7 WELLNESS RITUALS
Sleep is a complex, dynamic process that affects every organ, tissue, and system in our body. In sleep we tap into our healing potential. Failing to prioritize this daily reset puts you on a fast track toward burnout and chronic disease. WR#1 is fundamental to good health.
Wellness Ritual #1: Prioritize Sleep, Rest & Recovery
Hidden within our DNA is the genetic blueprint for healing. Our dietary habits will either help our body unlock this code and promote good health or suppress it and put our body on the defensive. WR#2 is all about developing an appreciation for how our diet influences health and performance. It looks at what, why, and when we eat. Consuming a variety of nutrient-dense foods and eating in response to hunger in a time-restricted window allows your body to mobilize calories efficiently and minimize chronic inflammation.
Wellness Ritual #2: Consume Healthy Fuel
Wellness Ritual #3: Fight For Your Waistline
WR#3 always gets a lot of attention. We want to feel good, but we also want to look good. One of the reasons that maintaining a healthy weight is difficult is that evolution favored those with the reserves to weather unexpected adversity; in other words, a little extra fat stored when times were good might mean you had a better chance to survive a difficult season when resources were scarce. In our sedentary lives, where calories are abundant, we are still genetically programmed to make and store fat in preparation for potentially tough times ahead. Learning to eat less, consume a variety of nutrient-dense foods, limit processed foods, get active, and practice mindful eating puts you back in this fight.
Wellness Ritual #4: Move to Stay Young
When we challenge our range of motion, balance, coordination, and strength by moving often, we improve the quality of our movement and slow the aging process. To enjoy the ability to move well, we must practice moving. Stiffness and poor movement are not inevitable consequences of aging. WR#4 is about bringing a variety of movements to every day, challenging our physical capacity, and limiting time spent in sedentary postures.
Wellness Ritual #5: Protect Your Strength
Resistance training is essential to healthy aging. By the time you reach the age of 40, your muscular strength is already a decade into decline if you are not actively protecting it. The practice of WR#5 will keep you strong, but it will also help improve sleep, energy levels, insulin sensitivity, and weight management. With a surprisingly small investment in time, this ritual will also reduce visceral fat and boost cardiovascular, bone, and brain health - regardless of age.
Wellness Ritual #: 6 Nurture Mental Fitness
The wave of mental illness accompanying the pandemic is alarming. Prolonged exposure to stress decreases activity in areas of the brain that handle high-order tasks and stimulates more primitive parts focused on our emotional response and survival. If you are stuck in a fight or flight stress response all day, you are training your mind to constantly look for threats. Choosing to operate from this position will cut your life short. WR#6 is about breaking free from that pattern, learning how to harness the power of our thoughts and improve our resiliency to find a state of mental, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being.
Wellness Ritual #7: Play With Purpose
Play is an integral part of developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Studies have shown a direct link between play and improved creativity, imagination, energy levels, problem-solving ability, stress resiliency, cognitive function, mindfulness, and enhanced relationships. Play is invigorating; it eases our burden and renews our optimism and hope. WR#7 is about bringing more happiness, joy, excitement, and wonder into your life. Playful people are happier, and happiness boosts health.