8 Simple Ways to Improve Your Health & Well-Being

MOVE
Get Off the Couch: Get up and move around. Sitting makes you feel sluggish and is associated with a number of bad health outcomes, like weight gain, heart disease, and even cancer. Standing and moving makes you feel vibrant.
Stay Active: Since you’re up anyway, why not take a walk for 20 minutes? Daily exercise improves mood, brain function, and overall health. It’s a simple way to be good to yourself.

REPLENISH
Sleep More: Most of us don’t get enough sleep. We stay up watching television or finishing work, or we just ignore our bodies’ signals that it’s time for rest. But getting enough sleep is one of the best ways to take care of your health. Sleeping more can improve your mood and memory.
Eat Something Green and Drink Water: Junk food makes your body feel run down, whereas greens and pure water have been associated with lowing inflammation, thus staving off a wide range of diseases.
Take a Day Off From Work: Taking a little time away can reset your energy and mood, and lower stress. You can use the time to rest, play, or catch up. You’ll lower your body’s stress hormones, and brighten your mood.

STAY CONNECTED
Call An Old Friend: Long-standing relationships are a source of wellbeing, and staying closely connected to friends and family improves happiness and extends life expectancy.
Make Time For Family: Just like friends, relationship connections with family are good for your health. Feeling like you are part of a circle of loved ones will extend your life expectancy and improve your daily level of happiness.

ORGANIZE
Your Time: Living a chaotic life increased stress. Taking time to stop and get your schedule organized can lower anxiety and help you stay present in each moment, improving mood.
Your Stuff: finding a place for everything makes everything easier to find when you need it. Whether it is your favorite pen, tools in your garage, or shoes in your closet, taking some time to organize your stuff saves time and stress by reducing the amount of daily time you spending searching for something.

UNPLUG
Take a Break From Email: The tech revolution has made daily life easier in many ways, but it has also allowed many adults to never stop working. We’re available by email on our vacations, or even during trips to the restroom. Logging off decreases the constant pressure to get tasks done the moment they come up. For your well-being, it can wait. 
Turn of Your Device: Text messages, social media, phone calls… the smart phone is a hub for constant stimulation. Many of us can feel obligated to keep it in our hands at all times, but doing so and increase stress and worry. Putting the phone away for a few hours lowers anxiety and improves the quality of the moment you’re living right now.
Take a Walk Outside: Nature makes a great salve for the soul. Whether you need exercise, or you’re trying to lower stress, a stroll outside among the trees is a great act of self-care for all of us.

LAUGH 
Every Chance You Get: Laughter lowers stress and makes us feel connected to the people around us when we share it with them. Relaxing and having a laugh has been shown to improve health, lower risk for disease, strengthen relationships, and generally just make us feel better. 

JOIN
A Book Club or Exercise Class: Being part of a group brings new people into our lives, and keeps us connected. Joining a book club, or physical activity class, gives an opportunity to learn something new and connect with a wider circle, both of which are good for health and well-being.
A Social Group: Getting together with a new group is beneficial, whether you’re sharing a book or just hanging out. Being part of a meet up group or other social club extends your network, lets you check out and relax, and is a great way to expand your circle.

CREATE
Write, Paint, or Draw: Creating art is a great way to release emotion. If you’re not a talker, or if you need a secondary outlet other than your friends and family, creating art is a great act of self-care. It lowers your stress and helps you cope with emotions. 

10 Reasons to Be Grateful This Holiday

Gratitude is good for your health, your mood, and your relationships. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Festivus, the holiday season centers around faith, family, and gratitude. 

1. The laughter of children.

Whether you're going to see Santa, spinning a dreidel, or teaching cultural traditions, the magic of the holiday seasons is built around children. Seeing the faces of little ones light up and hearing their delightful squeals of joy is one of the best parts of the season.

2. Family.

Most of us take a little time to see family during this time of year. Gathering together and catching up is a tradition for which we can all be grateful this season.

3. Tradition.

Whether the group gathers in front of the fire, or in front of a favorite holiday movie, annual traditions make the holidays special. Hanging stockings. Baking. Stringing up lights. Lighting candles. All these traditions are passed down through generations, and practicing them links us to our histories.

4. Food.

Whatever the traditions, they almost always include special foods. Unique holiday foods are something we can all look forward to year round. And now that the holiday season is here, it's time to dig in and enjoy them with gratitude.

5. Faith.

The holidays are a time of faith and reverence. Holiday traditions symbolize some of the most sacred of our beliefs. The holidays can strengthen and renew faith, binding us to our spiritual roots.

6. The little things.

Whether it's appreciating the warmth of grandma's house for the holiday, or savoring favorite music on the record player, the little things to enjoy give us much to be thankful for.

7. The big things.

Sometimes the holidays contain miracles: the favor of strangers, a life changing gift, a reunion with a long lost loved one, a final tradition with a dying family member. The holidays invite us to take a chance and make a difference for one another in the most profound ways.

8. A break from routine.

Whether this year's celebration is profound or mundane, this time of year means stepping out of the everyday and into something special, if only for a few days. 

9. Over the river and through the woods.

Traveling home is one of the best traditions of the season. Trekking across the terrain to enter back into the place where loved ones gather is something we can all be grateful for.

10. Holiday spirit.

Giving and receiving, love and laughter, visiting those in need, the holidays are all about that special spirit. And that's the best part of all!