Enjoy the 3 tips I shared with my local bank officer to create wellness in the moments during your day.
Perhaps you feel like you are deteriorating?Crumbling away with no time to do the things that bring you to life.
I was at the bank yesterday and the bank officer asked me about my work. I told him I was a Mentor, Coach and Facilitator for creating wellbeing and enhancing our creativity in our personal lives and at work.
He said to me,
“ I have learnt to meditate. know it is good for me, BUT, I don’t have time. What can you share with me that I have time to do?”I smiled and said that is easy! I will come back to the smile a little later.
Number 1 tip
Breathe
Set your time to buzz at a regular interval, perhaps every hour. When it buzzes — breathe. Take a deep breathe all the way down to your belly. When you clasp your hands on your belly you can feel them move apart when you take a deep breathe in and feel them close together when exhaling. Take 3 deep breaths in and 3 deep breaths out. Be present to your breathing as you breathe in and breathe out.
This could be the most important thing you do during the day. Yes, breathe. As simple as that. We can be so busy during the day we breathe shallower and shallower as the day goes on. The less oxygen we have in our body the more stress we create. We can focus on our breathing in the shower, when we are getting dressed, as we walk. It takes no time to have a light awareness on our breathing and breathe.
He said, “Yes I can do that. That is good advice. Like mini meditations during the day. And I do not have to close my eyes or feel like I am taking time out of the day. Just a few seconds at a time.”
Number 2 tip
Sense tension in your body.
We all carry our tension in different parts of our body. These range from; clenching our jaw, grinding our teeth, holding our shoulders tight, clenching our fists, holding a pen tightly, squinting or frowning as we work, bouncing our knees up and down tightly, crouching over our computers and many more.
Do you know your favourite place where you hold your tension? Of course it could be many places in your body. But of we let go of the tension in on place it helps relax our body in other places. Every 30 minutes for a few days take your attention to different parts of your body and find the place where you are automatically tensing up.
If you notice shoulders are tense, tense them up even more and then drop them quickly. Do this 3 times and see how much lower your shoulders now feel. If you notice your jaw tight, screw up your face and hold it tighter then let go breathe out and smile. Do this 3 times. If we tighten the part of our body that feels tense, then release, we learn to relax those muscles. It helps to breathe out when letting go. If you are game, stand up stretch your hands above head while breathing in and stretch your whole body upwards. Then slowly, slowly bend your knees and curl over, dangling your hands to the floor like a rag doll flopping with a relaxed body and exhale. Whoosh — breathe out any tension.
He said, ‘Yes, I can do that. Perhaps I can start a group stretch with my team mates hourly.”
Number 3 tip
Look for the good.
During the day look for the good. Look what affirms you. Look for connection with people. Look to create connection with people. Smile when you greet people. Ask people how they are and listen. Share something that went well with a colleague or client. Thank somebody for something they did today. Look for where you can help someone today.
When you look for the good you will build up a bank of what brings you to life and what nourishes your wellbeing.
He said, ‘Well what nourishes me is watching the cricket, but then that is a negative as my wife wants me to do things with her. “
I said, “Well look for the little things throughout the day. When it comes to the big things like watching cricket on a week-end, I am sure you can also choose an activity with your wife that you both love. Watch cricket and choose an activity with your wife that nourishes your relationship. ”
He smiled.
Choices
Back to the smile I had on my face when the dear bank officer asked me for tips. Every day we make thousands of choices. The clothes we put on in the morning, how we get to work, what time we get up, who we talk to, whether we smile at someone or not, etc etc. How we spend our time is a choice. How we create our work is a choice. We can have a grumpy attitude at work or we can have gratitude for a job. We can complain about our neighbours or our colleagues or we can have empathy for them.
What do you choose? If you choose wellbeing create it in every choice you make throughout the day. Create wellness in the moments. Choose your wellness.
Originally published at medium.com