Five Holistic Wellness Practices For Busy Professionals

ZEN-it Team

07 Dec 2023

Woman doing yoga at dawn, at the beach, representing the importance of wellness.

Have you noticed that the busier you are, the harder it is to prioritise your wellness - and the more worn out and burnt out you feel? Are you looking for work-life balance strategies, ways to be more mindful and improve your wellness?

Several studies show that incorporating wellness activities into our schedules can improve our moods, outlook, overall wellbeing, and lead us to be more effective. Here are five healthy lifestyle tips for professionals that you can start incorporating into your day, right away!

1. Move!

Woman wearing work out clothes and walking in nature, basking in the warmth of the sun.

The first thing to start doing - if you don't already do it - is to get some physical activity into your daily routine. You don't have to do HIIT workouts if you don't want to or can't. Just adding in a ten-minute walk a few times a day, or going for a jog, or starting your day with yoga, can make a huge difference. Exercise helps release endorphins, reduce stress and improve overall wellbeing.

2. Develop A Hobby

Developing a hobby, a pursuit of interest, is very helpful in imparting purpose to our lives, channelising our energy and efforts, and exercising our brains. And no, we don't mean doom scrolling or binge watching. Ideally we should pick something that induces us to learn new things, be more creative, develop new networks, or all of this.

3. Make Time To Meditate

Man sitting on a rock, quietly contemplating, against the sky at dusk as the backdrop.

Meditating, even just spending some time in silent contemplation, can help sensitise us to our inner thoughts, increase self-awareness, and assist us in achieving a more peaceful, balanced state.

It can be daunting to start a meditation practice out of the blue. That's where apps like ZEN~It can be helpful, especially by providing an introduction and shorter tracks for beginners looking to ease in.

4. Journal

Dear Diary, today I remembered that it sometimes helps to pour my thoughts out here.

Some of us struggle with articulating ourselves and separating out our feelings, motivations, thoughts and desires. When we want to take decisions, or vent out our feelings, this can make it hard. Having a journal acts like having a physical second “person”, a confidante, to pour out our thoughts and feelings to. This helps us release these emotions, thoughts and feelings that tend to shackle us.

Journalling can also help us practise and inculcate a sense of contentment, gratitude, balance, and help us focus on positives. This can improve our outlook and enhance wellbeing.

5. Spend Some Time With Nature: Ecotherapy

Stepping outdoors, spending time in nature - in green surroundings among birds, by the seaside or a lake, in the mountains, or even just walking around a city park, can help settle our moods, give us some fresh air and sunlight. Studies even show that spending some time in natural settings can improve our thinking and reasoning, creativity, and physical wellness. So be sure to try and work in some “outdoors” time into your schedule, whenever you can for a good dose of nature therapy!

In Conclusion

ZEN~It App Screens - Home Screen, Productivity Suite Screen and the Self-Care Suite Screen.

We hope these stress management techniques are useful.

Keen to try some of these out? ZEN-it offers guided meditations, writing exercises/journaling prompts and some light stretching videos that you can try out. Achieve more, stress less with ZEN-it!

Interested in reading more about how Mindfulness techniques can help reduce burnout? Read our blog here.

FAQs

What specific types of hobbies are recommended for maximizing wellness and reducing stress?

Hobbies that engage both the mind and body, such as gardening, painting, or playing a musical instrument, are often recommended for reducing stress and enhancing well-being.

How long should a beginner meditate to start seeing benefits, and are there specific techniques that are more effective for stress reduction?

There are variables such as work schedule, home situations, physical health of individuals that would go into determining the time it takes to experience the benefits of meditation. However, consistently practising meditation with really short exercises such as one-minute of observing our breath or scanning our body and then gradually moving to 5-minute exercises and then later, to longer exercises will allow us to feel the difference ourselves, bring a sense of calm and help us respond to situations in a composed manner.

Are there any studies cited that show the direct impact of these wellness practices on professional success or

productivity?

Research indicates that engaging in wellness practices, like meditation and physical activity, can lead to improved mental health, reduced stress levels, and enhanced cognitive functioning. For instance, a study published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine found that regular physical activity can increase productivity by improving health and reducing absenteeism. Similarly, mindfulness meditation has been linked to improved focus and decision-making abilities in research outlined in the Journal of Management. These findings suggest that wellness practices can contribute to better professional outcomes by enhancing overall well-being and cognitive performance.

Ready to Redefine Productivity? Start your journey with ZEN-it today!