Fall seven times, stand up eight – Japanese proverb
The Japanese have a phrase shinshin ichinyo, which translates as ‘body and mind as one’. Rather than seeing the body and mind as two separate entities, as we often do in the West, shinshin ichinyo is about a deep interconnection between your body, mind and spirituality.16 The way that you feel about yourself in your mind and your body has such an impact on everything else in the rest of your life that it seems like the perfect place to start to demonstrate how Kaizen can work in practice and transform your life. Rather than promoting another fad diet or extreme exercise trend, this section is going to be about practising self-love, attempting to banish some of the negative self-talk, and looking after your body and mind so that you feel more resilient when going out to tackle the stresses and strains of the outside world.
It feels like we are constantly being bombarded with different messages by the media about what we should be eating, drinking and how we should be thinking about and moving our bodies. One minute, eating lots of eggs is great for us – and then the next, eggs are terrible for us. One article will be detailing the benefits of running – the next will be telling us that it makes our boobs saggy. There is so much noise and misinformation, often written by people with vested interests, that it is hard to decipher what is useful knowledge and what is made-up nonsense. On top of this, the growing number of ‘health influencers’ on social media with seemingly perfect lives, tanned bodies and incredible abs can make the world of healthy food and exercise seem very divorced from most people’s reality. This is before we even get to the extortionate cost of ‘boutique’ gyms, and a day’s worth of ‘healthy’ meals that get delivered to your door for the price of some people’s weekly shop.
This can make the health world seem even harder to access for a person on a regular salary. Most people know, deep down, that they should be trying to achieve the elusive targets of eating better and doing more exercise, but it is hard to feel motivated to do so when the ideal seems so far-fetched, and expensive to boot. A common misconception of change is that it can be costly, but using the Kaizen method to slowly discover which exercises suit you and what you can afford each month means that you take on the changes at a pace that works for you.
And if you are, like me, a person who hated sports lessons at school, with traumatizing memories of having to go and stand on a freezing field holding on to a hockey stick for dear life while your teacher barked at you about how useless you are (just me?!), then the thought of an exercise class can be the most daunting thing. Thankfully, I hear from my schoolteacher friends that things have improved slightly on the PE-teaching front, but my fear of exercise still remains, especially knowing that classes will contain super-fit and toned people wearing sheer, bum-sculpting leggings and barely looking sweaty after an hour-long spin class.
This is why using Kaizen is a great way to motivate yourself to be healthier, as the way you approach getting fitter or eating better is incremental and hopefully not too scarily off-putting or expensive. Breaking down the initial steps and building up your exercise routine slowly means that it won’t feel too daunting and it can be done almost anywhere. It is easier to motivate yourself to get started with better habits, to then step up to the next level, and eventually form a long-lasting good habit that you stick to.
Let’s now explore the topic of health in more detail and show how Kaizen can work in practice.
EXERCISE
WHY SHOULD WE EXERCISE?
It is not news that we don’t move around enough. The World Health Organization tells us that globally, around 31 per cent of people aged fifteen and over are ‘insufficiently active’ and that approximately 3.2 million deaths each year are attributable to insufficient physical activity.17 These are sobering statistics, but it can be easy to acknowledge that you should be doing something to move around more, and feeling guilty when you don’t, while still not actually doing anything about it. The thought of digging out your unused exercise gear and heading to a gym can seem like the worst thing in the world when it is cold and dark outside and there’s a new Netflix series that has to be watched immediately to avoid spoilers.
HOW CAN KAIZEN HELP?
If your goal is to start exercising or to take up a new form of sport, then Kaizen is a great way to set and track your goals. There is no point in trying to run a marathon with no training or to start lifting a huge Olympic bar-bell in the gym having never done so before, as your body won’t be prepared, and you physically won’t be able to do it. Starting off small and building up from there will ensure that you don’t overstretch yourself in the first instance. You will be less likely to suffer an injury and it will mean that you are less likely to be disheartened if you don’t immediately reach your goal.
It might be that you are already sporty and have a clear idea of what exercise challenge you want to start. For everybody else – particularly those who are scarred from sports lessons at school with itchy gym kits and bullying teachers – the best thing to do is to try out a few activities and find something that works for you. The good thing is that exercise no longer has to involve getting hit in the face by a netball in the freezing rain while your classmates laugh at you.
First, think about what your main interests are. Do you enjoy dancing in your bedroom or walking in the park? You can easily step up these activities and turn them into proper exercise. Also think about your motivations and why you want to take up exercise. And from there, you can make some long-term, medium-term and short-term goals that work for you and your body. If you have bad knees, then think about what low-impact sports you could try, or if you have been feeling particularly anxious recently, then research yoga classes that are geared towards relaxing breathing techniques. Once you have an idea of things you might like to try, then it is time to put a plan in place to reach each step. Let’s start off with some ideas for short-term goals and then use those as a springboard to think about the medium- and long-term goals.
Find an unusual way to exercise. If you are a person who hates the idea of a treadmill, then why not investigate a swing dance class or a boxing class? Many gyms are waking up to the fact that people don’t all want to exercise in the same way and there are often less traditional offerings, such as disco yoga, wrestling, circus skills, trampolining, hula-hooping and even daytime raving (alcohol-free, of course!). Thankfully gyms and local swimming pools are also realizing that people don’t always want to sign up to a monthly membership and are now offering drop-in classes or pay-as-you-go memberships.
First Kaizen step: research the class and plan the outfit you will need to wear for it.
Try out running, even if you’ve previously hated it. If the gym is your complete idea of hell, then there are plenty more outdoor or indoor options – and this is also where technology can come into its own. I have always hated running, but since returning from Japan, I have started to do small bits and pieces each week and am slowly building up the distance that I am able to run. I would be lying if I said I enjoy it all the time, but I definitely feel stronger and fitter for it, and it is a great way to catch up on podcasts and audiobooks too. Moreover, it is a completely free activity and can be done pretty much anywhere, although it is particularly pleasant if you have a nearby park or seafront where you can run. Kaizen is the perfect method with which to approach running, as if you try to do too much at the beginning then you will completely wear yourself out and potentially injure yourself. Trying to do a little bit at a time and slowly building up your distance is the recommended approach. There are lots of apps which can help you to plan routes and measure out distance.
First Kaizen step: plan the route that you would like to run in advance. All experts advise that you should start off mostly walking and then gradually introduce small runs intermittently into your routine. Be Kaizen in your approach and you won’t go too far wrong.
See what exercises are offered in your local park. One of the strangest and most compelling sights when I was living in Japan was seeing groups of people – often in huge numbers – exercising together in public spaces during the summer, usually early in the morning or when it got cooler later at night. In the 1920s, in honour of the coronation of Emperor Hirohito, Japanese radio started broadcasting rajio taiso, a sequence of simple exercises that people would congregate in public places to complete. The tradition continues to this day and involves a series of continuous stretches and light exercises in time to broadcasted music. Although this tradition has never taken off in the West, the idea of communal exercise very much has and there are plenty of local running groups, parks that offer exercise classes or boot camps, and community projects offering to help you get fit. If you live by the sea, then there are sea-swimming classes or various beach exercise classes too. Not only are these classes cheaper (or sometimes free) but you will have a ready-made group of other people to help spur you on and keep you motivated.
First Kaizen step: google your local park or recreation centre and find out what activities they are running.
Use your commute to exercise. One of the best ways to get fit is to include exercise in your commute to work. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should sell your car and start walking ten miles every morning, but could you walk to the station rather than get a lift? Could you get off the Tube/train/bus one or two stops early and walk the rest of the way? Could you investigate cycling or running some of the way? Even something small like choosing to stand up on the train rather than sitting down, or taking the stairs at work rather than the lift is a way to make a difference. And then once you have got the hang of one small step, think about ways you can increase the level of activity you are doing.
First Kaizen step: get off one stop earlier and walk the rest of the way to work.
Start gardening – yes, really! A number of studies have shown that gardening is great for your physical and mental health. The American Center for Disease Control classifies gardening as a ‘moderate cardiovascular activity’ and it can be a really effective way to keep fit. Rather than being sat on the sofa or at a desk, gardening forces you to constantly move about. The various movements it requires actually mimic those of regular exercise routines and it works out lots of different muscle groups. You might think that you are just pulling out a weed, but this actually doubles as a bicep crunch! If you are lucky enough to have your own garden or outdoor space then the thought of getting started and the constant upkeep can be daunting, especially if you are starting with a mess. Kaizen is a great way to help tackle this. Rather than feeling like you have to make it perfect all in one go, why don’t you devote just a small amount of time each day to one area and make that nice. If you don’t have an outdoor space, check out whether parks or allotments accept volunteers to help out – most do – or there are plenty of schemes where you can assist elderly local people with their gardens. I’m sure many would be happy to accept help and you would be doing a good turn at the same time. You may find that you build better relationships with people in your community too: win-win!
First Kaizen step: decide on the first patch of the garden that you are going to work on or research a houseplant you want to buy.
Remember that walking, shopping and dancing all count! It sounds so obvious, but anything you can do to move around more is good for you. There are so many ways to get more movement into your every day, and hopefully you will find something to appeal even if you are the most exercise-phobic person, but if getting involved in organized classes or events is still too off-putting a thought, then how about just setting an intention to do anything which will get you off the sofa and outdoors? This can be to walk around the shops for two hours (have you ever noticed how much your feet hurt after a shopping trip?), to go dancing with friends and jump about lots on the dance floor, or even just to go for a walk with some music on for half an hour. You will find that getting out of the house and doing even just a small amount of activity is beneficial for both your body and mind.
First Kaizen step: go for a walk for the duration of your favourite podcast.
LONGER-TERM GOALS
Once you have adopted a new exercise to try (and are hopefully enjoying it!), it is time to think about how you can step it up to the next level and set some medium- and long-term goals. Have a think about whether you can:
Increase the duration of the activity you are doing. If you are running for 2K each session, can you increase it to 3K? Can you set a target to work towards, such as running 5K without stopping (medium-term goal) or signing up for a half-marathon (long-term goal)? Or if you feel comfortable running 2K and don’t want to run further, can you increasing the frequency of your sessions?
Increase the speed and/or intensity of the activity. Rather than increasing the time spent doing a certain activity, can you instead try to do more in the time that you have? Can you run the 2km in a faster time? If you have started to lift weights, can you start to build up the heaviness of the weights that you are lifting?
Flirt with high-intensity interval training (HIIT workouts). This is about mixing up the level of intensity during your workout, so that you have multiple short bursts of super-intense exercise (such as six rounds of thirty-second bike sprints or six rounds of one-minute road sprints), interspersed with short periods of low-intensity movement (such as one minute of walking or ninety seconds of easy spinning). If you want to try these out at home, there are hundreds of online workout tutorials to get you started. All you need is a stopwatch and a pair of trainers.
Do more activity, more often. Rather than relying entirely on one type of exercise, can you try something else as well and build it into your routine? Varying the types of exercise that you do will mean that you aren’t putting too much pressure on one part of your body and will make injury less likely. Try stepping up the one session of activity each week to two or three (medium-term goal).
While making your plan, it is important to be mindful of potential pitfalls and excuses you will find to avoid exercising. Just being aware of them will mean that you are less likely to give in to them. Here are some tips for keeping on track.
Think about how you can fit the exercise into your routine so that you are most likely to keep going with it. If you are a morning person, then plan to exercise as soon as you get up and make time in your schedule for it. If you have time in your lunch-break at work, can you find some colleagues to join you for a run? If you would rather exercise as a way to let off steam in the evening, then schedule it for then.
Have the right kit. If it is freezing outside, then make sure you have some gloves and a long-sleeved exercise top. Invest in some cordless earphones, so that you can listen to music while running. Buy some leggings that won’t fall down as you are running up a hill in the lunch-break exercise class with your colleagues (this is one I know from my own bitter experience!). Investing in some trainers that fit your instep and a good sports bra will save you pain later down the line. If you’re like me, putting on some kit that fits you and makes you feel good inspires you to exercise much more so than an old baggy t-shirt and some saggy leggings.
Listen to your body. If your back is aching, then think of an exercise that could help to gently stretch it out. If you feel like you are pushing yourself too far, then reduce the intensity of the activity that you are doing. And always remember to do a proper warm-up and cool-down to avoid sore muscles.
Remember that variety is the spice of life. Doing the same thing over and over again will invariably lead to you getting bored. Try changing the route that you run or the scenery that you can see while you exercise. Mix up the types of exercise that you do and the music that you listen to.
Bring the outdoors indoors, or vice versa. If you know that bad weather outside is going to put you off, then think about how you can replicate the activity indoors instead. Can you plan a workout routine around your staircase or use the cans in your kitchen cupboard as weights (a top tip from my friend, who is a personal trainer!). Similarly, if you have been practising something like yoga or Pilates indoors, can you find a class which takes place in a park or try it in your garden instead? Note how being out in nature can transform your experience.
Involve others. We have an exercise club at our work, and having the peer pressure of my colleagues encouraging me to exercise at lunchtime definitely gets me out more than I would otherwise. If you have a friend who also wants to work towards a similar goal, try completing it together. When one of you loses motivation, the other one will be there to boost spirits.
Keep track. I keep a record of each of my exercise sessions in my journal so that I can look back at the end of each month and see how many sessions I have completed. Being able to see my progress on paper, as well as feel it in my body, helps to keep me motivated when I hear the voice in my head start to come up with excuses not to exercise. I also use a running app so that I have a more detailed breakdown of my times and distances. Choose whatever works for you, whether that is a wall chart, getting a friend or loved one to keep track, or even just dropping a quick email to yourself after every session. My friend does this and then keeps a folder in his inbox so that he can see at a glance when he has recently exercised and how each session went. He then reviews his progress each month.
Practise self-compassion. If you suffer an injury or if your initial enthusiasm starts to dip, it can be hard to keep motivated and tempting to give up completely. If this happens, remember the Kaizen approach by dialling back the amount of activity that you are doing to the bare minimum and starting to build it up from there. It is much better to do a small amount of activity than nothing at all. If you have an injury, seek professional advice on how long you need to rest and how to introduce activity back into your routine again.
Don’t focus too much on weight loss. It may be that you don’t have any intention to lose weight at all, but if that is one of your goals, then exercise is a good place to start. But having weight loss as your sole focus and motivation is never going to end well, especially as it completely ignores the other huge benefits of exercising. Building muscle changes the way that weight is distributed in your body so the number on the scales might not necessarily reflect how much stronger and healthier your body is. Instead, reflect on the following:
Are you sleeping better?
Do you feel stronger?
Do you feel fitter? For example, are you now able to run for a bus or after your kids without getting out of breath, or walk up the stairs at work without wanting to die?!
Do you feel like you have more energy?
Has it improved your mental health? For sufferers of SAD syndrome in winter, especially, getting out and exercising in the daylight has been shown to significantly improve your mood.
Do you feel inspired to eat more healthily?
DIET
This isn’t a section about any sort of fad diet or about encouraging you to lose vast amounts of weight. And any major dietary changes you are thinking of undertaking should always be discussed with a doctor beforehand. But quite a lot of people would admit that they could be fuelling their bodies better and eating less crap. Applying Kaizen techniques to your dietary routine can be beneficial to those who want to make changes to the way they eat and their relationship with food – whether that is wanting to build strength, eliminate a health risk (i.e. if you have been told to cut down on a certain food or food group for health reasons), be more ethically and environmentally conscious of what you consume, or simply wanting to nourish yourself better. Rather than restricting your consumption or removing the pleasure from food altogether, the aim is to make incremental changes to the way you eat and drink in order to create and/or sustain a positive attitude towards fuelling both your mind and body.
Here are some suggestions for ways in which Kaizen can help you transform your eating and drinking habits in the short term, and we will then look at some medium- and long-term goals towards the end of the chapter.
DRINKING MORE WATER
The amount of water that you should drink each day depends very much on how much exercise you are doing, what you eat, your gender and how hot it is outside, but most people living in a moderate climate will need between six and eight glasses of water per day.18 As well as water, it is possible to include milk, tea, coffee and any other sugar-free drink in your consumption. When it is hot or if you are hungover or busy with studying or at the office, it can sometimes be difficult to remember to drink water but using Kaizen to introduce it as a good habit into your routine is easy and beneficial. Here are a few ideas for how you can make some small steps towards becoming better hydrated:
If you hate the taste of water or want to make it more interesting, then flavour it with natural ingredients. Try adding lemons or limes to your food shop and then using them to flavour your water for the next few days. If the citrus taste is too bitter for you, then try cucumber or mint.
Link your water consumption to another moment in your day. A good way to automate your water drinking is to tie it to another habit that you already have. Plan to drink a glass of water every time you get up from your desk at work during the day. Or when you wake up in the morning, go straight to the tap and drink a large glass of water before you even have a chance to think about it.
First Kaizen step: try drinking a glass of water for every toilet trip you take over the course of one day.
Get technology to help you keep track. There are a number of apps that you can download on your phone to remind you to drink water – or set a reminder on your phone or work computer to alert you once an hour. It might be too much of an ask to drink every time you receive the alert, but even just being mindful of what you are drinking will make a difference to your mindset in the long run.
First Kaizen step: download a water tracking app and try to stick to its alerts for one day.
Buy a fancy water bottle. Invest in a water bottle or thermos which you can use to store hot or cold drinks. You can then use this on your commute instead of paying for an expensive coffee or fill it with flavoured water and set yourself a challenge of finishing it by the time you get to work.
Remember that teas count too! There are hundreds of flavours of herbal tea and they all count towards your water consumption. Lots of teas contain useful antioxidants and benefit digestion as well. Invest in some new flavours to see if any become a favourite. I got really into drinking ginger tea in Japan and I am now obsessed.
Offset your booze. If you are drinking alcohol, try having one glass of water for every alcoholic drink you have and see if it makes any difference to how you feel the next day.
Get your water from your food. Try researching foods with heavy water content and add one item to your food shop. Lots of foods are rich in water, including cucumber, watermelon, grapes, strawberries, celery, lettuce, tomatoes, grapefruit. . .
Remember: Tune in to your thirst. If you feel thirsty then you definitely need to rehydrate. But over-hydrating can be dangerous too, so don’t overdo it.
EATING LESS MEAT OR BECOMING VEGETARIAN/VEGAN
Some of you might already be vegetarian or vegan, but many meat-eaters in this day and age also acknowledge that there are definite health benefits to cutting down on the amount of meat they eat, that it is more ethical and also better for the environment. As a result, many people are trying to reduce their meat consumption, and movements such as Veganuary and Meat-Free Mondays are becoming increasingly popular. There are also lots of vegetarians who are keen to make the leap to veganism but haven’t quite been able to fully convert. Whatever change it is that you are trying to make, Kaizen can be an excellent tool to help with the transition, as it eases you into the change gradually and will mean that the change isn’t too much of a shock to the system. Here are some ideas for first steps you could make:
⊙ Decide on one night of the week when you will make a vegetarian or vegan meal.
⊙ Research one recipe that you would like to make and start to include it in your repertoire.
⊙ Choose one day where you are vegetarian at home and only eat meat when you are out of the house (or vice versa).
⊙ Investigate the meat and/or dairy substitutes on offer and switch one with a product that you already buy for a week.
Once you have made one step towards your goal and decided that it is benefitting you (if it is!) then think about what next steps for progressing further towards your goal. Could you start being vegetarian for two nights per week rather than one? Or could you include one more vegetarian/vegan recipe into your regular meal routine? Or decide to eat veggie-only meals at home and then reserve meat for when you are at restaurants? There are lots of online articles and communities with plenty of tips to share; why not try asking your friends and/or family for recipe ideas too?
EATING MORE FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
The Japanese diet emphasizes the importance of fruit and vegetables, which is proven to be good for our health. A recent University College London study showed that people eating at least seven portions a day reduced the specific risks of death by cancer and heart disease by 25 percent and 31 per cent respectively.19
Not only is it healthier for us, but it is usually a cheaper diet than one which includes lots of meat products and items rich in fat. As in the section above about cutting down on meat products, Kaizen methods can be a good way to start to introduce more fruit and veg into your diet. Some ideas for how to do so are as follows:
Add ‘secret’ vegetables to your dishes. If you have a favourite recipe, can you think of a way to add one more vegetable into it? For example, could you add courgettes to a lasagne, or two types of beans to your chilli? Can you grate some carrot into a tomato sauce for a casserole or add some peas to a cheesy pasta dish?
Add a new vegetarian dish to your recipe rotation. Research one dish you could add to your repertoire that is mostly vegetable-based. Try a cauliflower-based pizza, a vegetable soup or an aubergine lasagne? Lots of Asian dishes lend themselves to added vegetables, whether that is noodles, soups, omelettes or stews.
Don’t forget fruit and veg that you can store at home. Remember that frozen, tinned and dried fruit and veg also count. Think of one new way that you could consume fruit or veg as a snack and start to introduce it into your routine.
First Kaizen step: find a tin of vegetables or fruit that you haven’t used in the back of the cupboard and plan a fancy recipe around it. Set yourself a challenge to make the dish feel more luxurious than it should do considering that it came out of the back of your cupboard!
CUTTING DOWN ON SUGAR
It is a truth universally acknowledged that consuming too much sugar and fizzy drinks is bad for your health and your teeth. The emphasis here is on too much; everybody deserves a treat every now and then, and sugar occurs in lots of natural products such as fruit too, so this is not to tell you to cut out sugar altogether. But health professionals recommend that sugar only makes up to 5 per cent of your energy in your diet.20 If you feel like you need to cut down, then gradually reducing the amount of sugar you consume each day using Kaizen techniques will make the change in diet less of a shock to the system. Here are some ideas for small steps to go about reducing the sugar in your diet:
Read the ingredients. There are surprising amounts of sugar in ready-made sauces and condiments. Can you make your own curry sauce? Can you make your salad dressings from scratch once a week?
Be mindful of cereals or ‘health foods’ that contain hidden sugars. Some cereals are surprisingly high in sugar content. If you can’t live without your morning bowl of granola, can you choose one day a week where you opt for a lower-sugar option and go from there?
Use fruit to sweeten items instead of raw sugar. If you like to add sugar to your cereal, can you replace it with fruit?
Try to cut down on adding sugar to hot drinks. If you regularly add sugar to hot drinks, try reducing the amount in really small stages.
First Kaizen step: make a cup of tea or coffee with a quarter of a teaspoon less sugar than you would usually use. Do you notice a difference? Do this for a week and then the next week reduce it by a further quarter.
Cut down on fizzy drinks, even if they are ‘low sugar’. Fizzy drinks mostly contain a lot of ingredients that are bad for your body, even if they are labelled as low-calorie or diet options. This isn’t to say that they shouldn’t be enjoyed as a treat, but if you are drinking them every day, then try to cut down. Each time you have a craving for a fizzy drink, see if there is an alternative that you can find to replace it with, such as fizzy water flavoured with fruit, or a new herbal tea.
PORTION CONTROL
This won’t necessarily apply to everybody, but for those of us who find themselves eating too much in one sitting and who want to reduce their portion sizes, there are a number of ways to go about it. The Japanese Buddhist monk Shoukei Matsumoto in his book A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind explains the technique of hara hachi bu, the Confucian idea of only eating until you are 80 per cent full, practised famously on the Japanese island of Okinawa. This idea sounds daunting so perhaps, as a first step, think of the day of the week you usually overindulge the most and decide that on that day you will only eat until you are 80 per cent full. If this works for the first week then why not try to extend this into a second? And after that, why not use this technique for more than one day in the week?
Measure your food! If, like me, you end up making enough rice for an entire village when you only mean to cook for two, then investing in some measuring devices can help you to work out the correct portion sizes.
Look at your plate/bowl size. However big my plate is, I usually fill it entirely. A good way to reduce portion size might be to use a smaller plate!
First Kaizen step: use a smaller plate or bowl for just one meal a week and see if it makes a difference to how much you eat.
Don’t leave your leftovers in the pan. If you have made enough food to keep leftovers, then try to divide out individual portions into bowls or containers/freezer bags as soon as you have cooked and plated up. That way, you will have single portions in the future and it will discourage you from eating the leftovers all in one go.
Look for hunger signals. Like Shoukei Matsumoto says, the most important thing to do is to listen to your body and recognize when you are full or indulging for the wrong reasons.
We are all busy and often have to rush a sandwich or salad at our desks while continuing to plough through emails at lunchtime. Or we get home and rush around trying to make the kids three different types of meal while we mindlessly pick at different bits ourselves. But while we are eating and concentrating on another task, we are not focusing on what our body wants or needs. Mindful eating stems from ancient Buddhist practices, and encourages eating with awareness and concentrating on what you are consuming without judgement or criticism.
Mindful eating can be one of those things that sounds simple in practice but is easy to forget once you have been busy cooking a meal, are hungry and have a delicious plate of food in front of you. And remembering to sustain this practice over a whole meal and beyond is an even bigger challenge. This is where employing the techniques of Kaizen can be a great help. Some ideas for using Kaizen to start the habit of mindfully eating are:
Eat one item mindfully. For one week, pick just one item on your plate each day and concentrate on every mouthful as you eat it. Once you have mastered this, extend this to two items per day, and so on.
Eat at the table without distractions. Choose one day a week to eat at a table, put your phone in another room or on airplane mode, and just sit and enjoy eating in silence. Think of the sensations that you are feeling as you eat – when are you half-full? What tastes do you particularly enjoy? etc.
Concentrate on the first three mouthfuls of your morning coffee. If your schedule won’t allow you to eat your meals without distractions – if you have young children or busy work commitments, for example – then how about starting with drinking mindfully instead? Try drinking a cup of tea or coffee and concentrating on just the first three mouthfuls.
Really focus on your food prep. Chop, cut and grate mindfully! Instead of just acting on autopilot when preparing food, how about concentrating on the sensation of chopping or grating for one minute?
LONGER-TERM GOALS
These practices will encourage you to have a more mindful attitude towards the way that you eat; you should feel more connected with what you are preparing at mealtimes and how it nourishes you. Make sure that changes happen gradually and fit in with your existing routine if you want to make a lasting difference. If your body thinks that you are depriving it, then it becomes harder to keep it up.
Track your progress and reward yourself when you reach certain milestones. And if you slip up and overindulge or fall back into poor habits, don’t worry – you can easily pick up your new habit again, but perhaps this time try making the change even more incremental than before. Making changes to your diet should never feel restrictive; rather it should be about gaining pleasure from what you are preparing and eating, safe in the knowledge that your body and mind will feel better as a result.
Think about your relationship to food and the changes that you want to make in the long term. It could just be that you want to feel better in your mind and body. Or maybe you want to cut out a certain item completely, such as meat or fizzy drinks. Track your progress and see where it leads.
SLEEP
Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for our mental and physical health. Rather than being a time when the body completely shuts down, as is sometimes said, it is actually an active time when your body repairs cells, processes information and strengthens itself. Many of the exact ways in which this happens are still a mystery to scientists, but they all resolutely emphasize its importance for good health and wellbeing. The National Sleep Foundation lists a number of reasons why we need sleep, including:
⊙ Helping us to solidify recent memories
⊙ Storing and processing long-term memories
⊙ Growing muscle
⊙ Repairing tissue
⊙ Producing hormones
⊙ Restoring and rejuvenating.21
It is easy to acknowledge all of these benefits but if, like me, you suffer from bouts of insomnia, actually going about having a good night’s sleep is another matter. The amount of sleep you need each night is different for every person, and very dependent upon your age and how much activity you have undertaken during the day. Most people will need between seven and nine hours every night. Almost everybody will have intermittent bouts of insomnia but if you are finding that you still feel really tired even after several nights of proper sleep or are regularly sleeping for less than six hours per night then do, of course, contact your doctor or a sleep specialist.
For people who think they could benefit from even slightly improved sleep, then Kaizen techniques are a great way to alter your existing sleeping habits and adopt a new, healthier bedtime routine. Not getting enough sleep or waking up in the night for long periods can be caused by external sources of stress: worries about work, friends, family or big life changes, such as getting married or moving house. This book contains lots of tips on how to use Kaizen to reduce these sources of stress and better cope with them when they do arise – but there is also lots that can be done to improve your bedtime routine and environment itself in order to promote a good night’s sleep.
Before making any changes to your routine, a good place to start is with a sleep diary. Keeping a diary for a week will give you a general overview of how you sleep and will identify any issues or particular triggers for bad sleep.
HOW TO MAKE A SLEEP DIARY
Each morning for one week, make a note of the hours you fall asleep and wake up, how many hours of sleep you have each night in total, and whether you were awake for any period. It is also a good idea to rate the quality of your sleep out of ten. Our phones now have functionality that can help to track sleep, although the benefits of removing technology from the bedroom may outweigh the insight gained. Once you have the information about your sleep patterns, have a think and note down any factors which could have influenced the quality of your sleep in a good or bad way. For example:
Did you have any stimulants (caffeine, alcohol, nicotine) within two hours of going to bed?
What was the temperature of your room?
How light/dark was it? How noisy was it?
How messy is your room?
Did you look at any screens before going to bed?
Is there anything you were/are stressed or worried about?
You can either make a diary on paper, create a spreadsheet or use a sleep-tracker app on your phone to fill in the details. Although this will initially take a little bit of time, having a week’s worth of information about your sleep patterns in front of you will mean that it is much easier to see where you might be going wrong and what external factors you can adjust to promote better sleep. Also note whether there are any differences between days when you are working/studying and your days off.
Sleep specialists recommend trying to keep to a regular daily sleep routine that doesn’t fluctuate too much between weekdays and weekends. They advise that you try to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every day, whether that is Monday or Saturday. And this is where Kaizen can be really helpful. It might seem daunting to try to change your whole sleep routine in one go, but making one small step at a time will encourage you to adopt better bedtime habits – and hopefully once one change starts to make a difference, then you will be motivated to make more. Over the page are some ideas for small changes that you could make to your sleep routine, both in terms of the environment in which you sleep and the actions you take before bedtime to promote sleep.
SLEEP ENVIRONMENT
Having your bedroom as a calm, clean environment free from clutter and external interruptions is key to good sleep. If you are really busy or tired then the thought of having to entirely transform your bedroom into a minimalist, serene paradise might seem too big an ask, but there are some small things you can do to make a difference. And once you have adopted one change, then try another to see if it makes even more of a difference.
Declutter your room. Your room should be calming. Designating it as a decluttered space which you use exclusively for either sleeping or sex will help to promote good sleep.
First Kaizen step: you might not always have huge amounts of time to tidy your entire room before bed, so set a timer on your phone for five minutes and just tidy up the area around your bed, so at least that area is free of clutter.
Change your sheets regularly. Changing your bedsheets once a week or at least every fortnight can help to promote good sleep.
First Kaizen step: if you are really tired and the idea of changing your entire bed linen feels too much, then just change your pillowcases and/or bedsheet. The rest can be done another day!
Block out noise altogether. If your street or building is noisy then try sleeping with ear plugs and see if it makes a difference.
Play relaxing noises while going to sleep. If you have trouble getting to sleep then try playing a relaxing sleep playlist or white noise (lots of sleep apps have these, along with YouTube and Spotify).
Shut out the light. Your room should be as dark and cool as possible. If you can’t afford blackout blinds or thick curtains and find the room too bright, then try sleeping with an eye mask and note any differences to the quality of your sleep.
Sort out your mattress. If you think that your mattress could be what is causing issues, start to save a small amount (say, the price of a sleep-depriving coffee) each day towards a new one. Or if you are renting, then try asking your landlord to provide a new one. If a new mattress is out of your price range, then consider investing in a mattress topper, which are much cheaper and can make a big difference.
Surround yourself in some nice smells. Scents like lavender and bergamot have a calming effect. Find a scented candle, pillow spray or aroma diffuser and see if making your room smell nice makes you have a better night of sleep.
BEDTIME RITUALS
As well as making sure you create the optimum sleep environment, there are certain changes you can make to your actions in the period between returning home and going to bed in order to promote better sleep. As babies and children, we are coaxed (and occasionally strong-armed!) into a set bedtime routine, but as adults we often forget to perform such rituals, in favour of scrolling through Instagram or binge-watching the latest boxset. Here are some ideas for ways in which you can improve your pre-bedtime routine:
Get out the loungewear. When you get home, immediately change into comfortable clothes to relax you and encourage your body to start to shut down.
Have a soak. Try having a warm bath or shower before bedtime – perhaps with added lavender oil – and see if it makes a difference to your sleep quality.
Take off your make-up. If you don’t have time or the inclination to have a full bath, then try taking your make-up off as soon as you get through the door and apply a soothing face mask.
Hide your phone. Having phones and laptops in your bedroom can be a huge distraction. Try sleeping with your phone in another room and see if it makes a difference—or if the thought of that is too terrifying(!), then at least put it on airplane mode for when you are asleep.
Have a communication blackout. In the same vein, try to avoid social media or work emails for at least two to three hours before going to bed to minimize interactions whirring around your head.
First Kaizen step: have a few nights of a complete social media and communication ‘blackout’ and register if it has an impact upon the quality of your sleep.
Be organized. Organizing yourself for the next day can be hugely beneficial for sleep in that it declutters your brain and gives you less to worry about the coming day. Try packing your bag, sorting out your breakfast items and/or packed lunch, and hanging up your outfit for the next day and see if that makes any difference to your sleep.
Be a bedtime yogi. Try doing some gentle bedtime yoga or meditation exercises before bed to help to promote sleep. There are lots of tutorials online or you can use a meditation app. Remember to keep it to very light exercises so that you don’t overstimulate your mind and body too much before bedtime.
First Kaizen step: for one week, try meditating for five minutes before bed.
Do a ‘brain dump’. If your brain is still whirring, another idea is to get a piece of paper and write out a ‘brain dump’ of everything that is on your mind from that day. It doesn’t have to be anything coherent or fully formed – just write out everything that is troubling you. This can also be a really useful exercise if you wake up in the middle of the night and are unable to go back to sleep.
Read a good book. Just six minutes of reading before bed has been shown to reduce stress levels by two-thirds and promote good sleep.22 Choose a couple of nights of the week where you read before bed rather than look at a screen and see if it makes a difference.
Be kind to yourself. You can do absolutely everything right and there may still be a way that your body decides to rebel against you and give you a bad night’s sleep. So don’t beat yourself up if you have any setbacks when trying to improve your sleep routine. Simply focus on one small thing you can do to improve your sleep the next night. Keeping track of your sleep and the impact of any changes to your routine is key to identifying the ways in which your body is responding to the slight tweaks in your behaviour before bed and in your sleep environment.
BREATHING EXERCISE FOR SLEEP
For the times when you can’t sleep, I am going to share with you a short breathing exercise that I find helps me when it is 3am and my mind is racing with nonsense thoughts. What yogis refer to as Moon Breath or Chandra Bhedana involves breathing in through your left nostril only. The left side of your body is thought to be associated with the nervous system, and so Chandra Bhedana has been traditionally used to calm it down and promote sleep. Here is a short exercise that you can do anywhere:
A variation on this is to alternate the nostrils as you perform the exercise. This is called Nadi Shodhana or alternate nostril breathing and is a really simple way to quickly quieten the mind and settle your emotions, so is a useful exercise to have up your sleeve during moments of anxiety or stress. It really helps to focus the mind and press the reset button on your nervous system.
YOUR MORNING ROUTINE
It is all well and good perfecting your bedtime routine and having a perfect night’s sleep, but not if this is then ruined by a frantic morning rushing around before work and stressing yourself out before you even get there. Some people will be reading this and will be unable to recognize this last-minute dashing around in the morning, but most of us will probably acknowledge that we could benefit from a more relaxed routine first thing! Getting to work or college and feeling calm and free of frazzle will mean that you are able to start the day in a more relaxed manner and you will feel more capable of taking on whatever the day might throw at you. Or if you are a freelancer or somebody who works regularly from home, instigating a strict morning routine before opening up your laptop can make a positive difference to your productivity. Here are a few ideas for ways in which you can use Kaizen techniques to form good morning habits.
Get rid of annoyances. Have a real think about sources of stress in your morning routine and decide upon something you can do to eliminate just one source of stress. For example, if you find yourself getting annoyed by a certain breakfast DJ on the radio or a politician on breakfast TV news, could you try listening to a calming playlist or a podcast instead? See if making this switch for a week makes a difference. I have recently taken to playing a morning music playlist rather than listening to politicians arguing on the radio and it has had a huge effect on my stress levels.
Get out of bed five minutes earlier. Try setting your alarm just five minutes earlier and see if it makes a change to how rushed you feel getting out of the door. If this works, try extending this further by five-minute increments each week. Just having a bit more time to get your belongings together can have a huge impact.
First Kaizen step: set your alarm five minutes earlier every day for a week.
Exercise early. If you want to start doing more exercise, research early-morning classes in your local area or go for a short run first thing. After one session, analyse how it makes you feel – are you more energized for the rest of the day? If you can’t commit to a full class, then try doing some small stretches or a short online HIIT workout.
Have a mindful morning. Try practising five minutes of mindful breathing first thing when you wake up and notice if you feel calmer during the day. If you don’t have time to commit to a full mindfulness practice, then try doing a part of your regular morning routine in a more mindful manner – for example, really concentrate on shampooing your hair or cleaning your teeth. If your mind starts to wander, then bring it back to the activity.
‘Brain dump’ in the morning. Similar to the ‘brain dump’ recommended in the pre-bedtime section (see page 98), try emptying your brain by writing down all of the thoughts that immediately spring to your mind when you first wake up. This can be anything from the crazy dream you had about cats to reflecting on the quality of sleep you had.
First Kaizen step: keep a notebook by your bed and write down all of your thoughts first thing in the morning for one day per week.
Start a morning journal. If you want to adopt a more formal journaling practice, then each morning for one week try writing down your answers to the following three questions: What are you looking forward to today? What are you worried about today? What are you grateful for today? At the end of each day, look back on the three things you wrote in the morning and see if your day has panned out as predicted. See if there are lessons to be taken from this, for example, do you often catastrophize potential problems that turn out to be fine in the end?
Make time for breakfast. My mum always nagged me to have breakfast when I lived at home and many years later I can finally see that she was right! Research suggests that people who eat breakfast are slimmer, as they tend to eat less during the day – particularly fewer high-calorie snacks.23 If you skip breakfast because you feel like you don’t have time, try introducing a quick breakfast item, such as a smoothie, into your routine and see if it makes a difference to your hunger and energy levels throughout the day. If you are finding mornings are always too rushed, try doing some breakfast prep the night before. Chop some fruit the night before that you can just blast into a smoothie in the morning. Or try preparing an overnight oats pot.
First Kaizen step: think of a breakfast recipe that you would really like to eat and get up slightly early one day to make it. Did having that extra little bit of time to yourself to eat something delicious make a difference?
Hydrate when you first wake up. If you don’t have time to make proper food, then you should at least find time to have a snack and to hydrate yourself properly. Try adding in an extra glass of water to your existing routine. Can you have one as soon as you get out of bed? Or just before you get in the shower? Or leave a bottle by the front door so that you remember to take it for your commute?
Keep your phone on airplane mode. For one week try getting showered, dressed and ready for work without looking at your phone or reading the news until you leave the house. Does having some time to yourself first thing without external distractions make you feel calmer?
We are living in an age when we are constantly expected to be ‘on’. We are more connected than ever, but with this increased connectivity comes more pressure to be available at all times. Having ‘read receipts’ on our messages and information about when we were last available on messaging apps and social media means it is harder to switch off and not feel the need to immediately reply to people. When we have to use our smartphones for work as well as for our social lives, this pressure can be even greater and negatively affect our work–life balance.
We have already looked at some of the ways we can reduce the amount of time we spend looking at screens first thing, during our lunch-breaks and before bed, but for those of us who have the constant need to have our phones within reaching distance, limiting the time spent looking at and thinking about our phones is definitely to be encouraged. A recent study showed that the average American checks their phone forty-seven times a day, and one in ten people check their phone during sex(!).24 And unsurprisingly, smartphone addiction is now a recognized condition. Tech companies specifically design products to be addictive and hard to live without, and evidence shows that they are succeeding in their aim.
We might all know that one person who still uses a phone from ten years ago without the internet (and don’t they always seem happier?!) but most of us will admit that we are too dependent on our phones. Have you ever got home from work and thought you didn’t have the time or energy to watch a film or read a book, but then get to bedtime and realize you have been scrolling mindlessly through your phone for hours without even noticing? Or have you been out for dinner with a friend and watched as they stop the conversation to check their phone every time a notification goes off? Do you feel anxious if you are in another room in the house to your phone and might miss a notification? Even if you don’t feel that using your device has a detrimental effect on your mental health, do you think that your phone usage is sapping time and energy away from people and goals that matter?
Some people go to extreme measures to try to cut their attachment to their phones. There are now countless silent retreats or digital detox camps, where you pay a huge amount of money to ‘go analogue’ for a certain period of time. While these are undoubtedly effective ways in which to break up with your phone, there are also lots of smaller, less extreme (and less expensive!) actions you can take in order to make yourself slightly less reliant on your screens.
This isn’t about rejecting social media and messaging altogether, but about finding ways in which you can engage with your phone without it taking over your whole life. It’s about interrogating how you use your phone and how it can provide you with a meaningful connection with the outside world. And this is where Kaizen techniques can be very effective. Rather than dramatically going from constantly using your phone all the time to quitting it altogether, here are some ideas for starting to control your phone usage rather than letting your phone control you:
Track your usage. There are now various ways in which you can track your phone usage, including a number of apps specifically designed to do so, and so it might be worth doing this in the first instance in order to see how much you use your phone during the day. See which apps you use the most, and at what time you use your phone most heavily – you might be surprised by the results.
Install a detox app. There is a certain irony in using phone apps to reduce your amount of digital procrastination but try installing Forest (or others) and cutting the WiFi connection on your computer or phone for a certain amount of time, or switching to airplane mode. Do you get more work done? Do you find it easier to concentrate on tasks when you’re not flitting between different websites and messenger services?
First Kaizen step: install a detox app for one day and see what a difference it makes to your phone usage.
Leave your phone alone for an hour. If you find it hard to be apart from your phone, try leaving it in a different room or in your bag for an hour without looking at it. Or put it on airplane or do-not-disturb mode. Once the time is up, analyse how you feel. Did you miss anything important that couldn’t wait until later? (The answer is probably ‘no’.) What did you get done in that time period instead?
Delete or reorganize your apps. Try deleting social media apps from your phone and instead access them from your laptop or desktop computer. Do you use them as frequently? How has it changed the way that you think about them? If you don’t want to delete them long term, then could you save them all in one folder which isn’t on the front screen and as easy to access? Or change your phone’s colour settings to grayscale so that the apps look less sheeny-shiny? Making your brain stop to think before using them will almost undoubtedly affect how automatically you reach for them when you unlock your phone.
First Kaizen step: reorganize your social media apps so they aren’t on your phone home screen.
Turn off notifications. Rather than having email and/or message notifications pop up on your phone, choose certain times of day when you are going to check them. This should reduce your immediate urge to reply instantly to everybody.
First Kaizen step: turn off your notifications for one day and reflect on how you feel afterwards. Has it made you feel less anxious? Did you use your time better?
Switch off at mealtimes. If you spend mealtimes scrolling through your phone it can mean that you aren’t always concentrating on what you eat or who you are eating with. Try having one mealtime where you ban devices and see what a difference it makes. Did you think more about your meal and enjoy it more?
Give a compliment IRL. Do you find that you are ‘liking’ things your friends post on social media but rarely compliment them in real life? Engaging with people in real life can be more rewarding than just mindlessly clicking the ‘heart’ button on Instagram.
First Kaizen step: send a message to one of your friends telling them something you like about them.
Have a group phone amnesty. If you are out with friends or at home with family, how about having a ‘phone amnesty’ and keeping everybody’s devices out of view for a certain amount of time? Does it have an effect on the quality of your conversation and attention that you pay each other?
These tips are all very small things you can try in order to see if they make a difference. The idea isn’t to be a complete social hermit, but to be more mindful of your phone usage and how it can harm your concentration levels and the relationships with those around you. Making small adjustments to your phone habits can have a transformative effect. It can help to reduce your anxiety, sleep better and connect with people on a less superficial level.
All of the previous sections have talked about ways in which you can improve your physical health, and the link between this and your mental health is, of course, inextricable. Eating healthy food, moving your body about more, sleeping well, getting lots of daylight and keeping away from screens will inevitably have a positive effect on your mental health too. Coming back to the Japanese phrase of shinshin ichinyo, your body and mind should be treated as one entity.
But in our current image-conscious society, where we can open an app on our phone and instantly see our peers’ carefully curated lives and celebrities living it up on superyachts in Mykonos, it can be very easy to feel inadequate and rubbish about ourselves, however much we are doing all of the right things. There will always be somebody with more glowing skin, having more fun at their birthday party or achieving more success in their career than you. Although social media has democratized who we can look at, it still often means we are inundated with images of thin, white, privileged, able-bodied people, who aren’t representative of society as a whole.
This is nothing new, of course, with women’s and fashion magazines’ long history of using underweight, Photoshopped models and their frequent pedalling of an unobtainable lifestyle, but now social media has entered the fray. As well as comparing yourself to models and celebrities, it is now easy to pit yourself against your friends and colleagues. With one click of a button on our phones we can see heavily filtered Instagram posts and Facebook statuses about how great a night out your ex-boyfriend had on Saturday. If you’re lying in bed in an old t-shirt with your hair stuck to your face this can make you feel far worse. (I speak from experience!)
The study of the impact of social media on mental health and self-esteem is still very much in its infancy, but charities are becoming increasingly concerned about its effects, particularly on women. A study by Gothenburg University of Swedish Facebook users uncovered that the more time women spend on the site, the less confident and happy they feel.25 Another study by Penn State University concluded that looking at selfies had a negative effect on self-esteem. From my own experience, and from talking to my friends and colleagues about it too, social media is undoubtedly something which affects our self-esteem26 and we all recognize that we start to feel better about ourselves if we take regular breaks from it.
HOW TO STOP FEELING QUITE SO SHIT ABOUT YOURSELF
Everybody’s self-esteem will be affected by different things, and not necessarily just by social media. We are consistently inundated with messages about how we should look, speak and act from birth, and this is a constantly changing ideal. When this is coupled with social media, who can blame us if we struggle to keep up with the advice and feel good about ourselves?
On bad days, the world can seem to contain endless ways to make you feel rubbish about yourself. You can be feeling on top of the world, then suddenly be sent into a body-hating spiral by a horribly lit changing room in a clothes shop. It could be that somebody undermines you at work and your confidence plummets, or that you are a new parent and someone questions something you do with your baby.
And you may find that you respond differently to all of these things depending on your mood and mental health at that certain moment. A bad picture you see of yourself may get to you one day, but then on another day you could notice that you are smiling sincerely or your hair looks nice. Having good self-esteem is definitely not something to be taken for granted and is something that can see-saw from day to day. This is why it is imperative to do as many small things as you can to bolster your self-esteem and to try your best to ensure that your dips in confidence happen less and less often.
Many of the actions I have recommended already will help towards your goal of having good self-esteem. Eating well, exercising and mindfulness, and doing as much of a digital detox as you can manage, will all contribute to you feeling healthier, stronger and in a better place mentally. But sometimes you will still have a bad day no matter how many burpies you have conquered or carrots you have eaten. Our inner critic can put a negative filter on everything we do. We are never objective about ourselves. And this is where practising small steps towards both body positivity and self-love can be very beneficial. This next section includes lots of small ideas for when you are feeling down on yourself but which you can also practise in-between times, so that you become more resilient and better able to cope when you are next struggling.
Important note: Although having bad self-esteem isn’t actually classified as a mental illness, many of its symptoms are the same. If you find that you are feeling completely hopeless, blaming yourself unfairly for an action, feeling hatred towards yourself or finding yourself completely incapable of doing things, then these can be symptoms of depression or anxiety, so do please go and consult a medical health professional.
TAKE STOCK
Take a step back and think about what the triggers are for you feeling bad about yourself.
If you can, try carrying around a journal with you for a week and make a note of each bad thought that you have about yourself and who or what has caused it. This won’t be a pleasant task, but it might be very revealing.
Once you have an idea of the trigger(s) that cause you to feel bad about yourself, the first step is to see if there are any easy ways you can start to eliminate them.
⊙ If you have an overly critical friend/family member/colleague, would it help to have a word with them or write a note/email telling them how they make you feel? Half of the time people are unaware of their actions and might not even know that they are causing you harm. If you feel unable to open up to them, can you find a way to limit your contact with them? Life is short, and you should do all you can to fill your time with people who bolster you!
⊙ This same advice applies to romantic relationships. It could be that your partner has no idea that they are making you feel a certain way. If they respond negatively or you feel unable to talk to your partner in the first place, then this is a sign that you might not be in a healthy, balanced partnership.
⊙ If social media makes you feel deflated, try having a digital detox for half a day (see page 104).
⊙ There is lots of advice on how to combat stress at work in the next chapter. If you are struggling, try having a coffee with a supportive colleague, or create a ‘compliments folder’ on your computer desktop for saving any nice notes you receive about your work.
⊙ If you are feeling low because of a recent personal change, such as a relationship breakdown, this can make you feel very exposed, alone and raw. Look after yourself as much as possible and surround yourself with supportive people who can counteract any of the negative things you are thinking about yourself.
HOW TO DO A BODY SCAN
A body-scan meditation helps you focus on where you might be holding physical tension and can also reveal any built-up emotional tension. I often tense my neck and shoulders, and even just occasionally becoming conscious of that, taking a breath and lowering my shoulders makes a noticeable difference.
Try doing the activity below once a week and see if it has an impact. This is a good exercise if you are having trouble sleeping or if you want to relax before getting up in the morning. Let it take as long as feels comfortable – for some people this is five minutes, others might take half an hour.
If you find that this exercise has helped to relax and de-stress you, try stepping it up by either increasing the frequency with which you perform it or the length of time that you spend doing it.
