WELLNESS HABIT 1
RULE OF "1"
The RULE OF "1" wellness habit underpins the Warriors Own Wellness programme. When you want to make a change in your life, it can be as simple as just starting with ONE little change. You do something different today, and then that same thing again tomorrow and so on. You just keep doing it everyday until you do it automatically without thinking too hard about doing it. At this point, it has become one of your habits.
Then when you have achieved ONE new habit, you then think about another change you would like to make and off you go. Before you know it, you have brought about noticeable change. You might be the only one to notice the changes at first but eventually your efforts may be noticed by others.
When we start thinking about our habits, we might identify many things we would like to change. This process can become overwhelming. Just choose ONE thing that you think might make the most difference or is something that is easy to get you started or something that you have been meaning to get around to one day but haven't started yet. The one thing you choose to focus on may not matter as much as the fact that you have started.
The RULE OF '1' can apply to many things in our life from just doing ONE thing differently, to having just ONE serve of a meal, snack or glass of alcohol. Allowing yourself ONE of most things might be the right, appropriate or acceptable quantity. This helps you not overdo a good thing especially if you are inclined to "try just another one because the first one was so good". It also takes into account the delay in time from when you eat something until it arrives in your stomach. It is very easy to eat more food than your body needs if you go back for another helping before the fist serving has arrived in your stomach. Allowing yourself ONE of most things also ensures that you are not missing out completely on things that bring you joy even if some of these things may not be that healthy or good for you. When you are trying to make changes that you will adopt for the longer term, cutting out everything that brings you joy can leave you feeling deprived, sad and can discourage you from sticking with it. Eventually, as we replace some of these things we like to do with healthier versions and we get used to the new changes, we may find joy in our healthier choices with the added bonus that these things are actually good for our health.
Maintaining a balance in your daily life by encouraging you to do ONE thing in many areas that delight your senses, makes you feel good and brings you joy can help you to stay the course to better health. The RULE OF '1' also helps you remember to do ONE nice thing for your planet, the world at large, yourself and other people that you share it with. We can also practice finding ONE things to be grateful for each day. Showing gratitude can be very powerful for improving our lives as it helps opens the door to more relationships, improves physical and psychological health, enhances empathy, reduces aggression, improves sleep, self-esteem and mental strength and is a simple way to increase your satisfaction with your life (Morin 2014).
As the world grapples with climate change and the seemingly controversial role of humans contributing to global warming, we can adopt the stand that perhaps we can each do ONE thing to minimise our negative impact on our environment. Whilst this view may be depressing as many political moves seem to question the involvement of human action, it is somewhat comforting to consider that perhaps each human can take steps that make a difference. The individual contribution may be miniscule but the collective contribution could be significant. The alternative and less scientifically supported view that humans have not contributed to climate change is even more depressing. It means that there is no point in even trying. Let's be people of action and each take ONE step that will help our environment. Suggestions that can help reduce our impact are provided in each of the habits discussed in this programme
In the spirit of embracing a personal minimal impact on the environment, we need to learn how to re-use and re-purpose our possessions which are no longer needed rather than just dumping the unwanted items in landfill. Or in the words of David Attenborough as reported in The Guardian (October 2019)
"You can do more and more and more the longer you live, but the
best motto to think about is not waste things.
Don't waste electricity, don't waste paper, don't waste food.
Live the way you want to live but just don't waste.
Look after our natural world, and the animals in it, and the plants in it too.
This is their planet as well as ours. Don't waste them."
One of the many challenges with addressing climate change is that many people are employed in roles that create new things at the expense of the environment and even our health. We need to learn how to generate an income from re-using items to reduce our reliance on needing to produce new things for our employment.
Become a Warrior and learn about portion control, how to be grateful, how to care for yourself and others that are important to you, as well as your wider community and universe. Most importantly, focus on how you can make real change in your life to move you in the direction of a happier and healthier you by tackling ONE change at a time.