get home. This can help you set yourself up for a much more positive day!

13.  Incorporate fatty, oily fish into your diet

Oily and fatty fish aren't just super tasty, they're absolutely essential components of your diet, and if they aren't already taking up space in your fridge, you should make it a priority to ensure they are. Fatty and oily fish are rich in Omega-3 and fatty acids. These long chains of Omega-3 are critical in the prevention of heart disease and the maintenance of overall heart health.

Oily fish are the most rich source of long-chain Omega-3 that you can find, so you should consider making this a staple in your diet. It's also important for pregnant women to prioritize their intake of long-chain Omega-3 and fatty acids because this contributes to the normal development of the baby's central nervous system.

If fish or meat isn't your thing, don't worry, you're not doomed health-wise. Consider taking a daily Omega-3 supplement to ensure you still get enough of this critical polyunsaturated fat.

14.  Seek help for your mental health

Sometimes, we can't fix everything with a good sleeping pattern and healthy eating, and we need a little more help in our wellness journey. If you notice that you're struggling to get by mentally on your own, consider seeking help from a qualified professional such as a therapist or doctor.

Actively prioritizing your mental health is a big step in the wellness journey and can provide some serious mental health benefits. Qualified professionals can provide effective tools that can help you manage the inhibiting symptoms of anxiety, depression, sleep disorders and low self-esteem.

15.  Prioritize your sleep quality

Sleep isn't just a reward for getting through a particularly hard day's work, it's vital to your basic bodily functions. Without sleep, your brain can't function properly, meaning that your fine motor skills, reactivity and ability to think quickly are all severely restricted.

When you sleep, your body works hard to repair the everyday wear and tear to the cells across your body, including your muscles and skin. So, if you have more aches and pains than usual, then you should consider making sure you're getting enough restful sleep.

The body also burns many calories whilst you're asleep, meaning your metabolism is working hard to process food into energy for when you wake up. This is critical to managing your weight, so make sure you're keeping track of your sleep if you're trying to shift a few extra pounds.

If you're struggling to sleep, consider spending an hour or two before bed winding down and disconnecting from your devices. Blue light from devices can wreak havoc on your body's natural sleep and wake cycle, also known as your circadian rhythm. It stops your body from preparing to sleep by blocking melatonin production which is a critical hormone in making you feel sleepy.

If this is still a struggle, consider taking melatonin or a sleep supplement a few hours before you go to bed. Overtime, this can help you establish a good pattern of sleep and help your body recognise that it's time to begin winding down for bed.

That covers most of the major ways you can practice good wellbeing. If you're still struggling or need some more inspiration, here is a list of wellness tips that are pretty self-explanatory:

• Take care of your teeth
• Take your vitamins
• Drink more water
• Enhance skin health
• Focus on stress management
• Learn how to promote a healthy gut
• Seek advice from wellness professionals like doctors
• Pay close attention to the amount of salt, sugar and harmful fats you ingest
• Try to boost your immune system with supplements
• Write down your health and wellness goals
• Wash your hands regularly
• Pay attention to your body

There you have it! We hope that gave you some inspiration on how to practice good health and wellness. Why not check out some ways you can promote wellness with the vast range of products we have at Australian Organic Products + More? You might find some some innovative products and ways you can enhance your healthy living.