“What have you been watching?” “I’ve just finished Peaky Blinders / Schitt’s Creek / The Queen’s Gambit (delete as appropriate) and need a new series to watch.”
Sound familiar? When thinking about this month’s post, the increasing use of our phones and rise in screen time during lockdown – almost 45 hours a week – were at the forefront of my mind. There are many ways we can interpret these figures but based on how many of us are feeling during this winter lockdown, it seems like a form of escapism. If we are limited in where we can go, it makes sense that we escape through the media available to us.
There are other ways of escapism that don’t involve sitting in front of the screen, we just need to be reminded of them. This month’s post is a reminder of how we can get our creative juices flowing in just 15 minutes, escape the mundaneness of lockdown and benefit our wellbeing.
Increased screen time, decreased mental health
Although our growing use of television, streaming and online media is understandable, it’s not always good for our wellbeing. Multiple studies have found links between screen time and/or sedentary behaviour with anxiety and depression.
Participating in creative activities can also lead us to approach situations in our lives in new, positive ways. Have you ever got into the creative ‘flow’? ‘Flow’ experiences are those that engage our whole bodies and result in us concentrating, ruminating less and not focusing on time passing us by. When we experience flow through being creative we tend to have higher self-esteem, value ourselves more and feel more useful – all of which contribute to our wellbeing.
It’s not often we can say we feel the same after bingeing the latest TV series. Here’s three ways you can get creative in just 15 minutes:
Stories in 5 words. As the days often feel like they roll into one at the moment, this creative activity also has the benefit of helping us keep track. Spend 15 minutes each day describing different things that happened with just 5 words. Five words are enough to convey a message, but tricky enough to make us really think about it. Here’s a few examples to help you get in the swing of it:
I baked chocolate chip cookies
The shed roof came off
The cat ate my dinner
Mindfulness colouring. The benefits of this are covered in depth in this previous post. Colouring can help us really get in the ‘flow’ and focusing on just one thing such as colouring can help us take a step back from emotional and stressful situations. Take 15 minutes away from the screen and get your colouring pencils out. Here’s a pattern you can print off and colour in. There are also multiple free designs available online.
Create something to show someone you’re thinking of them on Valentine’s Day. Although we shouldn’t wait for one day each year to tell someone what they mean to us, Valentine’s Day is a useful excuse to do so. It doesn’t have to be a romantic declaration – we all experience different types of love. Whether you’re in a relationship or not, why not use this opportunity to tell someone you appreciate them? Some creative ways to do this include:
I’d love to hear how you get on with these creative activities and the effect they have on your wellbeing. Please do get in touch 15minutewellbeing@gmail.com or comment in the box below.
I deliver online wellbeing workshops, so if that’s something that would benefit you or your organisation, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
I also share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in between monthly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to date.
Happy New Year! 2021 is finally here and with it comes expectations for a healthier, happier and more ‘normal’ year.
Here’s hoping that Lockdown 3.0 really is the last in the coronavirus trilogy and we don’t have to endure an ongoing franchise of disruptions to our daily lives. With the vaccine rolling out, hopefully like Frodo and Samwise in Lord of the Rings, we can overcome the odds and return to a restriction-free life.
Although we have more hope third time round, the impact of another lockdown can take its toll on our wellbeing. The monotony of Groundhog Day – great film, not so great in real life – can affect our mood, motivation and satisfaction with life. How can we get through this and keep our wellbeing afloat? All it takes is spending 15 minutes planning, so every day involves two things: something purposeful and something enjoyable.
Research has shown that boredom is linked with anxiety, depression, overeating and drug and alcohol abuse, so it’s essential we battle the boredom! Our usual resources of meeting friends, going to the cinema, group exercise and just changing our environment is not available at the moment, so we need to reflect on what gave us purpose and joy in the previous lockdowns and factor these into our days over the coming months.
The importance of purpose
Having a sense of purpose can really benefit our wellbeing, which you can read more about in this previous blog post. Feeling purposeful can result in:
Increased exercise and health-promoting behaviours
Feeling better about how we look
Feeling more satisfied with life
Better recovery from negative and stressful life events – so we could infer that doing something purposeful can help us cope better with the lockdown
How can we do something purposeful during lockdown? Well, it doesn’t have to be a huge, big, life-altering thing. It can be simple achievements such as:
Finally sending back the online delivery which doesn’t look right
Planting seeds or bulbs in the garden or in pots
Sorting out your home / car / pet insurance before it’s up for renewal
We can increase feelings of happiness and joy during lockdown by:
Spending time in natural environments such as parks and forests
Being kind to others
Being near, in or under water. If you can’t make it to a lake or a beach, a simple bath or shower can also work
Exercising
This month’s activity
Above are just a few ideas on how to include something purposeful and joyful into our daily lives. However, before you start planning the days ahead, first think back to the previous two lockdowns. What gave you a sense of purpose or achievement? What brought you joy?
This month’s activity is to plan one purposeful and one enjoyable thing for each day, to help maintain your wellbeing through Lockdown 3.0 and finish the coronavirus trilogy a wellbeing hero. You can do this the night before, in the morning or you can plan one week at a time, whatever works for you. It shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes. Give it a go and see what difference it makes to your wellbeing.
You don’t need a worksheet to complete this activity, but one is provided here in case you find it useful to work from. It includes space to jot down your plans for something purposeful and enjoyable over a 7-day period, as well as some questions to help you reflect.
I’d love to hear how you get on with eating incorporating purpose and joy into your day and the effect on your wellbeing. Please do get in touch 15minutewellbeing@gmail.com or comment in the box below.
I deliver online wellbeing workshops, so if that’s something that would benefit you or your organisation, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
I also share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to date.
When was the last time you got through your to-do list? Yesterday? Last month? Sometime before Covid? With lockdown came this mystical idea of us having extra time on our hands to do more and be more productive: finally write that novel; upcycle that old piece of furniture; or even just do that extra bit of reading to get ahead on the big project at work. For many of us, that hasn’t been the case and the pressures on us have intensified.
We all need a break, but time is going so fast and there’s so much to do. It feels like we don’t have the time. But we do, we just need to allow ourselves a few minutes to take stock of our thoughts and feelings and focus on our wellbeing. A short time out can help us reset, refocus and make better use of our time. This month’s post offers a short, simple, mindfulness technique that can help us increase our efficiency: The wellbeing breather.
How mindfulness can support our wellbeing
Mindfulness-based interventions can be effective in reducing stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, pain and improving quality of life. Mindfulness has been shown to improve wellbeing by addressing cognitive and emotional reactivity and reducing repetitive negative thinking. That is, mindfulness can help us clear our minds, make more rational decisions and feel better about ourselves.
When things feel like they are piling up on top of us, mindfulness can help us regulate ourselves better and feel more positive. If we are aware of what is taking place in the here and now, we are more likely to make choices and behave in ways that meet our needs, interests and values. Therefore, being mindful of what’s going on for us in the moment can improve our wellbeing.
The wellbeing breather
Mindfulness can help us see the present moment clearly and starts with taking notice of our bodily sensations, thoughts and feelings. That’s what this month’s activity is all about, taking notice of what we are thinking and feeling and channelling our energy, so we have the headspace to focus on what we really need to.
The wellbeing breather is a variation of the Transitional Pause, developed by the Mindfulness Centre of Excellence. Over the last three years since I first tried this activity, I have really benefitted from taking a short time out to acknowledge how I am feeling and set a small, manageable goal for the rest of the day.
The purpose of the wellbeing breather is to help us park any overwhelming thoughts and focus on the next task at hand. A key feature of this mindful activity is to silently name our thoughts so we can increase our awareness of them, which is beneficial for our wellbeing. It can help with:
Overcoming anxiety about difficult tasks or meetings
Setting aside negative thoughts that are intruding on our day
Channelling our energy to get things done more efficiently
Here’s how to do the wellbeing breather. If it’s easier, you can listen to this audio recording to guide you through the exercise.
You can do this activity sitting or standing. If you are sitting, make sure you are seated comfortably with a straight back and your head, neck and shoulders feeling as if they are neatly stacked on top of each other. You want to be comfortable but attentive. If you are standing, plant your feet firmly on the ground so you feel balanced and grounded. Keep your back straight and position your head, neck and shoulders so they feel neatly aligned.
Soften your gaze, or if you feel comfortable, close your eyes.
Acknowledge how you are feeling right now. What’s happened in the last 24 hours? What positive things have happened? What’s bothering you? If it’s something that happened more than a day ago, that’s ok. It’s important to acknowledge our positive and negative experiences.
Has anything happened in the last 24 hours that has played on your mind? If so, take a moment to silently name it. Now you’ve named it, recognise how it made you feel. Try and name the thoughts and emotions you experienced. Take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Let’s move on to the here and now. Take some time to notice your body. Start with your feet on the floor. Notice the feeling of the floor on your toes, balls of your feet and heels. Notice other parts of your body that are touching each other or objects in the room. Where are your hands resting? How do they feel? If you can feel any tension in your body, draw your awareness to it.
If your focus turns to your thoughts, that’s ok. Acknowledge it and return to focusing on your body.
Turn your attention to your breathing. As you breathe in through your nose, notice the air entering your nostrils and filling your lungs. As you breathe out, feel the movement through your body and the air leaving your mouth. Continue to focus on your breathing. If you become aware of your thoughts, that’s ok. Acknowledge your thoughts and then turn your focus back to your breathing.
Let’s start thinking about what’s happening next in our day and the day ahead. How are you feeling about what’s coming up? Whether it’s positive, negative or mixed feelings, take a moment to silently name them. Take one deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.
What is one thing you hope to achieve today? It may be something specific like to complete a task, or it may be something broader like acceptance or patience. Silently name it and make a pledge to yourself to work towards it. Take another deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Open your eyes or refocus your gaze. Centre yourself back in the room and take one last deep breath to ready yourself for the rest of the day.
The workbook for the wellbeing breather encourages you to reflect on how you feel after completing it. Why not take a few minutes to consider how you feel immediately after the exercise, then take a few minutes later in the day to reflect on the impact it had on the rest of your day. This, plus the activity should take no longer than 15 minutes.
I’d love to hear how you get on with the wellbeing breather and what effect it has on your wellbeing. Please do get in touch 15minutewellbeing@gmail.com or comment in the box below.
I share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in between monthly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to date.
Like the movie sequel that no one wants to see, lockdown 2.0 has arrived in the UK and to varying extents around the world. We’ve been through a lockdown before, but with the changing weather and shorter days, many of us are feeling apprehensive.
The aim of 15 minute wellbeing is to help maintain and improve our wellbeing with simple activities that can be done in 15 minutes. Although lockdown can seem huge and overwhelming, there are small things we can do to help our wellbeing over the next month or so. This month’s post offers a small, practical change for those of us working from home or primarily based at home: commuting.
This isn’t about completing a round trip on the train, bus or in the car before you start your day working from home. ‘Commuting’ in this instance means getting out of the house for 15 minutes to prepare ourselves for the day ahead.
The average commute in the UK is 65 minutes and in a survey of over 1,000 commuters, journey delays were the aspect of commuting reported to be most detrimental to their health and wellbeing.
It’s no wonder we prefer working from home, spending longer in bed and less time waiting around for the train or bus. So why is this post about re-introducing commuting into our lives?
Why commuting can be good for you
Although we may be glad to see the back of our traditional commute, the routine did enable us to mentally switch on before starting work and switch off at the end of the day. Throughout lockdown, why not try starting each day by leaving the house for a 15-minute commute?
Here’s how it can help our wellbeing:
It helps to maintain a work-life balance – whilst working from home during lockdown, we took fewer breaks as we felt under pressure to be constantly available. In (unpublished) research I conducted with one of the UK’s largest employers, and in this national survey, this lack of breaks was found to have a detrimental effect on our health and wellbeing. It’s easier to give ourselves permission to leave the house before we start work compared to during the working day, so prioritise that morning commute.
It’s an opportunity for exercise – as we found out in last month’s post, exercise levels have fluctuated throughout lockdown, with many of us struggling to consistently exercise. Spending 15 minutes at the start of the day walking, running, skipping (or any other form of exercise) can ensure we get our bodies moving before other pressures of the day or the darker evenings get in the way.
We can listen to music while we’re commuting. Music can calm us and uplift us – helpful if we haven’t had a great night’s sleep. Listening to music can boost our mood help us get in the right headspace before starting work. It’s worth noting that listening to music can disrupt our problem-solving skills, so it may be worth getting your musical fix before work.
There’s no workbook for this activity – just start each day by commuting for 15 minutes!
I’d love to hear how you get on with commuting and what effect it has on your wellbeing. Please do get in touch 15minutewellbeing@gmail.com or comment in the box below.
I share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in between monthly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to date.
15 minute wellbeing is back! A lot has changed since the last blog post, with the global Covid-19 pandemic changing how many of us live and work. It’s World Mental Health Day on 10th October, so what better time to focus on our wellbeing and try making each day a little bit easier during these uncertain times?
Here’s a quick reminder of what 15 minute wellbeing is about. This blog translates existing research on wellbeing into simple activities you can do in 15 minutes to improve your health and wellbeing.
Each activity will not cost any money to do, because why should we pay to feel good about ourselves? As we progress through the activities, we will discover that we already have all the tools we need to improve our wellbeing. This blog doesn’t tell you what to do either – it offers different exercises for you to try to help you feel better within yourself.
The variety of activities means that you won’t get bored trying the same old thing. Instead, you’ll get to try lots of different things to figure out what works for you and your wellbeing. The activities are grouped into seven themes:
If you’re a new reader (welcome and thank you for visiting!) or want to know more, click on the links above which give more information on the themes. Over the next few months, 15 minute wellbeing will cover these themes and how they can help us during the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s more important than ever that we help ourselves and each other to stay mentally well. This blog cannot help alleviate mental illness, but it can provide ideas and options to improve wellbeing which contributes to good mental health. If you are concerned about your mental health, please speak to your local GP, local Mind, Samaritans or Time to Change.
Maintaining and improving our wellbeing during lockdown
Usually on 15 minute wellbeing, each post centres around one activity to try out. However, as this is the first post in a while, here are four things for us all to try to support our wellbeing over the next two weeks. Each activity can be done in 15 minutes, so why not try each of them at least once over the next fortnight and see how you feel?
Make plans with others
Many of us who felt (and may continue to feel) anxious during lockdown also reported feeling lonely a lot of the time. It’s important to stay connected with others as best we can to alleviate these feelings of anxiety.
You may be thinking “How can I make plans with others when social restrictions are in place?” If there is one thing that has accelerated during lockdown, it’s the use of digital technology to virtually connect with our friends, families and colleagues. Many of us young and old are now able to have video calls and connect with each other without having to leave the safety of our homes. For those of us who can’t or don’t like using video calls, a regular telephone call is just as effective.
Think of 5 things you’d like to do with someone else – it could be 5 activities to do with the same person or different activities with different people. The aim is to have fun spending time connecting with others. You may or may not be able to do these in person, depending on the local restrictions in place in your area so consider how you can do each activity in person and virtually/over the phone. The worksheet at the end of this post has a few ideas if you need inspiration.
Healthy body, healthy mind
Juvenal (abridged)
2. Keep exercising!
Lockdown has impacted our exercise habits, with some of us finding it gives us more time to exercise, whereas social distancing has prevented many sports teams from training together and competing. In England, exercise levels have fluctuated over the course of the pandemic. In May, they peaked with 35% of adults doing at least 30 minutes of activity 5 times a week. By September 29% of adults reported exercising regularly.
Physical activity has numerous benefits for our wellbeing including: distracting us from our negative thoughts, improving our quality of life and improving our mood. If the changing weather makes it feel too cold for you to exercise outside, there are thousands of free videos available online to get you moving, many of which are 15 minutes long. As the saying goes, “Healthy body, healthy mind” so see what difference 15 minutes of physical activity does for your wellbeing. You can use the worksheet at the end of this post to reflect on how you feel after exercising.
Many local libraries have re-opened across the UK – check your local council website for information on opening times – and stock books and audiobooks. Some offer contactless reserve and collect services. If you’re unable to get to a library, e-loans may be available. Alternatively, there are lots of free access articles and stories available online.
You can use the worksheet to reflect on what effects (if any) 15 minutes of reading has on your wellbeing.
This will bring out the best and worst in people
said by many
4. Give 15 minutes of your time
A phrase that has been often repeated over the last few months (as well as “You’re still on mute!”) is “This will bring out the best and worst in people.” One of the best things it has brought out is people’s willingness to volunteer to help others. Within one week of the Royal Voluntary Service appealing for volunteers to help vulnerable people during lockdown, 750,000 people signed up todeliver medication and shopping; transport equipment; and check-in and chat with those who needed help.
I’d love to hear how you get on with these activities and what effect they have on your wellbeing. Please do get in touch 15minutewellbeing@gmail.com or comment in the box below.
I share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to date.
“Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher, can change the world”
Malala Yousafzai
There’s so much happening in the world that can make us angry – the burning of the amazon rainforest, increased train fares, Brexit, allegations of sexual misconduct and the roads being dug up yet again. We often get angry about these things (and many more) but how often do we actually do something about it?
As Malala Yousafzai says in the quote above, it
only takes one person to change the world. Making a stand for what you believe
in, no matter how big or small, can help you and others. Malala’s activism is
ongoing, but we can make a stand – and a difference – with just a short amount
of free time. This week’s post aims to encourage you to speak out, make a
difference and improve your wellbeing in the process.
How standing up for what we believe in can
improve our wellbeing
By understanding our needs and telling people what we want to change, the chances of our needs being met actually increase. After all, people can’t read each other’s minds, so once others are aware of what we need, things can change. A positive side effect of this is that we often take better care of ourselves as a result. This has been shown in healthcare settings – if diagnosed with a physical or mental health problem, having a say in the way we are treated can result in better self-management of the illness.
Standing up for what we believe in and seeing a resulting change can boost our confidence and give us a sense of empowerment. Having a sense of control over our lives is key to improving our wellbeing.
Having our say often increases our social interactions with others. As we know from a previous blog, interacting with others is good for our wellbeing. If our thoughts are shared by others, we can feel an increased sense of belonging.
Can one person really make a difference?
Yes, they can. There are hundreds of examples of
individuals making their voices heard and creating change locally, nationally
and internationally. Here are three to inspire you:
Greta Thunberg went on strike from school to protest about the climate crisis outside the Swedish Parliament. At only 15 years old, she inspired other students to create similar protests in their own areas. Her protests and speeches at events such as the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference have since inspired millions of children and adults across the world and raised awareness of climate change.
Mahatma Gandhi campaigned for the rights of poor Indian people and Indian independence from British rule. He did this using non-violent methods such as strikes and marches – the most famous being the Salt March. These were embraced by the people of India and started the movement towards independence in 1947. To this day, Gandhi is often referred to as the ‘Father of India’.
Elizabeth Fry saw the conditions female prisoners were kept in and fought for them to be treated more humanely. She started by taking supplies to women in prison and her continued work led to the 1823 Gaols Act, which improved conditions. Her work continues to inspire people working in the UK criminal justice system and she featured on the Bank of England’s five-pound note.
How
can I change the world in 15 minutes?
“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”
John Wooden
It’s amazing what we can do in a short space of time. Small actions such as expressing how you feel about something, can grab people’s attention and start a domino effect leading to a big change.
So what can you do in 15 minutes? There’s so many ways you can have your say and make a difference in just 15 minutes. For example:
Create a petition about something you want to change. This can be done on change.org In the UK, if your petition reaches 100,000 signatures, your petition will be considered for debate in Parliament and you will receive a response from the government.
Write a letter or email to your local councillor/MP about an issue that’s impacting your local area. Most MPs aim to reply within 2 weeks.
Share a picture, quote and/or poem expressing how you feel on social media. What you say may resonate with others and help to start change. Look into the different hashtags you can use to increase the reach of your post.
Speak to your boss or the HR department at your workplace to change a policy or system you’re not happy with. Other people may feel the same as you, but only after someone speaks out will your workplace feel the responsibility to respond.
There’s no worksheet for this week’s activity – just go for it and have your say about something that means a lot to you. Not only may it make a difference, it can also improve your confidence, self-esteem and overall wellbeing.
I would really love to hear what you end up doing with this week’s activity. Get in touch via email 15minutewellbeing@gmail.com or tag me in your social media posts so I can share them.
I share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in between blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to date.
Every week it seems like there’s a new diet we should all be following. I first became aware of this a few years ago with the explosion of the Atkins diet. Now there’s so many diets to choose from – the Cambridge, paleo, 5:2, cabbage soup, grapefruit, the master cleanse – it’s hard to know where to start and what foods we should and shouldn’t be eating.
A healthy, balanced diet is essential to good physical and mental health. We are all different when it comes to what we like and don’t like to eat, intolerances, allergies and budgets, so one strict diet won’t be suitable for everyone. However, increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables we eat is good for all of us and can help us feel and function better.
How many fruit and vegetables do you eat each day?
With all these facts and figures in mind, this week’s
post and activity focuses on a simple way to get more fruit and vegetables into
our diets – by making our meals as colourful as possible. The more colours we
eat, the greater the potential benefits to our health and wellbeing.
The mental
benefits of fruit and vegetables
We now have access to a whole range of fruit and vegetables that spans the colours of the rainbow. Each colour group contains vitamins, fibre and nutrients that contribute to good physical and mental health regardless of whether they are fresh, canned, frozen, juiced or dried. Here are three good reasons to get more of these foods into our diets:
Increasing consumption of fruit and vegetables can increase our psychological wellbeing. Two large scale studies from the UK and Australia found that people who ate more fruit and vegetables were more likely to report feeling happy, improved wellbeing and feeling satisfied with life.
If we eat 2 extra portions of fruit or vegetables a day, our motivation may increase. By increasing our intake of fruit and vegetables just a little, we can have more energy and motivation to take on the day.
Our mood can improve. Increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables we eat can reduce the likelihood of experiencing anxiety and depression. This may have something to do with the amount of vitamin C in fruit and vegetables. Those of us who consume lots of vitamin C every day are less stressed in the face of psychological challenges.
A rainbow of
opportunities
We’re now aware of the benefits eating more fruit and
vegetables can have for our wellbeing, but how can we get more of them into our
diet? After all, the textures and flavours of these foods don’t taste good to
all of us.
This week’s task aims to increase our fruit and
vegetable intake in a simple way – by eating meals with at least 3 colours in
them. Eating rainbow meals (as I like to call them) is an easy way to remember
to put more fruit and vegetables into your diet. The table below shows the
different coloured fruit and vegetables so you can figure out which ones you
like of each colour and start introducing more of them into your meals.
Here’s some suggestions to get you started:
Breakfast – porridge with bananas, raspberries
and raisins
Lunch – baked sweet potato with spinach,
tomatoes and sweetcorn
Dinner – chilli con carne with red peppers, kale
and kidney beans
The rainbow of fruit and vegetables and questions to
help you plan your meals are available on the worksheet below. Click the link
to download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or
alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If you’d like to share how you got on with this
activity, or the impact birthdays have on your wellbeing, please do get in
touch 15minutewellbeing@gmail.com
When people
talk about mindfulness, does it conjure up ideas of sitting with your eyes
closed, trying to clear your mind? Well, it doesn’t have to be that way.
Mindfulness can be practised standing up, brushing your teeth and even while
eating your dinner. This week’s activity shows that you can practise
mindfulness wherever you are, so you can easily fit it into your day.
It’s been a while since I posted about mindfulness, so let’s have a quick recap. Mindfulness is the practice of focusing and accepting, rather than judging, our thoughts, feelings and sensations that occur in the present moment. In other words, it’s all about focusing on the here and now – not getting lost in our thoughts and feelings, which can sometimes be detrimental to our wellbeing.
There are
multiple benefits to practising mindfulness, including:
With this in
mind, this week’s activity is a simple way to introduce mindfulness – through shapes.
Yes, shapes.
Typically, we
learn about shapes when we’re children, but as adults, even if we know the
names of many shapes, we often don’t notice how they make up almost every
aspect of our world. The world itself is a sphere, the screen you’re reading this
on is a rectangle, the bag you carry may be a mixture of cylinders and squares…the
list goes on.
Noticing the
shapes around you
This week’s
activity is to spend 15 minutes noticing all the different shapes around you. You
can do this wherever you are, if you are standing, sitting or moving. The aim
of this is to help clear your mind by focusing on the environment around you
and hopefully evoke a sense of calm. I find this activity particularly useful
when I’m feeling anxious, as it slows down my racing thoughts.
As you notice
the different shapes around you, remember to think in 2D and 3D (i.e. squares
and cubes) and name them either aloud or in your head. If you don’t know the
name of a shape, just describe what you see. For example, leaves aren’t typically
a geometric shape. You could describe some leaves as oval, with the edges
meeting in a pointy tip, with ridges across the leaf making curved,
rectangular-like shapes.
When looking
for shapes, why not try noticing:
What’s
above you
What’s
below you
Anything
you are holding
What
you are sitting or walking on
The
details on something right in front of you. For example, I was sitting on the
bus and noticed this stop sign button consisted of circles, crosses, an oval, a
cube and a sort of curved cuboid
You can do
this week’s activity without a worksheet, but if you’re struggling with how to
start, I’ve created a worksheet with specific questions about a picture with
different shapes. You can click the link below to download the worksheet.
If you’d like
to share your pictures of all the shapes you’ve noticed, or share how you found
this mindful activity, please do get in touch 15minutewellbeing@gmail.com
I share
wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in
between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to
keep up to date. This week, I will also be posting pictures and videos to help
encourage you to notice the different shapes around you.
Today is my birthday!
As well as celebrating, I thought I’d mark it with a birthday-themed post. Some
people love it when their birthdays come around, whereas others struggle with
the fuss and attention that can come with it. This week’s post won’t be
focusing on loving or hating birthdays – rather, as with all 15 minute
wellbeing blogs, it will use birthdays as a way to improve our wellbeing.
Birthday rituals
Celebrating our birthdays dates back to the Romans, who honoured their friends and family annually, on their date of birth with gifts, feasts and prayers. Birthdays are socially significant events: they can help us feel valued and unique; help us understand ourselves and feel supported – all of which are good for our wellbeing.
However, birthday celebrations can be stressful for some of us. Although the majority of us want to celebrate with others, almost half (49%) would prefer someone else to organise our birthday party. The pressure of putting on a good party and having fun could actually be detrimental to our wellbeing. If you start to feel stressed when organising your birthday party, ask for help (or ask someone else to do it for you!)
A fresh start
Birthdays are often
seen as a ‘fresh start’ where we have higher hopes about the future. As a
result, around our birthdays (or other fresh start events such as a New Year)
we are more motivated to change our behaviour and/or achieve our goals.
A unique study showed just how powerful birthdays can be at changing our behaviour. When offenders received a hand written birthday card with a message stating that their birthday was a fresh start to move away from a life of crime, they were 56% more likely to seek support to change, compared to offenders who received a letter on a random day (not their birthday). If people with a criminal history can use their birthdays to make a fresh start, why can’t everyone?
In the UK, more people are born in late September and early October than any other months of the year. This trend has also been shown in the USA and New Zealand – so if you are born in late September or early October, you may share your birthday with even more people. It is likely that this trend in birth dates is due to parents planning to have their children at the beginning of the school year. Also, this time of year is roughly 9 months after Christmas, a popular time to try for a baby.
Who do I share my birthday with?
This week’s activity is about learning who we share our birthdays with and finding out past events that happened on our date of birth. Learning broadens our minds and improves insight into all aspects of our lives (ourselves, our relationships and the world) which in turn is good for our wellbeing. As we know from a previous blog, learning has multiple benefits for our wellbeing.
Spend 15 minutes finding out who you share your birthday with. Who knows which celebrities or historical figures you share your day with? I share my birthday – 25th July – with Matt Le Blanc, best known for playing Joey in Friends who I briefly featured in a previous post about giving.
Also spend some of that
time looking at events that have happened on your birthday. What sporting
achievements, historical moments or cultural changes happened on that date? You
can record all of this on the worksheet below.
Click here to
download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or
alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If you’d like
to share how you got on with this activity, or the impact birthdays have on
your wellbeing, please do get in touch 15minutewellbeing@gmail.com
I share
wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in
between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to
keep up to date.
When was the last time
you thanked a family member or friend for something they did for you? Not just
saying, “Thanks”, “Cheers” or “Ta” but really appreciating what they’ve done
for you? The people around us are often at the centre of everything we do, so
it’s important every once in a while to recognise and appreciate them.
Showing how much we appreciate one another can strengthen our familial and romantic relationships, as well as our friendships. When we show our appreciation for each other, it evokes positive feelings about one another. Those who show their partner how much they appreciate them are often more committed and more likely to stay in the relationship. Not only that, we want to know that who we are and what we do matters, so expressing gratitude towards our family and friends can help strengthen the bonds we have with them.
These are all good
reasons to express gratitude – so let’s show our appreciation for those around
us and maximise both our and their wellbeing.
Write a thank you letter
This week’s activity is
to show your appreciation of someone by writing them a thank you letter. There are
multiple ways we can show our gratitude towards others, but making the effort
to write a thank you letter can have a longer lasting effect than just saying
it.
You may think that a thank you letter won’t make much difference to someone’s life, but you are mistaken. When people were asked to write a thank you letter, showing their appreciation for something someone close to them had done, they thought their letters would appear insincere and make the recipient feel awkward. They greatly underestimated the impact these letters had – many of the recipients said they felt ecstatic and surprised to receive such a letter. These letters took less than five minutes to write.
Our friends and family
do so much for us every day that goes unnoticed and we may even take it for
granted. Why not spend 15 minutes thinking about something that someone has
done for you recently and write them a letter to say how grateful you are? If you’re
struggling to think of something, remember even the little things others do can
make a positive difference to our lives. For example:
Giving you a lift home in their car
Taking the time to help you solve a problem such
as a difficult homework question or a small home repair
Cooking you dinner from scratch after a tough
day at work
Always being there to listen to what you have to
say
It’s up to you how you write your thank you letter,
but it will be more meaningful to the recipient if you are specific about what
you are grateful for. Explaining why you appreciate them and what they have
done, along with the impact it has had on you, will increase their feelings of
happiness. Not only that, it will encourage them to continue
helping you and others because they know they are appreciated.
There’s no worksheet for this week’s activity – just grab
some paper and write that thank you letter.
I would love to hear
about your experiences of writing – and receiving – thank you letters. If showing
appreciation has had a positive impact on your wellbeing, please do get in
touch and share your story 15minutewellbeing@gmail.com
I share
wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in
between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to
keep up to date.
You know what you’re
passionate about, but how do you translate that into something meaningful you
can do every day? You may have figured that out already, or have no idea where
to start. Wherever you’re at, this week’s blog helps us do just that and continues
our journey to find our Ikigai, or reason for getting out of bed in the
morning.
Last week we looked at
what we love and what we are good at. The purpose of this was to find or
rediscover our passions. You may have realised one passion or multiple ones.
This is the first step in finding your Ikigai and knowing your purpose in life.
This week we are looking at the next step – exploring what the world needs and
what we can get paid for – to help us live each day with more meaning and
fulfilment.
How can Ikigai benefit my wellbeing?
Why are we even looking
at Ikigai and our purpose in life? Well, Ikigai has been linked with a range of
benefits for our wellbeing, including:
Living longer. People with Ikigai have a reduced risk of developing health problems and are more likely to live longer. Residents of Okinawa, Japan, have the highest life expectancy in the world. What do they have in common? Ikigai.
Life satisfaction. Both men and women with Ikigai have been shown to be more satisfied with life and experience fewer symptoms of depression.
When we think about
what the world needs, we could come up with a whole host of things – reducing
plastic use, equality for all, less crime, more community engagement, better
health…the list goes on. This can feel a bit overwhelming and hard for just one
of us to address.
For this stage of
Ikigai, think about what the world needs in relation to your passion. For
example:
If you care about the environment and are good
at organising events, could you apply your passion to organising group litter
picking or cleaning up community events?
If you love getting fit and are good at helping
others, could you encourage others to do the same to help tackle obesity?
If you really care about mental health and are
good at writing, could you start a blog to improve others’ wellbeing? (This is how
15 minute wellbeing came about!)
We often think of what the world needs as huge
solutions to huge problems. However, it is difficult for one person to have all
the answers. However, just one person can make a massive difference by focusing
on just one aspect of what the world needs. This is where the ‘what can I get
paid for?’ question comes into play.
Using the above example of loving getting fit and
being good at helping others, there is no job titled (as far as I’m aware)
‘Obesity Tackler’. However, you could get paid for working as one of the below
(among others):
Personal trainer
Gym manager
PE teacher
Sports coach
This week’s
activity
To help figure out what the world needs and what you
can get paid for, try answering the questions below. For all the questions in
this week’s activity, you can give more than one answer, so don’t worry if you
don’t find your Ikigai straight away – this is completely normal. Spending 15
minutes on these questions can get you in the Ikigai mind set so don’t rush and
answer everything honestly.
What does the world need?
What are the things my friends and family
struggle with in their day-to-day lives?
What could be done to benefit my local
community?
What issues are commonly featured in the news?
What can I get paid for?
What roles exist that relate to what I want to achieve?
What project(s) could I work on alongside my main source of income? This is known as a ‘side hustle’
All the questions are
included on this week’s worksheet, so you have somewhere to record your
answers. Click the link below to download the worksheet. You can fill it in
using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or alternatively print it off and fill it in by
hand.
If you enjoyed discovering
your Ikigai, or feel that finding your Ikigai has helped improve your
wellbeing, please do get in contact and share your story.
I share
wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in between
weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to
date.
Stuck in a rut? Not
sure where your life is heading? Feel like you’re going through the motions?
We all go through lulls from time to time, but feeling like we don’t have a purpose can be detrimental to our wellbeing. Those of us without a sense of purpose are more likely to be depressed and have a shorter lifespan than those with more meaning in their lives. Having a sense of purpose and some control over our lives are key to wellbeing.
This week’s post is all
about helping us find or re-discover our sense of purpose. This may seem a bit
daunting, but by answering a few key questions and reflecting on what we are
passionate about, our purpose will become clearer.
What has purpose got to do with wellbeing?
Feeling purposeful has many benefits for our wellbeing. Firstly, it helps us recover from negative and stressful life events. Even when controlling for other factors such as age, gender and subjective wellbeing, higher levels of purpose in life were linked with better recovery from a negative event.
So how can we find our
sense of purpose and improve our wellbeing?
Ikigai (‘ee-key-guy’)
The Japanese have a concept called Ikigai, which essentially asks, ‘what gets you out of bed in the morning?’ Ikigai relates to the happiness of doing activities involving mental or physical effort to achieve a purpose or result. That purpose could be anything from improving the environment to creating art or helping others. We all have own purpose, we just need to find it.
There are four key
questions to answer to help find your Ikigai:
What do I love?
What am I good at?
What does the world need?
What can I get paid for?
Answering these questions is like following a treasure map to help you find out wonderful things about yourself, that you can share with the world and others will thank you for it.
Image from Forbes
What do I love and what am I good at?
Identifying the passion
and talents we have can give meaning to our lives. The two elements of Ikigai
we’re looking at this week are what we love and what we are good at. We can
find our Ikigai where these cross over. As this is 15 minute wellbeing, we will
just focus on these two questions this week, and what the world needs and what
we can get paid for in next week’s post.
To help you figure out
what you love, answering the following questions may give you some ideas. For all
the questions in this week’s activity, you can give more than one answer, so
don’t feel pressured to find one clear purpose straight away. It can take time
to find your Ikigai so don’t rush and answer everything honestly.
What do I love?
What activities give me a sense of excitement?
If money was no object, what would I spend my
time doing?
What did I love to do as a child?
What am I good at?
What are the things I do that often get a
positive response?
What do people compliment me on or praise me
for?
What subjects did I do best in at school?
All the questions are
included on this week’s worksheet, so you have somewhere to record your
answers. Click the link below to download the worksheet. You can fill it in
using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or alternatively print it off and fill it in by
hand.
If you enjoyed the first
step in discovering your Ikigai, or feel that finding your Ikigai has helped
improve your wellbeing, please do get in contact and share your story.
I share
wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in
between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to
keep up to date.
Creativity comes in
many shapes and forms, much like the human body. Often we think of being
creative as an individual pursuit, but it can be a social activity too. A
couple of months ago, my friend Lizzie held a life drawing class in her home
and invited a group of us along.
Life drawing involves
drawing or painting a nude model posing in front of you, the artist. They typically
strike a few different poses so the artist can capture different angles of the
body. At Lizzie’s, the model did a few 10 minute poses, two 20 minute poses and
one pose for half an hour, so we could draw her in differing amounts of detail.
Amongst my group of
friends were a mixture of creative types and those who felt they ‘couldn’t draw’
or were ‘no good at drawing’ but everyone turned up. It was the first time we
had all been together since Lizzie’s wedding so I was intrigued to find out
everyone’s motivations for going and how they felt during and after the class. I
also got the low down from Lizzie on why she held a life drawing class.
As we’ve covered in a previous blog post, some people find engaging in creative activities stressful, particularly the pressure to complete an artistic task to a set standard. If you feel this way, hopefully Sophie and Hannah’s answers below will give you some reassurance and confidence to give creative activities a go.
What motivated you to hold a life drawing class?
…you concentrate so much on doing one thing that your mind isn’t cluttered with anything else, so it’s very mindful.
Lizzie
Lizzie: I’ve found it
really calming when I’ve done it previously and good for managing stress and
wellbeing, basically because you concentrate so much on doing one thing that
your mind isn’t cluttered with anything else, so it’s very mindful. And I was
really keen to share those benefits in the hope others get the same experience,
as well as take an opportunity to see my friends of course in the comfort of
home.
What motivated you to go to the life drawing class?
Sophie: I wanted to try
something new, experience something I’d never done before and test myself by
doing something that wouldn’t typically be ‘my thing’.
Hannah: To be honest,
my main motivation for attending the class was that it was a chance to catch up
with friends I hadn’t seen in a while. I was intrigued by life drawing but
given my lack of artistic ability I expected that this would almost be the side
event of my evening.
Lizzie: Perhaps less a
question for me since it was at my house (!) but normally I go in order to
combine switching off in a peaceful environment as well as catching up with
good friends. I used to study art but once I stopped it academically I hardly
did it anymore, when actually it’s so enjoyable when you do!
How did you feel beforehand?
I noticed feeling some anxiety about my own ability, or lack thereof.
Hannah
Sophie: I actually felt
a little anxious before we got started. I think the prospect of doing something
so different combined with the feeling of not being good enough really played
on my mind.
Hannah: I had quite a
busy day prior to the class and so hadn’t thought much about it. When I arrived
the host began telling me about some of the other people attending who were
‘serious artists’ and I did begin to wonder what I had let myself in for. I
noticed feeling some anxiety about my own ability, or lack thereof. However,
Lizzie was a great host, as always, and having time to mingle, eat and
drink beforehand helped to set a relaxed vibe.
Lizzie: A tad frantic
getting everything ready and leaving work with a mass still there to do!
How did you feel during the life drawing?
Being able to sit, and simply be in the moment, with no other thoughts cluttering up my mind gave me a feeling of real freedom.
Sophie
Sophie: I felt
incredibly relaxed during the life drawing which was not what I expected! Being
able to sit, and simply be in the moment, with no other thoughts cluttering up
my mind gave me a feeling of real freedom. I felt detached from my usual
worries.
Hannah: Initially I
noticed myself being quite self-critical which got in the way of me being able
to enjoy the experience. Having a life model means that if you get it ‘wrong’
you could end up offending someone to their face. I found it really helpful
having the artist there to give some hints and tips to improve my drawing.
After this I really began to enjoy the experience and found that I was able to
really focus on the activity, forgetting the things that had been on my mind
that day. I was surprised at how quickly the time went and how much I ended up
enjoying it.
Lizzie: In flow! Calm
and concentrating.
How did you feel after the life drawing?
After having a busy day, this was a great activity to help me feel relaxed.
Hannah
Sophie: Afterwards I felt
a sense of achievement. Not only had I tackled something I’d never done before
but I realised I found it both easier and much more fulfilling than I had
expected!
Hannah: After having a
busy day, this was a great activity to help me feel relaxed. So much so that I
nearly fell asleep on my train home. It has made me interested in
doing more drawing as a way of relaxing.
Lizzie: I felt like I’d
had some rest and recuperation for my brain, and fed my soul a bit of
creativity. I was also super happy that everyone seemed to enjoy it.
————————————————————————————————————————————–
I share
wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in
between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to
keep up to date.
This week is Creativity and Wellbeing Week, celebrating creativity in all its forms and how getting those creative juices flowing can really benefit our health and wellbeing. There are events going on all over the UK this week, so if you’d like to get involved, click here for what’s on near you. If you can’t make it to any of the events, then not to worry, as this week’s blog features a new activity for you to try to help enhance your wellbeing.
Doing something creative each day can help us feel more positive. The positive effects of engaging in a creative activity can last for over 24 hours. That is, if we do something creative on a Thursday, we are likely to still experience the positive effects on our mood on the Friday. Research has shown that those of us who do something creative each day rate our social relationships as more rewarding and supportive.
Even if we don’t manage
to get creative every day, regularly engaging in a creative activity can help
us feel better within ourselves and positively impact other areas of our lives
such as:
There are so many ways to be creative – we covered rhyming poetry in a previous post – and this week’s activity involves the three D’s – drawing, doodling and designing. Inspired by last week’s Eid celebrations and friends’ wedding celebrations, we are going to create our own Mehndi (henna) designs.
What is
Mehndi?
Mehndi is an ancient form of body art. Specifically, it’s the application of henna as a temporary tattoo. The art of Mehndi has reportedly been around for over 5,000 years, dating back to Ancient Egypt. The Egyptians would paint henna on mummies before they were buried and Cleopatra used henna to decorate her body.
Today, Mehndi is commonly featured in wedding celebrations in South Asia, North Africa and the Middle East (and in expatriate communities from these regions). A ceremony, called ‘The Night of the Henna’ involves applying henna to the hands and feet of the bride-to-be as well as other members of the wedding party. Ornate, complex patterns are said to symbolise joy in getting married and a desire for luck.
Mehndi is also used to celebrate special occasions
such as engagements, pregnancy, giving birth, Diwali, Eid and many other
celebrations. Designs may range from floral, lacy and paisley patterns to dots,
stripes and geometric designs.
How can Mehndi
benefit my wellbeing?
Although the research on Mendhi and wellbeing appears
to be extremely limited, drawing and doodling – which feature in the Mehndi
design process – have been shown to improve wellbeing. For example:
Additionally, concentrating on a creative design task can help us achieve ‘flow’. Flow experiences are those that engage our whole bodies and result in us concentrating, ruminating less and not focusing on time passing us by. When we experience flow (through being creative) we tend to have higher self-esteem, value ourselves more and feel more useful – all of which contribute to our wellbeing.
Make your own
Mehndi
Today’s activity is to make your own Mehndi. You can
include whatever doodles, drawings or patterns you like in your design, the
main thing is that you enjoy it. If you’re stuck for inspiration, Instagram,
YouTube and Pinterest have thousands of ideas.
The worksheet has the outline of a hand for you to
draw your design onto. However, if you want to design your Mehndi on a
different body part i.e. a foot, feel free to use a blank piece of paper. Click
the link below to download the worksheet. For this week’s activity, you will
need to print it off and fill it in by hand.
If you enjoy creating a
Mehndi design, or feel that the process of designing a Mehndi has helped
improve your wellbeing, please do get in contact and share your design and/or
your story!
I share
wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in
between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to
keep up to date. As this week’s post is about Mehndi, I will also be sharing
examples of designs over the next week.
What do you think of when you hear the word volunteering? Going abroad to build a school in a deprived area? Helping out in a charity shop? These are important volunteering roles, but there are so many volunteering options out there, in numerous different fields, that take up different amounts of time. In the UK, it’s National Volunteering Week which aims to promote the diversity of volunteering. To coincide with this celebration of volunteering, this week’s blog post focuses on the multiple different ways we can help each other and improve our wellbeing, by launching the Good Deed Directory.
As we’ve learnt in previous blog posts, volunteering our time and being kind to others can aid our wellbeing in multiple ways. For example, we:
As this blog is called
15 minute wellbeing, you may be thinking that there’s only so much you can do
in a short space of time. There’s actually loads of things you can do to help
others and improve your wellbeing in the process.
These are all listed in
the Good Deed Directory below, categorised by the time it takes to do them – a
few seconds; one to five minutes; and 15 minutes. No matter how much time you
have, you can help someone else and boost your wellbeing in the process.
Small acts of kindness
can make a big difference to people’s lives (as well as our own). I hope this
directory inspires and encourages you to do a good deed for someone else.
Good Deeds that take only seconds to do
Hold the door open for the person behind you,
even if it means waiting a few seconds for them
Let someone go in front of you in a queue
Give way to another driver when the road is too
narrow for two cars to pass
If there’s time left on your car parking ticket,
offer it to someone entering the car park instead of throwing it away
Re-tweet, comment on, or share a friend’s post
to help them grow their social media following. Even a simple ‘like’ can make a
difference
If you’re not scared of creepy crawlies, safely
and humanely remove a spider or bee (or other insect) off someone else
Offer someone your seat on the bus or train,
whether they are pregnant, disabled, elderly or just look tired
Smile at everyone you pass
Once you’ve read a book, donate it to your local book sharing scheme. A list of train and tube stations where this operates can be found here. You can then enjoy a book that someone else has donated. You could even follow in the footsteps of actress Emma Watson and place books with handwritten notes in your local area
Give someone a compliment
Share an inspirational quote. If you found it inspiring, chances are someone else will too
Sign for a neighbour’s parcel when they are out
Tell someone if they have something in their teeth or on their face
If a loved one is out, record or download their favourite programme for them
Good Deeds you can do in one to five minutes
Help someone with a buggy on the stairs or getting on/off public transport
If a friend or colleague is going on holiday to a place you’ve been, give them some tips on things to do, see or places to eat
If someone is struggling with their shopping, help them carry it to their car
Do the washing up – or stack the dishwasher – after dinner
If a friend is looking for a job and you’ve got connections to a suitable company, why not recommend them?
Write a review of a good service you’ve received. New and small businesses will really appreciate any positive feedback you can provide
Help someone cross the road or off public transport
Show your appreciation for someone else by thanking them and explaining why you appreciate them
Ask a loved one about their day. Sharing experiences can help us connect and you may even learn something new, which can also help us feel good about ourselves
Help someone reach their destination in the quickest possible way by putting their route into a journey planner
Make a cup of tea or coffee for someone else
Praise a colleague. If someone has done a good job, let them (and others at work) know about it!
Sign a petition to help change something you care about. Visit change.org to find a petition or start your own
Good Deeds that can be done in 15 minutes (or longer if you wish)
Call someone you haven’t spoken to for a while.
If you have an elderly relative why not pick up the phone to them?
Pick up litter in your local area. Improving our local environment can help increase our wellbeing. Although I’m not suggesting we all run 300km along the river Thames, take a look at this ‘plogging’ group (picking up rubbish while jogging) who collected 44 bags of landfill waste
Help a friend with a problem. This could be a sibling struggling with their homework
Make a small gift. This could be a little drawing or a tasty little snack. Knowing that you put your thought and time into it will mean a lot to the recipient
Offer to check something over for someone. This could be a speech they’ve written for a wedding or an email they are not confident sending.
If you’re handy, why not fix something? Perhaps change a light bulb or frame a picture.
Organise part of a trip. If you’re going away somewhere soon, why not find a great restaurant to eat at or an activity you and your travel companion(s) can do?
If you’re great at doing hair, nails or make up, why not offer to do one of these for a friend before a night out?
Donate any unwanted clothes, jewellery or homeware to charity so others can benefit from it. As Marie Kondo says, pass the joy onto someone else
If you are able to, donate blood. Find your local blood donation session here
Attend a local charity fete or fundraising event. Often, showing your support by just being there is enough
Go to the shops or complete a chore for someone who is unwell
If you have any ideas
about other activities we can do by giving 15 minutes of our time, please get
in touch so they can be shared with everyone. It would be great to keep
building the Good Deed Directory so any contributions would be greatly
appreciated. Also, if you’ve benefitted from a good deed recently (either
giving or receiving), please do share your story so others can be inspired to
do the same.
I share
wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in
between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to
keep up to date.
The other night I was tossing and turning in bed, struggling to get a good night’s sleep, wondering ‘why me?’ When I arrived at work the following morning one of my colleagues had also had a sleepless night. It turns out that this is by no means a rare occurrence – nearly a third (30%) of people in the UK sleep badly most nights and 35% of us have experienced sleep problems for over five years. Even worse, one in five of the population have slept poorly for the last 10 years. What’s causing us to sleep poorly and how can we address it?
Poor sleep
Poor sleep reflects the amount of sleep we get, as well as the quality of our sleep. Although the amount of time we need to sleep differs slightly for each individual, it’s recommended that adults have 7 to 9 hours’ sleep per night. 74% of us get less than the minimum recommended 7 hours of sleep each night, which over time can build up and cause a ‘sleep debt’ that can negatively impact our wellbeing.
There are five stages of sleep that we all need to pass through to get a good night’s sleep. The first two stages are forms of light sleep which bridge the gap between being awake and asleep, whereas the other three stages are deeper. We need to spend enough time in each of these stages to get good quality sleep. The quality of our sleep can affect our mental health – those of us who experience anxiety may not get enough deep sleep.
Learning – whilst we are asleep our brains consolidate information that helps us learn and function effectively during the day. This is why it’s better to get a good night’s sleep before an exam rather than cramming all night.
Creativity – our brains reorganise our memories and pick out emotional details while we sleep, which helps us to come up with creative ideas.
Connecting – poor sleep can lead to poor relationships with others. In a national survey, 21% of respondents said their relationships were affected by a lack of sleep. Furthermore, four times as many people with insomnia reported relationship problems compared to good sleepers.
Physical health – feeling fatigued is the most common problem linked to poor sleep, however those who frequently experience sleepless nights are also at risk of a weakened immune system, making them more susceptible to illness.
There are many
different methods that can help improve our sleep patterns and the quality of
sleep we get. Today’s activity will focus on 4 simple steps that can be taken
to improve your sleep.
Set a regular bed time. Going to sleep at the same time each night will help your body get ready to go to sleep, which should make falling asleep easier.
Have your last meal of the day at least two hours before you go to bed. Eating close to bed time can reduce the quality of sleep you get, as your body will be digesting what you have eaten rather than preparing to sleep.
Wind down before bed. Relaxing before bed time can help your body prepare for sleep. The previous steps have covered how to physically prepare your body for sleep, but it’s important to be relaxed mentally as well.
The worksheet provides
further information and questions for you to answer to make these changes to
improve your sleep and your wellbeing.
Click the link below to
download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or
alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If making any of these
changes improves your sleep and your wellbeing, please do get in touch and
share your story!
I share
wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in between
weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to
date.
This blog talks a lot
about mindfulness, but many of us find it difficult to switch off and get into
a mindful state. If you are struggling to fit mindfulness into your day, try
getting into water.
When we get away from
voices, visual distractions, background noise, multi-tasking, smart phones and
quiet our minds, our minds shift. Being around water
simplifies the sounds we hear and the things we see. This allows our brain
time to focus and think because it is no longer being bombarded with lots of
information at once.
When we are in or
around water, our minds move from the active state to the default state and
different brain regions are activated. Cortisol – the stress hormone – goes down,
our heart rate reduces and we relax.
Water features in our
everyday lives – when we shower, have a bath, go for a swim, or paddle in the
sea or a lake. When we engage in these activities, our focus switches from all
the distractions around us to the experience of being in the water.
For example, when we
get in the shower, our brains engage with our environment in a different way –
what many people may refer to as ‘switching off.’ When in this relaxed frame of
mind, we are subconsciously able to find the answers to problems or have new
ideas.
Immerse yourself
Today’s activity is
simple – get in the water for 15 minutes (or longer if you wish) to clear your
head and gain a new perspective. You could go for a swim (either in a swimming
pool, lake or sea), take a bath or have a long shower. After you’ve immersed
yourself in water, answer the questions on the worksheet to reflect on how you
felt whilst in the water and afterwards.
Click the link below to
download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or
alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
Check back here (and
@15minwellbeing on Instagram and twitter) tomorrow for the next wellbeing
activity as part of Mental Health Awareness Week!
Is laughter really the best medicine? It seems like it could be. Employers are sending their staff on comedy courses to improve wellbeing and productivity in the workplace, and people are signing up to laughter yoga classes in droves to feel better within themselves. This isn’t happening because it sounds fun (though that does help), but because it has been shown to improve our wellbeing.
Laughter can help us connect with others. Sharing a joke with someone else, or making each other laugh can help us bond with our friends and family. If we laugh with others, we may feel more comfortable sharing things, therefore deepening our relationships.
Having a laugh can reduce stress. Enjoying humour and laughing can lower our levels of the stress hormone cortisol. This may be due to laughter releasing endorphins and dopamine in our brains, which help our immune system function better and reduce the stress placed on our bodies.
Humour can increase our resilience. Being able to laugh following negative life events such as illness or trauma can help regulate our emotions and distance ourselves from these negative situations. Having a sense of humour can help us cope in the face of adversity.
Take turns telling a joke
The credit for today’s
activity comes from my seven year old nephew. At every dinner time since he
could talk, he would ask everyone sitting round the table to tell a joke. Even
though we sometimes groan, the variety of jokes – good or bad (and many of them
are bad!) – always make us laugh and help us connect. The jokes even facilitate
a whole host of different conversations, which is another opportunity for
interacting with each other.
Today’s activity is to tell
jokes amongst your family, friends, peers or colleagues. My family and I
typically do this round the dinner table, but you could do it whilst watching
TV together, travelling somewhere together, or over lunch. Make sure that
everyone in your group tells one, so you can share in the laughter or groaning.
It doesn’t matter whether your joke is good or bad, just tell one!
There’s no worksheet
for today’s activity, just exercise your funny bone with your nearest and
dearest.
Check back here (and
@15minwellbeing on Instagram and twitter) tomorrow for the next wellbeing
activity as part of Mental Health Awareness Week!
Stiff neck? Tight shoulders? If you’re suffering with these, you’re not the only one. Over 4.6 million adults in the UK are estimated to suffer with shoulder pain, with over a quarter of the elderly population experiencing it. Between 15% and 31% of us have experienced neck pain lasting one day or more in the last 12 months.
Musculoskeletal problems such as neck and shoulder pain (as well as back pain and upper limb problems) were the second most common reason for sick days at work in 2016, resulting in 30.8 million working days lost that year. Pain in these areas is not only uncomfortable, but is having an effect on our day-to-day lives. If it can stop us going to work, what does this mean for our wellbeing?
Our mental and physical health are interlinked and muscle tension and pain is no exception. Ongoing physical pain is linked with diminished wellbeing and a poor quality of life. In some cases, neck and shoulder discomfort is caused by injury, but in others, it is a result of ongoing stress.
When we experience stress,
our muscles tense up but then relax again once the stress has passed. If we
regularly experience stress or anxiety, the muscles in our bodies can become
constantly tense, leading to discomfort and pain. Constant muscle tension in
our necks and shoulders can lead to other physical health problems such as
headaches and migraines, which in turn negatively affect our mental wellbeing. Stress
and muscle tension can easily turn into a vicious cycle resulting in ongoing,
poor wellbeing.
Stretch out your tension
Today’s activity consists of two simple exercises that can relieve the tension in our shoulders and necks and consequently improve our wellbeing. If you are currently under the care of a medical professional for any shoulder or neck conditions, please consult with them first before undertaking these exercises.
The exercises require no special equipment, just a
doorframe and a chair. The ‘lean in’ exercise stretches the deltoid muscles
across the front of your shoulders and the ‘scalene stretch’ stretches the
scalene muscles that run down either side of your neck. Follow the instructions
on the worksheet carefully and remember – these are meant to be relaxing and
stress-relieving, there is no need to push yourself unnecessarily.
Happy Mental Health Awareness Week! Semana feliz de conciencia de salud mental! Woche des gesunden psychischen Bewusstseins für psychische gesundheit! Semaine heureuse desensibilisation à la santé mentale!*
What do foreign languages have to do with mental health? Well, research has shown that learning another language can benefit our wellbeing.
As we learnt from the previous blog on learning, there are many benefits to learning as adults such as increased self-esteem, self-confidence and giving us a sense of purpose. This in turn can help us feel more optimistic and satisfied with life – key factors of positive wellbeing.
But this is 15 minute wellbeing, how can we learn a language in 15minutes?
We can’t be expected to be fluent in a new language in 15 minutes, but we can learn something small in a different language, or alphabet. There are currently 8 main different alphabets used across the world (with at least 62 other alphabets known to have been used throughout history), each using different symbols and shapes to represent letters and words, and each beautiful in their own way.
The top alphabet is Tifinagh and the bottom is Korean (hanguel and hanja). Both translate to ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.’ (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Today’s activity is designed for you to have a bit of fun with your initials. What do your initials look like in an alphabet different to your native language? Use the worksheet to draw your initials in another language or alphabet. As well as learning what they look like, try pronouncing them in the different language too.
Click the link below to download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
May 13th to 19th is Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK. The purpose of Mental Health Awareness Week is to start conversations about mental health to reduce stigma, help people get the support they need and to save lives.
To celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week, I will be posting a blog and 15 minute activity to improve your wellbeing every day this week. So you get an extra six wellbeing activities this week! I hope these activities improve your wellbeing and encourage you to have healthy, meaningful conversations about mental health and wellbeing.
Reflection rather than rumination
As we learnt from the first reflection blog post, the ability to learn from past events can improve our current and future wellbeing. Taking time to reflect can:
Often, when we feel low, we may ruminate which is bad for our wellbeing. Repeatedly focusing on problems or negative events we’ve experienced can lead to increased depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. Today’s activity therefore encourages us to reflect on the positives rather than ruminate, even when we have a bad day.
Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day
Alice Morse Earle
Today’s activity was inspired by the quote above – one of my favourites which I come back to time and again. When you’ve had a bad day, or things are getting you down, it’s important to remember that good things do still happen and that we should not give up.
On days when it all feels a bit too much, reflecting on positive events (no matter how small) can help us feel better about ourselves and maintain our wellbeing.
Whether you’ve had a good, bad or a somewhere in-between kind of day, spend 15 minutes reflecting on three good things that have happened. When you do have a bad day, try repeating this exercise to keep your spirits up and remind yourself that there is something good in every day.
Click the link below to download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
“If a medication existed which had a similar effect to physical activity like walking, it would be regarded as a ‘wonder drug’ or a ‘miracle cure’”.
England’s Chief Medical Officer (2010)
Is going for a stroll really a miracle cure for poor health and wellbeing? GPs in the Shetland Islands in Scotland seem to think so. They have started prescribing rambling and beach walks to help treat mental ill health, stress and other health conditions.
In aid of National Walking Month this May, today’s post and activity explores how going for a walk can have multiple benefits for our wellbeing.
The physical health benefits of walking
Brisk walking has the most benefits for our physical health. To tell if you are walking briskly, you should:
Physical activity such as walking briskly can improve the quality of sleep we get due to feeling more tired at the end of the day. Regular brisk walking can lower our blood pressure and help us feel less stressed and regularly walking at any speed can help manage our weight.
‘Walking is the nearest activity to perfect exercise.’
Morris & Hardman (1997)
For many of us, walking is one of the easiest ways to increase the amount of physical activity we do, because:
It’s free – there’s no need to join a gym or pay club membership fees
We can go for a walk anytime and anyplace that suits us
Walking is a low impact exercise, which means the risk of injuries and accidents is low
There’s no need to just focus on walking, we can enjoy our natural surroundings or chat to the person we’re walking with or people we encounter on our walk
No training is required, just get up and go!
As well as being easy to do, we can incorporate other wellbeing themes besides physical health and connection into our walks. For example:
Mindfulness – going for a mindful walk, smelling the flowers or feeling the texture of the leaves we pass on our way
Creativity – if you’re a budding photographer, going for a walk can provide you with new scenes and moments to capture
Learning – you may walk somewhere with an interesting history, or spot something that captures your interest. Walks can be used to spark our curiosity and learn more.
Reflection – walking can help us reflect on events that have happened recently, or process experiences
This week’s activity is – you guessed it – to go for a walk. Though there’s more to it than that. Remember when you were a kid and you used to walk along walls, jump in puddles and clamber over rocks? On your walk, try harnessing that exploratory nature and go off the beaten track. If you come across a tree trunk, why not climb it? If you see a pile of leaves, kick your way through them. Really embrace your surroundings (but please make sure you are safe while you do it).
My friends and I walking on Hampstead Heath, making our way off the main path into the wilderness
Click the link below to download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If you enjoyed walking off the beaten track, please do get in touch and share your story.
I share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram inbetween weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms tokeep up to date.
Back in March I wrote a blog post about choosing the right exercise for you. Whilst writing the post, I thought of a former colleague of mine, Richard, who had taken up running and really fell in love with it. Before he started running, he had overhauled his diet and lost a lot of weight. Once he started running, I noticed that Richard was not only healthier, but happier too.
I invited Richard to share his story with me for 15 minute wellbeing, because I think his journey is really inspirational. Richard has a real passion for running and has run distances that I couldn’t even imagine running, but like all of us, he had to start somewhere by putting one foot in front of the other. Read on to find out about his running journey and the great mantras he uses – these can benefit us in all aspects of our lives, not just exercise. I hope it inspires you to start or persevere with the exercise that is right for you.
Can you tell me about what your life was like before you started running?
“I’d gone through my weight loss and eating healthily and the next step for my wellbeing was some exercise. I started walking. I walked to Hounslow station which was 40 minutes away.
What really got me started with running was the running group at work. Jason said he’d come with me, just running one lamppost to the next. But I didn’t want to inconvenience him.
It took me 3 months of building it up until I could run 5km without stopping. I’ve kept the date when I went for my first run and refer back to it so I know how far I’ve come. It’s easy to forget what it was like before.”
Richard then went through the key dates in his running journey. I put these into a graph to show how Richard built up his endurance over time and the milestones he has achieved so far.
“My first run was on 7thMarch 2015 and first 5km on 31st May 2015, the bank holiday weekend which continues to be significant through my running journey. My first kilometre of running took just over 7 minutes.”
As you can see from the graph, Richard completed his first marathon on this bank holiday weekend in 2017 and his first ultra-marathon running from London to Brighton on the very same weekend last year.
This was soon after completing my first 100 km ultra-marathon
“This year on the May bank holiday weekend I want to run the 78 mile capital ring – 3 marathons in 3 days! Just get up in the morning and get on public transport to the starting point. I’m hoping to get some of my friends to join me.”
I found it incredible that it took Richard 3 months to run 5km without stopping and that he never gave up. Many people would, but he persevered. So what was his first run like?
“I remember the straight tarmac path was 150 metres and I ran that and my legs were like ‘what the hell are you doing?’ After 700 metres my legs were hurting and I had to stop and did lots of stretches. I eventually managed 3km on that first run.
I didn’t feel too bad, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone back. So each run thereafter I tried to get round the same distance a little bit faster. I didn’t make it too painful and unpleasant. I remember when I would really push it, my eyes would lose focus. Probably fight or flight kicking in. At the time I thought this couldn’t be normal.”
What motivated you to keep running?
“My approach has always been to keep improving, whether it’s running further or faster. There’s no point comparing myself to others – I want to be the best I can whilst fitting it into the rest of my life.
I very rarely run more than 4 or 5 times a week. My body gets to the point where it says ‘give me a rest’. It’s important to listen to any niggles and rest so they don’t get worse. That’s where not comparing yourself to others really comes into play.”
Richard then went on to tell me about the social aspects of running and how the variety of running events on offer keeps him motivated:
“I have completed three marathons and am training for my fourth in Boston, Lincolnshire. It’s an opportunity to go and stay with my sister. Every time I’ve done a marathon, I’ve done the parkrun the day before. You then get to meet other people you’re running in the marathon with. Then, when you’re running it, you spot someone from the parkrun!
“Last weekend I ran just short of 50km in total. What keeps it interesting is the variety. I’m doing a bit more trail running: meet at a tube station, someone plans a route and run on trails, it makes a nice change to pounding the streets of London. It usually finishes at a nice pub!
This photo is with some friends made through running. This was taken after running the circle line before heading to the pub for lunch.
I’ve signed up to tower running for more variety. Broadgate Tower is 35 floors. There’s a group that run up and down it 12 times – a vertical mile! I’ve been training and I’ve managed it four times, I’ve got a bit of work to do to get to 12 times. You walk it but take two steps at a time but use your arms to pull yourself up. I’m doing the tower run in July.
There is always an event going, such as the green belt relay where you run 200 miles around London in a team of 10. There’s also so many inspirational people you come across – there’s an 85 year old man at parkrun every week. I’d love to still be running at 85.”
For some, running just doesn’t appeal at all. So why running over another form of exercise?
“The gym has never really appealed to me. I used to swim 5 evenings a week and was a good swimmer, but lost interest in my teens. I re-started [swimming] in my 20s but lost interest. When I was younger, running didn’t really appeal to me, I only did it at school.
All you need is a pair of trainers and a shirt and off you go. The social aspect of running at work, could have a chat. I don’t really go to my running club as people are focused on their time. The social aspect has kept me going, making friends…
I did do some swimming as part of my getting fit. I signed up for a 5km swim and then had a few goes training. Once I did it, I stopped. I still want to challenge myself with a swim. Triathlons interest me but they’re expensive buying all the equipment.”
15 minute wellbeing is all about mental health and improving our overall wellbeing through different activities. What impact (if any) has running had on your mental health?
“I’ve become much more relaxed, I don’t worry about things as much. I used to be a bit of a perfectionist and running a marathon has taught me that I can’t run the whole thing perfectly. I’ve applied it to the rest of my life – you can’t perform at your best every day, some days when you go into work you just have to do the best you can.
Running has probably made me a more positive person, building relationships with others, giving each other positive feedback on their runs and times which makes me more positive overall. In my last marathon I didn’t get the time I wanted, but when I look back I can get delayed gratification from knowing I did a good performance.”
Richard then told me that he felt running involved many of the 15 minute wellbeing themes. In addition to the benefits to his physical health and aforementioned connecting with others and giving feedback, Richard told me how running links with the other themes:
Mindfulness – “Running is my form of mindfulness. Sometimes I’ve been running for 3 hours and I haven’t thought about much apart from running and how my body is responding.”
Learning – “Running is a really good learning tool, you only improve if you put the hard work in. There’s no quick wins with running.”
“Reflection is an important part of my running – reflecting on what went well, was the training right, did I rest well?
What advice would you give to anyone is a similar position as you were?
“Never outrun the joy of running.”
“Start off being realistic. Start off slowly and build up. Enjoy it. Never outrun the joy of running, that’s my current mantra. My previous mantras were ‘Get comfortable with discomfort’ and ‘If I believe I can achieve’.
“If I believe I can achieve.”
Find people to run with. If you’re in London there’s so many social running groups. Running shops often have running groups. Midnight runners in central London with music playing.
This photo shows the great running community at my local sports shop. The community is very supportive and provides a couch to 5 km group on a Monday evening.
Parkrun is great as you get to know regular runners with the same time as you. Parkrun is ideal for people starting out. They [the parkrun organisers] want the average time of a 5 km run to get slower as they want to attract more people who want to walk 5 km. Parkrun operates all over the country.
Find out what works for you. Some people are content going for a leisurely run and talking with the same group of friends. Others need a target to work towards.”
Huge thanks to Richard for sharing his story – he really is inspirational and his passion for running is contagious. Since meeting with Richard I have started running again, taking it slowly and building my way up to 5 km non-stop. Richard has reminded me that it doesn’t matter how long it takes to do it, as long as I’m enjoying it.
I hope you have taken something from Richard and he has inspired you. If you would like to share your wellbeing-related story on 15 minute wellbeing, please do get in touch.
You may have got one in your work secret Santa. A (not so close) relative may have bought you one for your birthday because “you were always into art at school”. You may have the Doctor Who one to tide you over until the next series starts. Whatever the reason,adult colouring books are very popular and it’s likely that most of us own one.
Whether you’re a fan of colouring in or are dubious about it, these books can help us cope with stress and improve our wellbeing. In the final post of National Stress Awareness Month, here’s 8 reasons to keep colouring or pick up those colouring pencils for the first time.
2. It’s a mindful activity, which is beneficial for our wellbeing.
Colouring in can put us in a meditative state and help us become more mindful. As we learnt in a previous blog post, mindfulness can reduce stress and anxiety and even pain. Just focusing on one thing that is happening in the here and now – i.e. colouring in part of a picture – can help us take a step back from stressful and emotional situations.
3. Mindfulness colouring books can reduce symptoms of depression
If you’re suffering with a low mood, colouring may be able to help. Research has shown that after a week of daily colouring in, participants showed significant reductions in symptoms of depression and anxiety. Those who completed logic puzzles over the same time period did not show these reductions, suggesting that colouring in for a short period on a daily basis can improve our mental health.
4. Colouring can improve our problem solving skills
Deciding which colours we want to use in each part of an image relies on our creative, right side of the brain and logical, left side of the brain working together. Creative activities such as colouring provide good opportunities to practice our problem solving skills as they often involve thinking differently. Continued practice can also help us become more resilient in the face of stress.
5. It gives us a sense of control
When we feel stressed, we often feel like certain aspects of our lives are out of our control. Engaging with colouring in books can help us regain that sense of control, because we are the ones choosing the colours. When given the choice of how to colour in an image versus being instructed to copy the colours of a pre-coloured image, participants were more likely to persevere with the task and show reduced levels of anxiety.
7. Different themed books can help us engage with our interests
It’s important to do something we enjoy every day. As well as making us happier, doing something fun can improve our skills, enhance our creativity and increase our ability to learn. Due to the popularity of adult colouring books, we can combine the benefits of colouring with our own interests. There are colouring books for every interest – Ryan Gosling (my personal favourite), cats and Game of Thrones, among many, many others.
8. With all this in mind, why don’t you give this week’s activity a go?
I’ve designed a pattern for you to colour in, reduce stress and improve your wellbeing. Spend 15 minutes colouring it in and see how you feel. If you’re able to, spend 15 minutes each day on it until you’ve completed colouring it in to enhance the benefits to your wellbeing.
Click the link below to download the worksheet. It’s recommended for this exercise that you print it off so you can colour it in! If you don’t have a printer, you could draw your own design and colour it in.
If colouring in has helped improve your wellbeing, please do get in contact and share your story!
I share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to date. I’d love to post your colouring online, so get in contact and share your work 🙂
Sometimes it feels like we’re surrounded by stuff, with nowhere to put anything. How much of this stuff do we actually need? Have we used or worn it all in the last year? If the answer to these questions is ‘not all of it’ then all these things may be cluttering your life unnecessarily.
Clutter can contribute to feelings of stress and not being able to achieve our goals. Mess around the house can make us feel stressed as we may perceive it as another task that we haven’t been able to complete. This adds to the feeling that there isn’t enough time in the day to accomplish our goals, which can make us feel even more stressed. In this third post during National Stress Awareness Month, we will be exploring the benefits of tidying up, getting rid of things we don’t really need and donating them to charity.
You may have heard of the ‘KonMari’ method popularised by the TV show ‘Tidying Up with Marie Kondo’. This method encourages us to get rid of items which no longer ‘spark joy’ in us. This is similar to the quote by William Morris: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Focusing on the items that make us happy and removing those that are no longer of use to us can result in a transformation of not only our homes, but also our emotional wellbeing.
Is Marie Kondo onto something? She could well be. Living in a messy, cluttered house can have a negative impact on our wellbeing. If we feel like we live in a cluttered home, we are more likely to feel stressed, as shown by increased levels of cortisol (the stress hormone).
Why we are reluctant to declutter our homes
Although clutter and mess can cause frustration and have a detrimental effect on our wellbeing, many of us do nothing about it. Why is that? Tidying up and throwing things away is an unpleasant, often time-consuming activity for many of us to do, so we avoid it and spend that time procrastinating instead. For those of us who avoid throwing things away, or even hoard objects, we may keep hold of things because we believe that:
We just need more time to sort things out
We don’t have too much stuff, we just need more storage space
We need to keep them for the future, ‘just in case’
If we throw things away, we may harm the environment
If you are concerned that you may have a problem with hoarding, the Clutter Image Rating may be useful. Also, speak to your GP or a mental health practitioner for advice and support.
We can also become overly attached to our personal items, which makes it hard to get rid of them, resulting in a build-up of objects in our homes and lives. We then add to this ever increasing amount of objects because we believe we actually need the things we want, which is rarely the case. Do we want three different types of black ankle boots? Yes. Do we need three different types of black ankle boots? Almost definitely not.
How getting rid of clutter can improve our wellbeing
In comparison, if we feel like we live in a home that is tidy and in order, we feel less stressed. When decluttering we use our problem solving skills, giving us a sense of mastery and control, which helps us feel better about ourselves and increases our belief in our ability to achieve our goals.
One of the positives of tidying up is that we can see the difference we have made straight away. When our things are out of place, this can cause us to feel anxious. Putting things in order can relieve anxiety relatively quickly. Additionally, decluttering can involve three of the key wellbeing themes we’ve covered in 15 minute wellbeing:
Physical health – tidying is a type of exercise, which can improve our mental and physical health
Mindfulness – concentrating on just decluttering a space can keep us in the here and now, which in itself can help reduce stress
Giving – giving our unwanted items to charity can not only pass on joy to others, but also increase our self-worth
This week’s activity is a seemingly simple one – declutter a space in your home. It may sound daunting –and it’s ok to feel that way – but in line with all the other activities, you only need to spend 15 minutes tidying a space. Pick a small, manageable space such as a bedside drawer or the pile of bits and bobs on the stairs. Take a picture of how it looks before decluttering, then take another when you have finished.This will help you see what a difference just 15 minutes of tidying up can make.
Once you’ve finished tidying, bag up those items you don’t need and donate them to your local charity shop. Giving to others can further enhance our wellbeing by giving us asense of self-worth and purpose.
Click the link below to download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If tidying up had a positive impact on your stress levels or wellbeing, please do get in touch and share your story.
I share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram inbetween weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to date.
Do you devour a pack of chocolate buttons when you’ve had a bad day? Do you pour yourself a glass (or two, or three) of wine when it all feels a bit much? Does smoking a cigarette take the edge off your nerves? If you answered yes to any of the above, then you may be using food and drink (and even other substances) to help you cope with stress and negative feelings you experience.
Last week, we covered a short-term way to deal with stress – bagging up our worries and throwing them away (how did you find that activity? Do let me know!) In this second post during National Stress Awareness Month, we will be focusing on a longer-term approach to cope with stress: what we eat and drink.
How food and drink can affect how we feel
Everything we consume has an effect on how our bodies function. However, some food, drinks and other substances can affect our mental functioning and wellbeing because they produce a psychoactive effect. That is, some of what we consume can contribute to us feeling happy, sad, calm and anxious.
How does this work? Key to the relationship between what we eat, drink, take and our wellbeing are different chemicals in our bodies:
Dopamine – our reward system, this contributes to us feeling good about ourselves
Noradrenaline – influences how alert, anxious or calm we are
Different food, alcohol and drugs can affect these chemicals, leading to changes in our mood and wellbeing. Today’s post and activity will explore how what we consume can affect our levels of stress and wellbeing. We will also look at how making small changes to our diets can have a long-lasting impact on our mental health.
Why we use food and drink to cope with stress
Many of us eat, drink, smoke or take drugs to help us cope with stressful situations and negative feelings. There are many reasons for this, but over 90% of our serotonin receptors (the chemical that makes us feel happy) are in our guts. This may be why we associate feeling happy with eating and resort to food and drink when we feel stressed or unhappy.
Sugar – when the level of sugar in our blood increases quickly (i.e. after eating some chocolate) a chemical called cortisol is released to stabilise it. When our blood sugar is unstable, we can feel frustrated and angry.
What can I eat or drink to help me feel less stressed?
Cutting down on sugar and junk food can increase our resilience. Limiting our alcohol intake can have a positive impact on our wellbeing and reduce the paranoia (and consequent stress) experienced after a big drinking session. Only consuming caffeine in the morning or in smaller doses can reduce anxiety and improve sleep.
One thing we can increase in our diets is protein. The amino acids found in protein are used by our brains to protect against low mood and feeling angry. Foods high in protein include fish, meat, beans, lentils and nuts.
This week’s activity requires you to look at your diet and see if you can make any changes to it to reduce your stress levels and improve your wellbeing. The worksheet provides further information on protein, caffeine and alcohol, along with some questions to help you explore whether you can improve your diet and your wellbeing.
Click the link below to download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If changing your diet has reduced stress and helped improve your wellbeing, please do get in contact and share your story!
I share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram inbetween weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to date.
Stress. What a horrible feeling and unfortunately so many of us experience it. Whether it’s work, Brexit, travel, relationships, not being able to switch off or just having too much on our plates, stress is becoming a frequent, unwelcome visitor in our lives. During a typical week, 72% of us feel stressed at some point – this is not good for our wellbeing and frequently feeling stressed can also lead to problems with our mental and physical health.
Let’s change this. April is National Stress Awareness Month, so each 15 minute wellbeing blog post throughout April will focus on how stress affects our wellbeing and provide a range of activities aligned with the seven wellbeing themes to help us feel less stressed and anxious. Stress doesn’t have to be a part of life that we just accept, we can overcome it and feel better within ourselves.
What is stress?
Stress is how our bodies respond to an event or situation that is new, unexpected, threatens us or something that we have little control over. When we experience a stressful event, our bodies produce hormones that put us into ‘fight or flight’ mode. That is, these hormones prepare us to fight the threat, or run away from it.
Sometimes, this response is useful – it can help us respond quickly in high pressure situations and protect ourselves if we need to. If we only experience stressors and stay in fight or flight mode for a short amount of time, then we are unlikely to have any long-term, negative effects. However, if we experience stressful events frequently, or are constantly in fight or flight mode, our resilience to stressors reduces and we feel unable to cope. This leads to us regularly feeling stressed which can have a knock-on effect on our mental and physical health.
Why our lives are so stressful
Whereas our cavemen ancestors were mainly concerned with shelter, food and avoiding predators, a whole host of things can cause us stress in the 21st Century:
Work – over two-thirds of people in a national survey felt excessive pressures at work (i.e. having to take on extra work to compensate for staff absences, unpaid overtime) was their main source of stress. This, plus balancing our work and home lives can make us feel overwhelmed.
Money – although employment has risen, the amount of money we earn has not increased substantially since the 2008 recession. This means that many of us don’t always have enough money to make ends meet and more than 1 in 5 of us have experienced debt-related stress.
Stress can have a detrimental effect on our wellbeing. Experiencing lots of stress has been linked with depression and self-harm. In a national survey, 51% of respondents who felt stressed also felt depressed, with even more – 61% – feeling anxious as a result as stress.
Stress and anxiety can become a vicious cycle: stress leading to anxiety and the worrying linked with anxiety resulting in us feeling even more stressed. Rumination (constant worrying) is one of the strongest predictors of negative wellbeing. If we can reduce how much we ruminate, then we can start to overcome stress and improve our wellbeing.
Common, unhelpful ways we cope with stress
We have all developed our own ways of coping with stress, some of these are helpful whereas many are only short-term fixes. To alleviate stress we may eat unhealthily, smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol or take drugs. While these can provide a momentary distraction from our worries, they don’t help us overcome them.
Bag up those worries
This week’s activity uses a short and cathartic exercise to help you overcome the stressors and worries you may be currently experiencing. It involves writing, drawing or sticking things that represent your worries in the bag on the worksheet and then scrunching or ripping it up. The purpose of going through this process can help you let go of your worries and realise that you have some control over your worries, they don’t have to control you.
Click the link below to download the worksheet. It’s recommended for this exercise that you print it off so you can scrunch it and rip it! If you don’t have a printer, draw your own bag and follow the instructions on the worksheet.
If bagging up your worries has helped improve your wellbeing, please do get in contact and share your story!
I share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram inbetween weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to date.
How often is your trainor tube delayed? How frequently does your bus drive straight past your stopbecause it’s already full? If your answer is “too often”, you’re not alone.
On the London Underground, there was an average of 5 signal failures per day between January 2016 and February 2018. In 2018, 43% of train passengers experienced a delay lasting between 15 and 30 minutes. Not only that, train delays across the UK and Northern Ireland totalled 283,904 hours, which equates to 32 years of delays!
How delays can affect our wellbeing
Not only are these delays frustrating, they can also have a negative effect on our health and wellbeing. Poorer mental wellbeing, increased blood pressure, poorer diet and less sleep are all associated with delays and lengthy commutes.
People who commute by bus report lower life satisfaction and those who take the train are more likely to experience stress and anxiety. In a survey of over 1,000 commuters, journey delays were the aspect of commuting reported to be most detrimental to their health and wellbeing.
Until public transportsystems improve, there is little we can do to control train, tube and busdelays. However, we can use this extra time to our advantage.
Using delays to improve our wellbeing
We often feel like we don’t have enough time – which we covered in a previous post – so let’s make more use of the time we would otherwise spend waiting around, getting more and more frustrated. We can do this by connecting with others – one of the simplest and most effective ways of improving our wellbeing.
Do not worry – this doesn’tinvolve striking up a conversation with your fellow commuters! (Though if wespoke to each other more on public transport, we may enjoy our journeys more…)It’s about using this time to invest in our relationships with family andfriends and build stronger connections with them.
We can’t plan for train delays, so we will have to use what we have on us – our phones. Not to scroll through Instagram or Facebook, but to actually connect with others over a phone call. Even though the majority of us own a mobile phone, the number of phone calls we make on them is decreasing. In 2017, the amount of phone calls made decreased by 1.7% and it’s possible this has decreased since. Why is this? The immediacy of text and WhatsApp (and other messaging systems) is convenient and can give us instant gratification. However, it’s difficult to invest time in our relationships and get closer to our loved ones over messaging.
Why speaking on the phone is good for our wellbeing
Talking to someone over the phone can be beneficial for our relationships and our wellbeing. Communicating over the phone can help us build intimate relationships, feel closer to others and reduce feelings of loneliness, which is one of the biggest contributors to poor wellbeing. Compared to texting, phone calls are better for expressing emotion through tone of voice, which helps us understand each other better and can reduce conflict.
Many of us have a desire to connect with others more, due to UK-wide surveys indicating that men and women would rather spend more time with friends and family as opposed to spending their time at work. Even though transport delays may be affecting that, this can be alleviated somewhat by picking up the phone and having a conversation.
Today’s activity is thereforeto pick up your phone and have a conversation. Even if you don’t experience atransport delay (and hopefully you won’t) you can still call someone. As thisis 15 minute wellbeing – and many transport delays last for 15 minutes – tryand speak on the phone for this length of time, or longer if you wish. After yourphone call, why not take the time to reflect on your conversation and how itmade you feel? There are some questions on the worksheet to help you do this.
Click the link below todownload the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool oralternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If you enjoyed speakingover the phone for a change, or feel that having a conversation with a friendor family member helped improve your wellbeing, please do get in contact andshare your story.
I sharewellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram inbetween weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms tokeep up to date.
Today is World Poetry Day, celebrating poetry in all its forms. From a couplet to a haiku, limerick or sonnet, poetry helps us express our thoughts, feelings and life experiences. As proclaimed by the United Nations, poetry has the unique ability to capture the creative spirit of the human mind.
This week’s post uses
World Poetry Day to introduce the seventh and final theme that can improve your
wellbeing – creativity. Creativity – or being creative – is the use of our
imagination or original ideas to create something. Here at 15 minute wellbeing,
the focus is not on being artistic or creating a masterpiece, but absorbing
ourselves in an activity that can stimulate our senses and temporarily help us forget
about our problems.
Theme 7: Creativity
Creativity is a key part of being human and can help us grow as individuals, groups and societies. Being creative stimulates the whole brain: when we do something creative, the left logical side and right emotional side of our brains work together and develop our thinking skills. This in turn, improves our problem solving skills. Continued creativity can help us practice these new problem solving skills and help us become more resilient.
Participating in creative activities can improve wellbeing and reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress in those of us affected by mental health issues. Creative activities can also improve our:
Communication skills
Stress management
Connections with others
Emotional intelligence
Health management
Self-confidence
Despite all these benefits, some people find engaging in creative activities stressful, particularly the pressure to complete an artistic task to a set standard. If we don’t have confidence in our artistic abilities or creative writing skills, the thought of doing something creative may not be so appealing. However, we could think of creativity as a muscle that needs strengthening – the more we practice it, the more confidence we will have. Over time, 15 minute wellbeing will provide different activities that can exercise and nourish our creativity.
There are many ways to
be creative – drawing, painting, singing and dancing (among others) – all of
which will be featured in the blog in the future. As today is world poetry day,
we are going to write a poem. Not just any poem, a rhyming one!
Why is poetry good for our wellbeing?
Practising poetry can contribute to improved wellbeing. It has been shown to be a useful therapeutic tool for people with a variety of mental health issues. Poetry can positively influence our:
Social relationships
Emotions
Sense of purpose in life
Personal accomplishments
Having a sense of achievement or personal accomplishment can result in a positive spiral. Achievement builds motivation and confidence, which then encourages us to take more positive risks and new challenges to achieve some more.
Poetry can help us make sense of the world and reflect on our experiences – which we already know from the last blog is good for our wellbeing. Writing poetry about stressful and/or negative life experiences can help us process emotions such as loss, anger and frustration.
When we become absorbed in writing (or reading) a poem, it blends in with our thoughts and imagination to rearrange our priorities: immersion in poetry can temporarily suspend feelings of anxiety, boredom or stress. The focus of this task (and all future creative tasks) is to absorb ourselves in the process of creating something new. There will be no marking or rating in any of the 15 minute wellbeing creative activities. The aim is to gain a sense of achievement and improve our wellbeing by creating something.
Today’s activity is
writing a rhyming poem. You can write your poem about any topic and it can be
of any length, it just needs to rhyme! If you’re stuck for what to write about,
use one of the following topics for inspiration:
Something that has happened in your day
The plot of a film or TV show you watched
recently
A friend, family member or pet
Click the link below to
download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or
alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If you enjoy writing a
rhyming poem, or feel that the process of writing poetry has helped improve
your wellbeing, please do get in contact and share your poem and/or your story!
I share
wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in
between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to
keep up to date. As this week’s post is about poetry, I will also be sharing
poems and rhymes over the next week.
There’s so much focus on
self-improvement these days – making changes to our lives to improve our
performance, our physical health and mastering new skills. It’s generally
straightforward to tell what helps us improve in these areas:
Testing new time management techniques to meet
our targets at work
Increasing the amount of exercise we do to
increase our physical fitness
Regular practice to learn a new skill
But how do we know what
is and isn’t good for our wellbeing? We all lead busy lives so it’s hard to
tell what is good for us and what might be having a negative impact on our
health and wellbeing.
Having an insight into
our thoughts, feelings and behaviours can improve our wellbeing. We gain this
insight through the process of reflection. If we can identify what is good and
bad for our wellbeing, we can make the changes we need to improve and maintain
our wellbeing.
Theme 6: Reflection
Reflection builds on last week’s theme of mindfulness, as it also involves recognising our thoughts and feelings. Focusing our attention on ourselves can help with our personal growth and wellbeing – reflection consolidates learning from our experiences and enables us to apply this learning to new situations.
What is reflection? Self-reflection is the process of focusing on ourselves and increasing our awareness of our thoughts and feelings. Having an insight into how we think, feel and are motivated is key to our psychological health. Taking time to reflect can reduce anxiety, improve motivation and help us plan for the future.
It is important to understand that reflection focuses on learning from past events to improve our current and future wellbeing. It isn’t rumination – repeatedly focusing on negative events or problems that we’ve experienced without finding ways to overcome them. Rumination is linked with anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Rather than ruminating, the activities in this theme will encourage us to reflect upon setbacks and challenge with the aim of overcoming them in the future. Reflection is all about practice and as we progress through the blog, more tasks and techniques will be provided to help you reflect.
The onus on improving
our wellbeing is ultimately on us. Taking 15 minutes to reflect can help us
figure out what we need more and less of to improve our mental and physical
health.
This week’s task gets
you to reflect on the people, places and things that are good and bad for our
wellbeing. Every day we interact with other people and the exchanges we have
with others can have a huge impact on our mood and overall wellbeing. The environments
we live, work and socialise in can affect how we feel about ourselves. The
things we do and activities we engage in can also influence our health and
wellbeing. This week’s activity worksheet includes some examples to help you
reflect on what’s good and bad for your wellbeing.
Click the link below to
download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or
alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If reflecting on
people, places and things has helped improve your wellbeing, please do get in
contact and share your story!
I share
wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in
between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to
keep up to date.
Time just seems to fly
by these days. Christmas only feels like last week, but we’re somehow already
in March. How did that happen? When we were children, waiting for a birthday or
Christmas seemed to last an age, but as adults, events seem to creep up on us
quickly without us even realising. Why does time go so quickly and what can we
do about it?
One reason why it may feel like time goes quicker as we get older is the amount of pressure we experience. From around the age of 16 to retirement, we regularly face multiple pressures with time limits such as exams and deadlines. As these pressures build up, time feels like it moves more quickly and we start to feel as if we don’t have enough of it to get everything done.
Conversely, as young children we rarely experience these pressures and the new things we encounter are viewed with curiosity and excitement. Growing up, we learn new things all the time. When we are constantly aware of our changing environment and take notice of the new things we encounter, we store more memories which results in it feeling like time doesn’t go as fast.
Taking notice of what’s
happening in the here and now is what mindfulness is all about. We can use
mindfulness to reduce the amount of pressure we experience, make the most of
every moment and improve our wellbeing. It might even slow down time a little.
Theme 5: Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the practice of focusing and accepting, rather than judging, our thoughts, feelings and sensations that occur in the present moment. Through practising mindfulness, we can learn to view our thoughts and experiences as transient events that don’t need to be acted on or control us. Noticing everyday activities such as brushing our teeth or our feet on the ground as we walk can interrupt our automatic thoughts and give us a new perspective on life. Mindfulness can also teach us to slow down, that we don’t always have to react immediately to situations we encounter.
Increasing our awareness of the here and now can help us understand ourselves better and increase our enjoyment of the world around us. Mindfulness is really as simple as focusing on what is going on around and within us in the present moment. The more mindfulness is practised, the longer the positive effects on our wellbeing.
Mindfulness has been shown to improve wellbeing by addressing cognitive and emotional reactivity and reducing repetitive negative thinking. That is, mindfulness can help us take a step back from stressful and emotional situations. By acknowledging our thoughts as transient events, we can learn to let go of negative thought patterns and behaviours. This can lead us to make choices and behave in ways that better meet our needs, interests and values, which is good for our wellbeing.
Mindfulness doesn’t
have to involve sitting cross-legged and meditating – it can be done anywhere,
anytime. You can practice mindfulness while doing everyday activities such as
brushing your teeth, having a cup of coffee or eating lunch. You don’t need to
set time aside to practice mindfulness, you can just bring awareness to what
you already do. Starting the day mindfully can help us appreciate things we usually
take for granted when it feels like time is running away from us.
This week’s activity helps
us to start the day mindfully. Most of us have to travel somewhere everyday –
to work, university, college, school or an appointment. Why not use this time
travelling to practice mindfulness and become more aware of what is going on
within and around you? If you’re not sure where to start, this week’s activity
worksheet includes more details and some questions to think about to help make
your commute more mindful.
Click the link below to
download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or
alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If you noticed anything
new or your mindful commute had a positive impact on the rest of your day,
please do get in touch and share your story.
I share
wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram in
between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to
keep up to date.
It’s been widely reported that exercise is not only good for our physical health, it can benefit our mental health too. Yet many of us find it hard to maintain our motivation to exercise. Even when we have good intentions to exercise, they don’t always last.
Each year, one third of people in the UK make a New Year’s resolution to get fitter, yet 63% of us break our resolutions. On average, two thirds (66%) of New Year’s resolutions last for one month or less. If your exercise and fitness goals have fallen by the wayside, you’re not alone.
If you’re struggling to find the motivation to exercise, it could be that you haven’t found the right physical activity for you. Not getting the mental high from working out that you’re after? Then maybe it’s time to change your exercise routine. This week’s blog post can help you find the best exercise for you and your wellbeing.
Theme 4: Physical health
The focus of today’s post is exercise and how choosing the right type of exercise for you can help improve your mental health. As we progress through the blog posts each week, you will discover that this theme is about more than just exercise. Other elements of our physical health – what we eat, how we sleep and self-soothing activities – can all impact our health and wellbeing.
Often, when we think about exercising we think about long runs, intensive gym sessions and ‘no pain no gain’. The good news is that physical exercise does not need to be vigorous to have a positive impact on our mental health. Even better, just 10 minutes of exercise is enough to elevate mood. Those of us who struggle to make time for exercise can still improve our wellbeing by incorporating a brief amount of physical activity into our lives. Over time, 15 minute wellbeing will introduce a range of physical activities that can be completed in 15 minutes or less and enhance our wellbeing.
Why is exercise so good for our wellbeing?
Exercising can distract us from our negative thoughts, improve our perceived ability to cope with stressful situations and increase our sense of control. Physical activity can also improve our quality of life, mood, self-perception, social interaction and life satisfaction.
Exercise can also help us cope with mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Aerobic and anaerobic exercise (such as resistance training) are effective treatments for depression. Regular exercise may help prevent people prone to feelings of anxiety from panicking when they experience symptoms such as increased heart rate and sweating. These physical reactions occur during exercise so regular exposure to them through physical activity could reduce the frequency of panic attacks.
Making small changes to the amount of exercise we do – even if we don’t do much at all – can enhance our wellbeing. For example, going for a walk can help us feel good. If we go for a walk with someone else, it has the added benefit of increasing our connection with others.
If we feel better after exercising, why is it so hard to keep doing it?
One factor to consider is the intensity of our physical activity. Do you tend to start off too hard? When we exercise to the point where it is hard to talk, the immediate mood boost we usually experience after exercising is delayed by approximately 30 minutes. This delay in mood enhancement can put us off exercising. Starting slowly, with a moderate exercise plan can help us to maintain our physical activity goals.
Have you found the right exercise for you? It is important to find a physical activity you enjoy, not one that feels like a chore. If you start a gym class to help you lose weight but you don’t actually enjoy it, it’s unlikely you’ll stick at it.
One way to find the right exercise for you is to consider your social-psychological needs, which can change over time. These are:
Achievement
Mood and tension release
Playfulness
Search for meaning
Self-esteem
Stress management
Different needs require different exercises. If you want to cope better with stress, activities that provide a welcome distraction such as running or aerobics would be beneficial. Activities such as competitive team sports are likely to add to the stress that you’re already feeling, so you won’t get the same sense of enjoyment from them.
Therefore, it may be that you haven’t found the right exercise to meet your current needs. Today’s activity helps you do just that! The worksheet includes a quiz to help you determine your current social-psychological needs and the types of exercises that match these needs. Once you’ve discovered what type of exercise may be right for you and your wellbeing, why not give it a go?
Click the link below to download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If you are doing the right type of exercise but are struggling to stay motivated, research has shown that the following can increase your chances of staying active:
If you take up a new physical activity or make a change to your exercise regime, please do get intouch and share your story.
I share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram inbetween weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms tokeep up to date.
Giving is often associated with gifts or lavish acts that cost a lot of time and money. Although it is nice to give and receive presents, this is rarely the route to long term happiness and positive wellbeing. Research conducted around the world has shown that materialism is linked with low life satisfaction. The giving we are talking about today isn’t about gifting material goods, but gifting our time to support others.
Theme 3: Giving
The next theme that can improve our wellbeing is giving. The type of giving we are focusing on is prosocial behaviours such as volunteering, sharing and cooperating to benefit others. This could range from offering our seat to someone on the train or comforting a friend who is going through a tough time: giving to others does not need to involve spending lots of time or money. Altruistic behaviour such as helping others and sharing can lead to feeling more positive and increased self-worth. Giving back to others and reciprocating kindness can improve wellbeing for people of all ages.
Why giving is good for our wellbeing
When we give to others, the reward areas in our brains are stimulated, which makes us feel good about ourselves. Helping others and sharing can give us a sense of self-worth and purpose. Not only that, giving and sharing can result in developing new, stronger relationships throughout life which are also essential to wellbeing.
In a national survey, 80% of people in the UK said they felt good after being kind, with 87% feeling that being kind to others has a positive effect on their own health. Helping other people can give us a sense of euphoria or a ‘helper’s high’ which can reduce stress and improve our wellbeing. If you’ve seen the episode of ‘Friends’ where Joey and Phoebe argue about whether there is such a thing as a selfless good deed, it looks as if Joey may be right – helping others helps us feel good.
Image subject to copyright
Small acts of kindness can make a big difference
Whether it’s volunteering or a small act of kindness to someone else, giving is linked with positive wellbeing. Those who are kind to others – including those who commit small acts of kindness – report benefits such as:
Being kind to others does not need to be time consuming: one study asked participants to commit five random acts of kindness each week over six weeks. These acts included visiting a sick relative, helping someone with a problem and donating blood. Wellbeing improved amongst those who carried out these random acts of kindness compared to those who didn’t. Other research has shown that committing just one act of kindness a week over six weeks led to increased wellbeing, compared to those who did not help others.
When giving our time to others, it is important to look after ourselves. If we overly focus on helping others without considering our own needs, we can put ourselves at risk of burnout, feeling guilty and even depression. Therefore it is important not to take on too much and spread ourselves too thinly –spending just 15 minutes of our time giving is enough to not only help others, but benefit us too.
Today’s activity asks you to give 15 minutes of your time to someone or something else. The worksheet provides you with some ideas on how you can give your time, be it helping someone else or your local community. These are just suggestions so if you’d like to give 15 minutes of your time doing something else to help others, then do. There is also space on the worksheet to reflect on how it went and how you felt afterwards.
Click the link below to download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If you have any ideas about other activities we can do by giving 15 minutes of our time, please get in touch so they can be shared with everyone. It would be great to create a ’15minute giving’ database so any contributions would be greatly appreciated.
I share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram inbetween weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms tokeep up to date.
Today is Valentine’s Day which celebrates love. Although many people enjoy exchanging cards and gifts and declaring their affection for others, some of us find Valentine’s Day very difficult. If you’re in a relationship or not, the romantic ideals shown in films, TV and social media can be hard to live up to, which isn’t great for our wellbeing.
Today’s post uses Valentine’s Day to introduce the next theme that can improve your wellbeing – learning. Learning in adulthood can help us feel more positive about ourselves and our lives – this is what today’s blog and activity aim to do.
But what’s learning got to do with love? One of the key benefits of learning is that it helps us connect with others. Also, learning about the different types of love – the focus of today’s activity – can increase our awareness of the different ways we love and are loved, most of which aren’t celebrated on Valentine’s Day.
Theme 2: Learning
Learning broadens our minds and improves insight into all aspects of our lives – ourselves, our relationships and the world around us – which in turn is good for our wellbeing. Learning isn’t just about memorising something new, ready for a test. It also involves having new experiences, developing skills and gaining knowledge that can enrich our lives.
Learning can be a time consuming process. However, a recent large-scale study showed that training related to hobbies or leisure activities does not need to be of a high intensity or duration to improve wellbeing. Therefore, learning something new in just 15 minutes can help you feel better within yourself.
Why is learning good for our health and wellbeing?
Learning beyond our school days has many benefits such as helping us to connect with others, give us a sense of purpose and increase our self-esteem and self-confidence. Continuing to learn after school, college or university is linked with feeling:
More optimistic;
More satisfied with life and
More capable of dealing with stress.
The confidence and self-efficacy gained by learning can even improve our ability to manage our health. For example, we can make better decisions about our health and better adhere to instructions from clinicians. Not only that, lifelong learning can prolong independence which can result in less reliance on healthcare services as we get older.
Reservations about learning
Although learning can have a range of benefits for our wellbeing, some of us have had negative learning experiences which cause us to feel stressed and anxious. This may in part be due to the association between learning and assessment. Even when assessments are routine and expected, the possibility of failure can be very distressing.
None of the 15 minute wellbeing learning activities involve any tests or assessments, just questions that encourage you to gain new knowledge, develop skills and even challenge you to try something that you may not have done before.
Different types of love
Valentine’s Day typically celebrates romantic love between couples and encourages single people to share their hidden romantic feelings and affection for one another. However, there is more to love than romance. The ancient Greeks had more than 30 different words to describe love in all its forms. ‘Eros’ is the word used for attraction, romance and sexual desire, the type of love typically celebrated by Valentine’s Day.
Another type of love is ‘Philia’ the love we have for people with whom we share experiences and goals. This may be your team mates in a netball or football club, soldiers in the same army regiment or even your co-workers.
Today’s activity asks you to discover and learn about different types of love. Not only that, but also reflect on your experiences of the multiple ways we love and are loved. The worksheet has space for you to note up to four different types of love, though you do not have to fill in all the boxes if you run out of time.
Click the link below to download the worksheet. You can fill it in using the ‘fill and sign’ tool or alternatively print it off and fill it in by hand.
If you’d like to share how you got on with this activity, or a type of love that you experience, please do get in touch.
I share wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and Instagram inbetween weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both platforms to keep up to date.
Welcome to 15
minute wellbeing! This blog will draw on existing research into wellbeing and
translate it into simple tasks and exercises that you can do in 15 minutes to
improve your health and wellbeing.
Each activity
will not cost any money to do, because why should we pay to feel good about
ourselves? As we progress through the activities we will discover that we
already have everything we need to improve our wellbeing.
Instead of
telling you what to do or how to change your life, this blog simply provides
you with different tasks to complete each week to help you feel better within
yourself. The variety of activities means that you won’t get bored trying the
same old thing. Instead, you’ll get to try lots of different things to figure
out what works for you and your wellbeing.
The
activities are grouped into seven themes:
Connection
Creativity
Giving
Learning
Mindfulness
Physical health
Reflection
Research has
shown that all of these can improve wellbeing. You may recognise five of these
– connection, giving, learning, mindfulness and physical health – from Five
Ways to Wellbeing, a set of evidence-based actions to improve wellbeing. Creativity and reflection have been included
because there is an increasing amount of research into how engaging with creative activities
and focusing
inwardly can enhance our wellbeing and help us understand what works for us.
I’ll provide snippets of this research in each blog post so you can get a good
understanding of how each activity can improve your wellbeing.
As it’s Time
to Talk Day, this first activity will focus on connection and more
specifically, sharing problems with others. Connection activities are all
focused on encouraging more interactions with those around us, because strong
social connections are essential to wellbeing.
It’s not only the amount of social interactions we have that count, but the
quality of them too – strong,
positive social networks can help us feel like we belong and improve our
wellbeing.
Developing
relationships with others is something we usually do passively, without
much effort – at school or work we spend a lot of the day with our
classmates or colleagues which naturally results in friendships and
relationships. However, as we get older we have less time to spend with our
friends and family, which can result in fewer connections with others and increasing
feelings of loneliness. Therefore, it’s
important to invest in our relationships and make our connections more
meaningful.
One of the
barriers to developing and maintaining positive relationships with others is
sharing our problems, experiences and feelings with others. Today’s activity
addresses this.
Why is connection important for our
wellbeing?
Sharing
problems with others and asking for their help can feel quite daunting. However,
asking
for support can help us feel better about ourselves and even help solve our
problems. Today’s activity will help you identify the different people (or
organisations) you can turn to when you experience different types of problems:
Practical ones, such as helping you lift
something heavy
Answering difficult questions, such as homework
or a tricky task at work
Emotional ones, such as mental health
Click the link below to download the worksheet. You can fill in the boxes using the ‘Fill & Sign’ tool.
I hope you
find this activity useful and it gives you the confidence to seek help when you
need it.
I will also
be sharing wellbeing-related research, news and stories on twitter and
Instagram in between weekly blog posts so do follow @15minwellbeing on both
platforms to keep up to date.
15 Minute Wellbeing 