Top 5 Daily Health and Wellness Tips

As an integrative and lifestyle medicine provider, I am often asked about my top health and wellness tips. As any of my clients can attest, this is different for each person based on their needs and goals. However, there are 5 general areas that I discuss in every single visit with regards to health and wellness:

1. the basics – nutrition movement sleep
2. gratitude
3. getting outside daily
4. screen time limits
5. social connections

Let’s expand on each of these.

1) Get back to basics. Yes, we’re talking about nutrition, exercise, and sleep. It’s not a question of if you’re working on all these, it’s how. How are you fueling yourself? How are you using movement as medicine? What is your quality of sleep? These three buckets are crucial to optimizing energy and preventing illness and disease.

2) Gratitude. This is a game changer. Having a daily gratitude practice reduces stress and anxiety, improves sleep, improves relationships, and can improve physical health. In the current state of the world in which we are living, it is important to seek the good and positive parts of our days to offset the negative and overwhelm. This practice leads to increased mindfulness, which leads to more gratitude, which leads to mindfulness, in what I like to call the gratitude hamster wheel. This can be done with journaling, but some (including me) feel this is too scripted and formulated for daily practice. An alternative that I personally use that feels more organic is a quick mindful moment at the start and end of each day. I’ve trained myself (through the google keep app) to think of one simple thing I’m thankful for right when I wake up, and then right before sleep as I’m cozy in bed, I name 3 things from the day I am thankful for. Oftentimes, there are more. The more you practice, the more you notice things around you that bring you comfort, joy, and happiness.

3) Get outside daily for a walk. For many, it’s critical for mental health. It also helps your immune system, cardiovascular health, your muscles and bones. Furthermore, I recommend doing this without headphone distractions, which in turns leads to being more mindful about your surroundings (see #2 above). Additionally, when you are without digital input, you may find increased brainstorming and creative thinking. In an ideal world, all our walks are done in nature, but if/when that’s not easily accessible, find your own slice of the outdoors. A walk through your neighborhood, exploring a new neighborhood, or heading to a local park can do wonders. The concrete jungle still counts!

4) Implement screen time limits. We live in a world and a time where we need our devices. But we don’t need to be attached to them 24/7. We know that reducing our screen time is linked to reduced anxiety, improved sleep, and improved mental health outcomes overall. This does not come easily, so in addition to using the settings in your personal device, I also recommend the app Freedom to help set additional boundaries when needed. The actions I recommend are having your phone automatically set to sleep mode each night, judiciously using the Do Not Disturb function, establishing daily social media time limits, and purging your app settings to keep only essential notifications turned on. While there are ways of breaking through these settings when needed, having them in place will give you pause on your activity, which is the first step to more sustainable change.

5) Social connection. Not enough people are talking about the importance of this. The pandemic shone a huge light on it. More data has come out about the incredible benefits of regular social connection, including better physical health, improved mental health, reduced risk of chronic disease (notably cardiovascular disease and dementia), leading to longer, healthier lives. Understanding this may not happen on a daily basis, especially if you live alone and/or work from home, this can be a great opportunity to circle back to number 3 and make it a double whammy by arranging a recurring walking date with a friend. And if this is challenging for you for any reason, I urge you to find one thing each day that brings you joy. Not a crutch or health-reducing habit such as binge eating, binge drinking, or binge watching, but something that dually fuels your soul and improves your health.

Most of us have room to grow in all five areas, but some of us have been working for years on these foundations, have experienced the benefits, and continue to use that experience as motivation to continue the work. If starting from ground zero, this may seem like a heavy ask to look at all 5 areas. However, my entire approach is to start with one small action and build from there.

If you need help starting out, or you feel stuck and aren’t sure where to go next, please reach out! I love diving deeper 1-on-1.

Here’s to living well, Nicole