The Healthy4Life 12 days to a healthier Christmas: Day five
Our ‘Healthy4Life’ programme helps families across North Tyneside and the title speaks for itself – being healthy is a life-long commitment. Being healthy for one day isn’t going to change your life, the same as having the occasional treat won’t ruin all of your hard work!
So, to turn the ‘a dog is for life, not just for Christmas’ phrase on its head, being healthy is for life, and isn’t to be forgotten at Christmas!
As always, we’re here to help! The Healthy4Life team has created a 12 day guide to a more active and healthy Christmas – with lots of festive fun for the family…
Day five
Comet goes out of this world
Mindfulness helps us to be more in the moment and more self-aware of our feelings and our mental health.
The world moves very fast and sometimes it is easy for adults and children to get tied up in busy lives.
Mindfulness encourages us to notice more about what’s going on around us so that we can enjoy life more and more.
Stress and anxiety are common, and mindfulness has shown to be beneficial to helping people spot their triggers for stress and anxiety to help develop a better understanding of how to manage the triggers and reduce those feelings.
So how can we all be more mindful? While the kids are off school this half term, try to follow these steps to improve the whole family’s mindfulness:
Everyone should take time out for themselves. Identify how they feel, what they see, what they are thinking. You can think these through, or even write it down like a mindful journal over the course of a week – you could try asking other members of the family something they find calms them down and see if anyone shares the same feelings
Go for a walk and enjoy nature, it’s proven to help us feel calmer and more relaxed
Make an effort to take a few minutes each day to stop and think about your breathing, just focus on it for a little while, take note of where you are and how your body feels
Take notice of your mood afterwards and try to embed a little practice you enjoy into your weekly life.
The NHS website has a mood self-assessment quiz for over 16’s that can be very helpful here.
Under 16s can find lots of information online here.