“We are what we repeatedly do… therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit” 

Will Durant via Aristotle

 

Building and sustaining life improving habits is vital to living a happy and healthy life. We tend to go about our days doing the same things on repeat whether they make us feel good or not. We are just in a routine and it’s hard to break out of that routine when it’s comfortable and easy.

 

Most of us want to start living a healthier and happier life both for ourselves and for our family and the people around us. We are constantly bombarded with influencers and people claiming to be experts talking about things we need to be doing to live longer and be healthier and it can be overwhelming.

 

I want to break it down to 5 simple, accessible habits that you can start practicing on a daily basis in order to start feeling better and optimizing your life. Every single one of these can be absolutely free and every single one of these has been pivotal in changing so many lives, including my own.

 

Meditation

 

In todays world we cannot sit still without some form of entertainment for more than a couple of minutes. That lack of attention span and constant need for stimulation is slowly ruining our lives.

 

An inability to sit with ourselves and our thoughts is detrimental to making our life exactly what we want it to be. If we can’t sit, find stillness and silence, and, in turn, be able to tap into our skills, our creativity and everything that makes us uniquely ourselves then how do we expect to live a life that we want? How can we ever know our true self if we can’t even sit quietly with ourself?

 

If you think you can’t meditate then you will not be able to meditate. Too many of us are intimidated by meditation, take it one step at a time and do what works for you. Do 5 minutes to start, see what comes up and maybe journal about it afterwards to get some of those nagging thoughts that continue to pop up out of your mind and onto paper.

 

Consistently meditating helps you to find peace and quiet more easily, connect deeper to your breath and controlling your breath, and helps you to tap into higher states of consciousness to discover yourself more deeply.

 

Movement

 

The good thing about movement is that it can look wildly different from one person to another and still benefit each and every body. There are so many options to get your body moving from going for a simple walk to doing a high intensity workout class, whatever works for you, just get it in.

 

Moving your body on a daily basis is not only beneficial to your physical health but also to your mental health. A daily movement practice can help us to relieve stress, process and move emotions through our body, and can help us to connect more deeply to our physical body.

 

With any and all of these movement practices we also get the benefit of reducing the risk of disease, weight management, strengthening our bones and muscles and improving our bodily functions so we can live a long, healthy life.

 

Gratitude

 

Having some kind of gratitude practice is so vital to living a prosperous, abundant, and blessed life. When you are in that state of gratitude you are in a positive headspace, you are recognizing that abundance is all around you and that is what you are attracting to you.

 

Whether you wake up every morning and list a few things that you are grateful for, you write a full list out every single day, or you practice gratitude throughout the day any ounce of a gratitude practice will entirely shift your perspective.

 

Consistently living with this mindset and with this thankfulness for everything that is happening in your life will open so many doors. People will be more attracted to you, opportunities will be more attracted to you. You will be vibrating at such a high frequency that everything you manifest will come to fruition, there is no doubt in my mind.

 

Getting Outside

 

Over the years we have started getting more and more detached from being outside. We stay in our houses, in offices, in apartments, indoor gyms, grocery stores, salons, every single thing we do is inside. Chances are, if we’re not running errands or working we are in our house. As the world gets more and more developed and more and more dependent on these tiny little computers we hold every second of every day it is more important than ever to get outside.

 

Being outside is not only in our nature, it is something we as humans are deeply connected to. Trees give us life, the soil gives us life, the sun gives us life and we are getting so far away from valuing those necessary life givers.

 

Getting outside helps to decrease anxiety and stress levels and lessen chances of depression. Not only that but it gives us a much needed reset. We step outside and breathe fresh air (if we’re blessed enough to have that). We get to see the sun and feel the sun on our body giving us vitamin D that so many of us are deficient in. We watch the branches and the leaves sway in the breeze and it seems that all of our problems melt away. We feel the soil beneath our feet and remind ourselves that we are alive, and we get grounded.

 

If you are in a city they have been doing really excellent jobs at mandating green spaces because it is so vitally important. Even if it’s just 5 or 10 minutes, try to get outside on a daily basis. You will feel a world of difference.

 

Proper Sleep

 

We cannot function if we don’t get enough sleep. Every single one of you reading has experienced a bad nights sleep or two (or a lot) and you know how foggy you are the next day. You feel terrible mentally, physically, and you are on edge emotionally.

 

There are too many benefits to list here that I think can be summed up into repair. Yes, sleep is a time to rest but it is really a time for repair. Your body is working in your sleep, without any external stimuli the body has time to take an inventory of what’s going on inside and remove and repair anything that isn’t serving you.

 

From improving your memory and getting your brain ready for the next day to lowering your risk of heart disease, alzheimers, and stress, getting good sleep is one of the best things you can do for yourself. The amount of sleep you need varies depending on age and gender but averages around 8 hours for men and 9 hours for women (we need that extra beauty rest).

 

Conclusion

 

You don’t have to flip your whole life upside down, buy all the new supplements and gadgets to support a healthy lifestyle. You can make small, sustainable, accessible changes that you will actually stick to and stay relentlessly consistent with them over the long term. Watch how much your life changes.