When you’re busy and on the go, you’re not always thinking about your health. Your work, that important meeting, not being late for dinner, these can quickly take precedence over whether or not that bag of chips you just grabbed was healthy.
In today’s world where the pace is ever-quickening and our lives are ever-packed with things to do, sometimes it’s hard to press pause and take a deep breath.
For those of you who are constantly moving, you know what negative toll this type of stress takes on your body and mind. To help you stay grounded and mindful, here are six items to improve your overall wellbeing while on the go.
Improve your overall wellbeing
Water Bottle
Humans are 60% water. Which means if you’re dehydrated, you’re not entirely yourself. Being dehydrated can cause several adverse effects on your body, including:
• Negative Mood
• Decreased Cognitive Ability
• Memory Loss
• Fatigue
• Decreased Attention
Staying dehydrated for long periods can even do permanent damage to your body. To avoid this, always keep a full water bottle nearby. Try setting a certain number of refills to drink each day to ensure you’re staying fresh and hydrated.
Healthy Snacks
When hunger kicks in, you’re liable to eat anything to satisfy your cravings. Even if you know the option is unhealthy for you. In fact, it’s part of human physiology. Being low on blood sugar causes a decrease in mood and deteriorates the motivation to eat healthily.
If you consistently miss lunch because of meetings, having a protein bar or a healthy snack nearby can help you avoid that greasy bag of chips. Just make sure it’s substantial enough to tide you over until your next full meal.
Essential Oils on the Go
The nose is a powerful receptor. Essential oils utilize your sense of smell to bring about powerful calming effects and to help channel your best self. One whiff can produce an increase in positive emotions and a refocusing of the right intentions.
Although, carrying around a bottle of essential oils can be troublesome. If it spills in your pocket or worse at your desk, you could be in for a full day of sensory overload.
This is where essential oil jewelry comes into the picture. These are wearable accessories to which you can add your favorite scent.
Try peppermint on your necklace if you’re prone to headaches. Or put lavender on your bracelet if you’ve been experiencing inflammation. Whatever your scent of choice, diffusers are a great way to improve your mental wellbeing on the go.
- Packed and Ready Gym Bag
Physical exercise is one of the core tenants to a strong body and mind. But trying to find time for the gym somewhere between our fluctuating work-life balance is difficult. Active people and fitness junkies alike know that motivation is grounded in proper preparation. It’s much easier to skip the gym when you have to go all the way home to get dressed and then back out again. Having a gym bag packed and ready in the car is a great way to start on that exercise train. - Step Counter
Another great way to keep up your physical fitness is to use a step counter. Wearables like Fitbit or Garmin make tracking your fitness progress easy and comprehensive. Plus, it encourages you to do better today than you did yesterday, which is a humble attitude toward life. If yesterday you took the elevator, maybe today you can take the stairs and burn a few extra calories. With time, these small improvements dramatically and positively change your overall wellbeing. - Relaxation app on the phone
If you’re someone who enjoys meditation when you wake up or before you go to bed, then you’ll find comfort in knowing there are helpful apps to keep you grounded and conscious throughout your day. These apps guide you through a peaceful meditation session, perfect for commuting to and from work or whenever you have a few minutes to yourself.
Stay Conscious, Stay Happy
Being constantly on the go can be stressful. Lacking time to be mindful of our choices means we often choose what’s quick and easy. This could be a bag of chips when we’re hungry or a soda when we’re thirsty.
It could mean watching a YouTube video to relax instead of taking twenty minutes to sit and breathe consciously. These small choices lead to poor habits, which negatively affect our mood and result in a constant feeling of stress.
To end this vicious spiral, having a few items nearby to remind us of our conscious, living body can dramatically improve our attitudes and overall wellbeing.
Identity Magazine is all about guiding women to discover their powers of Self-Acceptance, Appreciation, and Personal Achievement.
We ask that every contributor and expert answer the Identity questions in keeping with our theme. Their answers can be random and in the moment or they can be aligned with the current article they have written. In that way, and as a team, we hope to encourage and motivate each other, thus inspiring you to Get All A’s.
What have you accepted within your life, physically and/or mentally? Additionally, what are you still working on accepting? Now, we’re not talking about resignation, rather stepping into, embraced, and owned.
I have accepted that it is impossible to please everyone. I struggled for years to fit in with what I thought were the cool kids,but in the end I was unhappy because I felt I could never be my true self.
Today, I now accept that to be my true self, as an individual, means that not everyone will like me and that I can’t please everyone. But I now understand that being myself brings to me the most fulfilling relationships
Appreciation is everything. What have you learned to appreciate about yourself and/or within your life, physically and mentally? On the other hand OR in contrast, are there elements of who you are that you’re still working on appreciating?
I have learned to appreciate my family more, flaws and all. When I was young, my parents had a very busy life, and struggled to just make ends meet in our family. As a result, I became resentful that they never spent enough time with my siblings and I.
Now I appreciate them more, because they worked so hard for our family, and I am grateful now that I can have a stronger relationship with them as an adult and have a truly fulfilling relationship with them.
Share with us one of your most rewarding achievements in life? Tell us not only what makes YOU most proud but also share the goals and dreams that you still have.
The most rewarding thing I have ever done was when I decided to study abroad in Barcelona for a semester. I really felt like I broke out of my shell.
Being in an unfamiliar place where you can’t speak the language is difficult, but I gained so much confidence in myself that I can achieve my dreams in life. I still have a passion for travel. I would love to become a travel writer one day and circle the globe!
Photo by Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash
