When things start to feel chaotic, self-care can feel like the first thing to go out the window. But things like getting out of bed in the morning, brushing our teeth, making coffee, and eating breakfast seem to always stay.
Why is that, you ask?
It’s ingrained in your mind. It’s a habit, routine. Even if you’re feeling tired, you’ll probably get up and go to work because it’s what you’re used to.
So what if you could create good habits, ingrain them in your mind, and never have to worry about them slipping away? Well, that’s what a health and wellness plan is here to help with.
Read on for 10 steps to building a health and wellness plan.
1. Account for Everything
What do you like having in your daily routine? Are there certain foods you want to be eating more of? Is there a self-care activity you’d like to try harder to implement?
Whatever it is, you have to take your entire identity into account. Your mental and physical and spiritual well-being have to work in tandem so you can feel your best at all times.
2. Identify Your Strong Suits
What habits are you good at keeping in your routine?
Maybe you always manage to get your hair done or go to the doctor. Maybe you sit down every Sunday and plan out your week, or do so every morning before work.
The point here is, identify, and track what you’re good at so you can see what needs more time and attention.
Instead of focusing on all the things you’re not good at, it can be seen as an opportunity to improve on skills you already possess.
3. Take Your Medications
If you have been prescribed any medications, you need to be taking them at your recommended intervals. No matter what they’re for, keeping up with prescription medications is going to help keep your body at its best.
It can be hard to remember, so create a schedule for it. Set alarms on your phone, get a cute pill case, and even a reusable water bottle that you can keep nearby.
The more enticing you can make taking your medicine seem, the easier it’s going to be to stay on it consistently.
Now that you can buy prescription drugs online, there’s really no reason you can’t take your medicine regularly.
4. Dietary Changes
This step isn’t completely necessary, but if there are changes you’ve been wanting to make in your diet, now is the time to do so.
That doesn’t mean which diet you’d like to try next… it means permanent changes that will make you feel good. Your body knows when it’s hungry and when it’s not.
Rest assured that you can trust it to let you know what it does and doesn’t want to eat.
5. Check Your Financial Health
Money isn’t everything, but financial stability can give you a confidence boost. It can also allow you to loosen the reigns on spending so you can treat yourself.
If your financial health isn’t great, spend 30-60 days tracking your spending. At the end of that period, you can go through and see where things can be cut back upon, and then where you can invest more.
Putting that extra money into paying off debt, toward a savings account, or even something you really want can make you feel, at a minimum, a lot more comfortable as you move through your day-to-day.
6. Test Your Limits
This is not something you need to accomplish every day, because it can be exhausting. However, carefully testing your limits is a great way to overcome fears and build up to a certain goal.
For example, you might have a shirt you haven’t put on in years because you think it’s “flashy,” but it fits really well and makes you feel confident.
The fear, in this scenario, is wearing the shirt in public… possibly because of what others might think. The only way you can overcome that fear is to wear the shirt in public.
You can work up to that by simply wearing the shirt around your house. Then one day you get the mail while wearing it, or over a to a close friend’s house. Then one day you’ll feel confident enough to wear it out in public.
This step should be added to your wellness plan so you know you’re not becoming too comfortable, and therefore stagnant, with your overall health and wellness. While humans thrive with structure, we also tend to get bored with constant repetition.
Challenge yourself so you can’t get bored.
7. Set Goals
Not all of your challenges have to be scary, though. Overcoming fears, especially if you have an anxiety disorder or are recovering from trauma, can be a lot to handle, and it’s extremely hard work!
Setting small, but fun, goals for yourself should also be part of your health and wellness plan.
A few examples of small goals can include:
- Cooking more often
- Starting a journal
- Painting
- Tidying the house at least once a day
- Starting yoga
- More peaceful moments
- Drinking tea instead of coffee
All those goals have a common theme. They involve you, and they involve you possibly rewarding yourself.
To cook, you need food, which you have to choose and then buy. Tidying the house doesn’t necessarily involve anything, but maybe you reward yourself with a cup of tea when you’re done.
If you want to paint but have nothing to start it with, then you have to get painting things.
No, buying stuff is not always the answer, but seeing these purchases as a reward for yourself instead of a guilt trip allows them to be enjoyable instead of frustrating.
8. Seek Support
Remember that you don’t have to do this alone. If you find yourself needing help, make sure you seek support from your friends or a family member. Even talking to a professional can help you if it feels necessary.
Keep Track of Your Wellness Plan
Now that you’ve learned how to develop a wellness plan, you can create one of your own and use it to keep yourself on track.
Create milestones for yourself, and remember that establishing routines can take time and patience. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
- If you’re interested in more on the latest in health and wellness, be sure to check out the rest of our blog.