Changing your life does not always need
to involve
big and drastic changes - sometimes the
little things
really count. So in today's video I'm
going to share 10
simple and easy habits that have changed
my life,
and hopefully, they can help you too. If
you're interested please keep on watching!
Hello hello! Welcome back to the Whole
Happy Life! I'm Ria.
Before we begin today's video I wanted
to say a big thank you to Skillshare for
sponsoring today's video.
I'm really excited to be working with
them because I truly
enjoy their classes, but we're going to
talk more about that later.
Let's dive into the habits. Number one:
Start the day without devices if you can.
I think the way in which we start our
morning has such
a big impact on the rest of the day.
I used to start my day with reading emails,
checking the news, reading Whatsapp
messages, and YouTube comments, and I felt like I
was starting the day on a reactive note,
and I was stressed out within the first
10 minutes. So I've changed my approach - I try to start my day
without devices in the first hour. It
doesn't happen every day, I'm not perfect,
but I do feel a lot better when I do
this, so there are things that you could
do in the morning - things like meditation,
reading a book, having a cup of tea, going
for a walk. Little things that can help with your
mental and physical health, and I think
it makes such a big difference
to start the day on that positive note. I
feel a lot better - I'm ready to take on
my day, and then when I read those emails, read
the news, I'm not as stressed out
as I would be if I had read them in the
morning. It's interesting how that works,
but I do think there's a lot of value
in starting the day without devices.
Number two: is to take more movement
breaks, not just exercise. Now modern society is all
about sitting. Did you know that the
average office worker sits about 10 to
15 hours every day - that's a lot of sitting!
And the problem with so much sitting is
it raises your risk of certain diseases,
such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and
many others. I'm going to put a link in
the description so you can read more.
Now you might be wondering - well I
exercise - does that mean I can still get
away with sitting so much? Well,
definitely exercise helps, but if you're
sitting for really long periods of time,
you still need to move, it's still
important to move. So what can you do? I work from home and
I used to wear house slippers at home,
and I've noticed that when I wear house
slippers, I'm just too comfortable
and I don't really walk around. So now
I've started to put on walking shoes
first thing
in the morning, and I wear them
throughout the day at home. They are a
special pair just to wear at home so
they're clean,
and I've noticed that I walk around
a lot more, I take a lot more
movement breaks. Because I'm taking these movement breaks I feel less stiff.
I have a lot more energy and I'm walking
a lot more, which is really good for my
health. Now if you don't work from home, there
are always different ways in which you
can get a little bit more movement
throughout the day. I have a few ideas in the description.
Number three: is to do a brain dump
before bed.
This is for people like me who have a
hard time sleeping.
I don't fall asleep immediately, I'm not
like my husband, he falls asleep within
10 minutes - I do not. I tend to overthink and because I'm
thinking so much, it takes a while to
sleep.
So what I've started to do now is I do a
little brain dump before bed. I jot down
everything that's on my mind - all sorts
of to-do lists. I do this in the evening
when I have some tea, and I find that the action of just
writing down what's going on in my brain
makes it so much easier to sleep. I'm
able to sleep faster, and more peacefully, and the days I don't
do this, I really do struggle with getting to
sleep quickly. So if you're someone who has a hard time
sleeping and you think too much, try this
out and see if it works for you.
Number four: write a simplified,
prioritized to-do list
every morning or evening. I tend to do
this in the evening because I find that
it works best for me. Now I am the type of person who needs to
have a to-do list - If I don't have a to-do list I don't get
anything done because I have no
direction for my day.
Now in the past, I used to write a very
long to-do list with
lots of things - 10 to 15 items - they were
not prioritized.
So two problems with that - I got
overwhelmed and I ended up doing all of
the low priority items and I wasn't
getting anything important done.
It just felt good to take off those low
priority items.
Not the best way to handle a to-do list.
Now I do things a little bit differently.
So I write down a list of three items - just three. So it's
really simple - three high priority item and I write
them down in order of priority. That way I know
exactly what I need to do what's
important and I just focus on those
three things. Once those three things are done then I
will make another list of three things.
By doing things this way I find that I'm
less overwhelmed and I'm actually
getting important things done.
Number five: is to embrace your
creativity more regularly - this could be
monthly, weekly, daily - whatever works for
you,
and whatever creative activity works for
you. When you look at kids,
they are always doing something creative
and they get so much joy
and happiness from it. But as adults, we
don't do that. But I do think that
there's a lot of value in doing something creative more often.
It definitely has helped me
reduce my stress and it just helps bring
a lot of joy into my life. This year I started embracing my
creativity a lot more often. I started
doing watercolor painting in April,
and then I started doing some Skillshare
classes, and I quickly learned about
digital art. I didn't even know it
existed. I started doing that and I've
had a lot of fun, and that's why I was
actually really excited when Skillshare
contacted me for today's video, 
today's sponsorship. If you don't know
what Skillshare is - Skillshare is an online community with
thousands of classes for creative and
curious people. It's a really great place
to explore new skills and deepen any of
your existing passions.
And what i really love about Skillshare
is there's so many different classes,
a variety of different topics. I'm
personally really interested in fine art
and illustration - that's where my
interests lie. They also have classes on
productivity, lifestyle, film, and video.
Two of the classes that I really enjoyed from this year -
one was Modern Watercolor Techniques, by Cat Coquillette,
and I learned a lot about different ways
of looking at watercolor. She has a very
modern take on watercolors.
The other class I really enjoyed was
Learn to use Procreate, by
Jarom Vogel. It opened up my world to a
different way of looking at art. I'd
never done digital art before and this
class really helped me
realize how fun it can be. Skillshare is
an affordable option - if you're looking
for classes for less than ten dollars a
month, you get an annual premium membership, and that gives
you access to thousands of classes.
I loved it so much after my free trial
in April, I ended up getting the premium
membership, and I use it quite
regularly. The first thousand of my
subscribers to click on the link in the
description will get a free
two-month trial to the premium
membership, so you can explore your creativity.
Number six: is to tidy up your desk after the work day is over.
Now I used to tidy up my desk
probably once in a week, once in two
weeks, sometimes even once a month,
and the problem was the clutter just
started to accumulate.
I find that when I tackle my desk space
every day,
it does not take long - it takes less than
five minutes and the clutter does not
accumulate. There are two benefits of doing this -
one is when I walk into my office in the
morning I find
that it looks very very nice, and I'm
actually excited to sit there and get
some work done. Before it felt a little overwhelming.
There's too much stuff everywhere -
not entirely ideal, but now it feels a
lot better. And the second thing that I find is
really helpful is by tidying up
my desk at the end of the day, I'm
signaling to my brain my work day is over -now it's time to
have some downtime. If you work from home it's really, really
difficult to have that segregation
between work
and home, and it just becomes a blur. So I
think the simple habit of just
tidying up my desk space at the end of
the day tells me the
work day is over - now it's time to just
relax.
Number seven: is to make a dish each week or each month
that you've never made before. When it
comes to cooking, I'm the type of person
who gets into a rut really quickly because I start to make
the same kinds of things every week
with similar ingredients. Two problems
with this - one, it's boring because I end up eating
the same kinds of foods each week,
the nutrient variety isn't that much.
It's actually a good idea to try
different things,
so a simple habit that I've started is
to try to make
new dishes more regularly, and by doing
so, a) I am not as bored with the food
that I'm eating, and b) I am actually able to have a lot
more nutrients and nutrient variety in my
diet.
Number eight: is to stay hydrated, not
just by drinking water, but also by
eating your water intake too. Now almost every YouTuber will tell
you to drink more water - that it's really
important to stay hydrated, and it really
is. I find the days that I drink more water
I feel a lot more energetic, and my digestive system is a lot happier.
Now the thing with water intake - you
don't just have to drink it in the form
of fluids, you can also up your water intake through the foods
you eat. So what can you do? You could have more soups, more smoothies,
more fruits and veggies that are really
high in water -
things like cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon,
oranges - the list goes on. I'm going to
put another list
in the description so you have a list of
really hydrating fruits and veggies.
Now the advantage of having water
through your food
is that you actually absorb it a little
bit better.
Because there are minerals in the food,
there's also fiber in the food that
helps you retain that water a little bit
better. Number nine: is to read books that
help you gain a different perspective or mindset.
When it comes to perspectives and
mindsets I think a lot of
my perspectives and mindsets have come
from interacting with other people from
my life experiences, but also from reading. Whenever I read a
book, even if it's on a topic that I
already know about, something that I'm
already knowledgeable in, I will always gain a little bit of a
different perspective whenever I read that book, and I think
the beauty of reading lots of books
is that it starts to open up your mind
in different ways that I
personally have not found articles on
the internet has been able to do.
So I do think that there's a lot of
value in reading, but trying to read books that are a little
bit different from what you would
normally read.
I think that is what has helped me
change my perspectives and mindsets the
most. I'm going to put a link to the books
that I really enjoyed from last year
in the description. Number ten: is to
practice gratitude daily with an attitude of gratitude!
Now I'm not going to talk about daily
gratitude lists.
I have personally tried them and they
didn't work for me. I know that they work
really well for some people, just didn't work for me. I do like doing
gratitude lists once a month or once a
quarter,
but it's not something that I could keep
up with every day, so I do
gratitude daily in a slightly different
way - with an
attitude of gratitude in the present
moment. So let me give you an example -
let's say I'm spending time with my cat, Kendi, and I'm giving him some cuddles,
and I'm really enjoying this moment. I
will think to myself - I'm really grateful
that I have this beautiful kitty in my life.
It's just a very simple thing, just in the moment, I'm practicing
gratitude. It's little things like this throughout
the day which help me stay grateful
or carry that attitude of gratitude
throughout the day. I personally find that a lot more
effective for me rather than writing a list every day,
so this is something that I've started to
do this year and I think it's really
been helpful. I'm not naturally the most positive person,
I have a very pessimistic nature, 
but I do think having that attitude of
gratitude has brought a lot of
positivity
into my life even though this year has
been pretty bad.
It just has made such a big
difference to have that
attitude of gratitude. I hope that you
enjoyed this video! If you did please do
give it a thumbs up, because you know how
that makes me feel.
And I hope that some of these things, the
things that I discussed, have inspired
you to make small changes in your life. I will see you in the next video. Bye!
