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Try to do a little more! Our society is quite sedentary, especially now that we work more from home. Try to increase your daily and weekly steps – this will help with a lot of the back and hip issues people are experiencing from working long periods at a desk. If you track your steps, increasing your step count will motivate

you to reach your goals.

 

Exercise brings an opportunity to socialise and interact with people. Having a friend, partner, or accountability buddy to exercise with has considerable benefits in 

improving physical health. Doing it with someone else allows or social interaction that isn’t work-related and has a positive impact on your mental health.

Follow the principle ‘move better’ and you’re already winning!

Have you heard of the Pareto Principle? It states that roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes – known as the ‘vital few’. So, in Mental Fitness, what are the 20% of efforts that can get us an 80% return? Well, there are two: the ability to observe your thoughts and the ability to regulate your nervous system.

 

The first thing you learn if you go to a decent meditation teacher is the concept that you are not your thoughts, you are the observer of them. That separation between observer and thought, feeling and behaviour are vital to allow us to make logical and wise life choices. This can be learned by labeling your feelings as you feel them. The key here is the separation; most people ARE their feelings. “I AM angry!” Yes, you are. This is very different from the observation of ‘I am currently feeling angry’. It also delivers completely different results. The key here is practice; the more you practice the observation, the easier it becomes to separate yourself from them in the future and make wiser choices.

 

The other thing is regulating our nervous system from the sympathetic state (fight, flight, freeze) to the parasympathetic state (rest, relax, rejuvenate). This may be the greatest skill you will ever learn and you can learn it with cold exposure. 30 seconds of cold at the end of your shower is all it takes. That first hit will send you into the sympathetic state and if you practice the Box Breath (four seconds in through the nose, hold for four, out for four) then you will bring yourself back to a calm state quickly, even though you are still under stress. Try the free Wim Hof app for the best protocols.

 

Our mental health can be affected by many factors including stress, nutritional deficiencies, elevated blood glucose, food intolerances, poor sleep, and gut health. 90% of our happy hormone serotonin is made in our digestive tract. The gut-brain connection means that what you eat can affect your gut and mood. That’s why it’s so essential to maintain good gut health.

Here are five simple tips to help improve your gut health.
1. Balance your blood sugar
Blood sugar spikes damage the gut wall and reduces the diversity of good bacteria. Highs and lows in blood sugar can leave you feeling tired, irritable, and depressed. Eat a balanced blood sugar plate at each meal - focus on protein, healthy fats, and fibre.
2. Breathe
Take slow deep breaths before your meal to switch your body into rest and digest mode. This will increase the digestive enzyme production needed to break down food effectively and help your digestion work at its best.
3. Eat probiotic-rich foods
Fermented foods such as kefir, kombucha, miso, and sauerkraut support the growth of beneficial lactobacilli while blueberries, apples, almonds, and artichokes have also been shown to populate helpful bifidobacteria.
4. Eat a variety of plant foods.
Research shows that people who eat around 30 different plants every week have much greater microbial diversity than those who eat just ten. Try and eat the rainbow.
5. Get your gut tested
Parasites, bacteria overgrowths, hormone imbalances and food intolerances can impact

Cindy's Top Tips

Maintaining a positive mindset and being resilient in real estate is incredibly important. Here are my top tips on how to maintain a healthy mindset:
• Start the day with meditation. There are so many apps to help with meditation exercises, it helps us to control our mindset during the day.
• I have recently learned about peripheral vision. Shifting your focus from fovial (tunnel vision) to peripheral vision is a quick and simple way to shift your state when you’re feeling anxious or stressed. It’s cool! Try it.
• Understand what makes your heart sing! This can be a super quick action that will improve your day immediately (mine is a heart hug with my kids, eating a fresh tomato sandwich on the freshest of bread strange but true, or listening to my favourite song), or focus on your long-term goals and aspirations to give yourself a boost during the day.

Cindy Kennedy | McGrath Balmain
222 Darling Street, Balmain
www.mcgrath.com.au/agent/245-cindy-kennedy