Xero C.One of the most critical aspects of your overall health is your wellness. The Global Wellness Institute defines it as “the active pursuit of activities, choices, and lifestyles” in pursuit of greater preventive and holistic health. Wellness is split into six primary components: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and environmental. These range from prioritizing exercise and proper nutrition to accepting and expressing feelings and empathizing with others; in other words, wellness is a fairly comprehensive viewpoint of your overall bodily and mental health. There are certain activities, exercises, mindfulness practices, and, above all, habits that you can establish that can help you improve and maintain a state of wellness. While some are more effective than others from my personal experience, I would recommend you try a variety to see what works best for you. For now, I am going to focus on the one wellness habit that I never skip out on.
The Importance of Wellness Habits
The habits we form that help drive our wellness are vitally important, as they help improve every aspect of our health. Typically, wellness habits revolve around improving our diet, physical fitness, and mental aptitude. They can revolve around drinking more water day-in and day-out, taking breaks from work for incremental aerobic exercise, or turning off your electronics an hour before getting some shuteye.
Essentially, the more we make the right choice, the easier it is for that action to become a habit. Once we form healthy habits, it is much easier to stick with them and to profit in body and mind as a result. Doing something once is usually easy; doing something consistently, whether it’s exercise, journaling, or just about anything else, may prove to be much more difficult. That’s why it’s important to persevere and remind yourself of the importance of forming a positive wellness habit.
The One Habit I Never Skip
There are lots of worthwhile wellness habits that I would wholeheartedly recommend. Many like engaging in creative hobbies, such as painting, woodworking, and writing; others prefer wellness habits centered around getting more exercise or maintaining a proper diet. However, the one wellness habit I never skip out on is getting enough rest.
This means both getting to bed at a reasonable time and getting enough additional rest through short naps throughout my day. Key word, there: short. If your naps are too long, then they defeat the entire purpose, and make it more difficult to get adequate sleep when we finally reach bedtime. However, there are extensive benefits to getting some short, restful naps intermittently throughout the day, which I will get into now.
The Science Behind Napping
Believe it or not, there is quite a bit of interesting science out there about the effects of naps on our wellness. According to research published by the American Psychological Association, even when we get adequate rest at night (within the recommended range of 7-9 hours), naps are still highly beneficial. While naps can improve our awareness and reaction time, research published in the Journal of Sleep Research indicates that they can also improve our overall wellbeing.
There is actually some credence behind the idea that naps should be prescribed by physicians, even in young and healthy adults. According to research published in the journal of Sleep Medicine, mid-day naps are “observably beneficial,” and can improve the way our minds are able to learn, process information, and form memories.
There is, however, a question of how long your nap should be, and for this I default to what the professionals tell us. According to the Cleveland Clinic, naps should be 30 minutes or less in duration. You should also try and avoid taking naps too close to bedtime, as that can hamper your ability to get to sleep at night. A good, morning or early afternoon nap can have large benefits on your cognitive functioning, however, which is why daily naps have become a mainstay of my daily wellness routine.
Conclusion
Wellness encompasses a great deal of mental and physical health categories, but personally, I never skimp out on the wellness habit of taking an early day nap. While naps may not sound like a healthy activity, the research shows that they can provide powerful advantages to our cognitive functioning when we most need them. If you are interested in other lifestyle, wellness, and mindfulness topics, feel free to check out our blog for more!
