Time for change
With summer vacations ending, it’s time to return to a daily schedule. Kids are going back to school, work is picking back up, and dinner is set for 6 o’clock. With the busyness of life, it can be difficult to keep up with everything. Work meetings, mandatory school obligations, sports practices, private lessons, the list can grow quite long.

As crazy as life can seem, we must not forget to take some time for ourselves. It is important that we need to take care of our own needs to remain healthy and sane! Making goals to achieve for yourself can happen at any time of the year even amongst a hectic schedule. Together, let’s make some goals right now to help get life under control.

Exercise
Getting an adequate amount of exercise weekly is important for your physical and mental health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, research has shown that getting exercise for about one hour 3 to 5 times a week greatly improves one’s stress levels as well as overall mood.You don’t have to work out vigorously or long to elevate your resting heart rate.

Enjoy a nice jog through the neighborhood, a ride on the bikes with the kids, a walk with the dog or a morning hike. There are many ways to incorporate daily exercise into your routine. Just find one or two you enjoy!

Sleep
Sleep is something it seems we can never get enough of. It is important for your body to receive about 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine . With our busy lives, it can hard to get a sleep schedule down with late nights and early mornings. It is important to ensure that we are getting enough sleep however, as it correlated greatly with our performance abilities, mental functioning, mood, and physical well-being.

The National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute has found that receiving a proper amount of sleep can even help your body to repair itself (Blood vessel repair and tears). It also helps your mind to operate unclouded by unimportant information it has no use for.

Diet
It is important to have a diet with those green leafy vegetables but also an array of many different fruits and vegetables.The CDC supports that  you want to include healthy forms of protein and whole grains in the mix as well.  Also, remember to get your dairy 3 servings a day. Collectively, this healthy plate, or lifestyle will benefit your body greatly. It provides you with nutrients and minerals that assists your body and its many functions.

Meditation
Find your center. Find your place of peacefulness. It has been reported that some sort of meditation is healthfully sound for the mind and body. Maybe meditation is prayer for you, or listening to the waves roll against the coast, or maybe it’s just finding those quiet moments in life and breathing them in.

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, meditation has shown to reduce stress, improve blood pressure, aid digestion, and improve mood. So whatever meditation looks like for you, even if you have never participated on that spiritual side of things, today is a great day to give it a try.

Looking to the future
With a little adjustment to our schedules, and an added concentration to our health, we can make time for ourselves. We can make time for rest, time to eat healthy balanced meals, time for exercise, and time to discover our inner being.  Make it a goal to put your health as a priority, and never let life get in the way of your well-being!

References

Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (2016, September 8) Healthy Eating for a Healthy

Weight. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/healthy_eating/index.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015, August 5). Physical Activity and Health: The

Benefits of Physical Activity. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basi cs/pa -he alth/index.htm

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (2016). Meditation in Depth.

Retrieved from  https://nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation/overview.htm

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (2017, June 7). Why is Sleep Important? Retrieved

from https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why