Making a positive shift in your life does not have to entail a massive leap of faith.
However, we agree that conviction is one of the factors that prevent people from enhancing their lives and the world around them. A better method, in my experience, is more likely to result in actual action and the establishment of new behaviours is to take small but frequent steps. Here are ten tiny, two-minute switches to help you set up your day off right. They’re simple to execute and can have a significant impact on your day. Well, what do you have to lose? It’s only your life, after all.
With these small steps, you will begin to form habits that will strengthen over time and improve your life in ways you could not have imagined.
1. Breathing Consciously
When you’re nervous, the ease and rhythm of your breath are disrupted. You may not even realize how these minor changes in your breathing pattern affect you. However, resuming regular breathing will help you regain your energy and concentration. For a count of five, take a deep breath in through your nose. Feel as if a balloon has been inflated in your pelvis, forcing it to stretch out in several directions. Hold the inhale for a beat, then exhale for a count of five, contracting all the muscles in and up the spine. Repeat 10 times with the exhale held for a moment. When you’re feeling anxious, do this.
2. Chew slowly
How you eat is also important, like what you eat. You can eat all of the superfoods you want, but if you wouldn’t chew your food thoroughly, you’ll end up with indigestion, bloating, and poor nutrient absorption. The more saliva you make, the more you chew. Saliva covers bits of food with enzymes that break them down so that nutrients can be absorbed more easily.
Chewing each bite 25 times encourages more careful eating. You eat with a much more relaxed mindset, which helps digestion. Also, since you’re giving your body time to tell you when you’re full, the slower you eat, the less you’re likely to consume.
3. Set a low bar for yourself in terms of happiness for the day
When we wake up in the morning, one of our favourite things to tell ourselves is to have a low bar for happiness at present. We appreciate it better when we tell ourselves this and strive to remember it throughout the day. We now always pause for a moment or two to take in and acknowledge the tiny or what one may consider being something one takes for granted. However, if we are happy in day-to-day life with the little stuff, does that mean we are less driven to work toward the bigger goals? No!
When we discover and work for both small and larger goals, this way of thinking about life also gives us more motivation and inspiration. Life becomes lighter, and we feel less inner resistance.
4. Rather than being interesting, be interested
Spend two minutes at the beginning of a conversation or break the ice by asking one or two questions about the person you’re talking to and his or her life. Pay close attention but don’t just wait for another opportunity to talk. The interest you show will almost certainly be returned, and you will begin to develop not only a pleasant conversation as well as a giving and satisfying relationship for both the two of you, regardless of the type of relationship.
5. Drink warm lemon water
Instead of ice in your cup, replace it with warm lemon water. The body needs rehydration first thing in the morning. Warm lemon water quenches hunger, prepares and primes the digestive system, helps in detoxification, and provides a powerful dose of vitamin C to fight free radicals.
Lemons can taste acidic, although they are alkaline-forming, assisting the body in maintaining a healthy pH balance and neutralizing free radicals to hold you feeling and looking young. Lemon water enhances the body’s enzyme activities, stimulating the liver and flushing toxins out.
6. Hug someone
Physical intimacy, despite its insignificance, will help us relax and feel better. So, every day, take two minutes to hug somebody. It can be an easy way to create warmer, more supportive relationships with various people in your life, similar to compliments. Before you start hugging, do use common sense. Hugging also helps if blood pressure is high by lowering it and also risks of any heart disease, or heart attack and stroke.
7. Ensure to take movement breaks
It’s not enough to do your exercise for an hour in the morning and cross it off your to-do list when it comes to enhancing your movement. Movement is necessary for your body’s survival. More activity during the day is extremely beneficial to both the body and the mind.
Mobility exercises can help to lubricate the joints, which helps to prevent stiffness, improve circulation, and increase strength, as well as concentration and productivity. At most, a few minutes of agility exercises, such as alternating arm backstrokes and pelvic circles, should be done through each hour of sitting.
8. Consider giving someone a sincere compliment for a moment
Invest one minute thinking about what you admire about someone in your life who is in the same room as you at some moment during the day. Tell him or her the compliment in the remaining minute or less. He or she would be happy. You’ll feel great about yourself, and the now-happy and complimented person will most likely reciprocate with positive feelings. It’s a simple and effective way to foster more healthy relationships.
9. Apply sunscreen
Summertime isn’t the only time to wear sunscreen. Dermatologists advise that you wear sunscreen every day because, as per the Skin Cancer Foundation, one out of every five Americans will grow skin cancer during their lifetime.
Oh, no! UVA rays, which cause wrinkles and premature ageing, will pass via window glass even if you aren’t spending a lot of time outside. Check for a sunscreen that includes the mineral zinc oxide for UVA safety in the list of ingredients. Go for a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 which is sweat and water-resistant if you plan on being outdoors for more than two hours.
10. When you feel compelled to pass judgment on others, try instead to consider them
Take 2 minutes if you feel compelled to pass judgment on someone you know or may not know.
Consider the following two questions:
~Which aspects of this individual do I recognize in myself?
~How does he or she compare to me?
Nobody wants to be judged harshly, but doing so to the people in your life isn’t conducive to good relationships. Also, how harshly you judge others also reflects how you question yourself. So, in those two ways, assist yourself in living a more optimistic life by pausing when you feel the urge to criticize and then choosing something better.