How to nurture your soul and body, and make changes you want in your life

“The answers you seek never come when the mind is busy, they come when the mind is still.”

We always have to see the person as a whole, as a system, rather than focusing on a problem when it occurs. When you understand how you work physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, then you can make the changes you want.

There are stressors and resources in our life. Stressors are any events, experiences, people and life situations that causes stress in an individual. Resources are any aspect of life, materials, people, events, or experiences that are supporting your life or facilitating your life energy.

How much stress you will experience depends on the balance of your stressors and resources. There are external and internal stressors and resources. For example, external stressors are your financial problems or too heavy workload, internal stressors are your negative thoughts or health problems. Whereas external resources are other people who are supporting you in any way (i.e. via sport activities, etc.) and internal resources can be meditation, positive self-talk, self-confidence etc. There are always stressors in our life and one of the keys to good health is to balance your stressors and resources. It’s also important to mention here that psychological beliefs such as meaning, control, and optimism act as internal resources, which may not only preserve mental health in the content of traumatic or life-threatening events but be protective of physical health as well.

There are different areas of your life from which these stressors and resources spring, such as your career/work, finances and wealth, friends and family, play time, health and fitness, love life, personal/spiritual development and physical environment. Let’s do a quick self-evaluation about where you are in these areas of your life. Rate yourself from 1 (not satisfied) to 10 (very satisfied) and decide if these areas are stressors or resources. Also, choose an area that you feel is the most important for you to work on. See the sheet below to help you to do this.

How satisfied are you with the different areas of your life? How would you rate yourself on these areas from 1 to 10?

Which one is the most important for to change?______________________________________________

Whenever you want to make changes in your life the first step is to develop self-awareness about where you are with these factors. What are your strengths, the ones you can always use as a resource, and the areas that you want to improve? The things you focus on a daily basis are key because your energy will follow thereso it’s essential to know where you invest your energy the most. Far too many people are not self-aware about the status of different areas of their life and what their stressors and resources are. They are living life like robots without knowing they are in a crisis mode and they are unable to make necessary changes in their life.

Everyone is different, but connecting with nature, practicing meditation, yoga, spending time with family and friends, and doing activities that give you energy and nurture your soul and body and help you to recover from daily stress is key.

Here are some tips on how to nurture your soul and body, and help you to recover from stress and keep up your energy level:

• Do activities that give you energy (make a list)
• Spend time in nature without checking your phone ;)
• Spend time with people whom you can connect with and who you can be yourself with, without any judgement
• Create morning and evening rituals
• Meditate to clear your mind and relax your body when you start and end your day.
• Read a book that you enjoy
• Write down your core values (your principles and the standards of behavior that you judge to be important in life) and think about how your actions, activities and jobs align with these values
• Create a gratitude journal (write down what you are grateful for)