Daily Wellness Activities To Help You Improve Your Wellbeing

In the course of a given day, you may find yourself overrun with work and other responsibilities. This can leave you feeling stressed and totally unable to recharge. Daily wellness activities may help manage that stress and increase your personal sense of wellness. Learn more about wellness program ideas — and how to turn them into wellness challenges for extra motivation.

What Are Wellness Activities?

A wellness activity is typically a program or exercise designed to increase your energy, sense of calm, and overall healthiness. Wellness programs focus on simple mind and body relaxation methods that can promote healthy living.¹

Unlike a fitness program with set physical health goals, like losing 10 lbs., a wellness program is more about creating healthy lifestyle patterns. Healthy behaviors, like nutritious eating, proper exercise, stress management, and fitness can all help support your general sense of wellness.²

Potential Benefits Of A Workplace Wellness Program

Wellness challenges and programs can provide people with tools and practices to manage common negative emotions, like anxiety, fatigue, and stress. Responding to daily stresses with healthy wellness activities may help:

Support a good mood
Increase productivity
Boost overall health
Ease stress³

Get Started With These Wellness Challenge Ideas

The fun wellness activities below may help improve your sense of well-being. There’s no fancy equipment or gym memberships required, either. You can do all of these wellness activities at home or in the office. For extra motivation, you can transform many of the activities into challenges with specific goals, and even prizes, to encourage you toward a healthier lifestyle.

Walking Challenge

Walking is one the the easiest and most rewarding ways to include physical activity in your day. Taking a walk, particularly in outdoor spaces, can increase your sense of self-esteem, boost your mood, and curb stress.⁴

You don’t even need to make major changes to your schedule to include walking in your day. Here are a few simple ways to introduce more walking into your life:

Make walking a fun activity by going with a friend or by exploring new areas.
Challenge yourself by wearing a pedometer or using a fitness tracker or mobile apps to manage your steps and set goals.
Listen to a new podcast or a book on tape for entertainment while you walk.
Walk to stores, lunch, or your workplace instead of driving, if possible.⁵

Gentle Stretch Yoga

Workplace stress can have many negative effects on the body, including sleeping issues, headaches, and an inability to concentrate. One simple and effective way to deal with stress is with yoga stretches. The breathing, meditation, and body movements of yoga may offer stress reduction as well as:

Increased clarity
A deeper sense of calm
Increased muscle strength and flexibility
Heart health support⁶

You can do a variety of yoga stretches from your desk to help keep you feeling good throughout the workday. Challenge yourself to do 5-10 minutes of stretches, like shoulder rolls, chair twists, and neck stretching to support wellness.⁷

Cook Your Own Meals

Cooking at home can nourish your body and your mind. Preparing a home-cooked meal increases feelings of accomplishment and focus by challenging your brain to concentrate on solving tiny goals. In this way, cooking can soothe stress, limit negative thinking, and even boost your self-esteem.⁸

Cooking your own healthy recipes gives you control over what ingredients go in your food. In this way, cooking may also support your diet and health.⁹

One study showed that people who made most of their meals at home consumed fewer carbohydrates, sugar, and fat than those who didn’t cook at home. Eating more of the good stuff and less of the bad may help support weight loss goals and overall well-being.¹⁰

Sleep Challenge

Research shows a strong connection between your daily well-being and how much you sleep at night. Sleep affects many bodily functions, like growth, the immune system, appetite, blood pressure, and heart health. Not getting enough sleep can adversely affect many of these bodily functions. Whereas, a proper night of rest allows your body to recover and regulate all of these vital functions.¹¹

Give your waking life a major boost by increasing how much you sleep. It’s suggested that adults get at least 7 hours of quality sleep a night. Quality is the keyword. Not all sleep is the same, and distractions, noises, or surplus light can alter how well you sleep at night.¹²

Challenge yourself to create optimal sleep conditions and to sleep more by trying a few of the following ways to improve sleep:

Go to sleep 30 minutes earlier than usual, and be consistent with this earlier bedtime.
Keep the screens, like TVs and smartphones, out of the bedroom.
Make your room as dark and quiet as possible.
Avoid big meals, caffeine, and alcohol before sleep.¹³

Daily Meditation Breaks

Meditation is simple and easy to integrate into your daily habits. You can do it anywhere, and you only need a few minutes. The basic meditation practice below involves focusing on the present moment and noticing when your mind wanders. Here’s how to do it:

Sit in a comfortable position, and close your eyes.
Take a few slow, deep breaths. Loosen up your body, particularly any parts that feel tight.
Continue with slow breaths, and take notice of sensations in the body.
Return to your breath. Focus your attention on your breath going in and out.
As your mind wanders, gently return it to your breath.
Maintain this focus and breathing pattern for a minute or two. Then, slowly open your eyes, and return to your day.¹⁴

Performing a few minutes of meditation breathing exercises can offer a wide variety of potential mental health benefits, such as:

Increased relaxation
Decreased stress and anxiety levels
Better focus
A stronger connection to others¹⁵

Wellness Activities: An Effective Path To Your Best Self

Fitting moments of pause or relaxation into a busy schedule can seem difficult. But, even a few minutes of calm each day can have a big impact on your quality of life. Simple and quick ways to support your sense of wellness and general health include: going for short walks, meditation, and stretching.

Turning activities into wellness challenges might provide an extra bit of motivation. You can do this by creating a wellness calendar with goals and rewards for each activity. Invite others to play along for friendly competition, or take on the challenge yourself. What matters most is that you find a few moments for yourself throughout the day. These tiny wellness achievements can decrease your stress and increase positive feelings about yourself.

Learn More:
-What Are The Health Benefits Of Anaerobic Exercise?
-The Relationship Between Sleep and Fitness: Can Sleep Quality Affect Your Fitness Goals?
-A Guide To Relaxation: How To Calm Down When Stressed

Sources
1 https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/hr-qa/pages/whatarewellnessbenefits.aspx
2 https://www.concentra.com/resource-center/articles/what-is-a-wellness-program/
3 https://www.cose.org/en/Mind-Your-Business/HR/The-Benefits-and-Costs-of-an-Employee-Wellness-Program
4 https://www.stepcount.org.uk/why-walk
5 https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/walking-for-good-health#make-walking-part-of-your-routine
6 https://osteopathic.org/what-is-osteopathic-medicine/benefits-of-yoga/
7 https://green.harvard.edu/tools-resources/how/6-yoga-exercises-do-your-desk
8 https://www.southernliving.com/healthy-living/mind-body/cooking-therapy-mental-health
9 https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/food-and-nutrition/eating-well/health-benefits-of-eating-well
10 https://clf.jhsph.edu/about-us/news/news-2014/study-suggests-home-cooking-main-ingredient-healthier-diet
11 https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2013/04/benefits-slumber
12 https://health.gov/myhealthfinder/topics/everyday-healthy-living/mental-health-and-relationships/get-enough-sleep
13 https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/sleep_hygiene.html
14 https://www.nytimes.com/guides/well/how-to-meditate
15 https://www.mindful.org/how-to-meditate/