How to Maintain a Helpful and Balanced Lifestyle.

How to Embrace a Balanced and Healthy Life: The Biopsychosocial Approach to Healthy Routines

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Maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle can be challenging in today's fast-paced world.

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The biopsychosocial model allows consideration of three essential components of health:

‍Biological: Physical health, genetics, and physiological processes

Psychological: Mind health, relationship with self, emotional and cognitive awareness, assertion skills.

Social: Relationships, social support and community engagement.

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You can create a more balanced and sustainable lifestyle by addressing all three areas within your unique context. This seems logical, right? And we have all heard by now (if we are not still wishing to hide in the extremes) that balance is critical. But we equally know it's not just identifying what you need to do but how you integrate these behavioural processes and thinking styles into your life in a manageable way.

This comes down to many interlocking issues, such as motivation, self-esteem, adaptive skills, ditching the 'all or nothing' mindset, compassion for oneself, life stage, boundaries, repetition and patterning of helpful behaviours, and external reinforcers—social and physical.

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Creating a Healthy Routine

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Building a healthy routine involves setting achievable goals and making small, consistent changes. Here's an example of some lifestyle changes we include in our 'whole person' health programs. Although we have split the behaviours into categories, they also overlap.

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Biological: Nourish Your Body

• Nutrition and hydration: Eat a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, whole-grain carbs, and proteins. Check you are having healthy portion sizes. Avoid processed foods and sugary drinks, but do not be too rigid. Ensure you are not in a process of dehydration that can negatively impact you psychologically and physically. Understand your physical 'urges' and emotions.
• Exercise and Moving: Aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity most days of the week. Find activities you enjoy, such as yoga, running, walking, hiking, or dancing. Balance cardiovascular and strength training for healthy ageing.
• Sleep: Prioritise 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Establish a consistent sleep schedule and create a calming bedtime routine.
• Getting Outside: Aim to have 10-30 minutes of daylight exposure several times a week for vitamin D production, mood enhancement, and circadian rhythm regulation. The amount can vary depending on skin type, location, season, and time.

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Psychological: Nurture Your Mind

• Begin Therapy: A supportive therapeutic relationship with a trained therapist can create a space for you to explore your past, present, and future, making sense of who you are and who you want to be.
• Purpose and Fulfilment: understanding what your makes you feel purposeful and fulfilled
• Mindfulness: Practice mindfulness or meditation to connect to your moment, reduce stress and enhance mental clarity. Start with just 5 minutes a day and gradually increase.
• Start Journaling: Start exploring your relationship with yourself and others. Think about the way you think and feel. Life and the number of thoughts, feelings, and sensations you have daily can often be overwhelming. Journalling can allow you to make sense of your experience, increase your self-awareness, and make more helpful choices.
• Mental Stimulation: Engage in activities that stimulate your mind, such as reading, puzzles, learning a new skill, playing an instrument, or learning a language.

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Social: Strengthen Your Connections

• Relationships: Loneliness is a real issue in the modern age and can severely impact you psychologically and physiologically. Spend quality time with family and friends. Strong social connections can improve your mood and overall health.
• Community: Get involved in your community through volunteering, charity or joining groups that interest you. Feeling part of something bigger can enhance your sense of purpose.
• Communication: Practice open and honest communication with those around you. Good communication skills can help resolve conflicts and build stronger, lasting relationships.

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Maintaining Helpful Habits

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Consistency is vital to making new habits stick. Here are some tips to help you stay on track:

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Set Realistic Goals: Start with small, achievable goals and gradually increase as you build confidence.

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Track Your Progress: Keep a journal or use a tracking app to monitor your progress. Celebrate your achievements, no matter how small. Tracking your process can help reinforce helpful patterns of behaviour and allow you to become accountable for less helpful behaviours. Through this exploration, we start to see the links and develop those new neural pathways!

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Stay Flexible, but keep the Essential Boundaries: It's hard to get any sustainable patterns of behaviour in place when we don't plan and are in complete chaos. However, developing a balanced way of living with too much rigidity is also not sustainable. Again, BALANCE is the key! Life can be unpredictable, so be flexible with your goals and routine and adjust as needed without feeling discouraged. Swap activities if necessary, reduce times, and then compensate for them. Don't work in 24-hour cycles but weekly ones to manage a balanced week. The key here is not to beat yourself up if things don't go to plan. This is not about developing a PERFECT routine- you are not a robot. You can be savvy with your time and adaption. Get creative with your routine and time management, and get back on the horse at the next opportunity.

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Seek Support: Talk about what you are doing, your hopes and aims with the people around you. Surround yourself with supportive people who encourage your helpful habits and respect your new boundaries. Consider joining a support group or working with a therapist or coach.

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Staying Motivated

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People often need more time to have realistic expectations of themselves. Of course, we only sometimes feel motivated; it may be that time of month, or we may be tired or have had a particularly tough day! This is called human life. It's how we keep going when we feel the lower levels of motivation that matter; this is about creating repeatable behaviour habits that turn into habits. Sticking to the plan can be challenging but essential for long-term success. Here are some strategies to keep you inspired:

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Identify your relationship with motivation: What does being motivated mean to you? When do you feel motivated? What do you feel like when you are encouraged and when you are not? How do you stick to the plan when motivation is low? What is your relationship with maintenance and change in general?

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Find your why: Understand why you want to make these changes. Your 'why' will drive your commitment and perseverance. Keep returning to your why when it gets tricky. Often, there are different levels to why. It can be helpful to link your way to your values and core beliefs for proper, long-lasting behaviours. What makes you tick?

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Visualise success: Imagine the positive outcomes of maintaining your healthy routine. What does it look like, sound like, smell and taste like? :). Imagine yourself in differing situations in your new ways of being. How would it impact your relationship with yourself and others around you? Visualisation and using meditation to visualise can boost motivation and confidence, and some say it allows the subconscious to begin carving your aims into your reality. It is amazing when it starts to become your reality.

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Be kind and reward yourself: How you treat yourself and talk to yourself is essential. What message do you give to yourself? You wouldn't dream of constantly criticising a friend trying to make healthy changes, so why would you react well if you criticise yourself? Have compassion with yourself. That is not to say let yourself off the hook, as we know making these changes does get tough at times, and as humans, we can be masters of avoidance, but talk to yourself fairly and kindly and come up with a realistic plan that flows with your lifestyle.

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Stay inspired: Who and what inspires you? Surround yourself with an inspiring and helpful environment. Explore what really inspires you and what actually makes you feel uninspired. Listen to your instincts and gut in differing environments, with different people, or watching certain content online. Listen to yourself—how do these places, people, and things ACTUALLY make you feel? Follow helpful accounts on social media, read motivational books, or listen to uplifting podcasts.

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Remain realistic: Often our success for long-term maintenance is our reactions when things aren't going well. Have a back-to-basics plan that allows you to return to your routine when the going gets tough; we all have blips, and our motivation wavers. Remember, we aren't aiming for perfection; it is a learning process. Use your range of helpful coping mechanisms to learn from your challenges and see the transformation.

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Create long lasting, healthy living patterns with the support of MindStudio

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At MindStudio, we're dedicated to supporting you and your unique journey towards a balanced and healthy lifestyle. Adopting the biopsychosocial framework into your lifestyle can create lasting living patterns that promote overall well-being. Remember, small steps lead to significant changes. Start today, and embrace the path to a healthier, more joyful you.

Please stay connected with us for more tips and inspiration on living a balanced life.

Together, we can achieve holistic well-being! For more insights and personalised support, visit our website or consult one of our integrative health team. Let's make healthy living a part of your everyday life!

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