Your own instruction manual as a resolution for the year

When you get a new appliance, it usually comes with an instruction manual that tells you how much power it needs to work, how to clean it, how to maintain it, what to do if it breaks down…

However, we humans come equipped with the most sophisticated “machinery” that can exist, to a world full of complexities, without any manual to help us understand or manage ourselves. And the truth is that there is no one better than oneself to create it, making a deep exercise of personal recognition. 

For this reason, it may be more useful this year to dedicate some time to creating one’s own instruction manual, as a tool for self-knowledge and personal development, beyond the typical list of resolutions, sometimes utopian.

You can start by writing down how many hours you need to sleep, which foods suit you best, which ones are your weaknesses, which ones you reject, what relaxes you, what activates you, what motivates you in your daily life, what gives you the ability to concentrate or gives you agility and physical strength. What to do when your gut is lazy, or when there is inflammation, how to handle sadness, manage your inner world or how to sustain joy. 

Life has never been easy, nor will it ever be, but if we prepare ourselves to face any circumstance with our batteries charged, it will be easier to deal with it. As well as giving you the ability to fight for your goals, to have drive and energy and most importantly, to enjoy yourself. To feel that you are living, not surviving.

Society has changed, but biology has not, and the body still has the same instructions, no matter how much we try to ignore them. However, our overall balance depends on a set of lifestyle habits, beyond eating in a healthy way.

And it all starts with good motivation. By this I don’t mean the classic motivations for a diet or lifestyle change, whether it’s to get one size smaller, climb stairs effortlessly or look more attractive. We know all too well that short-term goals often lead to strategies that are impossible to sustain over time.

Identifying the deeper motivations for taking care of oneself is what really keeps motivation, confidence and determination high in daily decision making.

Once we have found authentic motivations, it is time to train our willpower. Because change requires conviction, taking responsibility for change. Instead of wasting time fighting an internal battle to decide whether to change some habits or not, take it for granted that you have already started to train it, mobilising yourself towards a small change every two or three days, short and achievable goals. As if it were a puzzle and every day you add one more piece. You don’t want to do it all at once.

Traditional Chinese Medicine relates willpower to the state of the kidneys, according to which the kidneys provide us with the physical energy to undertake new adventures and the will to carry them out, but they also provide us with the much more powerful energy that comes from our inner connection. The kidneys are the house of purpose, and those who have a good reserve of essence achieve their purpose for the day. We can strengthen them with gentle exercises for the lower back that protects them, keep them warm and choose energetic foods such as buckwheat and good spoon dishes.

Furthermore, not a single day in our lives should go by without some kind of physical activity, however simple it may be, not only for all the benefits it brings (calorie expenditure, activating circulation, oxygenation, eliminating toxins, strengthening defenses, clearing the mind, generating endorphins, moving the intestines and avoiding contractures), but also so that the cells of our body talk to each other, and energy does not stagnate.

It is known that we release endorphins up to hours after exercise, the famous hormones of happiness and well-being. They have been shown to produce effects at the cellular and molecular level of the central nervous system, allowing more effective and rapid communication between different areas of the brain. They are also the precursors of the generation of new neurons in the hippocampus, the area of the brain associated with learning and memory. 

To complete the manual, you need to know how to repair yourself. Let’s not cheat ourselves, what you need after a full day of activity is sleep.

Sleep is not only an act of relaxation and rest, deep sleep regenerates our cells, repairs structures, organs, skin and cleanses the digestive system. Sleep is healing. It makes sense that the choices you make after 19.00 contribute to the gradual relaxation of the body to help it gradually enter the state of sleep it needs to reach: relaxation exercises, a warm bath or shower, gentle massages, slow music, quiet conversations, and early dinners based on soft foods and cooking systems that relax the nervous system.

It is clear that there is an art to incorporating small efforts into our daily lives, and it is undoubtedly what makes a change of habits effective and makes the difference between surviving or living with health, awareness and energy.

And without a doubt, for the entire Benefit Brokers team, having a good manual that ensures the necessary tools so that our health and that of all our clients is protected against any circumstance, is the main purpose of wellbeing each new year. Because we already know that the secret to achieve and maintain the health of an entire organisation is a conscious positive mental attitude and having a good broker 😉

María Kindelán