If General Snus is your elevated tobacco experience, chances are you go your own way with a lot of things. Including ways to improve your life, get fit, unplug after a hard work week, and raise your overall game. Below are some tips that toss aside the usual self-help book jargon and get to the core of how you can find calm and clarity each day.
Finding “You Time”
Some days it feels like from sunrise to sunset our brains are filled with noise. From the commute to work to home life, there are so many things that pull our attention in different ways—except towards ourselves. This constant feeling of on-the-go can take its toll. Experts say that uninterrupted “me” time can help our active brains take a breath and calm down. They help with stress relief, quality of sleep, mood control, and living in the moment.
The number one tip in creating time is simply learning to say no. Most everything in our lives can wait for ten minutes. Tell your family or co-workers that you’ll get back to them. Put your phone on silent and remove other distractions. Then you can close your eyes and take some deep breaths. That’s all you need. Even that little bit of an escape every day or every other day can do wonders. Build it into your calendar if you are able. Block chunks of time and use it to purposefully unplug. Take a walk, do some stretching, do a quick workout, or just simply sit and zone out. It may seem too simple, but it’s effective.
Get Fit Get Calm
The hardest thing to find time for (and the one thing most people wish they could find time for) is getting physical. Having the chance to move our bodies and break a sweat seems to be the elusive unicorn we all search for but never find. If you’ve started setting up time to have quiet “you time” like we described above, then why not start using it for a workout? There are many places online you can find ten- or fifteen-minute workouts for home or in the office that get your blood pumping and take your mind off the day.
The key to making it work, as we mentioned, is being purposeful with your time. Drop in a recurring section of your day where you do some push-ups and sit-ups or some light yoga—whatever you’re most comfortable with and stick to it. Once it becomes routine you can add tougher workouts or add more time. You’ll find your energy increase, your focus and patience increase, and you’ll just feel better. Don’t worry about doing it every day. Just start with two days a week and go from there. It’s your time after all. Take some ownership of it.
Helping Others to Help Yourself
One option for “you time” that very often gets overlooked is using it for others. The idea of “it’s better to give than receive” isn’t just a feel-good sentiment—it’s a verifiable benefit. Studies have shown that committing time to the service of others helps our own well-being and calms our busy brains. Helping others is linked to increased feelings of personal satisfaction, encourages us to be more active, improves self-esteem, and can pump our brains with the happiness chemical, serotonin.
An unexpected benefit of helping others is an improved sense of belonging and a reduction in feelings of isolation. After the shock and isolation of the last few years, being a part of the community is more important than ever. Being connected to like-minded people can help eliminate loneliness which can wreak havoc on our sense of self. Having a support system to lean on when we’re in our own times of need is crucial to us as humans. Not only that but helping others can improve our sense of empathy and understanding, which spreads out to our entire community. It's a chain reaction of joy that is demonstrable and undeniable. Who couldn’t use a little peace, love, and understanding?
Putting ourselves first in a world that demands otherwise is a difficult task but a necessary one. The more successful we are at creating space for breath and the things we love helps us be more available for those other worldly demands. Don’t pressure yourself to be perfect right away—we rarely are—and start slow with one or two days a week. It’s a trickle-down effect that not only betters us but those around us and makes us all Originals.
