Christina Burns, spa director at Emerson Spa at Emerson Resort & Spa (Mount Tremper, NY), offers helpful health and wellness tips to follow this holiday season:
- Meditate daily for five minutes – Whether it is at the start or end of your day, take five minutes a day to meditate, reflect, and breathe. There are many great apps that guide you through a simple meditation practice which can help get into a daily routine.
- Sit less and move more – Especially for office workers (including those who still partially working from home), it’s important to avoid being sedentary for the entire day and keep it moving. Take regular water breaks, stand up while at the computer, and listen to your smart watch that tracks your activity (that have those friendly reminders!)
- Practice mindful eating – Oftentimes, when we’re stressed, it’s easy to consume whatever snack or leftovers are available at home or the office. Instead, be mindful of what you’re putting into your body, incorporating healthy and wholesome ingredients, taking time to slow down while eating and paying attention to when you are full. At Emerson Spa, we offer our Spa Bites menu and often feature açaí bowls with acai berries because they are very high in antioxidants, strengthen the immune system, and can also help to reduce lipoprotein (also known as “bad” cholesterol.)
- Find 30 minutes a day for a brisk walk – The recommended 30-minute exercise per day doesn’t necessarily have to be a speedy 5K sprint or the latest trend in a specialized gym class. Instead, a brisk 30-minute walk can also suffice – before or after work or during a lunch break. Otherwise, implement a realistic goal of a regular exercise 3 or more times a week that you’ll actually do.
- Pick up a new audio book or podcast – During this regular 30-minute brisk daily walk, keep your mind stimulated and pick up a new audio book or subscribe to a podcast. Taking a break from work and tuning into a completely different topic can stimulate creativity, while keeping you informed.
- Engage in your community – If you’re looking for new ways to engage in your local community, find an organization that aligns with your beliefs and goals for volunteering opportunities. This can be focused on restaurants/food community, environmental, supporting small businesses, and much more. Even participating once a month can be extremely rewarding and allow opportunities to make new connections with others.
- Take time for self-care – Take 15 minutes for a simple meditation moment and add some calming tranquility oil as part of the process.
- Daily five-minute stretch and strengthening exercises – When you’re unwinding from the day (and about to turn on streaming services of the latest hit show), you can also do a simple 5- to 10-minute stretch and strengthening exercises on the couch and floor – whether it’s via a foam roller, getting into child pose, or a grounding yoga stretch to heal your body.
- Have daily dedicated NO-screen time – We are usually always plugged in. However, it’s important to unplug for our own mental health and avoid that blue light. Even if it’s for 30 minutes or an hour before bedtime, make a point to put away the screen. It’ll be there for you in the morning.
- Reconnect with nature – While being in the Catskill Mountains and having some of nature’s most gorgeous resources available in our background is a privilege, we can all get outside and reconnect with nature – even those living in urban destinations through local parks or communal green spaces. Take advantage of the sunlight during the daytime, especially during the winter, and get some vitamin D.