Simplify Your Way to Wellness

Simplify Your Way to Wellness

Getting rid of things taking up too much space in your home and mind and you will regain calm and improve your health

By D. S. Mitchell

I was flipping through a four-year-old Prevention magazine waiting for my name to be called at the women’s clinic when an article caught my eye. I’m a retired RN and I love finding articles about health and wellness, and tips on how to improve everyday life that I can pass on to my Calamity News readers.

According to this 2019 article by Kate Rockwood, more than half of the country’s population felt “lonely” and “40%” were more anxious than the previous year.  Wow, I thought to myself, this is all pre-COVID-19 information. I can only imagine what the loneliness statistics are today, off the charts, I’m sure.

Ms. Rockwood tells the reader that mental states such as anxiety and loneliness can affect us physically as well. Anxiety and loneliness can increase cortisol levels. Elevated cortisol levels have been linked to an increased risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.

Outside of seeing a therapist, she suggests the following.

Get Busy.  Smart Phones, Zoom,  PC’s and other technologies are great, but such technologies cannot replace in person interaction. Join a garden club, a book club, or volunteer. Volunteering 2 hours a week results in decreased loneliness and social isolation. Check out volunteermatch.org for local opportunities that fit your interests and skill set. Set a regular lunch date with an old friend. Touch, hug.

Organize Anxiety. To keep “worries” under control start by jotting down specific worries that are stuck on repeat. Then set a specific time to focus on that list of “worries”.  This little trick can help keep those “worries” from hijacking your brain at unwanted times. When the scheduled time to focus on the “worry” list comes around it is possible that the worries are no longer an issue.

Sweat Shop. We all know that physical exercise is important for good physical health, more and more evidence support the notion that physical exercise is good for mental health as well. Thirty minutes of walking can equal the effect of medication or psychotherapy at lifting mild to moderate symptoms of depression.

Clearing the Environment. Environmental disorder can seriously increase our stress level. Studies have linked cluttered environments to decreased self-control and increased anxiety. Pros suggest that you do not try to tackle the whole house at once. Start with one messy area of your home. Snap a before picture. Set the timer for 20-30 minutes. Begin straightening and cleaning. I find it best to start in one corner and just work my way around the room. When the timer dings force yourself to stop for at least 10 minutes, or the whole day if you feel like it. It is imperative to swap open ended cleaning sessions for a specific time window. It is far less overwhelming. Comparing the before photo to the post cleaning picture is solid proof that a little effort can make big dents in seemingly overwhelming projects.

Move Things Around. Want to lose a few pounds, take on a kitchen redo. Hide the cookie jar and bring out a bowl of fruit for your table’s center piece. In your panty move healthy staples like nuts, quinoa, to the front of eye level shelves and put unhealthier snacks and sweets on the top shelf where they are harder to see or reach.

Return to a Former Passion. Re-engaging with an activity you once loved-a sport, an instrument, a hobby-can bring you fun and and new people into your life.

Change it Up. Consider pursuing that sport or hobby in a more social way. An example could be, you as a life long gardener, take a neighbor under your wing and teach her the joys of working in the garden.

Reconnect.  Do you find yourself reminiscing about old friends? If you do, it  may be time to reach out to them (social media is a great resource) and attempt to reconnect. Sometimes it will be like you never had a disconnect, in other instances there will be no re-blossoming of the relationship, but you made the effort and that’s the important part.

I hope you found a couple of tips to help undo the side effects of stress in your life.