In today’s fast-paced world, prioritizing our wellness can be challenging, especially since many of us tend to put others first. Whether you choose to focus on your wellness individually or engage with friends and family, both approaches offer unique benefits. Whether you’re creating a wellness plan on your own or collaborating with others, it can help everyone stay focused and boost your motivation. Just be sure to pick what works best for you.

What Is Wellness?

What exactly is wellness? Wellness is about feeling good and living well in all areas of your life. A lot of people think it is just being free of illness and trying not to catch the flu bug going around your office, but really wellness encompasses so much more. Wellness encourages you to make choices that lead to a happier, healthier life while taking care of your body, mind, and emotions. In this post, we want to give you some ideas that you can add to your weekly schedule to help encourage a wellness plan that works for you.

Create a Plan

Some people are easygoing and like to take things as they come, while others carefully plan every minute of their day. When looking to include wellness activities in your routine, you will want to set aside dedicated time so that you don’t neglect or forget to take the time you do need. Setting aside time can be difficult for some but is integral for the positive outcome of incorporating wellness. Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t hit all the marks on your schedule! Just take a breath, reschedule, and remember that adding wellness into your life should not be stressful. Including a friend or family members is also a great idea as it is always good to have an accountability buddy to help you stay on track. Get together to pick dates and times that work for everyone and explore a few different activities that you all enjoy or are willing to try together.

There are countless ways to begin incorporating wellness into your life. We’ll share a few ideas to get you started, but once you start considering what you enjoy, you’ll find inspiration will keep coming.

Family Activities

• Community activities such as fun runs, fairs, or workshops. This offers some great social wellness opportunities as you are communicating with both your family and the people within your community.
• Outdoor adventure day! This is always one that goes over well for the whole family. Planning an outing to a local park or nature trail helps to encourage family time as well as fun exercise. You can even add an eye spy game or scavenger hunt to help motivate those that might be hesitant to join the adventure.
• Family wellness challenge. Create a monthly challenge for you and your family to try such as increasing how much water you drink, trying new fruits or vegetables, or try a daily challenge such as who can get the most steps in one day. Adding a little competition can add a lot of fun and encourage working towards the goal.
• Build a healthy snack station together. Take some time and involve everyone in your family to be sure that you are promoting healthy snack choices that you will actually enjoy. The more they enjoy something the more likely they will be to keep following the routine itself (eating a healthy snack over a sugary snack).
• Meal planning and cooking nights. Set time aside with your family at the beginning of your week to go over options as to what to make each night. If you can, pick a few of those meals to make together so that you can all learn about nutrition and create a great place to show and teach teamwork. Creating a meal plan means you are less likely to want to eat out at a restaurant or order take-out food because you don’t have to worry about the task of thinking about what to cook in that moment.

Group Activities

• Group fitness challenges. These you can make as intense or as relaxed as you want. You could do a 30-day movement challenge or a fitness scavenger hunt where you complete an activity in a specific location (jumping jacks at the river).
• Group hiking or walking club. This can be a huge motivator as you can catch up with friends you may not get to see that often.
• Join a sports team. There are many opportunities within communities to join events and sports in a fun yet competitive manner.
• Virtual workout sessions. Hop on a video call with your friends and create a shared playlist and get your Zumba on! Or you could put on a nice relaxing play list and each take turns hosting/leading a yoga or meditation session.

Individual Activities

• Go to a yoga or meditation class or session. This will help give you some important downtime, which we normally forget to do for ourselves.
• Take a course for a hobby you enjoy such as painting, pottery, singing, dancing, or even martial arts. Take a small step out of your typical comfort zone to find something you can really enjoy.
• Start a gratitude journal. You can buy ones online that have it all laid out nicely for you or you can get creative and make your own, there are lots of ideas and tips on Pinterest for that!
• Read more books. Give yourself a goal, monthly or yearly, as to how many books you would like to get through. You could even find a fun way to track it. Put a marble in a jar for each book you’ve read or print off a picture (or draw) an empty bookshelf and draw the books in as you finish them.
• Get out of the city. If you live in the city, you know how much the hustle and bustle can get to you and just how stressful it can be just to get through part of your regular daily routine. Take time and go camping, hiking, fishing, snowboarding, anything to get you out into nature and remember how peaceful things can be.

There are countless ways to prioritize our wellness, yet it’s often one of the first things we neglect. Take a few moments during your lunch break with friends, after dinner with your family, or before bed to sit down and develop a wellness plan. You’ll be grateful for taking this time to begin looking after yourself.

Did You Know?

There are many items that can be available under a Wellness Spending Account that can help you accomplish your wellness goals! Items such as hiking boots, running shoes, workout clothes, fees for a marathon/fun run, fitness trackers, pottery classes, music classes, health apps, yoga or meditation classes/sessions, snowboarding/skiing equipment, and even your ski passes. 

These are only a small number of items that can be eligible and help you start your wellness journey. Reach out to us at Quikcard or contact your plan administrator today to know more about our Wellness spending accounts and how to get you started. Any change request must come from the plan administrator. Contact us today.

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