Practising wellbeing and self care has never been so important. When uncertainty, confusion and fear enter our daily lives it is essential to look after both our mental and physical health.

As we begin a new way of life for the unforeseeable future with confinement and restrictions let's take a look at the positivity we can bring into our homes and how the simple things in life always bring the most joy.  

Meditation, fitness, rest and deep sleep are just some of the things we can spend time on that our usual hectic and busy lives do not allow for.  Establishing self care routines, conscious breathing and new meditation and sleeping habits could be the restart we all needed and that our bodies have been crying out for.

To begin it is important to create the right mindset and just ten minutes a day of meditation will set you up for the rest of the day.  Apps such as Calm will aid you in training your mind to stress less and sleep better - it offers daily motivation and calmness to ease anxiety and provides the tools needed to take care of your mind.

With the closing of gyms and general lack of movement it is important to do some form of exercise each day.  Exercise is a great stress reducer so now is the time to create your own home gym. Streaming fitness and yoga classes are ideal to do in a living room or any clear space you can find while compact fitness equipment, like skipping ropes and resistance bands, will give you an all over body workout that will improve both tone and fitness whilst also saving on costly gym membership fees!

Ensure you eat as well as you can to maintain health and wellbeing, getting a balanced diet at the moment will help maintain a healthy immune system and keep energy levels boosted.  Eating enough fresh fruit and vegetables may not be possible but tinned and frozen options make good substitutes and if you are able to get supplements then Vitamin D is recommended due to the extra time being spent indoors.

Rest and a good nights sleep are essential in the fight to stay well, healthy and happy.  Practising a good bedtime routine with warm baths, reduced screen time, sleep masks and cosy pyjamas will be your saviour when worry and stress start to take hold.  It is important to make your bedroom a real sanctuary and somewhere calm and peaceful to retire to at the end of each day.  The Smug blogs on 'From bedroom to Sleep Sanctuary' and 'In Your Dreams' can give you some pointers.

So let's embrace this era of uncertainty and use this time to look after ourselves, care for our loved ones and to reach out to neighbours.  Indulge in new hobbies, tackle those chores but above all practise self care, kindness and positivity.