wellness

5 Mind and Body-Positive Ways to Boost Your Health.

{source}

 

It’s all too easy to become swept up in negativity about our appearance and accomplishments nowadays, especially with the excess of information we have access to now with the internet.

But have you heard about the body neutrality movement? It’s essentially a new take on body positivity that is meant to take into consideration various factors about the world we’re living in today in order to create the best chance of helping people find real self-worth and practice self-care.

Among other things, its aim is to show people that the best way to be body-positive is to take care of all aspects of your body, not just how you eat and exercise and how those factors affect you aesthetically. This level of self-care focuses on other ways to self-love, such as getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, and scheduling regular doctor appointments.

So, what are some other ways you can boost your health while staying positive about your body?

1. Build a Positive Community: When you’re trying to stop letting something be a prominent feature in your life, you have to cut it out. To cut out negativity, you have to replace it with positive influences. Surround yourself with people who have the same kinds of goals as you. Try joining a weekly club meetup or small group in your neighborhood.

2. Love How You Move: Exercise is so important to get healthy, but when people throw themselves into extreme workouts, it can sometimes have the opposite effect. To stay in a body-positive mindset, try to come up with ways you can stay active and happy. The best way to do that is to learn how you love to move.

Do you like having a nice walk during cooler evenings when the sun is setting? Do you thrive when you’re out accomplishing errands? Think about your hobbies and what you’ve enjoyed in the past to see if it can become a better way to be active while enjoying yourself.

3. Stop Focusing on the Scale: When you’re struggling to get out of a negative mindset when it comes to your body, it’s time to put the scale away. The numbers on a scale don’t correlate with your health.

Once you’ve gotten rid of your scale, try complimenting yourself every day. It may not come easily at first, but start with the small accomplishments. You got out of bed! You look great in those clothes! You ate that healthy breakfast that you also love! The smallest celebrations you can give yourself will make positive thinking come more naturally in the long run.

4. Cleanse Your Social Media: The habit of scrolling through internet feeds can be compulsive. You may not read every post you see, but the images and words can still stay with your mind and heart. If those images are only reinforcing negative stereotypes, they can hurt your mental health and trigger harmful behaviors and lifestyles.

Cutting your social media use back to 30 minutes a day can help clear your mind and let you focus on what matters.

5. Practice Meditation Daily: Consider trying a more inwardly focused lifestyle change. Meditation is something people all over the world practice for its well-known benefits, which include a more balanced mindset and lower blood pressure.

No one enjoys stress, but it does more damage than you may think. When you’re stressed, your adrenal glands produce cortisol. Regular exposure to excessive amounts of cortisol can cause headaches and heart disease and many other health problems.

Meditation has been shown to help with a variety of mental health issues that can either lead to or derive from stress. And with the rise in mental health problems in modern-day society, it’s worth noting that meditation is a valuable practice to look into. If you’ve been living with high levels of daily stress, you can try practicing meditation at least once every day.

After you learn how to meditate correctly, you’ll find you can do it even more!

Stay Focused on Your Goals

What does a healthier lifestyle mean to you? It could look like a future where you eat healthier, you’re more active, or you’re more present in every moment. Think about how you want to change your life and if these tips can help get you there. Even if only one seems like it could work for you, try it out and use it to stay focused.

As your lifestyle becomes more mind- and body-positive, you may just find you’re able to watch your goals fly by.

***

{Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest}

Comments

Kate Harveston

Kate Harveston

Kate Harveston is a freelance writer and blogger. Her work focuses on health and culture. When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found curled up in her hammock with a book or exploring the city for trendy coffee shops. You can visit her blog, So Well, So Woman to read more of her work and receive a free subscriber gift!
Kate Harveston