How To Get Back Into A Mindful Routine After A Holiday

woman applying balm on her wrist

Summer seems to be officially over. With the rainy season in full swing and woolly socks coming back. It’s time to settle back to work, and get into the swing of your routine, but saying it is a lot easier than doing it. 

To make the transition as easy as possible, we’ve come up with a few tips from our team at Scentered use.

DON’T PUT IT OFF

“Woops, I didn’t start this Monday so I’ll just start next Monday” – not the best idea. Tip number one is don’t put routines off any longer than they need to. So, your old routine was waking up at 7am, coffee, breakfast, etc. Force yourself to get back to it. As with anything else you teach yourself, the longer you don’t think about it the cloudier it gets in your brain.

TACKLE THE EMAILS

A personal nightmare. You blink, and there you are faced with Emails from everyone on your contact list +50 others. Your best friend here is time management. Block out strict time to go over Emails and be harsh on how long you spend replying to each one. Create folders and lists of ones that need to be actioned the go through ‘reply only’ emails quickly and efficiently, this gives you the best chance of managing your emails.

FUEL RIGHT

Holidays are all about good food and drink. Whether its Bottomless brunches or smoothies with 3 spoons of sugar, sometimes we let our balanced diet take the backseat. To help your body reenergise, and boost your mood, fibre is a great addition to your diet. This is because fibre is at removing toxins from your body. It helps remove all the unwanted things from our digestive system. Examples of food high in fibre are; wholewheat pasta, berries, pears, oranges, broccoli, beans, and nuts.

AROMATHERAPY TO THE RESCUE

Of all the senses, smell is the most powerful at evoking feelings and emotions. Pair one of our Aromatherapy Wellbeing Ritual Balms with part of your routine and your body will automatically start to associate. Before you know it, your body will start to react and follow through with minimal effort.

GREEN TEA ANYONE?

Green tea is a fantastic alternative to coffee. It’s full of polyphenol antioxidants, including a catechin called EGCG. These antioxidants can have various beneficial effects on health e.g. prevent cell damage. It also contains caffeine for those of us that aren’t ready to part ways, however, it doesn’t have as much caffeine as coffee which for some paired with the overwhelming back to work schedule can increase anxiety. So Green tea can be a much better-suited alternative.

CHEAT TIP

Plan your next getaway. Having something to look forward to is always nice. This doesn’t mean book straight away, as it may not fit with your budget so don’t panic. But planning never hurt. Start to think about where you want to go next, place a date in your diary in pencil, maybe talk to whom you want to go with.

TIME FOR BACKUP 

You don’t have to go through this alone. If returning to your routine really is overwhelming, and you’re struggling to find good footing, reach out to co-workers or friends that can join you in part of your routine. Or even help you out with your workload as long are you’re prepared to return the favour one day.

It can also be good to organise a 1:1 with someone that can bring you up to speed. Maybe over a Green Tea?

PRIORITISE PRIORITIES

Create a to-do list and tell your inner self to breathe. Working through a list can be extremely gratifying. You can physically see things being crossed off and you can also get an idea on which order to do things. Make sure you don’t jump between tasks, staying in the flow is a lot easier than jumping in and out.

This can also tie in with your personal life goals. So you try to see your friends and family every week and trying to go to the gym, whilst also networking, and catching up with work. Take it easy. We said to get back to your routine as soon as you can, but maybe you had extra friends and family time over the holidays and now it’s time to dedicate more time to catch up. Those around you can wait a while, but deadlines won’t.

 SLEEP IT OFF 

Late nights catching up, or lie-in trying to recover? Time to make the change. There are many positives to a good nights sleep. For one it reduces the elevated levels of stress hormones you get from not enough sleep and it can also put you in a better mood. Lack of sleep can make us cranky and agitated, everything you don’t need at this point.