All posts filed under: Health & Fitness

Is it good for me to take a nap or not?

Published by Leanne Spencer

I used to have a very dismissive attitude towards napping. I wouldn’t have it. I thought no, I don’t need to sleep. Sleep’s for the evening. But, I completely changed my mind. I equate sleep to going out for a long day and taking a spare battery to boost your mobile phone. Taking a nap is the same thing. If I’ve got a long day, a hard day, a creative day, or I’ve had a bad night’s sleep, no problem. I’ll just go and have a 20, 30-minute nap if I can. Recharge my batteries and then crack on again. Is taking a nap good for you?  Science confirms that yes, it is. But, there are some conditions. A nap is ideally taken between 12 and 2pm. Any later than that, and you might be cutting it a bit fine, chipping into your evening sleep. It’s very good to bolster a poor night’s sleep. But 20 to 30 minutes won’t take you deep into that sleep cycle of REM sleep. It’s been found to improve …

Health news: Mindset Moments

Published by Becca Teers

Although I’m still hoping for our Indian summer this month, the change of season is approaching. The return to school and work and our busy routines kicking in again, can all be quite a shock to the system, especially after the wonderful summer we’ve had! It can be a bit daunting to have to throw ourselves back into every day life after the holidays, family time and relaxation of the summer. Here are some tips to help you to lift your mood and get motivated, whilst staying calm this autumn! Re-connect with your goals – it’s nearing the final quarter of the year. If you had set yourself some goals (personal/ health/work) for 2018, now is a great time to check in and take stock of how you’re doing. If you’ve achieved them- great! If you’re not quite there yet you can ask yourself whether these things are still important to you or not? If the goals are still valid then brainstorm the steps to get you further towards achieving them. If not create a couple …

I feel tired all day and then can’t sleep at night

Published by Leanne Spencer

Do you find that you’re tired all day, you don’t have the energy to get through the day, and then you hit the pillow and you can’t sleep? This is hugely frustrating and very common. What can you do about it? Firstly, let’s talk a bit about the autonomic nervous system, which is a part of the body that controls a lot of our autonomic movements like breathing. There are two branches to the autonomic nervous system, the sympathetic, which is your classic fight, flight, freeze, and your parasympathetic, which is your classic rest and digest. What we want to do as we move towards bedtime is move from sympathetic dominance into parasympathetic dominance so we’re ready for sleep, and the body has had time to wind down. One of the ways that you can do that would be to control the amount of caffeine that you have during the day. Depending on your sensitivity, two cups maximum in the morning is as much caffeine as you should really be taking in. Controlling the amount …

Health News: Self-Care

Published by Becca Teers

What is self-care? Practicing self-care is including activities in our lives, to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health.  Self-care does include the basic three; healthy diet, exercise and enough sleep, but there are other activities that we can do to make us feel good too. Why is self-care important? We are all so busy with our lives; taking care of others, working, looking after personal admin, running a home and fitting in socializing too. It can be very easy to forget about our own mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing. Often we are the last on the list of our priorities. This fast pace can go on for only so long before we start to suffer in some way. Whether it’s mental or physical symptoms such as anxiety, stress or physical illness, I believe the mind and body are very connected and stress does cause physical imbalance, which can lead to illness. Self-care is especially important at times of excitement, stress or when we’re especially busy or are experiencing big changes in our …

What to do when your energy is low

Published by Leanne Spencer

We all have moments when we don’t feel as energised or inspired as we’d like, and we feel a little disconnected from everything. However, there are many things you can do when your energy is low.   Here are my top five tips. Move As human beings we were designed to move, but many of us simply don’t do enough of that any more. The best way to energise yourself is to move your body. Get all your joints moving. Walking is a fantastic way to do this, or you could use something like a kettle bell; I get up and do 10 kettle bell squats every hour and I might pump the kettle bell to work my biceps too. You can also use it for tricep extensions, there are many different ways to use it for movement. Having something around in the house or in your office to help you get the blood pumping is really good. Walking, standing up regularly if you’re sat down a lot during the day, stretching out the body and …