How to have a healthy lifestyle not just a checklist of habits

I was listening to Oprah Winfrey’s book this morning, The Wisdom of Sundays, which are conversations taken from her Super Soul Sundays show. In it, she spoke to Eckhart Tolle (the author of A New Earth and The Power of Now) and asked if he has a spiritual practice and if he meditates. He said not really. And this surprised me. He then said that some people meditate for 20 minutes, get up, rush through their day, and lack presence/awareness. This goes against the point of meditation.

This all led me to think how true this is and how it highlights a big problem many of us may face. The trouble is we are quite good at doing the things we know are good for us or might be healthy habits, but they’ve become a tick-box exercise and not a lifestyle. Something to do, not something to embody.

Meditating every day for 20 minutes is amazing. I know I’ve never been able to keep that up. Go you if you have! But as Eckhart said, if you don’t carry that same awareness and presence and stillness into your daily life, what’s the point? It may make you feel calm and reconnected for the time you’re doing it, and briefly after, but like all things, it is fleeting. It won’t last. Instead, it is more powerful to scrap the active meditation but ensure throughout your day that you do breathwork, slow down, be present and intentional, and actively listen or engage with your day.

This comes down to a meditation practice versus a meditative lifestyle. Doing something versus actively engaging with how that thing feels and what it means on a wider scale.

How to have a meditative lifestyle

• When brushing your teeth, just brush your teeth…nothing else
• When showering or washing, focus on the water, the smells, the feeling, and nothing else
• Drink your tea/coffee…and that’s all
• Take a walk without listening to music or an audiobook and feel the ground beneath you, the wind, the sounds of birds
• Be in nature often
• Do breathwork: actively count and concentrate on your breath while at work or commuting
• Read a physical book and nothing else; immerse yourself in another world
• Listen when people talk, don’t just wait to respond

Let’s take another one: working out. How often do you do the awesome gym session or the run or the YouTube workouts but then go back to your sedentary lifestyle afterward? We can all be guilty of it because, in today’s world, a lot of us work on computers. This involves sitting for long periods of the day. However, we needn’t accept this as a fact we can’t change. We can stop having exercise as a tick-box activity and begin, like with meditation, cultivating an active lifestyle that goes a long way.

How to have an active lifestyle

• Take mini breaks regularly at work, maybe every hour, where you get up, stretch, walk, make a cup of tea etc
• Do stretches and exercises at your desk: neck rolls, shoulder squeezes, relax your jaw, eagle arms, sitting cat-cow
• Walk to work if you can
• Walks on your break times
• When you go to the toilet or kitchen at work, do some squats or something while the kettle boils!
• Go on long walks in your free time
• Take the stairs
• Offer to be the person who gets things or takes things around the office
• Do mini exercises between gym sessions and throughout the day, like pulling your arms back actively to strengthen the back, pretend rowing, calf raises etc (can find these online easily)

The last one I’ll point out is doctors or healthcare appointments. Some people are great at getting a massage for their back and shoulder tension, or the dentist to ensure their teeth are in great shape, or going to see a counsellor to unravel the mind but between those appointments, are nasty to themselves! Do you really care about your health if you are inactive, eat horrible foods, eat sweets, talk terribly to yourself, or have poor posture? Again, I’m not being mean because I’m the same! But going to the doctors or regularly seeing other healthcare professionals isn’t enough. We need prevention activities over cures. We need a healthier lifestyle so that the doctor is less necessary. So that you are being your own doctor, at times! (Not saying don’t go to the doctor, of course!)

How to have a generally healthier lifestyle

• Ensure you get your 5 a day (at least)
• Decrease processed food consumption (I’m learning about this and trying my best, it’s about education and trialing things)
• Get 8 hours of sleep where possible (oh sleep, you beautiful b*stard who eludes me! again, I’m working on this)
• Pay attention to your posture and form; sit up straight, correct your neck
• Set up your desk space to be as ergonomic as possible to avoid injury and strain
• Take breaks more regularly (mini breaks of a few minutes go a LONG way for eye health, upper body, legs, posture, wrists, mood…)
• Journal to support yourself, pay attention to the inner dialogue of your mind and be active about it – CBT yourself, don’t just rely on your counsellor to do it
• Drink enough water for your activity levels
• Walk more in general
• Stretch more in general
• Allow quiet, still times when you don’t expect anything from yourself
• Ask for help and support, delegate, and don’t overload yourself

This just scratches the surface. It’s something I invite you to think about for your own life, so you can think about taking your healthy habits to the next level by ensuring it filters into your everyday life in more ways. Don’t just tick a box and then forget to incorporate the same ideas or intentions into your everyday actions.

Good luck!

Sincerely,

S. xx