HEALTH + WELLNESS
BEAUTY BEGINS ON THE INSIDE cont.
Soul:
GO A DAY WITHOUT COMPLAINING
What with thoughtless memes and outright trolling, there’ s a lot of ugliness that’ s thrown at people by people that don’ t even know said people these days. It’ s not good, for anyone, so flip it and start upping your positivity quotient. OK, there might not be any tomatoes left in Tesco, the weather might be grey and dreary, or Monday morning might fast be approaching, but every time you complain, you’ re heaping a big dollop of negative energy not just into your life, but into the world overall. Complaining breeds complaining, so before you start waxing lyrical about your peeves, stop and try to think of a way to solve the problem – there will be other tomatoes; you’ re lucky to have a warm, dry home; and, Monday marks a fresh week full of fresh opportunities. If you can’ t solve it, move on, it’ ll free you of the stress.
HEAD OUT INTO THE FOREST
Not your run of the mill walking route, forests are enchanting – where else are you likely to encounter more squirrels and horses than people? – and the Forestry Commission are encouraging us all to get out and explore the abundance of forest right on our doorsteps with a constantly evolving‘ Active Forests’ programme. Besides off-road cycling courses available at various sites and accessible to everyone from toddlers on stabilisers to hardy mountain bikers, # RunForestRun running routes cater for beginner runners with 3km, 2km and 1km trails marked out at various forests across the UK, and last year‘ Wild Running’ was established allowing more experienced runners to download routes across off-piste, non-waymarked trails – head to the website to find out about forest activities near you then get out and be at one with nature for a while: www. forestry. gov. uk.
SPEAK UP
It’ s all very well being appalled at how badly the trains are running, or shocked that you’ ve found out your favourite cosmetics are tested on animals, but in order to make change happen, you need to take positive action. When petitions that you support pop up on your social media feed, sign them; if you really feel the road outside your child’ s school needs a lower speed limit, write to the council and your local MP; if you’ re outraged by the government’ s treatment of the refugee crisis,
stage a march or mass meeting and call them out on it. Turn your mental complaints into tweets, Facebook posts, forums, letters and meetings in a measured and pro-active manner and you’ ll find your voice and actions have the capacity to make a profound impact on the topics that niggle you.
BE KIND
Sounds simple. Is simple. You might think karma’ s a load of airy-fairy nonsense, but thousands of years of philosophical thinking would disagree: what you put out into the world is what you get back. If someone irks you and you lose your rag, you’ ll irk them and likely irk the person who they go on to tell; it’ s a whole chain of unnecessary irking that can be stopped short if you take a step back and assess if the situation is really worth all the aggravation. Smiling at a stranger, carrying someone’ s bags who’ s clearly struggling, or being patient with the shopper in front of you who’ s taking an age to pack their shopping are all small, simple acts of kindness; practice them whenever you can and you’ ll think, feel and look better.
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