Wellness Trends For The Year: Have A Wellness Moment For Each Corner Of Your Day

Forget no pain no gain workouts and hardcore meditation retreats, one of the best wellness trends this year is finding small joys in everyday moments and celebrating the small wins in life. Smaller pick me ups have the power to improve your health, emotional wellness and inner peace – without a big fuss. And let’s face it, in todays world, a little joy can make a big difference.

Wellness Trends For The Year: A Small Wellness Moment For Every Corner Of The Day

1. Strike A Pose

Psychological stress can build up in our bodies leaving our muscles stiff and tense, but heading to your local yoga studio for a class is a fab way to let go of that tension and keep your body supple and calm.

And when it comes to wellness trends this year Yoga is getting gentler. Think less extreme poses and more mindful movement, mobility, suppleness and a body wide sense of calm.

But stretching isn’t just for the Yoga studio. If I feel creatively blocked or overwhelmed, something that helps me is to do a few gentle yoga stretches here or there during the day to refresh my perspective.

Never underestimate the power of a strategically thrown tree pose or forward bend in the middle of a stressful week!

2. Waltz Of The Flowers

If you’re able to, It can be nice to treat yourself to a small bunch of seasonal flowers for your home or workspace. And sometimes, choosing just a single flower at the florist can be a thrifty and romantic thing to do for yourself.

Which bloom represents how you want to feel today? Lillys for peace? Roses for romance? Carnations for courage or bird of paradise for boldness? Pop your flower in a lovely long stemmed colored glass vase and be cheered on by its beauty all week long.

You can also find small moments of joy without buying and owning, but by looking at the blossom on the trees, or the flowers growing at the park, and in other peoples gardens. Many people took up walking and nature therapy over the last few years, enjoying flowers and plants can helps us carry on that connection.

‘The breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes, like the warbling of music) than in the hand’

Francis Bacon, Essays 1625.

3 A is for: Acknowledging What’s Good

Here’s a little practice I like to do when I commute on the train between the city and country, maybe you can adapt it to your day-to-day routine.

1. Treat yourself to your favourite hot drink, or prepare it at home and take it with in a flask.
2. Settle down in your chair, pop your phone on silent or away in your bag and have a few nice easy breaths in and out with your nose.
3. Then sip and enjoy your hot drink. Feel grateful to be having this lovely cappuccino in hand moment. At times like these, even if just for a few moments, life is good.
4. Next, recite the appreciation alphabet. Do it quietly in your own mind (unless you feel moved to give an impromptu gratitude performance piece!) and make your way through the alphabet naming things you are glad exist in the world. Not necessarily things you own, but things you’re happy exist. For example, I’m happy to live in a world where there are: Apples, Beaches, Country Lanes, Discos, Eggs, Friendships…. etc.
5. It’s a sweet variation on a gratitude list and a lovely way to add a small pop of joy to your daily commute.

4. Get Lunar

Admired and represented by artists in a variety of forms over the years, the lunar cycle is a perfect symbol of rhythm and rebirth and there are whole schools of thought that use the waxing and waning of the moon to inspire their choices through the month. For example, the new moon is often thought of as a great time for sewing seeds, both literally as you would in the garden, and metaphorically, as with sewing seeds of intention for the days ahead. The full moon then, is a time of joy, reaping the fruits of your harvest, bounty and effervescence.

The moon takes 28 days to wax, become full, wane and turn anew. How does the lunar cycle relate to your own cycles?

5. Sleep Rituals

These sleep treats might sound simple, but that’s what small pick me ups are all about. The joy of freshly laundered sheets, a tidy bedside table, a sleep enhancing aromatherapy pillow spray (think Lavender and rosewood) and a selection of evening books to send you to sleep happy and content.

You might sleep sounder if you reserve your bedroom for sleep and relaxation, rather than computer work. That said, if you find you’ve no option but to work and sleep in the same room, why not create a little ritual for shifting your bedroom space from work to leisure mode. Sometimes a scented room spray, a gust of fresh air though the window, a special ‘end of work day’ song, a change of clothes or simply tidying away your work things in a ceremonious fashion *shuts laptop with glee* can all help you to downshift and feel as though you’re in a new, calmer space.

I recommend a nature poem for every evening of the year available on Amazon HERE
and mindfulness themed audio books liked HERE.

Wellness Trends For The Year

6. Quiet Moments of Nothing….

The simplest part of this small moment of joy? You don’t need to do anything. Nada!

The Dutch art of Niskin is all about taking the time to consciously do nothing, just gazing out of the window or sitting still and just being. You simply allow for a few idle moments here or there for inspiration to appear or relaxation to flower.

Some people can’t imagine sitting still and doing nothing without achieving anything – what a waste of time? ‘If I don’t keep busy who will return the emails, go for a walk, watch that next episode of Bridgerton or unload the dishwasher?’ And for others, moments of stillness come naturally and form part of a meditation or spiritual practice.

I’ve been a huge advocate of the do nothing and gaze out of the window method for a long time, and so I was thrilled when British journalist and mum of 3, Georgina Fuller contacted me for my views and ideas on her latest feature about Niskin. You can read her lovely feature about learning to do less, on the I Newspaper HERE.

How To Get Started

There are days when you’re so busy the idea of doing nothing feels like nonsense. But other times you might notice that you don’t necessarily need to be busy all the time, but are being so out of habit. Perhaps in those moments you might become aware that it’s okay to sit and be still. To look out of the window. To wait in a queue. To wait for the train without looking at your phone.

You could think of it like this: do you remember those old fashioned house phones we had, that would only let you take one call at a time? If you were on the phone, no one else could get through. Being busy is like being on that phone. When you sit still and do nothing, it’s like putting the phone down. You’re then available for new, unexpected inspiration to appear. New calls….new ideas…or just a nice rest.

If being idle or just being feels novel to you, maybe try it gently here and there in everyday moments.

Silence is something that comes naturally when you are watching, when you are watching without motive, without any kind of demand, just to watch, and see the beauty of a single star in the sky, or to watch a single tree in a field, or to watch your wife or husband, or whatever you watch. To watch with a great silence and space. Then in that watching, in that alertness, there is something that is beyond words, beyond all measure.

J. Krishnamurti

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Wellness Trends For The Year Finding happiness and peace of mind in every day moments