Is your health your top priority for 2024?
Be honest, how often have you found yourself nursing a cold, or experiencing stress and anxiety, or feeling overwhelmed, and thought I really need to start making changes to my life?
If you’re like most people, you’ve probably found yourself doing that more than once. And, if you’re like most people, you probably find you change your priorities for a few days or a month, and then succumb to old, bad habits that eventually put you back in the same situation months later.
I think there are a few reasons why this cycle is a vicious one.
To begin with, we probably don’t understand what it is that we’re doing wrong, or even why it’s wrong in the first place. That’s a bit of a problem, because how do we solve a problem we don’t really understand?
Second, life is demanding.
There’s a reason why you’re working a 50- or 60-hour week. Part of it may be a misplaced sense of duty or professionalism – that you’re being paid to do the job and you want to do it well.
Maybe you’re trying to cram 10 hours of chores and tasks into 7 hours because either that’s what other people expect of you, or that’s what you think they expect from you.
Perhaps you know deep down that your body is no longer up to the 10km run 3 times a week, but you need to stay fit and healthy, and what will you do, if not that?
Also, as a race we have a natural tendency to put the needs of others before ourselves and are less inclined to put our own needs first. Achieving a healthy level of selfishness or self-interest is hard.
The result of this inability to set clear boundaries is that we sacrifice our own wellbeing in order to preserve the wellbeing of other people, whether that’s family, friends, colleagues, or even the Facebook community that expects you to be a superhero.
And when you sit down and really think about it, that doesn’t make any sense at all. Ensuring other people’s emotional and physical needs are served whilst slowly collapsing mentally or physiologically is a clear sign that your priorities are misaligned.
But equally, it’s really hard to have the courage to stand up and say that you’re putting yourself first. You will worry that you’re going to be seen as selfish, or self-obsessed, or self-indulgent, when in fact you’re just being pragmatic.
As the old saying goes, you can’t pour from an empty cup.
What does that mean in practice exactly?
The majority of us have people or commitments that depend on us in some way.
Children who, depending on their age, need varying degrees of hands-on support and care from us. Partners who require emotional support. Colleagues who require professional input or help. Friends who need us to be there at times.
We have bills to pay, food to put on the table, chores to do to keep a house and home running. The list is, if not endless, at least unending.
The point, though we often find it hard (or choose not) to see is that if we are pragmatic and sensible about how we put our own needs first, none of these things will suffer greatly.
But if you’re physically or emotionally exhausted, or so ill you’re in bed or laid up for a week, they will.
If you have nothing to give – if you are the empty cup – then you cannot give what’s needed to the other things that need you. And if this happens, who have you really served by being unable or disinclined to put yourself first?
This time of year offers the perfect opportunity to make a new deal with yourself. It’s a blank page – a new chapter that allows you to rewrite the terms of your relationship with your mental and physical wellbeing.
It’s important that you don’t turn this into some sort of New Year’s Resolution or promise that’s so demanding that it becomes as source of stress in its own right. Instead, introduce small changes and build on them.
Here are some ways to prioritise your health in a positive and sensible way that makes sure you stay on top of life without throwing your health under the bus in the process.
Make time for yourself
Making time for your own needs as an individual will build the foundations for long term health. This might be as simple as ring-fencing 20 minutes a couple of times a day to sit down and read a book or magazine or meditate.
Surround yourself with the things that reflect your health aspirations
Spending time with good people and environments that impact positively on you will start to be reflected in your own behaviours and attitudes, especially if they promote good wellness practice.
Eat and drink well
Nutrition has an enormous impact on our health. If we eat badly or drink too much, our health suffers. The reverse is also true – a good nutrition regime will have an exponentially positive impact on all aspects of your health
Get some sleep!
Sleep is essential for health and wellbeing. This is a good first step in the new deal you have with your health, because it’s easy to achieve. If you only do one thing from this list, make it a commitment to getting better sleep. Between 7 and 9 hours is generally considered optimal, but everyone is different.
Celebrate success
Being kind to yourself and acknowledging your achievements is really important. Working on your health is always a work in progress – so don’t give yourself a hard time when you fall back into old habits. Just try to spot the problem early and get back up.
Can acupuncture help me to prioritise my health in 2024?
Acupuncture helps your physical and mental health by stimulating the natural healing energy that is within all of us and allows you to dial down the stresses and anxieties that are often at the root of failure when we are trying to make a tangible difference to our health.
By having regular acupuncture sessions, you’ll have the opportunity to discover and connect with an inner resolve that will then fuel your ongoing efforts to achieve whatever transformational change you’re looking for.
And because this ancient, painless treatment works to harness your inner energy in order to support your physical and emotional effort, it can also help to accelerate those feelings of emotional wellbeing – self-confidence and self-esteem.
If you’d like to know more about how acupuncture can help you to stick to your New Year resolutions and achieve your personal ambitions for 2024, please get in touch – I’d love to hear from you.