Prioritising You And Your Health

As we get older, our priorities begin to change, and sometimes we forget to do even the simplest of things for ourselves. We begin prioritising other things, other people, like children, or getting that promotion, and other adult things. Which is great of course, but we get so caught up that we forget to check on the most important thing - ourselves. We forget to attend checkups because we don’t want to use our precious holiday allowance, we put off that appointment because we’ve only got an hour of free time and agreed to meet for coffee, its so easily done, and before you know it, that appointment we missed last week turns into 6 months ago, and so on. It’s incredibly important to look out for ourselves, and make sure that we’re doing all we can to keep ourselves happy and healthy. Here are some tips on making sure that we’re as good as we can be, and addressing things in the now rather than later. 

Make Your Safe Space

Making a space that makes you comfortable and at ease is a good way to de stress, and disassociate for a while, and how you utilise that space is entirely up to you.It could be a small room in which you take a book and read, it could be a mini gym in your house - it’s entirely up to you. As long as you have somewhere where you can rest, recharge, and do the things that you enjoy. It’s good practice to make that a part of a daily routine. It allows you to control the pace of your day, and effectively reset.

Try and Maintain Good Work/Personal Life Balance

I know, it’s a common saying, but it’s true. It really is important to have a healthy balance between your work and your life outside of it. Committing too much to either side can have an effect on the other. If you’re too focussed on work 24 hours a day, you’ll be too worn out and stressed to consider anything extra curricular, and it’ll start to drain you mentally as well as physically. The same is to be said about the other side - if you’re constantly partying and not thinking about what effect it could have on your professional life if you average around 3 hours sleep each night due to other activities, you may not be able to keep your job for very long. 

If Something Isn’t Right, See A Professional Right Away

Whether it’s physical or otherwise, if you think something is wrong, it’s vital you see someone as soon as possible. Make sure you have regular checkups - and don’t get into the habit of cancelling unless you absolutely have to. Stay on top of appointments with your GP, confide in them if something is ailing you. Make sure you visit your dentist regularly, and any work you need doing, dentures, root canals, don’t put them off just because they seem scary - you’ll only make the issue worse.

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Having a Bedtime Is Important 

Having a solid sleeping pattern is a lot more important than people think - and is usually the first thing that adults tend to take for granted. It’s natural for people to think that they don’t have enough time - that they need to stay up and finish whatever task they’re trying to complete. Sleep is usually the first thing to be sacrificed, but a lack of sleep affects more than just physical weariness - your ability to concentrate, your rationality, memory and retention span are also heavily affected and will start to decline quicker than you think. It’s recommended that adults sleep around 7 - 8 hours per night, so try to find yourself a time in which you completely switch off, isolate yourself from distractions and blue screens. Set yourself an alarm if you’re worried you’ll oversleep, or even just to build up that routine, eventually your body will adjust and become used to it.

Regular Exercise

Staying fit and active is a great way to take care of yourself, in mind and body. However much you do is up to you - it’s not a race with anyone (Unless you are actually racing). Just as long as you stick to it and do it often, it all helps. Even if you take a few laps around your back garden - it’s still better than none at all. It’ll get easier the more you stick to a routine, and has actually shown to help with mental health - you may actually start to enjoy it and seek bigger challenges! x Neil.