by senior editor Mari Farthing
The Power of a Moment
What does “wellness” mean to you? In 2012, my definition of wellness changed. I was given a mixed blessing in the form of a type 2 diabetes diagnosis. Why a mixed blessing? Because it made me examine my own wellness, address health problems (both known and unknown) and make some positive changes. I realized that wellness is not just a matter of eating right or exercising—it’s a full-contact concept, and it needs to be active in all the corners of our lives. My goals for 2013 are to reduce stressors and make more time for exercise and to lose an additional 25 pounds.
As a modern woman of a certain age with a family and a job and so much more than can fit in one small blog post, I’m no stranger to stress. And it seems that stress and not enough hours in the day go hand in hand. But wellness has to be a part of our day, too. If you’re striving for wellness, you have to learn to manage stress and time and all those other little things that add up to fill up our lives.
Senior editor Mari Farthing
If you’re like me, you sit down to write and your brain starts to spill over with all of the other things that you need to do. If you get up to take care of one of those things, you think about what you need to be writing or editing. Spending time with family, your thinking splinters to work… spending time on work, your thinking splinters to family.
What’s the key to focus? Wellness.
Take a moment—just 10 minutes—and use it to regain focus. With my doctor’s prescription to make sweeping changes in my own day, I had to find time to make positive changes, and I realized that while it might be hard to find an hour, it can be much easier to find 10 minutes here or there. So what can be done in 10 minutes? You might be surprised. Five things I’ve done to improve my own wellness in 10 minutes or less:
- Make a list of the things I need to do when I’m done doing what I’m doing now. Then, I can work without distraction.
- Plan dinner (sometimes that means just picking the restaurants) for the next week.
- Prepare healthy snacks (like vegetable sticks and hummus) for when I don’t have time later.
- Meditate or stretch. Just get quiet and center my mind with some deep breathing.
- Be silly with the kids. Snuggle them or tickle them or dance with them or just talk to them.
What works for you? What can you do in 10 minutes that would add to the wellness of your day?
And if you haven’t taken our Writer Wellness pledge, visit our page for twenty things you can do to live well and move more in 2013 and make the commitment.
Yoga always works well for me. I also write down my thoughts and then see if I can use those thoughts in something I am working on – short story, etc.