(WW) Wellness Minute
What are Wellness Minutes?
These are simple wellness practices that you can fit into your daily life, to keep you happy, healthy and strong.
The idea for Wellness Minutes came to me a year or so back, as I was thinking about how I could fit wellness practices and habits into my busy daily lifestyle after having my daughter. We all have busy, full lives and with my toddler in tow my time was and is scarce, so I really do understand, how it can be challenging to find the time for such things. At the same time we all know the importance of wellbeing and want to be healthy and balanced. My idea is simple practices that don’t take up too much time (up to a minute) are easy to remember and will hopefully in time become daily habits.
I thought – I have a minute, we can all spare a minute a few times a day !
Practicing the wellness minutes has helped me since having my daughter. I really wanted to keep as healthy as I could and give myself some self-loving time !
How can I remember to do these minutes?
A chiropractor that I once new, noticed that it was a struggle for his clients to remember to do the posture exercises he would set them between sessions. By not doing the exercises on a regular basis it would often lead to a build up of bigger problems and chronic pain. He knew that keeping up to the exercises regularly would help his clients to keep well. In order to help them remember to do the exercises and to build up a habit, he thought that the average person uses the bathroom 6 or 7 times a day and the simple posture exercises could be done at the same time thereby ensuring that his clients remembered to do the exercises regularly.
Taking inspiration from the bathroom suggestion, I have come up with the idea of carrying out the Wellness Minutes at the same time as the regular brew breaks that we all take throughout the day. The Wellness Minute could be carried out during the time it takes for the kettle to boil, which is approximately 1 minute. How many times a day do you have a drink? Probably similar to the number of times that you use the bathroom – 6 or 7 times. With continued repetition your brain will begin to associate the bathroom or the kettle with doing a Wellness Minute. After a month it will have become a positive wellness habit and fit into your normal lifestyle without even thinking about it!
Some of my Wellness Minute examples :
1 minute of deep breaths
1 minute of mediation
1 minute of squats
1 minute of visualisation – visualise what you want and desire
1 minute carrying out a Yoga pose – such as the Tree Pose – see below
The Tree Pose – Vrikshasana
The Tree Pose, also known as Vrikshasana in Sanskrit, is a popular yoga posture that helps to improve balance and strength, as well as promote mental focus and stability.
Benefits of the Tree Pose:
- Helps with staying grounded
- Opens and stretches the hips and stretches the inner thigh and groin
- Strengthens the legs and core
- It really helps your balance no matter who you are – yes you are really doing balance training with this pose and it helps to realign the spine and improve your posture
- Improve mental focus
Here are the steps to perform the Tree Pose:
- Stand tall and straight with your feet hip-width apart and arms at your sides.
- Shift your weight onto your left foot and slowly lift your right foot off the ground.
- Place the sole of your right foot against the inner left thigh, with your toes pointing towards the ground.If you find it difficult to balance, you can place your foot on the inner calf instead of the inner thigh, but avoid placing it on the knee joint.
- Press your foot firmly against the inner thigh and engage your left leg muscles to maintain stability.
- Bring your palms together in front of your chest in a prayer position, or extend your arms overhead with your palms facing each other.
- Find a fixed point in front of you to focus on and hold the pose for a few deep breaths.
- Repeat the same steps on the other side, placing your left foot against the inner right thigh or calf.
- To release the pose, slowly lower your right foot back to the ground and return to standing.
It’s important to remember to keep your spine tall and your gaze steady during the pose. Also, if you have any knee or ankle injuries, it’s best to avoid this posture or modify it under the guidance of a qualified yoga teacher.
Try it. It feels fantastic on the body and in under a minute you could easily do it a few times.
I have been teaching this move to my three year old daughter, along with a few of the other beginner’s yoga moves. I am no yoga expert like Barbara Curie, nevertheless I have a go. Being a toddler my daughter gets distracted easily, but she has been doing nearly 10 minutes of yoga poses including the tree pose. I think the key is to make it fun and enjoyable!
Yoga poses make ideal Wellness Minutes
I always say to myself give it a go and just do what you can
I regularly share these Wellness Minute ideas on the Beelieve newsletter. On this blog I wanted to provide more detail, on what they are and the idea behind them.
I hope you enjoyed this Blog Post
Love
(WW) Rachael xxx
