Wellness Mama Queen

You need a vacation. It’s OK to admit that. Work is a grind. Every day can start to seem the same. Your daily routine has dug a deep rut. It’s time to crawl out of it. So, go ahead—make your daydream about a relaxing afternoon at the beach a reality. It might be just what you need. That’s because the benefits of vacations are bountiful, and boost your overall wellness. Escaping your everyday life strengthens all the pillars your well-being is built upon. Many positives await when you leave your frustrations at home and immerse yourself in a fun, new environment. And it’s about more than the warm, fuzzy feelings you get from dipping your toes in the sand. Although the warm-fuzzies do help (as you’ll see later). The benefits of vacations are backed up by science. That’s right. You have solid scientific reasons for stealing away for a while. So, there’s no need to make up excuses to escape.  This may seem obvious. Of course a vacation should give you a break from the normal ...

The world can swirl with chaos, anxiety, and stress that leaves you with one white-knuckled fist latched precariously to sanity. Finding time for yourself—for your health, for a deep breath—can be hard. But you can start a self-care routine to seek shelter from your personal hurricane of busyness and responsibility. There’s nothing selfish about escaping into a self-care checklist to seek your center. Everyone needs a chance to exist solely for themselves and their health sometimes. And it’s not a complex process. Caring for yourself is what it sounds like—committing the time and space to melt away your daily stresses and focus on you. Standing up for your needs can help you experience self-care benefits—from bolstered mental, emotional, and physical health to improved mood, energy, and resilience. Taking the first step and starting a self-care routine can be the hardest part. Even the best intentions can land you neck-deep in an avalanche of appointments and to-dos. That’s why you nee...

  You’re probably pleasantly (or painfully) aware of your current   physical fitness. But can you gauge the sharpness of your mind? In a world where exercise is king it’s important to whip your brain into shape, too. That starts when you test your cognitive skills so you can judge your baseline brainpower. And it’s trickier than you might think. Instead of counting push-ups or running speed, you need different means to assess your memory and cognitive skills. Luckily, there are metrics you can measure to see where you’re at. And plenty of resources exist for gathering   data on your brain. Take the first step and familiarize yourself with the mental skills you can measure and tests you can take to establish your baseline brainpower. Assessing Your Short-Term Memory Your short-term memory is an easy cognitive skill to test. And quick, too. Short-term memory lasts for about 30 seconds—one minute at the most—and only stores about five to nine items of information. You use th...

Everyone suffers from mild insomnia at some point in their life. Sometimes, you just  can’t  get to sleep no matter how hard you try. But, while this is a minor, one-night problem for most, others can experience severe sleep deprivation as a result of their insomnia, and this can have a substantial impact on their mental wellbeing. Daily Exhaustion  For adults with careers and families, exhaustion is a part of life that you cannot do much about. However, poor sleep can compound these issues and make it feel like you never have a good night’s rest. Although you might feel like you can  get on with it  at first, the problems will quickly snowball. Failing to cope with your exhaustion can affect your mental wellbeing in numerous ways. You can feel foggy-headed, which can affect relationships. You may also feel like you cannot do  anything  you want to do, which means you miss out on socializing or exercise that can have a mental impact just as m...