Health and Wellbeing working from home.
Health and Wellbeing is now more important than ever. Because of the current pandemic we have been forced to live at home with our families 24/7. This can mean trying to manage ten things at once and your own health and wellbeing.
I thought I would try and shed some light on what health and wellbeing actually is and the barriers we are facing now. Furthermore give you some qualified advice on how to improve this now we are living and working from home. So I think its best we start on the what, why, when and how of health and wellbeing.
http://resources.hwb.wales.gov.uk Describe Health and wellbeing as:
– health and wellbeing can be described as the achievement and maintenance of physical health and mental stability.
Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Now we know what the definition of Health and Wellbeing means it is important to note that every individual is different.
A persons Health and Wellbeing is not a ‘one shoe fits all approach’. Because a variety of different areas need reviewing and adjusting to improve it. Each person has different strengths and weakness on both achieving and maintaining a good Healthy lifestyle.
We usually break these areas down into physical health, mental health, nutrition, lifestyle, relationship and Financial wellbeing. There are different approaches to these but just take noteof what they are as you might need to review these areas in your own life to improve your health and wellbeing.
Why is it so important that we understand what health and wellbeing is and how it can improve our lives i hear you ask. Well it is known and reported that the cases of anxiety, stress and depression is on the increase seeing more people take time off of work. As well as the increase in suicide rates you can see why its is important address and try to put into place some quality protocols to help.
Health and Wellbeing is so varied that I would put a strategy into place which you can abide by. It might take some motivation on some days but will help keep you fit, healthy and well.
Working from home puts lots of barriers in place to creating a healthy lifestyle. For many it can cause stress, anxiety, unhealthy habits and poor working conditions so I will suggest some tips to help.
5 Health and Wellbeing top tips
Form Routines:
My first and most important piece of advice and something which I had to do myself is create a routine. This routine is focused around you and what you need to do help yourself. We all have work to do and people to please but if you are not happy or healthy this will be both unproductive and unhelpful. Routines also allow you to manage your time well and not overload yourself causing stress.
Physical Activity:
Be active where you can to do some sort of exercise or activity at least once a day. Because this is proven to increase endorphin production which helps reduce stress and anxiety. Make sure to schedule this as it is very easy to avoid this section and make excuses. This Will also help Calorie expenditure which will help us keep control of our weight. Fighting off obesity is not only a factor in health but an ‘at risk’ factor with many diseases and infections.
Stay Hydrated:
Stay hydrated. Because our body is basically a frame of muscle, organs and bone filled with water. Our brain is the same so staying hydrated helps us avoid being lethargic. Dehydration encourages poor food choices, lack of productivity both at work and in our life and creates an unhealthy body.
Good Diet:
Eating a minimum of 5 fruit or vegetable a day. Because fruit and vegetable hold a variety of vitamins and Minerals which are good for helping the body regulate itself. This reduces the risks of heart disease, stroke and some types of cancer and overall poor health.
Personal Time:
Give yourself some ‘me time, either to read, mediate, do some mindfulness or listen to some music. Doing something which allows you to switch off and relax to the pressures of the world and life is essential. If you can do this in a space of your own where you don’t have any outside distractions with will help the brain calm the stressors we might have.
Quality Sleep:
My most important piece of advice is to prioritise your sleep getting a minimum of 8 hours sleep a night. A lack of sleep has been shown to have a very negative affect on many things. Mental health, appearance, food choices, activity output, productivity and more all suffer due to lack of sleep.. Because of this, it’s vitally important we put this at the top of our list.
Founder of Employees Health – Workplace Wellbeing. We aim to help people by giving them useful knowledge or practicals skills which they can use to improve their health and wellbeing whilst at work or at home!
