The A-Z Of Wellbeing – V

Another week flies by and before you know it, it is time for the A-Z of Wellbeing and this month we are looking at the letter V.

V

Variety – variety is the spice of life. Feeling good and taking care of yourself involves a variety of different things. Exercise gets the blood pumping and helps release the happy hormones. Choose activities you love and you wont have to force yourself to do them. Mix it up so you don’t end up doing the same thing all the time. Why not try yoga and walking or tennis and running with some strength training. By doing a variety of exercises you will not get bored. Why not try doing different things at the weekends or on your days off, you could go through the alphabet visiting places nearby beginning with A, B etc. It will make for an interesting day trip. Try out lots of different restaurants or takeaways rather than your usual ones. Why not write down meals you love to cook or want to cook on bits of paper and pop them into a jar and pick one out each night to make, rather than repeating the same meals each week. Just make sure you have lots of colourful veg on your plate too. Add variety to your life and it will help you avoid getting stuck in a rut.

Vision Board – These are great tools to help you work out what you want and see what your goal will look like either on the journey or once complete. Grab loads of magazines, ask your friends and family to save them for you. Then get cutting. If you know what you want to do or where you envision your future, it can help you decide on what to cut out but if you aren’t sure then cut out words and pictures which mean something to you, or resonates with you. Once complete sort out what you have, perhaps you cut out lots of nature pictures or motivational words. You can then get creative with your vision board. You don’t have to just stick with what you’ve cut out, you could add drawings or material or glitter. It is your vision so don’t hold back. You might make it a journey from one side of the paper to the other with a path along the way and various pictures and words on it, or you might have a vision board in a notebook that allows you to flick through, with different things on each page. Do your vision board your way. As long as you have it in sight so can refer to it regularly it doesn’t need to be up on the wall or on your fridge. Go on, have fun and see what you can create as a pathway to your future.

Voice – We all have one, so lets use it. Speak up and speak out. Say what needs to be said. You are entitled to your own opinion so don’t be silenced. Quite often we don’t say what we want for fear of upsetting someone. But say it in a constructive and friendly tone can make a difference. Don’t be afraid to open up to your friends and tell them your fears, dreams or what is worrying you. The chances are they will happily help you by listening, not necessarily giving you advice but being there and allowing you to talk and get things off your chest. Talk to a therapist if you need professional help. They can really help you to understand yourself and why you are feeling the way you are.

Vacation – Please please take your holidays from work. So many people I know do not use their holidays and end up losing many of them. Take them, you get paid to take time off. So why on earth wouldn’t you. Everyone needs time to rest and recuperate. What will you do with yours? Try to take time off each quarter so you are having regular time to relax. If you have children you will likely be doing this anyway, but if you don’t then try to be a bit more disciplined with your holiday scheduling. You don’t need to go anywhere hot and sunny to take holidays, why not do day trips or go camping or visit friends and family. If you stay at home why not pick a country a day/week and cook or buy food from that country, or sit in your garden or bed and read all day. There are so many things you can do, so what are you waiting for?

These are just a few words associated with wellbeing beginning with the letter V. If you think of any others which perhaps resonate with you then feel free to leave a comment.

Have a great week. Thank you for reading.

Take care and look after you.

Love Emma xx